Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

144 reviews

adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I think this might be my least favorite book from the entire series, but I believe it's alright. Also, Jameson and Avery have my heart. 🥹

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mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I like the hopeful ending: it read a bit like a final instalment tbh. 

A couple of different mysteries intertwining, and another raising of stakes. 

Romance, and especially the love triangle, remains an idle tack-on, presumably for marketability. 

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 “I don’t believe in destiny or fate—I believe in choice. Love wasn’t just a choice—it was dozens, hundreds, thousands of choices. Every day was a choice.” 

This book felt a bit... unnecessary. I wasn't sure how it would end, since The Hawthorne Legacy seemed to wrap up the majority of the loose ends. And then the ending happened and I understood. But it still felt a bit... contrived? I don't know how to explain it. I just preferred The Hawthorne Legacy and The Inheritance Games over this book. And yes, I see the intention of having the spin-off series being the Grandest Game. And I'm excited for that! But first... spoilers.

I don't understand the love triangle. I get Grayson and Jameson and Avery, but I thought that their love triangle was over in book 2. I was confused as to why Avery was getting jealous over Grayson hanging out with Eve when she had already chosen Jameson in the last book. It was getting annoying because I was already rooting for Jameson and Avery since the very beginning. Also, Xander and his dad were so wholesome together and I loved them so much. Xander is my favorite Hawthorne, and I'm not sure I can order the rest of them. I didn't really like the way things left off with Toby, with him becoming a Blake. And I thought that Tobias's final message to his grandsons (and Avery) was also kind of wholesome in a way since he doesn't want his grandsons to end up like him. The ending was also very wholesome and it was nice seeing all the brothers be where they want to be, away from societal expectations. I just wish I had more of Nash and Xander in this book series, especially Xander, since he's my favorite.


Overall, I think the Naturals Series that I read around the same time last year is better than The Inheritance Games. 

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I wanted to like this one more...but it had such a HUGE buildup, and was leading to SOOOO many things, and then boom it's over, the thing happened, and it's the end of the series. I just...some parts felt forgotten and left out, we didn't really get closure for some people. 

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Great conclusion to the trilogy. 
I wasn’t sure where some of the loose ends would wrap up, and if you can keep track of all the families and all the varying puzzles then it does weave together quite well. 
As always, the game was afoot and it was great with twists I didn’t see, and some I did. The journey was fun. 

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes

fast-paced and engaging, once you get into it you won’t want to put it down!

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adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: Yes

I am very glad that the finale of this trilogy did not disappoint me. It was just as fast paced as the other books in the series and just as fun to read. I didn't love the storyline as much as the ones from the other two books
(especially because I hate manipulators who pray on people's insecurities. That's like one of my biggest no-go's. I STRONGLY dislike Eve)
The ending was clichee but I still liked it and thought it was great. Honestly this whole series has just been so much fun to read I don't even want to over-analyse them. Are they the best books ever? No. There are a lot of things I didn't necessarily like but the whole thing was fast past, interesting and I just really enjoyed the puzzles. I did not need the things that I usually need from books here, because it was so strong in other aspects. As someone who LOVES secret rooms and secret doors and all of those things, this whole series feels like the absolute perfect fantasy of a younger me. What do you MEAN I could inherit billions and like 6(?) Libraries??? It's pretty much my dream. So yes, I very much enjoyed the escapism and fun-ness of this whole reading experience and if that is something you think you would like too, go read it :)

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