Reviews

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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luciiis's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

4.0

shelovedtoread's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

katykelly's review against another edition

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4.0

Absorbing YA - mansion set-mystery with puzzles, romance and neverending billions.

A YA author I admire asked his fellow writers on Facebook recently for titles of current YA trends, things he might have missed. And I, always keen to know what young people like reading, decided I'd try the title that was mentioned most.

Which of course was this. I've read the author before actually (The Naturals), and this has a GREAT premise that really will hook the reader. It's almost wish-fulfilment: poor but ambitious student gets given billions. It's Brewster's Millions for teens. And of course, there are catches.

Avery is smart, but life has not been kind. She's now living in her car after arguing with her sister/guardian about Libby's abusive on-off boyfriend's presence. She's even a philanthropist - playing chess with a homeless man in the park and making sure he gets fed. Avery has guts, heart and a plan for life and determined to get to college and make a success of herself. And you know she will.

Fate then wrests that hard-won future from her though, by throwing the Hawthornes straight at her. Grandfather Tobias has died and left his 42 BILLION (yes billion) dollar fortune to her, ignoring his children and grand-children. Avery is unconnected to him, to them. She, they, everyone is blindsided and stunned. But she's immediately thrown into a Cinderella-makeover situation and forced to reside in a mansion with multiple libraries, massage rooms but also... someone out to murder her for the money.

Loved the premise. The execution needed a bit of a pinch of salt taking really. Four young brothers, all impossibly good-looking, smart and driven, all hard to trust but impossible not be attracted to. And then grandfather Toby has left clues and puzzles and codes in his will, in his house, leaving them all a message trail to follow that might help them understand why Avery is his heir.

With some obvious tropes and stereotypes (and even a du Maurier Rebecca storyline), I happily glazed over my problems with the characters to enjoy a puzzle-led story. Heck, I even guessed the major twist in Act I.

Didn't matter. I'd have loved this as a teen, and gone straight on to books 2 and 3. It's such a nice change to see something a bit different to fantasy and pure teen romance. It's a bit like seeing Hermione and Harry retire to the Hogwarts library for answers - a mental fist bump to the author for making knowledge and puzzles cool.

Raced through this in a couple of days. No graphic sexual/violent content, so not an issue for most secondary school readers.

thelanalibrary's review against another edition

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5.0

This book definitely had me sucked in from the beginning. The author did an amazing job at setting up the story from the puzzles to the connections in the house between each character, it has me wanting to read more. I’m so glad i got the remainder of the series because the ending has me like okayyy i need to know what’s next!