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A review by cle_hobbit
The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
5.0
I picked up the first title, The Inheritance Games, and was impressed with the puzzle-making and the story enough to believe the characters and their motivations. As I worked through the second book, more layers were added, layers that didn’t feel forced or too convoluted, yet kept me surprised and made me feel like I was figuring out the puzzles with the characters, not as an audience watching them.
This third and book took a little bit longer to get going, but once it did, I was amazed at how much of the story circled back to tendrils that I thought were throwaways in the other books. This reminds me a lot of how Rowling incorporated the Deathly Hallows backwards into the other Harry Potter books, and while her incorporation was impressive, it was obvious to see it was a callback and not a grand plan from the beginning.
But with this series, I felt like every detail that was presented carried throughout all the books, and that’s quite a feat for Barnes to accomplish. I’m giving this title 5 stars not because specifically because as a stand-alone it’s the best out of the three I’ve read so far, but because as the last book in the main storyline, it performed well above expectations and seemed to shrug off the pressure of being a final installment of a series, something that sometimes causes other authors to stumble.
Each character was deep and dynamic, and Barnes is so skillful with hiding her cards regarding a character or detail until she intends to play them. I found myself excitedly pointing to the book and remembering an offhand detail. Some authors use that technique as a crutch and it becomes frustrating because it feels like they’re always trying to one-up the reader, but because we follow Avery’s thought-process throughout the trilogy, it never comes across as the author showing off or trying to misdirect us. The puzzles feel mature and organic, and they kept my brain churning throughout the story.
P.S.: I know there is an additional book in this story releasing soon, The Brothers Hawthorne, but as it seems to shift focus and point of view from the first three novels, I don’t consider it to be connected to this overarching storyline.
This third and book took a little bit longer to get going, but once it did, I was amazed at how much of the story circled back to tendrils that I thought were throwaways in the other books. This reminds me a lot of how Rowling incorporated the Deathly Hallows backwards into the other Harry Potter books, and while her incorporation was impressive, it was obvious to see it was a callback and not a grand plan from the beginning.
But with this series, I felt like every detail that was presented carried throughout all the books, and that’s quite a feat for Barnes to accomplish. I’m giving this title 5 stars not because specifically because as a stand-alone it’s the best out of the three I’ve read so far, but because as the last book in the main storyline, it performed well above expectations and seemed to shrug off the pressure of being a final installment of a series, something that sometimes causes other authors to stumble.
Each character was deep and dynamic, and Barnes is so skillful with hiding her cards regarding a character or detail until she intends to play them. I found myself excitedly pointing to the book and remembering an offhand detail. Some authors use that technique as a crutch and it becomes frustrating because it feels like they’re always trying to one-up the reader, but because we follow Avery’s thought-process throughout the trilogy, it never comes across as the author showing off or trying to misdirect us. The puzzles feel mature and organic, and they kept my brain churning throughout the story.
P.S.: I know there is an additional book in this story releasing soon, The Brothers Hawthorne, but as it seems to shift focus and point of view from the first three novels, I don’t consider it to be connected to this overarching storyline.