A review by ebonwilde
The Grandest Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

2.0

⋆⋆9⁄10 — 09.09.24

the most revolting thing about rohan's povs is that half of savannah's dialogue is about how she's affected by misogyny, and yet almost every one of rohan's interactions with her are sexually mocking in a way he never was with jameson—in a way he wouldn't be towards knox or brady if they were his partners. and savannah herself is too tatiana blackthorn coded for me to like her.

⋆⋆⋆⅓ — 08.06.24

"give me your eyes, sweetheart." and then i died.

being serious though, the only reason this got three stars is because i love grayson and gigi.

rohan might be the most insufferable male lead to exist since logan-what's-his-face from mindf*ck (unfortunate, because i was the most excited for a desi mmc out of all the povs). and that was tolerable because of the grayson trio. but the eve storyline is getting ridiculous at this point. you're telling me avery's billion dollar ex-army security team can't take care of a single high school mean girl stalker?? it's been three years??

and don't get me started on the instalove. this book is just the first day of the game. the first day. lyragrayson are very cute—see the above quote—but they barely know each other, and every scene they have would have as much chemistry if you replaced her with cassie from the naturals or something. at least they have the phone calls from the brothers hawthorne, and grayson's been searching for her for a year, so they have something.

but rohansavannah? they have nothing. and yet two minutes after laying eyes on each other, suddenly he's brushing her hair as a dare and she's... leaning into him? being swayed by his wannabe bad boy act? she's not this stupid, and for that matter, no one is that stupid when the question is of twenty-six million dollars. she was ridiculously out of character this whole book. [savannah really should have been lesbian, but i digress.]

jlb's best books are those lacking a main romance storyline: the brothers hawthorne, little white lies, the fixer. her sneaking in unnecessary romance and love triangles has always been her downfall. however, she has me hostage, because i will be reading everything in which these characters are even mentioned, no matter what wattpad nonsense she comes up with next.