When a young girl inherits a great wealth without any obvious reason and have to endure one year in a house with strangers/relatives of deceased man due to get the inheritance. The house is full of secret passages, secrets and so the games begin. There are also handsome and interesting brothers...

Page turner for younger readers.

The Inheritance Games is a twisted none stop roller coaster ride, that is impossible to put down. Mystery, intrigue, angst, romance, it has it all and it's all blended together to make a fantastic and original read. It's a read that leaves you wanting more and one you will not be able to resist telling your friends about.

It’s the sort of book that would make an excellent film, given that it’s full of puzzles and riddles for both the characters and the reader to solve. Avery Grambs is not having the best life and she knows it. But when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves her, well, pretty much everything, she has to wonder why – and how he knew her. Of course, there are plenty of possibilities and suddenly, as her life is turned upside down, so too is her understanding of how she’ll live this new existence, especially when Tobias’s family is making it less than easy to live in his mansion. But Tobias loved puzzles, and frequently gave his four grandsons riddles to solve – and now Avery is in the mix, she too must decipher the message he left behind. A clever read that will have you racing through pages.

There needs to be an immediate sequel to The Inheritance Games otherwise I’m going to be so disappointed!!!
When Avery ends up inheriting billions and moves to Hawthorne House that has secret panels, secrets and the Hawthorne family who may just want to kill her, the mystery of why she got the inheritance slowly becomes clearer as the puzzles unravel. Which Hawthorne boy should she trust? Who’s trying to kill her?

You won’t put this down!!!!!!! I’m demanding a sequel!!

"To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man's touch--and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes."

This premise had so much potential and, spoiler alert, it totally lived up to it!

After her mother's death Avery has resided with her step-sister and her on-again-off-again manipulative boyfriend. The struggle just to survive is a daily one, but things may be set to change when they discover that Avery has been named as the largest beneficiary in billionaire Tobias Hawthorne's will.

Her happily-ever-after isn't to be granted so soon however, as Tobias' love of puzzles continues after his demise and many a cryptic clue must be solved in order for Avery, and his beloved grandsons, to reclaim what is theirs as well as the peace each equally and ardently longs for.

Avery, with her poverty-stricken and tragedy-marred background, provided the perfect eyes to introduce the reader to this world of the uberwealthy. The Hawthorne family were dysfunctional, untrustworthy, and calculating. And I was fascinated by every one of them. Avery herself was strong, feisty, and independent. And plagued with just as many mysteries and secrets.

The puzzle portion was of equal and endless interest to me. If anything, I wished Barnes had introduced even more of these abstruse elements as I had as much fun trying to play as the characters had frustration. I used to watch endless reruns of The Crystal Maze as a child, and this held the same intermingling of mystifying and adventurous qualities for me.

I assumed this was a stand-alone novel and so imagine my frustration at not being granted any sort of proper closure at the novel's end. This has ensured one eager reader for the sequel, which I am already impatiently in need of!

The Inheritance Games is a fast-paced new YA novel from the author of The Naturals series. This has the same intrigue (but without the creepiness that kept me up when I read the first book in that series!). Finished in just a couple of sessions, I was looking forward to finding out why Avery inherited the large fortune that the Hawthorne estate left to her, and particularly to finding out what all the puzzles led to. For me, the mysteries were a little too convenient - there didn’t seem to be any set backs. She saw something, or someone mentioned a word, and she pieced together how that fit in without any errors. I would have liked to have gone on that journey with her a bit more. But that said, I didn’t see the last few pages coming, so have been left thinking about the book since. Would recommend to YA readers embarking on their first forays into the mystery genre.

Take one part Maureen Johnson's Truly Devious series of novels, mix in one part Rian Johnson's film Knives Out, and you have a recipe for this throughly enjoyable YA mystery. Pacy, well written and with excellent characterisation, my only quibble would be with the cliche love triangle, which I was over even in the Twilight days and felt positively dated now (I'm team Jameson, FYI). A sequel seems inevitable, given the questions left unanswered (although don't worry, there are no Truly Devious-style cliffhangers here), and I'll be first in line to buy a copy of the next instalment.

Jennifer Lynn Barnes is a master of gripping storytelling, and The Inheritance Games is definitely up to the usual standard!

Avery is left billions of dollars by a total stranger when he dies, and has no idea why. She faces a series of games if she wants an answer, and as the mystery builds so does the danger...

The plot is non stop, with bits of action and thrilling mystery thrown in. There are plenty of twists, and although at first I felt a little let down by the ending, I actually haven't been able to stop thinking about it since, and I can't wait for the next book!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This review has been posted to Goodreads and will be submitted to Amazon after release.

I received a copy from Netgalley.

It’s been a long time since I’ve started a book and finished it in the same day. I’ve only rated three books five stars this year and this was one of them. I love rich people stories and even more ones about regular people who are thrown into that over the top glamorous world.

In this book teenager Avery, a studios, smart girl is just looking to finish high school and earn a college scholarship. She lives with her older sister Libby and Libby’s questionable asshole boyfriend Drake. While she adores her sister she hates the boyfriend who’s cruel and manipulative in that making you think everything wrong is your fault when it’s not way.

Then everything changes when Grayson Hawthorne shows up with a request for Avery and Libby to attend his grandfather’s will reading. His multi billionaire grandfather. Avery is dumbfounded. She’s never heard of the man. And yet finds out she’s been left his fortune. From sleeping in her car she’s suddenly the richest teenager in the world.

Much to the chagrin on the Hawthorne family, the four grandsons, their mother and her sister. Naturally they’re furious. Avery has to now figure out how this all happened, and no one in the Hawthorne family is happy she’s there. There’s a complex mystery to solve, clues are left for Avery and the boys.

This is one of those compulsive you have to know what’s going on mysteries. I can’t say much for character development, everything felt a little generic and seen a million times before in the family dynamic. I didn’t get much of a sense of personality from Avery other than resourceful, smart and determined. Though her reactions to the situations she found herself thrown into were very believable.

What drove this novel forward for me was the mystery. It’s impossible to recap without being spoilery, the plot is so twisty turny. It has a brilliant narrative that makes the reader keep guessing. While the characters aren’t very fleshed out, there was some delightful banter throughout, the relationships grew more complex throughout the characters. I didn’t guess who the baddie was and it’s one of those…why didn’t I see this coming from a mile away?!?!? reveals. The tension builds wonderfully throughout to the final climax…which was almost in a weird way a bit anticlimactic. It does however, leave on a cliffhanger. I need more.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Children’s UK.

Honestly loved this one. It has real pace and page turning quality.Read this in one sitting. Liked Avery’s storyline and how each of the four brothers were fleshed out. Enjoyed the mysteries set in the rambling big mansion house and can’t wait to read the next one. My first Jennifer Lynn Barnes book and it won’t be my last. Off to hunt down more.

A gripping, addictive read you can easily read in one sitting - I really enjoyed this book. It really is like Knives Out, with a big collection of characters, as Avery tries to work out why she has been left billions in inheritance by a stranger, Tobias Hawthorne, and his own family comparatively nothing. It’s a delicious read that constantly keeps you hooked and the way it is written flows and reads easily too, while it’s not complicated it still keeps you interested and thinking in way that doesn’t leave you exhausted.
The only hmmm is seeing that it’s book 1 when it ended feeling pretty wrapped up, with the next family mystery to solve already being partly answered in this book. That said, I will definitely read it to find out the rest of the answers!!! Also this is a rare love triangle that I actually care about, it felt necessary, not a tired YA trope.

Thank you Netgalley for the early copy :)

This is a very gripping book - it will have you addicted, promising, just one more chapter before I turn off the light, this to me is the sign of a brilliant book. It's full of twists and turns and a surprising ending.
I loved that the main character was very likeable and the plot kept you on the edge of your seat.
I definitely look forward to reading more of Jennifer Lynn Barne's work.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

As soon as I heard about this book, it was added to my wish list, my goodreads, and anywhere else I could think of. I was so desperate to get my hands on it, and when my request was denied on EW, I could've cried! Luckily, once it became available on NG to request, I was approved straight away, and once I finished my current read, I couldn't stop myself from diving right in. Avery Grambs is coming to terms with her mother's death, and living with her half sister, Libby. Both aren't that well off, and Avery often leaves to live in her car when Libby's creep of a boyfriend turns up, but she has a plan go get to university, study actuarial science and statistical risk assessment, and use her poker face to make her money. When she returns home one day to find a handsome guy, suited to boot, she is told she is named in the will of an eccentric billionaire, and soon finds herself on a private jet to Texas. Now, she thought that maybe she might get a couple of thousand dollars, but low and behold, she inherits everything, and there's nothing the Hawthorne's can do about it. Tobias Hawthorne was all about his puzzles and his secrets, and along with the four grandsons, Avery needs to find out just why she was picked by someone she didn't know to be heiress, and what role she has to play in the Hawthorne boy's futures.

Jennifer Lynn Barnes is just one of the best authors I have ever read. All of her books are perfect, and this one is no different. From the moment you pick up this book, you don't want to put it down for anything. Avery, as a character, was phenomenal, and we really felt all the emotional upheaval she went through in this book, from learning she had more money than she would ever know what to do with, to being shot at, to having conflicting feelings for the boys in the house, who might just be planning on killing her. She really had a tough time, and I just loved her! The perfect heroine for this book!

The plot and mystery was hands down out of this world. At times I thought I knew what was coming next, but the very next page made me second guess myself, and other than some really small plot points, I never would've worked it all out. Even down to the epilogue, we have questions that have been answers, or still need answering, and reading this book in July, knowing I'll have to wait months and months for book 2, is a killer! The romance is very much secondary in this book, but definitely a key player. I really love the chemistry between Avery and Jameson, and need to see more of them in the sequel, and see how they deal with the events of The Inheritance Games. Definitely one of my favourite books of 2020, and you all need to read this, ASAP!

I enjoyed this excellent YA novel very much. The storyline was exciting and kept me entertained all the way. Highly recommended!