The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes [book review]

The Inheritance Games Book Summary:

Avery Grambs has her life planned. She wants to go to college and she has worked really hard to get to the point where she can obtain scholarships. But in an instant her luck and fortune change. When Tobias Hawthorne, who just so happens to be a billionaire, dies he leaves all of his fortunes to Avery. In order to keep it, there’s a catch. She has to live in his house with the rest of his family for at least a year. This includes his kids and grandkids.

But what should Avery do if one of his family members isn’t exactly happy with the idea of her getting all of the money? They’ve lived a good life and haven’t really gone without. Plus, Tobias was their father/grandfather. Why does Avery deserve the money and all of his assets? Now Avery just has to figure out which one of them is after her.

What I thought about The Inheritance Games:

The Inheritance Games is by far one of my favorite young adult books so far this year. I’m not sure why but l have been having a hard time with young adult thrillers lately. Maybe that’s mostly because I have been choosing the wrong books even though they are in the genre I love. But I’m so glad that I was able to participate in The Inheritance Games.

The Characters

So, there are many many things that I really enjoyed about The Inheritance Games. I feel like this book is very well thought out to almost every detail. The characters are very realistic and I can imagine them being someone near me or in my town. What really surprised me is how Jennifer kind of humanized the four brothers. They are these super-rich kids who practically get everything they want. So I kind of assumed they would be a little extra in the personality department.

I kind of expected the brothers to be these spoiled little brats who pitched a fit when their grandpa didn’t leave them everything. The funny thing is that I think the adults pitched an even bigger fit than the kids did. I figured the four brothers would act just as bad if not worse than the adults. I’d be upset about everything too but I think they handled things a lot better than most rich kids would. The fact that they didn’t pitch a fit is really a part of their charm.

The only thing that I can’t decide if I liked or not about the book is the game that the grandfather played even after his death. On one hand, I think the idea is awesome because it lets his four grandsons know that he really cared about them. The downside for me is that I know that it has to make them miserable. They are being reminded every day that their grandfather is dead and is still playing games with them. How healthy is it that he’s making them continue to play? I do love the idea of it though!

The Plot

Honestly, the book made me jealous of characters that aren’t even real and that’s actually a first for me. It’s not that often that I actually feel something for the characters whether it’s anger, happiness, or jealousy. Books like this kind of make me wish that good fortune would happen more often in the real world. 

The pacing of The Inheritance Games is very fast-paced. Sometimes I have a bad habit of losing interest quickly. That’s at no fault to the book or the author, but I do know that I tend to get distracted easily which is why I’m typically never able to finish a book as fast as other book bloggers. But…that actually didn’t happen with this book. I really did not want to put the book down and I was able to get done with the book a lot faster than I normally do.

I am so excited to read the next book in the series. I just hope I like the second one as much as I did this one and I will definitely be buying the book soon that way when the second book is out I can reread this one again!

If you enjoy YA thrillers then you might also enjoy Where the Truth Lies.

I hope you guys enjoy this book!