My Rating of The Inheritance Games Series:
Summary of the Inheritance Games Series:
Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea why — or even who Tobias Hawthorne is.
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. Unfortunately for Avery, Hawthorne House is also occupied by the family that Tobias Hawthorne just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: dangerous, magnetic, brilliant boys who grew up with every expectation that one day, they would inherit billions. Heir apparent Grayson Hawthorne is convinced that Avery must be a con woman, and he’s determined to take her down. His brother, Jameson, views her as their grandfather’s last hurrah: a twisted riddle, a puzzle to be solved. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege, with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive.
Length:
1152 Pages
Reading Speed:
15 hours and 10 minutes.
My Opinion of The Inheritance Games Series:
Over and over again I hear this recommended on Tiktok. Now, my expectations for TikTok-recommended books have sunk very low.
I don’t know if that is why this series was surprisingly pleasant or if the writing was just that good.
Let’s talk about the Inheritance games.
Main Character:
Avery is the type of person that I would want to know, but not be friends with.
She was written so well with contradictions in her personality that still somehow fit.
Avery was not greedy in a sense, but she was greedy with her attention. Once she had the money, she didn’t get dollar signs around the eyes and get everything her heart has ever desired. In all fairness, I would have done that.
She didn’t even ask for a single thing for herself. But she also didn’t ask about someone else. She had a sister and a friend from her life before. One friend and she forgot to contact her, she forgot to ask how she had been, she forgot to care.
Over the books, we see her grow. We see her friend, Max, calling her out. We see how she starts considering other people, not just their intentions, but their emotions as well.
Relationship:
I hate love triangles. I hate the idea of loving two people at once. I’m a competitive person, but if I was in a love triangle, I would cry.
That being said, I loved this one. I loved the conflict that I saw within the posts. The conflict she had with herself and with her potential love matches.
And spoiler, but I love that she picked the flawed one.
In my opinion, James was always on the line between greedy and ambitious. He jumped back and forth. He put himself in danger and took stupid risks not just with himself, but with Avery.
But he always always understood her.
Grayson was perfect. He was the kind of flawed that made him more perfect. The kind of person people aspired to be. He, in my opinion, loved Avery. He just didn’t love all of her.
We sometimes saw sides of her that were better suited for Grayson, her nerdy educational side. But the main factor of her personality, the competitiveness, the wit, the drive…
Grayson could keep up with her, James could challenge her.
Grayson was right for the audience.
James was right for her.
Plot:
The plot was plotting like no plot has plotted before.
Games, twists, mysteries. I loved every minute of it.
Okay, that’s an exaggeration, I got bored at the third part, and the riddles got a bit dull then. But the first two books? The fact that Jennifer Lynn Barnes even thought of all the clues and word riddles in the first place? Damn girl.
Also, there was plot. Like the plot was the story, the romance was a side effect of the plot and I loved it.
Side characters:
There were times when I lost sight of the side characters. Each and every one of them has an agenda, relationship, a life outside of our main character. Even her sister and guardian would disappear from time to time.
There was one scene that I particularly liked when her sister let go of all her punk rock look and dyed her hair brown. She wanted to look as presentable to a court as possible to be Avery’s legal guardian.
All this was done with Avery’s lawyer, she had no idea this was even happening.
It really showed how shit was getting done in the background. Every one of the characters was intelligent and served a purpose. Avery wasn’t all-knowing.
It felt that even though Avery was the main character of these books, she wasn’t in that story. Everyone had a story to tell.
Writing Style:
The mysteries were so deeply written and so intricately into each other, that I adored the writing style. I honestly admire this author for having such a well-thought-out series.
My Recommendation for The Inheritance Games Series:
This got me out of a months-long reading slump. I definitely recommend you start with this if you have been craving something that captures your attention.
Side Note:
The teenagers acted like teenagers. I loved it.