Hey hey lovelies! Reading slumps have been kicking my ass over the last few months, and I’ve had a difficult time making it through an entire book. Seriously, I’ve gotten desperate. I ended up going to the local bookstore and buying six or seven books from wildly different genres in order to find something that would help me escape the reader ennui I’ve been drowning in.
I knew it had gotten bad when even the cashier could tell something was wrong. The look of bewilderment on her face when I handed her The Summer I Turned Pretty, Interview with the Vampire, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Inheritance Games, Good Omens, and Mistborn will definitely live in my memory for a long time. We ended up having a pretty good conversation about genre-hopping and trying to get back into reading, and now here I am, having successfully finished multiple books for the first time in months.
Bookstore girl, this one’s for you.
The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
In case you haven’t heard anything about The Inheritance Games, it follows ordinary girl Avery Grambs upon her sudden inheritance of a late billionaire Tobias Hawthorne’s estate. The catch? She didn’t know Tobias Hawthorne, and has no clue how he knew her, and now she has to live in his estate with his four eccentric grandsons. This book has become incredibly popular on TikTok and Instagram among YA fans, and I read it at the recommendation of a friend who loved the entire trilogy.
Let’s get started with my thoughts on the characters.
Characters
Avery Grambs has no idea how she ended up in this position, but like any sensible person, she quickly sees the bright side of inheriting billions of dollars from a random old man. The complications are a bit slower to reveal themselves, until Avery finds herself questioning if she wants the inheritance at all. Throughout the book, I found myself generally liking Avery, but she didn’t strike me as particularly interesting. Unfortunately, throughout the story, she doesn’t show much personality. She is defined by her relationships to other people (which, to be fair, many of us do in real life): she is a sister, a potential girlfriend, a best friend, and now, an heiress. Perhaps her only trait is her bravery, her willingness to continue with this lifestyle and the games Hawthorne left behind even when it becomes dangerous.
The boys tend to be very one-note. Grayson is steely and reserved, but somehow irresistibly attracted to Avery. Jameson is spontaneous and sometimes cruel, and, wouldn’t you know it, also irresistibly attracted to Avery. Xander was fun, but didn’t get much page time, and Nash was protective. I couldn’t bring myself to connect with any of these characters, particularly as their motivations were “revealed” (most of them were obvious from the beginning).
On the subject of characters, I also disliked the attempts at romance within the story. I found them forced, reminiscent of insta-love (at the very least, insta-lust) and struggled to root for any pairing. None of the boys were worthy love interests in my opinion, and none of the characters truly seemed to possess a deep emotional connection. This might be my high standards for romance showing through, because most other readers I’ve talked to really enjoyed the will-they-won’t-they romantic tension and specific moments throughout the novel. I haven’t read the rest of the series yet, so I cannot speak to whether or not this improves.
Plot
This novel sells itself as a twisty mystery reminiscent of Knives Out or an Agatha Christie novel. Those comparisons definitely set the story up for failure, because the bar is so high. I think the mystery was fairly well done. Most of the “twists” were not especially surprising, but that’s not a problem for me. I think you should be able to at least sense the major elements of a twist before it arrives, because that means it’s believable. The twists in this novel mostly had to do with past relationships and family secrets. None of them kept me on the edge of my seat, but they were interesting enough for me to remain invested in the novel. Some elements of the plot felt forced or a bit unbelievable, but nothing took me completely out of the story.
Ending
As previously mentioned, this is the first novel in a trilogy. The book works as a standalone and has a fairly satisfying ending for the main mystery, but the romance plot lines and several familial conflicts are left unresolved so that the author has somewhere to begin for book two. The mystery elements of the story were sometimes forgotten in favor of familial or romantic drama, but the main thread of games and mysteries was pretty solid. I wish it had felt higher stakes at times, or that the actual clues and process of following them had more impact.
Writing
Barnes’ writing style is pretty standard for young adult. It didn’t stand out as particularly wonderful or awful. At times, the way characters talked (particularly Avery and her best friend or Avery and the boys) felt unrealistic, and the dialogue could come across as cringey. She built up suspense well, though, and the pacing felt fairly believable.
Rating
Have you read The Inheritance Games? What did you think of the mystery?
Now, since I grabbed so many books in order to break out of my reading slump, I have several more reviews headed your way, as well as a list of my favorite recent reads for busting a reading slump! Can’t wait to hear from y’all 😉 Happy reading!
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