The Inheritance Games

The Inheritance Games
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Freeform/Disney 2020
376 pages
Grades 7-Up
Mystery

The Inheritance Games Trilogy #1

High School student, Avery, does not have it easy. Her mother is dead, Dad is a deadbeat, and her half-sister means well, but has a dysfunctional boyfriend. Out of the blue she is summoned to Texas because a billionaire has made her a beneficiary in his will. Tobias Hawthorne has not just left her some money--he left her ALL of his money and property, displacing two daughters and four grandsons. Why would a man she never met or have no apparent connection to leave her his fortune and disinherit his blood kin? Needless to say, the family is not happy, yet she must coexist with them in a huge mansion filled with secret passageways and unknown rooms. Avery gets to know all four of the Hawthorne boys, becoming tentative friends with Jamison, who is her age. They discover that Tobias, who loved a good brain teaser, left them one final puzzle to solve and it is hard to resist. As Avery solves the clues, more questions pop-up, especially concerning Jamison's dead ex-girlfriend. Who can Avery trust in a house of hostility? The stakes get even higher as Avery is shot at and it looks as if those nearest to her may have a hand in the attack.

I thought going into this story that it would be like the Westing Game: family members competing for a family fortune via a scavenger hunt. It is much different in that Avery walks into the situation already the winner. The scavenger hunt comes later-and it seems to be for answers more than a fortune-yet the game will continue to play out in the next two books in the trilogy, the second, The Hawthorne Legacy, already released with the third dropping in August. The plot is interesting and twist and turns will keep readers guessing. I was surprised by more than a few turns of events and couldn't wait to see what would happen next. There is love triangle, that the target audience will appreciate and though there is some kissing, it doesn't get any steamier than that-at least in this first installment. This is a common fantasy, inconceivably inheriting a lot of money, and readers will be hooked right away and cheer for Avery, who is, when we first meet her, sometimes living out of her car. Avery experiences some character growth as she realizes that she can be self-absorbed and becomes a better person as the book moves forward. This trilogy has become widely popular and my older elementary kids are reading it. Currently, only fifteen of the sixty-one copies are available in my system and I had a bit of a wait for the e-book version, proving that it is currently trending with teen readers.