The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (review)

Barnes, Jennifer Lynn The Inheritance Games. Little, 2020 [384p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781368052405 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781368053242 $9.99 Reviewed from digital galleys Ad Gr. 7-10

High school junior Avery goes from rags to riches when the homeless teen inherits the entire fortune of Tobias Hawthorne, a billionaire whom Avery has never met. The terms of the will, however, require that she live at least a year at his estate, a gigantic mansion that is currently occupied by the rest of the Hawthorne family, who see Avery as a con woman who has stolen their inheritance. The youngest of Tobias' four handsome grandsons, though, sees her less as a threat and more like a puzzle piece in some kind of final message his grandfather—who was a notorious fan of riddles and codes—left for him to decipher. There proves to be more to the Hawthorne story than just money and mystery, though, and a tragic death and unsolved disappearance point Avery to how dangerous the family might really be. Prickly, witty, and stubborn as a mule, Avery is an eminently likable protagonist, and her savvy ability to manage the obnoxiously privileged people she suddenly finds herself surrounded by is admirable, helped plenty by her quippy one-liners that level even the snobbiest among them. The puzzles, though, aren't particularly tricky or even logical, and the story focuses too much on the grandsons and their petty jealousies and drama and not enough on the reasons for Avery's inheritance. Still, there's a satisfying twist in the end that may have readers game for a sequel.