The Inheritance Games

 Tell me a story… about a family mystery 

The Inheritance Games (The Inheritance Games #1) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Publishing date: September 1, 2020

Date read: July 10, 2021

Avery Grambs has never had much of anything... until a mysterious billionaire includes her in his will, and gives her almost his entire fortune. As far as she knows, she's never even met Tobias Hawthorne, let alone done anything to deserve his money and estate. The one catch is that Avery has to live in Hawthorne House for one year... with the family members that Tobias barely left anything to, including his four grandsons. The grandsons inform Avery that if Tobias loved one thing, it was puzzles, and they think that Avery is just one more piece of his last, great puzzle. 

This is just a fun mystery that I really enjoyed following. While it does wrap up pretty well (no spoilers), I found that the mystery itself was the fun part. I almost didn't care where the clues were leading - I just enjoyed searching for and following the clues. 

I thought that Avery was a good, strong female lead and held her own well against the strong males in the story. It is YA, so there was a fairly cliche love triangle thrown in that made me roll my eyes a few times, but I didn't hate it. It didn't take away from the overall effect of the story and Avery at least managed to stay a strong character and not a puddle of hormones. 

Not a perfect book by any means, but really a lot of fun if you like puzzles. Reminded me a bit of The Westing Game in that respect. I also liked that the immediate plot wrapped up to the point where you don't have to read the next book, but it still left enough of a mystery that the next book is a draw - I'll definitely be reading it in the near future. A fun, light mystery read. 

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Trigger warning: death of a family member (off page)