Book Review: The Inheritance Games

Rating: ⭐️⭐️

Genre: Mystery

 

Reading really hyped-up books honestly is the true definition of “hit or miss”. I could end up really liking them but then I could also end up really not satisfied with it. I was so excited to read this one because I’ve literally only heard good things about this book, but it fell really short. The concept had potential, but everything just didn’t come together in the best way possible. My biggest worry at the moment is how I’m going to get through two more books because I HATE DNF’ing a book or series. And I think there are like two more sequel type books too. 

Anyways, if you want more details, read on!

Synopsis:

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 conwoman, 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.

Review:

Avery Grambs was a washed-down version of regular, highschooler. That was probably because of her backstory being that she had no parents to take care of her as one abandoned her and one died and she lived in her car because she was poor, really poor. Until, she inherited billions of dollars out of nowhere. This super rich, old man had given almost all of his money to Avery in his will. Obviously, the old man’s grandsons (one of them specifically) and the rest of his family were not happy about this and, let’s just say, Avery is kind of a target for them now so they could try to get more money. However, Avery ends up getting stuck in this weird puzzle with one of the four Hawthorne grandsons and she just has to solve it. So that’s what she does, for the entirety of the book. 

“Everything’s a game, Avery Grambs. The only thing we get to decide in this life is if we play to win.”

Avery is like any other teenager other than the part where she ends up inheriting billions of dollars. All she wanted was to get through high school. Though she really doesn’t have much of a personality. Her character was really bland. Sure, she was somewhat clever and good at puzzles but that was the most interesting part of her personality. Coming up with some descriptive character traits for Avery would be a bit of a challenge and take some real thinking. Thankfully, her personality wasn’t super annoying or anything. Her reaction and thoughts after inheriting so much money seemed, honestly, pretty real and reasonable. 

“As awful as it sounds, money is power, and power is magnetic.”

Avery’s one and only friend, Max, was truly one of the best parts about this whole entire book. She was humorous and witty and actually talked like a teenager (but, like, cleaner, you could say). Also, she wasn’t super 2-dimensional. Her character actually had some more depth compared to the rest of the characters in this book. 

  

Now, onto the four Hawthorne brothers. The personalities for each boy is like “copy paste, copy paste, copy paste, copy paste” with a little variation in each. They are all rich, hot, flirty or charismatic (whichever one you prefer to think), good at puzzles and riddles, and have no father in their life (keeping in mind they all have different fathers). Still, they are all as sharp as a knife but also act mysterious and always being confusing and speaking in metaphors or something.

The oldest one, Nash, is too busy staying by Libby’s, Avery’s older sister, side to get involved in the mysteries of the inheritance. He throws some metaphors here and there which Avery dwell’s upon quite often. 

“We aren’t normal. This place isn’t normal, and you’re not a player, kid. You’re the glass ballerina—or the knife.”

Xander is the youngest, and my favorite Hawthorne from the bunch. He also acts like an actual teenager rather than a kind of morally gray middle aged man like his brothers. He has hobbies other than only figuring out puzzles his dead grandfather has left (I’m not saying he’s totally uninvolved because that would be extremely wrong). His abilities, also, expand more than just cracking riddles. 

Jameson, the second youngest, is my least favorite. He’s known for being “quirky”, constantly talking in metaphors and his whole personality revolves around figuring out the puzzles. He’s also one of the love interests in a not really developed love triangle thing Avery’s involved in. I believe he only thinks of Avery as part of the game, like a chess piece, because he literally only thinks about the mysteries. 

“If yes is no and once is never, then how many sides does a triangle have?” (Jameson’s first sentence to  Avery, if I’m not mistaken. Doesn’t this say more than enough about him?)

Grayson, the second oldest, is bearable. He is the second love interest and has a little more dimension than Jameson. He isn’t only interested in the puzzles and mysteries and he actually cares for Avery. He shows concern for her, eventually, and shows a variety of emotions which isn’t super common in the Hawthorne boys. 

Oh, and did I mention for the majority of the book the two love interests were not over this dead girl they both loved and fought over. This gave me a sense of déjà vu in a way. Also, multiple times in the book, Avery wasn’t wrong about some things including this fact right here.

Moving onto the plot, it was pretty boring. I was interested in the concept because it was definitely different and intriguing. The book started off great, I wanted to know more about why the old man left Avery with the majority of his money. Eventually, it lost a lot of my interest. I’ve never really been a riddle girly so I didn’t try to guess them from beforehand. Rather, I wanted to see them working through them, though, the process of cracking the riddles were (at some parts) repetitive and not super fun?

“Traps upon traps. And riddles upon riddles.”

The mysteries I enjoyed reading about because I was able to come up with guesses of my own, but when the answer was revealed the truth was either predictable or not as satisfying or mind-blowing as expected. Towards the end, when we found out why Avery was chosen to inherit, I was left feeling so let down. I couldn’t believe that was the reason. It seemed like such a coincidence and kind of weird too. I kept on thinking the author was going to throw a plot twist last minute, but they didn’t. Some minor things did happen that I didn’t expect but they weren’t really super important or hinted at throughout the story. I’m hoping the second book will expand some more or I don’t know, add more context that will make the revelation seem more logical. 

Overall, this book may be more enjoyable for those who love riddles? I think this book simply wasn’t developed as well as it could’ve been. I really expected a crazy ending or plot twist which would leave me dumbfounded based on all the hype, but yeah, no, that didn’t happen. That really disappointed me but I’m going to continue this series and hope it becomes better.

“He left you the fortune, Avery, and all he left us is you.”

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