The Inheritance Games and the Hawthorne Legacy Review by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Note: This review is spoiler free! 
Book: The Inheritance Games series
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Age: For readers 13 and up 
Rating: ⅘

I’m on the fence about this book and honestly don’t know if I really liked it or not. 😬  I mean… yes it did hook me in and I finished it in less than a day (which is very fast for me) but I hated the writing style, was indifferent towards the characters and felt meh about the romance. But I did enjoy it.  Soooooo idk 🤷‍♀️

What I didn’t like:

The Absence of Mystery: Sooooo here’s what basically happened in the book:
“Random” girl (Avery Grambs) is very special but no one knows why. Then Avery faces some difficult challenges that she has to overcome- she has to survive in the house for a year. Yes, I said survive. What an incredibly taxing challenge, right? 🤠  Then Avery has to complete even HARDER challenges, like choosing between two basically identical brothers who are both in love with her for some reason that I have yet to discover (honestly she has the personality of a brick so I’m not sure what these brothers are fighting over 😐 ). Sound familiar? Here’s a hint-Avery Grambs = Elena Gilbert confirmed 🤯 . 

Ok that was an exaggeration. I mean there were some riddles thrown in the book but not as much as I expected from a book marketed as a suspenseful mystery filled with riddles and games. Honestly, 50-60% of the book was a love triangle which took away from the mystery aspects of the book 😕 . 
Writing Style: The main factor that killed the flow of this book was the writing style. Ngl it was pretty bad 😐   “She went here”,  “He looked at the room”, “She stopped.”. These were all LEGIT sentences in the book! It was all telling and no showing. No descriptive writing whatsoever and the extremely short sentences made the book choppy. (On the topic of writing style, I think I even catched a grammatical error. At one point in the book there was a sentence written as: “I was an heiress”. Now I’m not the best at grammar but shouldn’t it be “I was a heiress”? 🤨 ).  
Jameson: Yes I am devoting an entire section to Jameson because he lowkey unsettles me. 😬 He reminds me of those creepy porcelain dolls that seem to follow your every move. YOU CAN”T TELL ME THIS MAN ISN’T ONE OF THOSE DISTURBING DOLLS.. Exhibit A: He practically stalks Avery. Exhibit B: He just seems so void of emotions. I don’t know how to explain this properly but it's hard to tell if there was ever any genuine connection between him and any one of the characters (especially Avery). The only thing he’s passionate about is riddles. Not about his dead Grandfather. Not about his brothers. Not about Avery. But about riddles of all things 🤠 
The Quirky Dialogue: 

• Case 1: Max saying "fudge" and "beach" instead of actual swear words were one of the cringiest dialogue I've ever read. If it appeared once or twice, then fine. But nooooo, Maxine would say it like 60 times in one sentence 😭 . NO ONE EVER TALKS LIKE THAT IN REAL LIFE OMG 🙄 . And her reason for using them was the dumbest thing ever. Maxine isn’t allowed to say swear words in front of her parents but is allowed to say swear word innuendos and they’re fine with it? 

• Case 2: Jameson calling Avery “Mystery Girl” and “Heiress” was cute at first but then he used it in every sentence and it got annoying 💀 . 

The Hawthorne Legacy: (Contains NO spoilers about the 1st and 2nd book)

Writing: I didn’t think it was possible for the writing to get even worse in the second book. But it did. By a LOT. 🤧  There was a bunch more tell and not show examples.  “We ran back to the abandoned wing. We came to a stop just outside the door.”  Guys this book is so poorly written its hilarious 💀 At least it had decent plot so it was still fun to read.
Romance Overload: I thought the last book had too much romance, but this book was a hundred times worse. It was basically the dollar tree version of the Selection where Avery pulls a America move and switches between Grayson and Jameson CONSTANTLY. But seriously, the author goes out of her way to set up forced romantic scenes to exaggerate the love triangle. It got real annoying, real fast. 😐

• Grayson X Avery: I shipped these two more in the first book (honestly because the alternate, Jameson x Avery seemed to have no chemistry at all). But this book ruined them. There were barely any interactions between them and they were all EXTREMELY forced and bland. Minor spoilers: Also I find it funny how the kiss between Grayson and Avery was just never brought up again 💀

Avery: Avery’s personality was nonexistent in this book. It was like she was just narrating things that happened to her and not actively moving the story along with. Idk. Even the spark of personality she had in the first book was completely washed away in the second.

• Sidenote: Avery is such a horrible friend to max. It was her BIRTHDAY and it took Max reminding her the day before to realize it. Even then she forgot by the next day until Max showed up at her house. Max does so much for Avery but Avery still doesn’t do much back for Max. JUSTICE FOR MAX 😤  ✊

How Characters Reference Each Other: 

• It’s so weird to me how everytime Emily’s name is brought up, Avery has to mention the fact that Emily isn’t as beautiful as Rebecca. Why does that matter? And why has that exact statement been written 5+ times in both books lol?! 🤨
• Why do they keep calling their grandfather “Old man”? “The old man” this,  “The old man” that.... they even admit their grandfather is the one who raised him yet they still refer to him as this, which I thought was disrespectful towards their grandfather. 

Inconsistencies (Spoilers skip this underlined paragraph): How come the period of time Avery was kidnapped didn’t count against her? She already used up her 3 days away from the house that month. She should have lost the inheritance because she spent an additional 12 hours away from Hawthorne house. 

What I liked: 

Addicting: The storyline is REALLY addicting. I honestly don’t know why but I swear this plot had a chokehold against me. I really avoided all my homework to finish this book in under 24 hours lol 🤭 
The Endings: THE CLIFFHANGERS OMG. DID NOT SEE THEM COMING…🤯

Sooo overall this was an entertaining book to read and it was so addicting but the writing style and the forced romance interactions did ruin it a bit though 😕  I still think everyone should give this book a read regardless because it’s quick and fun.

Read Review for the Selection

Read Review for A Curse so Dark and Lonely