Book Review: "The Inheritance Games" by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Title: The Inheritance Games

Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Series: "The Inheritance Games" #1
Genre: YA Mystery

Page Length: 384 pages

Publication Date: September 1, 2020

Rating: 4 // 5 stars 

Goodreads

*I was sent a free copy of this book by Wunderkind PR in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and comments are my own. This review is spoiler-free*

Synopsis

A Cinderella story with deadly stakes and thrilling twists, perfect for fans of One of Us is Lying and Knives Out.

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 con-woman, 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. 

I first want to give a big shoutout to Wunderkind PR for sending me a copy of this book! I had it on my wishlist and it was one that had intrigued me from the moment I read the synopsis so being sent a copy truly made my month!

I loved this book! I was intrigued from the moment I read the synopsis but I'd also seen some people say that it was good but not amazing. I'm glad that I tried not to let other people's opinions influence my expectations because I came out of this book wholly satisfied. 

Right off the bat I was sucked into this book. The pacing was quick, but not so fast that I was confused. I thought this worked really well because it didn't spend time focusing on places we weren't going to be revisiting or characters who wouldn't matter later on. The pacing is what kept me, to be honest. The story was fun and wonderful and full of mystery, but if it had been slower I might have struggled a little. However, the fact that this book took off right from the start and didn't slow down meant that I finished the majority of it in just one sitting. I was engrossed. I was obsessed. I still am obsessed, if we're being honest.

The story itself was interesting and well-balanced. There was mystery and there was humor. There were serious, heart pounding moments and then there were times I was laughing my head off. It was great. The mystery gripped me and I was actually nervous at times for our main character. As someone who doesn't like mystery thriller books that often (which is strange since I love crime and mystery TV shows), I've found that YA mysteries are more my speed than adult. This was one of those books that I adored the mystery in because I felt like it vibed well with my personal preferences. 

Our main storyline seemingly wrapped up while a few secondary threads set up the second book but, as the characters consistently pointed out in the book, I'm wondering if that's just a trick or a misdirect. I feel like Tobias Hawthorne, the person who engineered the whole mystery, would have a few more tricks up his sleeve. I just have so many questions about how the next book will go and I am eagerly anticipating it.  

In terms of characters, we have a pretty good sized cast. We only have one point of view which is our narrator, Avery, but there are a bunch of characters who play large roles throughout the book such as the Hawthorne brothers. I am definitely intrigued by all of the brothers and I'm interested to learn more about them in the next book and unravel some of their secrets. 

The romance, I think, was the least interesting part of this book. That's not to say it was bad, but I wasn't really invested in the romance plot as much. I felt like we didn't get enough character interactions on page between those characters to see them as more than friends at that point. It's also worth pointing out that this book was not marketed as romance, so this issue I had with the romance isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, I am still interested to see where it goes in the next book.

Overall, I loved this book and it will most likely end up on my list of 2020 favorites. It's such a solid YA mystery with an interesting cast of characters and a main character you can't help but love. I am so incredibly excited to read the next book and highly recommend it to anyone who liked Knives Out or enjoys a good YA mystery! 

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Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Lauren

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Book Review: "We Contain Multitudes" by Sarah Henstra

Title: We Contain Multitudes

Author: Sarah Henstra

Genre: YA Contemporary 

Page Length: 384 pages

Format: ARC Paperback

Publication Date: May 14, 2019
Date Started: May 19, 2019

Date Finished: May 20, 2019

Rating: 4.5 // 5 stars
Goodreads

*I was sent a free pre-publication copy from Novl in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and comments are my own*

TW in the Book: Domestic Abuse, Bullying, Homophobia

I was so excited to get home from college after a grueling week of finals and 40+ hours at work to find this book waiting for me. From the moment I read the synopsis I was dying to read this book. So to start off this review, I would like to thank Novl for sending me a free copy of this book so that I could read and review it here. I'm not sure when I would have been able to read it otherwise and I have to say that this is quite possibly a new favorite.

I'm not a big contemporary fan, if I'm being honest. Books that are just about the romance and don't have anything else behind them don't hold my attention. I find that I can read contemporaries if there's something else going on in the book as well so that I'm not overwhelmed with "ah I love them I love them not" and petty arguments. This book was so much more than just a silly little love story. It was a story of growth, of healing, of finding your way and discovering yourself.

The two main characters, Kurl and Jo, are nothing alike at the beginning. Seeing their journeys both on their own and through their growing relationships was fascinating and wonderful. The ups and downs they went through made this whole book even more realistic to me, as no friendship or partnership can work perfectly all the time. That being said, I thought that they were so freaking cute.

This book deals with a lot of heavy topics. From domestic abuse, homophobia, bullying, and more, it can get heavy at times and there were definitely some hard moments to read through. The whole book is told in letters from Kurl and Jo to each other, so when these heavy topics were discussed in letters, you could still feel the weight of them but you also weren't thrust into a hopeless feeling situation. It was almost as if the letters acted as a buffer for those heavy moments. You still got the impact of these moments, but you weren't consumed by them. I personally can't comment on if every single one of the heavy topics was realistic, but the ones that I do have personal knowledge of seemed pretty on par to my experience.

At the beginning, I was worried that the fact it was told solely through letters would take away my enjoyment of the book. It didn't. The only thing about it was that I wouldn't read the dates on the letters so I never really knew much about the passing of time except for when it was explicitly talked about in the letters. But, again, that's just on me for being too impatient to read not even a full line of text before jumping into each letter.

If anything, I thought the letters helped me connect even more to the characters. We got so much of their inner thoughts, feelings, conflicts, etc that it was hard not to connect when I was literally reading all of their secrets and hidden feelings laid out. There were some letters that were so powerful that I just sat on the couch crying as I read the book.

Other things I really liked: some of the side characters, especially Mark and Bron. There were a few confusing things with holding onto character relationships, like in the beginning with Jo's dad who he refers to as Lyle instead of Dad. But overall, I thought a lot of the side characters were great additions to the story. It's hard to write multi-dimensional characters when it's a book of letters between two people, but somehow Sarah managed to do so in a wonderful way. The plot was interesting, though I am left with a lot of questions! I want to see even more of these characters and, while there's definitely enough there to make a sequel, I'm pretty sure that this is a standalone.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It is one of my new favorite contemporaries and I already want to go back and reread certain scenes in it. I definitely think that a lot of people would enjoy this book! I do want to reiterate the trigger warnings that I mentioned at the top so that everyone will read responsibly! But, yes, this book was great!

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Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Lauren

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