Review: "The Inheritance Games" by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Published September 2020 via Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
★★★★

Avery is getting by, and if she continues to get by long enough she’ll be able to get out: off to college, no longer living in her car, a stable future in front of her.

What she can’t predict is that she’ll be called upon to be present at the reading of a will—the will of a man she never met. A billionaire. If he leaves her even a thousand dollars, it’ll be life-changing—but he doesn’t leave her a thousand dollars. He leaves her almost the entire fortune, billions upon billions of dollars and properties all over the world…with just a catch or two.

Now, I read Barnes’ cheerleading books when I was younger, and I’ve never entirely gotten over the fact that there were only two of those books. I’m also always low-key on the lookout for a mystery series that takes place in some sort of enormous mansion or castle—none of this business about moving to a quaint little cottage in a quaint little town; I want chaotic buildings so big we’re still exploring new rooms in book 10. And guess what? Here we have that. Not the cozy mystery series part, but the place Avery inherits is less house than sprawling complex, with wing upon wing, secret corridors, and riddles just about everywhere she looks. And, of course, with billions of dollars on the line…not everyone is happy.

This was a lot of fun. There’s a little too much all-the-boys-want-her for my liking (though two of the four Hawthorne boys take themselves out of the running pretty quickly), but the commitment to over-the-top-ness in the house is pretty great. I could have used more house details (like, Avery has her own wing—but what exactly is in there, beyond bedroom and study and bathroom? C’mon, let me live vicariously through the uber rich!), but it’s still fun, fast-moving wish fulfillment.