The Inheritance Games

OVER 6 MILLION COPIES SOLD OF THE #1 BESTSELLING SERIES!

Don't miss this New York Times bestselling "impossible to put down" (Buzzfeed) novel with deadly stakes, thrilling twists, and juicy secrets--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 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.

Catch every thrilling twist and turn of The Inheritance Games Saga, including the Grandest Game, the thrilling new series set in the world of the Inheritance Games:

The Inheritance Games (The Inheritance Games #1)
The Hawthorne Legacy (The Inheritance Games #2)
The Final Gambit (The Inheritance Games #3)
The Brothers Hawthorne (The Inheritance Games #4)
Games Untold
The Grandest Game (The Grandest Game #1)
Glorious Rivals (The Grandest Game #2)
The Gilded Blade (The Grandest Game #3)
The Same Backward as Forward

For more unputdownable reads from Jennifer Lynn Barnes, don't miss the killer The Naturals series, and The Debutantes duet.

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Published Jul 27, 2021

400 pages

Average rating: 7.71

1,177 RATINGS

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What Bookclubbers are saying about this book

✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI

Readers say *The Inheritance Games* is an engaging, fast-paced YA mystery with intriguing puzzles and twists, though some find the puzzle-solving repe...

jpubs

Feb 02, 2025

7/10 stars

This was a good mystery with a little romance splashed in. Definitely more teen/young adult oriented. The writing wasn't amazing, but I enjoyed the storyline and characters. I'm excited to read the rest of the series, but I was slightly let down by the reveal at the end of this book. I'm hoping there's more to it going forward.

fromlizaslibrary

Oct 22, 2024

10/10 stars

WOW! This book is... wow. I was obsessed with this story and was just incredibly hooked into the mystery of Tobias Hawthorne’s inheritance. Avery is an amazing young woman. She’s smart, generous and caring so when she gets pulled from her normal life I really was happy for her, however, I knew it wasn’t all good considering she’s getting billions from a stranger. I had my own hunches about the ‘why’ of it all but the plot had me guessing the entire time. I loved the Hawthorne boys and the mystery of them. I did constantly forget how old the four of them were. Xander was a little kid in my mind, smaller and way younger than he was whereas Jameson and Grayson seemed so much younger. Its honestly difficult to talk about this one without spoilers but overall I couldn’t get enough of this one and I already have my Libby hold for book 2 that I am now impatiently waiting for!

Sage_Ivory

Oct 15, 2022

2/10 stars

This book lacks a lot of things for me. I found the main character to be a bit annoying. The “romance” is completely flat. The repetition in this book gets tiredsome after awhile, on top of that it’s pretty predictable. It started as an easy read in the beginning but towards the middle of the book it became a lot more difficult. The characters in this book aren’t very like able, I didn’t find myself connecting or even caring about them. Definitely not my type of book unfortunately.

Kellyo

Jan 03, 2026

7/10 stars

Great YA read!

Jovanna Abdou

Dec 19, 2025

6/10 stars

(2.75-3 stars) A light, breezy mystery read with puzzles, riddles, and messy relationships. Ment to be a love triangle but there is a very clear leading contender, which is fine since romance seems to be more of a sub-plot than anything. Besides the main male and female leads, everyone else seems a little one-dimensional. Took me a while to distinguish between Grayson and Jameson. I can already tell this series is going to be a book too long because so much of the book was spent attempting to build anticipation and it just became repetitive at some points. Still, I enjoyed the puzzle and the last few revelations, so I will (unfortunately) keep reading.