THE INHERITANCE GAMES - Jennifer Lynn Barnes

4.5 stars

This was a BLAST. Knives Out mixed with The Westing Game mixed with Truly Devious mixed with #prepschool vibes?? Y'all.

Plot/Pacing: ★★★★★
Sheer enjoyment: ★★★★★
Characters and their drama: ★★★★
Mystery(s)/Reveal(s): ★★★★ 1/2

There was nothing I did not love about this book! It was fun! It had drama! It had mysteries! It had reveals you could guess and reveals you couldn't! It had a love triangle that toed the line between fun and catchy! There are dead people!

(Ok, so that last one is for my fellow morbid mystery fans, but still. It's a selling point.)

Clearly I've had a lot of caffeine going into this review, but bear with me. This book *feels* like a caffeinated speed ride anyway. So it's totally appropriate.

Avery Kylie Grambs is chipping away a meager life on the edge of poverty with her older half-sister, Libby, when everything changes.

A mysterious guy arrives at her school saying something about the reading of a will, and that they can't read the will until Avery herself is present. The will is for Tobias Hawthorne, Texas oil tycoon and $47 billion-dollar billionaire.

To say Avery is confused by this is a colossal understatement. But this guy doesn't give her a choice - she's placed on a plane to Texas.

...where she discovers that this billionaire, who she has NEVER met in her life, has left her with almost the entirety of his fortune. On one condition: she must live in Hawthorne House, the family's estate, for one full year with the (now penniless) remaining Hawthorne family members. If she leaves, the money is forfeit.

She can't kick out the Hawthornes, they can't contest the will, and all that's left from old man Tobias Hawthorne is 5 letters: 1 for each of his 4 grandsons, and 1 for Avery.

Avery's letter is just two words: "I'm sorry."

My thoughts:
AHHHH! I refuse to share more of this plot because of spoilers, and really half of the fun is just letting the story unfold. This has the makings of a perennial classic in the realm of YA mysteries. And I am so here for that. To me, this was more fun than One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus, and more mysterious than other mansion-setting mysteries. It had it all, and while some of it could definitely be housed under clichés in the genre, I thought they were extremely well done.

Eagerly awaiting the next book.