Book Review :: The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
ISBN: 0241573637
Series: The Inheritance Games #3
Also in this series: The Inheritance Games, The Hawthorne Legacy, The Brothers Hawthorne
Published by Penguin Books
on 1 September 2022
Genres: Mystery, Young Adult
Pages: 374
Goodreads

Avery's fortune, life, and loves are on the line in the game that everyone will be talking about.

To inherit billions, all Avery Kylie Grambs has to do is survive a few more weeks living in Hawthorne House. The paparazzi are dogging her every step. Financial pressures are building. Danger is a fact of life. And the only thing getting Avery through it all is the Hawthorne brothers. Her life is intertwined with theirs. She knows their secrets, and they know her.

But as the clock ticks down to when Avery will become the richest teenager on the planet, trouble arrives in the form of a visitor who needs her help - and whose presence in Hawthorne House could change everything. It soon becomes clear that there is one last puzzle to solve, and Avery and the Hawthorne brothers are drawn into a dangerous game against an unknown and powerful player.

Secrets upon secrets. Riddles upon riddles. In this game, there are hearts and lives at stake-and there is nothing more Hawthorne than winning.

Last updated on 13 February 2023

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What is The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes about?

The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes continues the story of Avery Grimes, teenage billionaire. After inheriting the Hawthorne estate and all that came with it (out of the blue, no less), Avery has just weeks left of her one-year requirement of living in Hawthorn House to gain the full amount of the inheritance.

But there are still games afoot.

“The world is the board, Heiress. We just have to keep rolling the dice.”

There are still mysteries yet to be uncovered and riddles yet to be solved. As Avery and the Hawthorne brothers dodge paparazzi, discover more riddles that need to be unriddled, and realise there is still a player out there that they have encountered yet … can Avery make it to the one-year mark alive, unscathed, with all the riddles from Tobias Hawthorne tided up nicely?

Or will it all come crashing down around her?

My thoughts on The Final Gambit

The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes was just as brilliant as the previous two books, The Inheritance Games and The Hawthorn Legacy. While the reviews over on Goodreads range from 1-star all the way through to 5-stars, I’m definitely giving it 4.5 stars.

In 2021, I devoured the first two books in this series in just one weekend. It was a wild ride and I loved getting on that rollercoaster. But then I had to wait an entire year for the final book, and while the wait was hard, it was worth it.

I really enjoyed The Final Gambit and while there were things that didn’t happen in the book that I would have liked (who Avery ends up with, for example), and there were things that annoyed me and characters I got annoyed with, it was still a fantastic read.

“But sometimes a person’s brain starts cycling. No matter what you do, the same thoughts just keep repeating, over and over. You get stuck in a loop, and when you’re inside that loop, you can’t see past it. You’ll keep coming up with the same possibilities, to no end, because the answers you need—they’re outside the loop. Distractions aren’t just distractions. Sometimes they can break you out of the loop.”

The Plot

What I really like about these books are the riddles, the mystery, the constant games and the secrets. This doesn’t sound like a great way to LIVE but it’s a great time to READ and I’m here for it.

The plot in this final book was similar to the others in that there are mysteries to uncover and solve, and people going missing, and characters coming out of the woodwork left, right and centre, but somehow it was still different from the first two. We thought the end of the road was at the closing chapters of The Hawthorn Legacy but surprises come to light and we’re swept off once again in a series of puzzles that Avery and the boys need to sort out.

The Characters

The characters in this series are brilliant, and I said it in my reviews of the other two books too. Avery can be a touch annoying at times, and there are a few characters in the book I didn’t care for at ALL (Eve, for one. Honestly, you can leave, Eve, mmkay bye). But then there are people like Xander who make all things good (the comic relief in this story for sure), Jameson who seems to have matured a bit in this book, Nash who is the older-brother figure to Avery, and the various other Hawthorn family members.

Grayson was done a dirty in this book though, and there were so many things that I think he did that was a bit of out character for him that I didn’t enjoy reading him in this last book. Barnes should have treated him better. I said it. I’m sticking with it.

And there’s the best friend, Max, who, while she was okaaaaaaaay, seemed a little pointless in this book, but also in the series as a whole. Eek. There I said it. Don’t come at me.

Overall thoughts

While there were things that I didn’t love about this book, that didn’t take away from it being an amazing read. I still love the mystery and the puzzles and I know that I keep harping on about it but it was a lot of fun. You’re trying to piece the puzzle together even as the characters are running around looking for clues.

The games that the Hawthorn brothers play and continue to bring up in the story are spectacular and so many of them involved fighting, climbing, running, doing dares and being a bit ruckus, it would be so much fun to get involved with.

It’s been announced that, while this was a trilogy, Jennifer Lynn Barnes is writing another story in this world, called The Brothers Hawthorn. It doesn’t come out until late 2023, but I’m already super pumped about it.

So tell me! Have you read The Final Gambit? What did you think? (No spoilers!)