Seven tickets. An island of dreams. The chance of a lifetime.

Welcome to the Grandest Game, an annual competition run by billionaire Avery Grambs and the four infamous Hawthorne brothers, whose family fortune she inherited. Designed to give anyone a shot at fame and fortune, this year’s game requires one of seven golden tickets to enter. With millions on the line, those seven players will do whatever it takes to win.

Some of the players are in it for the money. Some for power. Some for reasons all their own. Every single one of them has secrets. Amidst it all is Grayson Hawthorne, tasked with a vital role in this year’s game. But as tensions rise and the mind-bending challenges push the players to their limits—physically, mentally, and emotionally—it soon becomes clear that not everyone is playing by the rules.

Do you have what it takes to play?

• The Grandest Game, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

And here we are, with a thrilling new return from the world of The Inheritance Games. Before reading this book, I’d suggest you read the Inheritance Games first, for a backstory.

For those who have read the Inheritance Games, I’m sure we were all excited to know what exactly Avery Grambs would do, after becoming an accidental(yet mind-bendingly planned) billionaire.

Characters from the Brothers Hawthorne star in this new novel-I’ll provide a quick recap.

Warning: spoilers for those who haven’t read the Brothers Hawthorne.

Grayson Hawthorne was watching over his twin sisters, Savannah and Gigi(in secret). So yay, happy times! But unfortunately, the sisters find out, and try finding out what really happened to their father, with Grayson’s unintentional discovery leading to his newfound help. Grayson agrees only because he knows that their father is dead and doesn’t want them to find out that the Hawthornes had him killed. 

Grayson has secrets, which the sisters once more, find out. But because Grayson saves their mother, all is well and forgiven, except, only by Gigi as Savannah is still in the dark. Gigi wants to protect her sister, so she asks Grayson not to tell her he murdered their father.

Meanwhile, Jameson is challenged by his father to win back their ancestral home. He, of course, agrees and enters the Devil’s Mercy where he meets Rohan, the heir, and he and Avery are thrust into a game where the winner can choose their prize. Jameson, once again, wins. However, he’s hiding a secret! Alice Hawthorne, their grandmother isn’t dead. She’s alive. Even though everyone thought she was dead for decades.

The end!

Readers new to this series can in fact, read the Grandest Game first. Also, you can open your eyes now.

So, moving onto the Grandest Game!

• I thought this would be a completely different series, so I’m glad we’re still following the original characters. I find it hard to give up on the originals, which was a belief that pertained to almost every series I’ve read in my life.
• The book quite literally revolves around a grand game, and the mind-bending puzzles, ever so fondly loved codes and suspense is amazing. However, I did feel like various “levels” threw you back to the Inheritance Games, so there was an overall sense of nostalgia, but decreased novelty (I could expect a few, basically).
• I love Lyra, even though she hates the Hawthornes with a burning passion. The unfairness of her story struck right at the heart, and that kind of gives you a flipside to the loved Hawthorne brothers, juxtaposing against the glorious image held of them. I’m glad she found out the truth about her father’s death though (I’m not telling you how her story ended, so too bad).
• Gigi and Xander are so heartbreakingly similar, and I really envy her for her strength, but at the same time, want to cry over how broken she is. It shows you how you can’t really tell what a person is feeling, or what tumultuous storm is raging in one’s mind. Her bubbly exterior completely contrasts the pain she’s gone through, and I hate how she feels like she must be strong for everyone else around her. She’s my favourite character, just like Xander was in the Inheritance Games.
• I love Avery and Jameson’s relationship, and I do wish we could’ve seen more of their romance. However, the three subplots rack up the suspense and have you switching sides for different characters in the span of a couple seconds, making the book more intriguing and the plot more complex and enjoyable.
• Sorry, it inevitably crescendos to a cliffhanger. So, I’m already in tense anticipation for the Glorious Rivals. I don’t want to have to wait a year☹.
• Overall, this is an amazing, complex, intriguing book, that captures perfectly all the bombs dropped in the previous book, but somehow, leads to more unresolved questions. It’s definitely worth reading, and I loved it.

My rating: 4/5

Signing off…