Format: 384 pages, Hardcover
Release Date: July 30, 2024
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Source: Library
Genre: YA / Thriller / Suspense
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?
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, is the first installment in the author's The Grandest Game trilogy. Yes, this is a spin-off from the author's The Inheritance Game trilogy and its spin-off, The Brothers Hawthorne. At its core, The Grandest Game thrusts seven diverse challengers into the second annual iteration of a life-altering competition orchestrated by billionaire heiress Avery Grambs and the enigmatic Hawthorne brothers—Jameson, Grayson, Nash, and Xander.
The prize? A cool $26 million, plus the intoxicating thrill of outsmarting everyone else on a secluded private island mansion that doubles as a gilded trap. Half the players are handpicked invites; the other half clawed their way in by decoding cryptic clues scattered across the globe. What follows is a 12-hour gauntlet of collaborative yet cutthroat puzzles, where teams form and fracture under pressure, alliances shift like sand, and buried family secrets bubble to the surface like champagne in a shaken bottle.
Without veering into spoiler territory, the narrative pivots around three new POV characters: Lyra Kane, a sharp-witted former dancer haunted by her biological father's mysterious death (which she pins squarely on the Hawthorne's); Gigi, the bubbly yet deeply insecure younger sister of Grayson Hawthorne's half-sibling Savannah, desperate to prove her independence; and Rohan, a cunning wildcard with his own shadowy agenda tied to the Hawthorne's' ancestral estate, the Devil's Mercy. (The other characters are Odette Morales, Brady Daniels, Knox Landry, and Grayson Hawthorne).
Lyra emerges as a standout, her grudge-fueled determination laced with vulnerability; she's no wide-eyed ingénue but a calculated avenger whose flashbacks to her father's demise add poignant depth. Lyra is also haunted by her father's death and the worlds he left behind. "A Hawthorne did this." Gigi, with her effervescent facade masking profound self-doubt, mirrors Xander's charm in the originals but carves her own niche as the emotional heart of the group—her arc of seeking autonomy amid sisterly shadows is quietly devastating.
Lyra's fight to save her family's crumbling estate isn't just plot fodder; it's a stark commentary on how the ultra-rich's whims ripple through ordinary lives. Gigi's arc probes sibling rivalry and the pressure to perform "perfection" in a world that equates worth with winnings. Rohan is the dark horse, as his intentions are not quite as clear as those of the others. We know that he wants something badly, and what better way to get that than to win the prize? So, yes, this book does end on a cliffhanger. So no, I will not continue this series. I do know that there are players off-screen who we have not met yet, but after the first series wrapped up, I walked away from this series. Now I know why.
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