Monday, September 26, 2022

#Review - The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes #YA #Mystery #Thriller #Suspense

Series: The Inheritance Games (#3)
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Release Date: August 30, 2022
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Source: Library
Genre: Young Adult / Thrillers & Suspense

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 the moment 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.
 


The Final Gambit is the final installment in author Jennifer Lynn Barnes' The Inheritance Games trilogy. This book picks up after the second one and is filled with more mystery and puzzles like before. For Heiress to be Avery Kylie Grambs, the countdown grows closer to when she will inherit billions of dollars from Tobias Hawthorne's trust fund. But one more challenge remains and a surprise visitor and an enemy from the past may cost her everything. For years, Tobias raised his grandsons (Xander, Grayson, Jameson, and Nash) to play puzzles, and riddles.

Over the course of this series, Avery, Xander, Grayson, and Jameson have pooled their research to not only reveal things about the family itself, but Avery's connection to the family. This included properties across the globe which may or may not contain more clues for Avery and the brothers to solve in order to understand Tobias mindset. It has even become a game between Avery and the brothers to reveal things about Hawthorne House that nobody knew about, including the number of secret passaways. A game that includes Ferris Wheel Leapfrog, to a Death Match, to uncovering clues in a swimming pool, and underground. It hasn't exactly been easy. 

Avery has made plenty of enemies along the way including Skye Hawthorne, the mother of the four brothers. She now has to worry about her security being targeted with offers of employment, while Tobias businesses face a slew of investigations. The media has offered big money for pictures of Avery with one of the brothers. And, it appears that someone from Tobias past may have set a new game in motion. But it is Eve's appearance that shakes the Avery and the Hawthorne brothers, especially Grayson, to the core and makes the games finish even more twisted. 

Eve reveals that Toby is missing and that she is his secret daughter who looks like Emily Laughlin. Eve who seems to be holding the missing card as to who is attacking Avery and why. Eve who seems to be everywhere she isn't supposed to be. 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. From secretive USB drives. To a game called Queen's Gambit, to an event that happened prior to Avery being born, secrets will be revealed. 

We even find out the secret behind Alexander aka Xander's father who may be holding yet another piece of the puzzle that Avery needs to defeat her newest nemesis. Avery is a character who hasn't exactly had things easy. She has a half sister, Libby who tried to raise her right. Her mothers sister Kaylie Rooney was a victim of Hawthorne Island fire. She met and played chess with a mysterious stranger, yet she isn't afraid of playing Tobias Hawthorne's games if it means helping others like her sister. When a new nemesis comes along, Avery knows that she is a pawn in a dangerous game, but run away from the challenges that are given to her.

My only real complaint is how predictable the ending is. When I started this trilogy, I could have told you how things would play out if Avery was to meet every condition that she was required to follow to the letter. My only regret is that I could have literally been okay with either Grayson, who was a major disappointing in this story when Even appears or Jameson, who literally goes to the ends of the Earth to find clues, ending up with Avery in the end. Have to say that once again, Xander is my favorite character. He's adorable and makes the story that much more entertaining to read.






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