The Grandest Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

e-Audio, 10:16:56
Narrated by: Anjali Kunapaneni, Christine Lakin, Zachary Webber
Release Date: July 30, 2024
Published by: Hachette Audio
Read from: July 30-31, 2024
The Grandest Game, #1
Source: Audible
Content Warning: Death of a parent, Blood, Suicide, Mental Illness, Panic Attacks/disorders, kidnapping, cursing, fire/fire injury, Confinement
For Readers Interested In: Escape Rooms, Puzzles, YA, Thriller

    Get caught up in the puzzles, games, danger, romance, and riches of this lush new chapter in the #1 bestselling Inheritance Games saga.
     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.
     #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Lynn Barnes delivers a brand-new series in the world of The Inheritance Games, where fan-favorite and new characters collide in a game you’ll never forget.
     Do you have what it takes to play?

*MY THOUGHTS*

I hate to write this review because y’all know I LOVED the Inheritance Games series, but this one just didn’t do it for me. Not exactly anyway. I think this could have been better if we used it as like a novella? But this being a full length novel and not really answering anything bothered me a bit.

Ok with that being said, I did still enjoy reading it. It wasn’t until I got to the end that I realized we don’t really get any answers. This was just a huge puzzle with nothing to show for it. Idk, I like my endings to be complete. But this one, there’s still a huge thing left unanswered. So basically I’m going to have to remember what happened in this one a year from now when the next one comes out.

Now the games were cool, but they always are. But it was weird that it was just one? Like this was just one escape room that took the whole book? I REALLY think this could have been a novella. But because it was done with three different POVs that’s what drew it out and made it take forever. But because I do like escape rooms, I did enjoy it. I know they can sometimes take forever to read. Especially if you have no tells or anything at all.

The characters were ok, but Lordt, one of them was annoying, one of them didn’t want to say anything, and the other was an asshole. None of them were particularly likeable. And we’ve learned from all the rest of these never to trust anyone, so idk why these characters didn’t get the memo. And I was already annoyed that they built up all this tension just for them to STILL leave us hanging at the end. I’m begging y’all to give some real endings to your books. I’m not a writer so whatever I come up with will be terrible compared to what I could read from y’all lol

BUT being honest, I could TELL that this book was nowhere in the cards from the original series and this was more of a cash grab. I think I was annoyed because the series could have been over. Or she could have give the boys their own books. But this just seemed that she was trying to wring ever drop of money out of this series. BUT did that stop me from ordering the Barnes and Noble Special Edition? Absolutely not.

Overall, I give this

I gave this 4 on Goodreads

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