The Grandest Games

This spinoff series of the viral ‘The Inheritance Games’ books is definitely just milking the popularity of the original series. Personally, I think that the books published post - The Final Gambit are not as enjoyable as the older books.

The Grandest Game is a life-changing competition put on by a billionaire and the four infamous Hawthorne brothers. Many strive for one of only seven tickets in the hope of finding great wealth and power. It is the first book in The Grandest Game trilogy, which is a spinoff of The Inheritance Games trilogy and should be read after The Brothers Hawthorne, the bridge novel set in between these two trilogies. 

The book is kind of mid, but one thing I really hate the most about this book is Lyra, one of the main characters. More specifically, her extremely unnatural romance with Grayson Hawthorne.

They had zero chemistry and their moments felt so forced, especially because they pulled this romance out of nowhere. Jennifer Lynn Barnes has written so many good pairings and this is her only flop. Rohan and Savannah, who are also some of the other main characters in this book, are so much more fun to read about because they legitimately have good chemistry with a good buildup.

I didn't like Lyra and Grayson so much that every time I reached a Lyra POV chapter I would put the book down and leave it for another time because it's so forced and I don't like them together at all.

Putting Lyra and Grayson aside, I find the games to be so-so. I mean, yeah, they're impressive, but I just don't find it very interesting. Most of the book was just them solving complicated puzzles which is like, ok cool, but it gets repetitive and there isn't much of a solid storyline in my opinion. I found that JLB was just yapping the whole time. The only reason why I'm still buying this series is because I have all her books from TIG and I would prefer to complete my collection. Other than that, I don't find this book particularly gripping and I probably would not recommend it to anyone. Jennifer Lynn Barnes should stop milking the Hawthornes after she finishes the rest of the TGG trilogy, same with a lot of other authors (cough cough Lynn Painter and NTLTM because that was horrible and ruined BTTTM for me). 

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 

(Rohan and Savannah's chemistry plus the other characters who aren't Lyra saved this rating but then again I'm just a hater)

Avril Lee

Secondary 3 Diligence

2025