Book Review: The Final Gambit (The Inheritance Games, #3) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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BOOK review

Started on: 25 June 2023
Finished on: 29 August 2023

 

The Final Gambit (The Inheritance Games, #3) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

 

Title: The Final Gambit (The Inheritance Games, #3)

Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Publisher: Little, Brown Books

Pages: 374 pages / 400 pages (e-book)
Year of Publication: 2022
Price: Rp 188,000 (https://www.periplus.com/)

Rating: 3/5

*for those who haven't read the first book, this review may contain spoiler. Review for The Inheritance Games (The Inheritance Games, #1) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes here.

Review for The Hawthorne Legacy (The Inheritance Games, #2) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes here.

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"I'd known that someone was playing with us, with me. But this made it so much clearer that Toby's abductor wasn't just playing with me. They were playing against me."

To inherit billions from Tobias Hawthorne, Avery has to survive a few more weeks living in the Hawthorne House. With danger lurking around every corner, the Hawthorne brothers are the ones who helped her get through it all. Her life is now intertwined with theirs as they discover each other's secrets. Nearing the time when Avery is about to become the richest teenager on the planet, an unexpected visitor arrives asking for help and her appearance could change everything. Apparently, there's one last puzzle to solve. Avery and the Hawthorne brothers are suddenly drawn into a dangerous game against an unknown and powerful player from the past.

"Chess," I repeated. "The move—it's called the Queen's Gambit. Whoever's playing white puts that second pawn in position to be sacrificed, which is why it's considered a gambit."

"The truth had been there, right in front of us, for months. Tobias Hawthorne had left me his fortune so that if and when his enemies descended after his death, they would descend on me. He'd picked his target carefully, placed me as a cog in a complicated machine."

I have finally reached the end of The Inheritance Games trilogy! Feel proud of myself for completing this series in the middle of a hectic phase in my life. Despite my mixed feelings regarding the series, I'm glad I decided to push through and satisfy my curiosity about the mystery behind Tobias Hawthorne's will. Although it took me two months to finish reading The Final Gambit, I'm proud of myself for getting to the end. I won't include The Inheritance Games as one of my favorite series, but I did enjoy the story while it lasted. I might have loved it more if I read it when I was younger.

"I wanted to despise Tobias Hawthorne—or at least judge him—but all I could think was the other words he'd left me. You may be tested by the flames, but you need not burn."

"I thought about Toby, about his collision course with my mother and the ways their love might have been different if Toby hadn't been broken by the horrific secrets he carried.

The real Hawthorne legacy."

At the start of this book, we are introduced to yet another new character: Eve. She unexpectedly arrived at the Hawthorne House looking for help because an unknown person had taken Toby Hawthorne. Avery and the Hawthorne brothers are unsure whether or not they can trust Eve's story. Soon after, Avery receives an envelope that contains a disk and a puzzle. The puzzle revealed that someone seeks vengeance against Avery or the Hawthorne family. They assume the person who sent that envelope is the one who captured Toby. Eventually, it becomes clear that the person seeking revenge is powerful and wealthy. After Eve's arrival at the Hawthorne House, Avery receives a new puzzle from Tobias Hawthorne that ends with a message telling her not to trust anyone. Various clues that Avery discovers finally lead her to the man who's abducted Toby. And she will ultimately understand why Tobias Hawthorne left his entire fortune to her.

 

I wasn't too fond of how the author added new characters to the story instead of utilizing the many characters from the previous two books. Her writing style didn't allow the reader to guess who might be the culprit because apparently, it's someone we never encountered before. It feels like the whole plot is not well thought out as the author keeps adding and patching things up along the way. Even though I wished some things could be done better, I was quite satisfied with how the story ends because I got the answers I've been dying to know—the reason why Tobias Hawthorne left his inheritance to Avery. Turns out the old man cares about his family more than we thought. Aside from that, I'm still not a fan of the romance until the end. I literally don't care who Avery ends up with because I wasn't too fond of her character either 😂. I would've enjoyed the story better if there was no romance involved and the story was just pure mystery.

"For more than forty years, this secret had festered. It had affected all of them—two families, three generations, one poisonous tree."

"Do you know what the real difference is between millions and billions? Skye Hawthorne had asked, what felt like a small eternity ago. Because at a certain point, it's not about the money.

It was about the power."

Overall, The Inheritance Games trilogy was just okay for me. I know some people absolutely adore this series, but unfortunately, I'm not one of them. There are too many aspects that didn't suit my preference even though the mystery managed to keep me reading until the end. Although this series didn't live up to my expectations, I'm glad I gave it a chance and read all three books until the end 😊.

"But the games? The ones the boys had played growing up, the ones I had played? Those games hadn't made us extraordinary.

They'd showed us that we already were."

by.stefaniesugia♥ .