Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

26 reviews

rafaelabossoni's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

mcc004's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Stalking, and Death of parent

Attempted murder by gun, attempted murder by car crash

foxo_cube's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

The writing style was good and I mostly liked the main character (bar the way her brain just turns off when she thinks a guy is hot - more on that in a bit, though!). At first, I thought the puzzles were a little bit too basic, but the way the ends tied up together was immaculate. The ending of this book is great: questions are answered in a satisfying way and a new plotline is teased, so you aren't forced to read the next one, but there's definitely a reason to.

Most of my qualms with the book are more down to personal taste. There are four Hawthorne brothers - the grandsons of the billionaire who left his property to our main character, Avery. Three of them are of an age range to make them romanceable options for her.

Nash, the oldest, is a cowboy. Why? I do not know. I like him and I was actually really rooting for him and Libby, Avery's older sister, to get together - I felt like they'd be cute together. Yeehaw.

Grayson is an arrogant twat

for most of the book

. He wears suits and has silver eyes and he's very nasty to Avery a lot of the time, but because he wears suits and has silver eyes, Avery can't help but swoon. Come on! He acts like such a pathetic little man. "Ooh, I've got money. I can sort things out because I have money." The most silver eyes in the world don't make up for that.

He does get a redemption arc and I actually ended up liking him. He had reason to be suspicious and standoffish (not excusing him, but explaining his actions) and he seems to acknowledge it was a him problem. He seems to be a decent-hearted guy.

Jameson is... I don't know. He has a personality. I just don't really get what it is. He starts out being drunk and speaking weirdly cryptically like he thinks he's the Sphinx who tells riddles. I was severely put off him when he used a secret passage to go to Avery's room and go "I am in your walls, let me in, let me in" in the middle of the night, and then, when she let him in, he was like "it would be a shame if we were related [with euphemistic intent]". That's nightmare fuel, and she's just like "he's kinda hot, though". What?! Although he becomes more likeable, I never really felt any real chemistry between them beyond her swooning over him occasionally. I just couldn't feel invested in them getting together even though that's clearly what the book's getting at. 

Xander is a good boy, a sweet boy, and a boy of many talents. For some reason, despite acknowledging he is tall and attractive (both traits commonly deemed attractive by straight female protagonists in YA novels), he is never swooned over. To be fair, this goes both ways. Xander is much more concerned with eating scones.

That, and facilitating the game his grandfather set up to get his brothers to work together to solve a puzzle, occasionally prodding Avery in the right direction when she hits a wall.

  Silly younger-brother-esque characters always activate the crumb of maternal instinct within me and Xander is no exception. He's my favourite of the boys both because I want to protect him and because we get to know him better than we do Nash. 

Avery is definitely a little bit of a blank slate in the YA protagonist kind of way where you're meant to project yourself onto her, but she experiences her own character development and she feels believable. 

I feel as though I'd have enjoyed this more if it weren't for the romance elements, which felt a little forced.

That said, I liked how the parallel was drawn between Avery and Emily in that respect.

  I don't know if I'll read the other books in the series, but this was an engaging book that made me want to know what happened next, and if you're more inclined towards this sort of premise than I am, you'll probably love it. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Biphobia, Homophobia, and Infidelity

zoeelora's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

matheo's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Car accident and Lesbophobia

Minor: Infertility

morganperks's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Cancer, Incest, Infidelity, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

merah's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious relaxing tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

One of the BEST books I've read in a while. 
The characters are so loveable. 
A thrilling story with some very unexpected twists. 
And: short chapters!! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Biphobia, Child death, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

karapillar's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Oh my god. Wow. Wow wow wow! I regret not reading this book sooner. It is so. Stinking. Good. I like to think I’m pretty good at predicting endings, but this one through me for a loop! I had nooooo idea what was going to happen throughout the entire book. Twists, mysteries, and suspense kept  me turning up until literally the very last page. I’m obsessed. I’m starting book two immediately. Good bye, sleep!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Blood, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, and Alcohol

jfield351's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Wow! This was a really good book! It is the most fast paced books I have ever read, the author Jennifer Lynn Barnes does not waste words and cuts right to the chase. I also loved the short chapters (around 3 pages long) as they allowed me to read how much i wanted to read. It was gripping. And the idea of the book - amazing. The whole time I was dying to know the twist.

I did guess that the boys’ middle names’ were places, but that is the only thing i guessed

. It was very family friendly. I really loved and appreciated how the ‘clues’ in this book were not far fetched, it always made sense that the participants would discover and interpret them.

The ending was interesting, at first I was like okay that’s cool, whatever. Then the last page before the epilogue had me shook. That is a good twist. I wish it could have ended with an in-depth letter from Mr Hawthorne but there is another book so i’ll just have to read that! I’m still a bit intrigued / confused by the Drake thing so the next book will hopefully clarify a bit more

. Very easy to read and very clever. Gave me ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne Du Maurier vibes

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Violence

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Medical content, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Cursing, Infidelity, Sexual content, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

hannibanani29's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Biphobia, Cursing, Gun violence, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Racism, Violence, Dementia, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail