The Inheritance Games is a young adult mystery/thriller, published in 2020, from author Jennifer Lynn Barnes. It follows a teenage girl, Avery Kylie Grambs, who is unexpectedly left a billion-dollar fortune by a mysterious philanthropist, Tobias Hawthorne. In his will, Tobias stipulates that Avery must live in his mansion, Hawthorne House, for one year if she’s going to inherit. Avery shares the home with the Hawthornes, who are angry and confused as to why Tobias left his fortune to Avery. The book follows Avery’s journey as she unravels the clues Tobias left behind, hoping to understand why a man she doesn’t remember meeting left her billions of dollars. In her sleuthing, Avery is joined by the four Hawthorne boys, Tobias’s brilliant grandsons, and discovers sordid secrets about the Hawthorne family’s history. She also develops an attraction to two of the brothers.

Jennifer Lynn Barnes is the author of several young adult novels. The Inheritance Games is the first book in a series. The second book in the series, The Hawthorne Legacy, was published in 2021 with the third, The Final Gambit published in 2022. Barnes has also published another book, The Naturals in 2013. The Inheritance Games was a New York Times best seller and an Amazon Top 100 Book of 2020. The book was also nominated in the Best Young Adult Mystery category of the Edgar Awards. The edition of the book used for this study guide is from Penguin Books UK, London, published in 2020.

Plot Summary

The Inheritance Games is told from the point of view of Avery Kylie Grambs, a junior in high school living in New Castle, Connecticut. Avery’s mother is dead and her father is absent, so she lives with her half-sister Libby. Avery waitresses after school to help make ends meet. Avery is smart and ambitious, with a knack for games like chess and a talent for numbers. She regularly plays chess in the park with a homeless man named Harry. Her own history of poverty makes her sympathetic to Harry, who she buys meals for.

Avery is shocked to learn that she’s been named in the will of Texas billionaire and philanthropist Tobias Hawthorne. She and Libby fly to Texas for the reading of the will. The Hawthorne family is there, including the four attractive and charming Hawthorne grandsons: Nash Westbrook Hawthorne, Grayson Davenport Hawthorne, Jameson Winchester Hawthorne, and Alexander Blackwood Hawthorne (“Xander”). The family is irate when the will is read and they learn that Avery is the chief beneficiary of Tobias’s billion-dollar estate. The will stipulates that, to inherit, Avery must move into Hawthorne House and live there for a full year. She and Libby move in.

The primary plotline follows Avery’s attempts to solve the book’s big riddle: Why did Tobias Hawthorne, a man Avery didn’t know, leave his estate to her instead of his family? The deceased man left various clues behind in the form of notes and objects, and Avery follows the trial of clues, often with the help of the Hawthorne brothers. Throughout her interactions with the brothers, Avery develops a romantic interest in two of them (Grayson and Jameson), which serves as a subplot.

As Avery makes progress in her sleuthing, she learns more about the Hawthorne family, which includes various tragedies in its past. First, there is Tobias’s son and the uncle to the Hawthorne grandsons, Toby, who disappeared in a fire 20 years prior. Since his body was never found, it’s unclear whether Toby is dead. Avery learns that it’s after Toby’s disappearance that Tobias disinherited his family. Avery also learns about a girl named Emily, who came between Grayson and Jameson, causing strife between the brothers. Emily died as a teenager. Although her death was the result of a preexisting heart condition, both Grayson and Jameson carry guilt regarding her passing.

Avery’s mission to solve the riddle of why Tobias left her his fortune becomes life-and-death, ramping up the book’s action and narrative tension. Many people are out to get Avery. The Hawthorne family isn’t happy about the will, especially Tobias’s daughters, Zara Hawthorne-Calligaris and Skye Hawthorne. Avery’s sister Libby has an angry ex-boyfriend, Drake Sanders, who threatens Avery. Multiple attempts are made on Avery’s life, including a shooting. The logic is that if Avery is killed, she can’t fulfill the will’s stipulation of living in Hawthorne House for a full year—and thus can’t inherit.

With the help of the Hawthorne grandsons, Avery discovers that she met Tobias once, when she was only six years old. She also finds out that Harry, the homeless man she played chess with in her “old life” in New Castle, Connecticut, is actually Toby, Tobias’s son, who the family assumed was dead. This plot twist ends the narrative, paving the way for the book’s sequel, The Hawthorne Legacy.