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zinelib 's review for:

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
4.5
mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This book about an impoverished teen who suddenly finds herself an heir to an enormous fortune is the page-turniest thing I've read all year. The girl is Avery. She has a deadbeat dad, a dead mom, and half sister who makes bad choices, so she lives in her car, and her best local friend is a homeless guy she plays chess with in the part, There's another friend, Max, who isn't local, and plays more of role in the next two installments of the trilogy. This first entry is mostly about Avery and the grandsons of Avery's benefactor (Tobias Hawthorne), and the challenge Avery faces: living in Hawthorne House (with said grandsons, as well as their mother, aunt, and a gazillion servants and bodyguards) for a year. 

One thing bothers me in this and the subsequent entries in the trilogy (quadrology?), is that Avery doesn't seem to consider that the extreme wealth she has inherited is criminal, as in the evils of capitalism, as well as what was down to build it.