What This Book Is About
Avery Grambs is a scholarship student with a plan: get through high school, get a full ride to college, and escape her difficult home life. That plan evaporates the day a stranger's will is read and Avery discovers she has inherited the entire fortune of Tobias Hawthorne—a billionaire she has never met. The catch: she must live in Hawthorne House for one year, sharing the enormous estate with Hawthorne's four grandsons, who were expecting to inherit everything themselves.
The grandsons are furious, brilliant, and dangerous in different ways. Grayson is the golden heir who believes the fortune is rightfully his. Jameson is the puzzle-obsessed risk-taker who thinks Avery is the key to one last game their grandfather set in motion. The house itself is a labyrinth of secret passages, coded messages, and booby-trapped rooms. As Avery unravels Tobias Hawthorne's puzzles, she uncovers family secrets that someone is willing to kill to protect. Jennifer Lynn Barnes delivers a series that is essentially "Knives Out meets The Westing Game for teens"—a locked-room mystery wrapped in a wish-fulfillment fantasy, with puzzles readers can solve alongside the protagonist.
Available at Popular bookstores, Kinokuniya, and the Singapore National Library.
Why We Recommend This Book
The Inheritance Games is a gateway book—it hooks reluctant readers with its fast pace, puzzles, and wish-fulfillment premise, then keeps them engaged with genuinely clever plotting and character development. For UWC's library, it serves a strategic purpose: getting students who "don't like reading" to pick up a book.
The puzzles embedded in the narrative also develop logical reasoning and pattern recognition skills. Students naturally practice the kind of analytical thinking that transfers to mathematics, coding, and scientific inquiry—making this a book that bridges UWC's humanities and STEM curricula.
Reading Level Guide
Challenging at B1. Build confidence with B1-level books first, then return to this.
Perfect difficulty. Challenging enough to grow, accessible enough to enjoy.
Comfortable read at C1. Great for pleasure reading or thematic exploration.
Other UWC Recommended Books for This Grade
Not sure if this book is right for your child? Take our free English assessment to find their CEFR level, then choose books that match.