The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

 

 Everyone likes to imagine inheriting millions out of nowhere.  

Avery Grambs, currently living out of her car while trying to finish high school, is that lucky person.  Called into the principal's office, she's sure it's about the unusually high score she got on a test that the teacher has set up as a way to foil his students and their aspirations.

Instead, waiting with the principal is an attractive young man in a suit who dismisses the principal as if he were a lackey.  

It seems that Avery has come into an inheritance from Tobias Hawthorne, Grayson Hawthorne's father.  The Hawthorne family has been looking for Avery for several weeks.  It seems Grayson's father's will can't be read without Avery being present.

At the reading of the will, family and staff are given token bequests, and the rest, billions of dollars, is given to Avery.  Awkward!

In order to keep this inheritance, Avery must live at Hawthorne Manor with the deposed family and staff for a year.

Luckily she can bring her half sister Libby to stay at the mansion.  

Avery's life is blown up. She has a tight security detail, a law office which handles everything for her, and potentially anything she wants.

She's a tough, smart, practical girl.  She'd like control of her life and her dreams of college.  Now a media celebrity, she can't go anywhere without being swarmed.

Everyone, particularly the Hawthorne family, wants to know how Avery "got to" Tobias Hawthorne and influenced him to leave her everything.  

She's never met him, and it's proved via a DNA test she's not related in any way.

It turns out Avery is more than an instant heiress.  She's the centerpiece of a game the four Hawthorne brothers have to solve.

Curiously, Avery was challenged by her mother her whole life with games and puzzles.  While her mother was alive, there was no puzzle presented that Avery didn't work to solve.  The four Hawthorne brothers were brought up the same way. 

Is Avery a better player than they are?  Can she survive a year without one or more of the Hawthorne's plotting her demise?

Avery's a great puzzle master, but she seems, as she recounts the tale, just like anyone would be who is tossed into such a situation.  Very down to earth and likeable.

The Hawthorne Legacy is the sequel, releasing Tuesday, September 7, 2021.  Let the games continue.