Series · mystery
The Inheritance Games
The Inheritance Games series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes has 5 books and is best read in publication order, starting with The Inheritance Games (2020).
- Books
- 5 books
- First published
- 2020
- Status
- completed
- Last checked
Start here: The Inheritance Games (2020) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
The order the books were released — the default way to read the series.
- Book 1:
The Inheritance Games
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Inheritance Games - Book 2:
The Hawthorne Legacy
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Hawthorne Legacy - Book 3:
The Final Gambit
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Final Gambit - Book 4:
The Brothers Hawthorne
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Brothers Hawthorne - Book 5:
Games Untold: An Inheritance Games Collection
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Games Untold: An Inheritance Games Collection
About The Inheritance Games
Avery Grambs is a broke high school student getting by on odd jobs when she learns that Tobias Hawthorne, an eccentric billionaire she's never met, has left her almost his entire fortune — on the condition that she moves into Hawthorne House and lives alongside his furious, disinherited family, including four grandsons who range from suspicious to outright hostile. To keep the inheritance, Avery has to unravel why a stranger chose her, working through a house built by a man obsessed with puzzles, riddles, and hidden rooms, all while the Hawthorne brothers alternately help and sabotage her depending on how much they trust her motives.
Jennifer Lynn Barnes fuses a puzzle-box mystery (literal codes and riddles built into Tobias Hawthorne's house and will) with a slow-burn, love-triangle-adjacent romance across two Hawthorne brothers, and the series has since expanded into a wider franchise: a companion novel centered on two other Hawthorne brothers, a story collection, and a new spin-off series following a different heiress in the same puzzle-obsessed world.
How to read this series
Read the main trilogy in publication order: The Inheritance Games, The Hawthorne Legacy, The Final Gambit. It's Avery's continuous story, told across a single school year, with each book picking up right after the last.
The Brothers Hawthorne is a companion novel set after the trilogy, following Xander and Nash rather than Avery and Grayson/Jameson, and works best read once you already know the family. Games Untold: An Inheritance Games Collection gathers short stories and bonus material and is entirely optional, best saved for last as a victory lap. A separate spin-off series beginning with The Grandest Game (2024) continues the puzzle-mystery format with a new heiress and is not part of Avery's story — it isn't covered in this entry.
Frequently asked questions
How many books are in The Inheritance Games series?
The main trilogy is three books — The Inheritance Games, The Hawthorne Legacy, The Final Gambit — plus the companion novel The Brothers Hawthorne and the short-story collection Games Untold.
What order should I read The Inheritance Games in?
Read the trilogy first, in order: The Inheritance Games, The Hawthorne Legacy, The Final Gambit. Then The Brothers Hawthorne, which is set after the trilogy, and Games Untold last.
Is The Brothers Hawthorne a sequel to the trilogy?
It's a companion novel set in the same world after the trilogy's events, following Xander and Nash Hawthorne rather than Avery — you'll want to have finished the trilogy first, since it assumes you know how it ends.
Is there more after The Inheritance Games trilogy?
Jennifer Lynn Barnes has continued the wider puzzle-mystery universe with a separate spin-off series starting with The Grandest Game (2024) and Glorious Rivals (2025), which follows a different heiress rather than continuing Avery's story.
Do I need to read Games Untold?
No. It's an optional collection of short stories and bonus material for fans who want more time with the Hawthorne family; the trilogy and The Brothers Hawthorne tell a complete story without it.
Reading order last verified .