The Inheritance Games Reading Order: Jennifer Lynn Barnes's Series
June 7, 2026
Jennifer Lynn Barnes’s The Inheritance Games is the puzzle-box YA series BookTok can’t stop talking about — a teenager inherits a billionaire’s fortune, a riddle-filled mansion, and four impossibly intriguing brothers. Here’s the complete reading order.
The original trilogy
- The Inheritance Games (2020)
- The Hawthorne Legacy (2021)
- The Final Gambit (2022)
This is Avery Grambs’s core story — start here, and read in order, because each book’s puzzles and twists build directly on the last.
The continuation and spin-offs
- The Brothers Hawthorne (2023) — follows Hawthorne brothers Grayson and Jameson on new adventures after the trilogy.
- The Grandest Game (2024) — opens a new spin-off series set in the same world, centred on a high-stakes game.
Read these after the original trilogy, in publication order.
What it’s about
Avery Grambs is an ordinary teenager — until billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves her almost his entire fortune, for reasons no one (including Avery) understands. To claim it, she has to move into his puzzle-filled mansion alongside his furious, brilliant grandsons. It’s Knives Out meets YA romance, with riddles, secrets, and a slow-burn love triangle.
Who it’s for
Perfect for readers who love puzzles, twisty mysteries, and swoony YA — and anyone who finished A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder wanting another smart, addictive teen mystery. (See our A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder reading order →.)
Where to start
The Inheritance Games. It’s a fast, binge-able hook — most readers tear through the whole trilogy in a weekend.