Review: The Final Gambit

The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Four and a half stars.

Wow, just wow. Quick recap. Avery's mother died and her deadbeat dad had never been present, she was living in her sister's apartment or, when her sister's deadbeat on-again-off-again boyfriend was back, sleeping in her car. Working to try to afford college. Then an impossibly handsome man appears and says she has been named in the will of multi-billionaire Tobias Hawthorne and is required to attend the reading of the will.

Avery learns that she has inherited the entire fortune. Tobias' two daughters receive paltry sums, and his four grandsons receive nothing.

(view spoiler)[At the end of the last book, Avery had discovered that she was not the daughter of Tobias Hawthorne's son Toby, a man she had known as Harry before she inherited the millions. However, Toby/Harry did have a daughter called Eve, the result of a one-night stand. While Avery offers to bring Eve into the fold and have her live at Hawthorne House with her and the four Hawthorne brothers, Toby is determined to keep her away. (hide spoiler)]

When someone comes to Hawthorne House with shocking news about being stalked and abduction it seems as though Avery has found a new enemy and more shocking family secrets are about to be revealed. Can Avery survive the last few weeks at Hawthorne House to fulfil her inheritance stipulations?

I loved the first two books and I was a bit hesitant about a third book - sometimes with these novels with puzzles and mysteries and secrets it can all get a bit repetitive. I'm thinking about the TV series Nikita where every series it appeared that the real head of Division was actually someone else, or Asimov Foundation series where (and I read these books decades ago) it felt to me like every book started by saying actually we didn't find the real Second Foundation (or Earth, the details are a bit hazy even with Wikipedia's help) that was a decoy, now we have the clues to find the real one.

I needn't have worried. I think this might be my favourite of the three books. The silly love-triangle is resolved in a non-icky way. The clues are higher stakes and the ending is brilliant.

LOVED it.

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