ᵇᵒᵒᵏ / 𝐉𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐲𝐧𝐧 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬

♚ Avery Grambs lives in Connecticut with her half sister Libby after her mother died. Libby's abusive boyfriend, Drake, stays there, and Avery decides to live in her car for a bit. Avery is broke most of the time, but she's a brilliant student and helps others whenever she can.

♚ Avery is called into the office at school, where a mysterious boy named Grayson waits for her. He informs Avery that her presence is required at the reading of his late grandfather, Tobias Hawthorne's will. Libby reveals she saw the letters and assumed it was a scam, which is why Grayson had to fly out. Avery has never met the man, but she and Libby travel by private jet to Hawthorne House in Texas.

♚ Avery meets Skye, Xander and reunites with Grayson. Skye purposely pronounces her name wrong, Xander is bubbly, smart and energetic, Grayson is as stern as before.

♚ The will is read. Zara and Skye, Tobias Hawthorne's two daughters, are left with 100k. Zara starts an uproar, assuming the grandson's got all the money — which makes sense because Grayson is the heir apparent. The grandsons: Nash, Grayson, Jameson, and Xander, are left with only 250k each. Everyone is stunned, knowing what that means. Avery gets the rest, which amounts to about $48 billion, along with all his properties, assets, etc. Avery has no connection with Tobias Hawthorne, so she has no idea why she has inherited this.

♚ Tobias's law firm, led by Alisa, helps Avery during the process, and his old bodyguard, Oren, provides security.

♚ The inheritance does come with some conditions. Avery has to live in Hawthorne House for one year in order to inherit, and she also can't kick the Hawthorne family out. Avery moves in and starts school where the boys attend, Heights Country Day. While there, she meets some girls named Thea Calligaris and Rebecca Laughlin. Thea tells Avery to be careful. The last girl, Emily, (Rebecca's sister) who lived in that house with those boys died.

♚ Avery and the others think there may be clues in Tobias's letters to them. Clues and riddles were something Tobias loved. She and Jameson begin searching for clues together, and Grayson warns Avery to be cautious with Jameson. 

♚ They discover that Tobias didn't have a middle name though he signed the will with one, Tattersall, which looks more like tatters all in his signature.

♚ Libby's boyfriend Drake shows up, bringing the press with him. Avery tells the reporters not to run a story about Drake, or she won't tell them why Tobias chose her to inherit. She implies that she knows why, though she doesn't. The press goes crazy speculating what Avery knows.

♚ A copy of Tobias's will is written in red ink, and Avery takes a look. Through it, she realizes that the grandsons all have middle names that point to a place on the Hawthorne property.

♚ The middle name "Westbrook" leads Avery and Jameson to a bridge over a brook that runs through the grounds. They find a hidden number 8. The name "Blackwood" leads them into the forest, where they find an engraved tree trunk. "Tobias Hawthorne II," it reads. Tobias Hawthorne II, Toby, was Tobias's son who died many, many years ago. 

♚ While in the woods, someone shoots at Avery and Jameson. Whilst she isn't directly shot, a scrap of bark injures Avery's shoulder, and she believes she's been shot. Jameson and Oren both help her. 

♚ Oren rushes Avery to the Laughlin's cottage while he scopes the place out. Avery speaks to Rebecca, who speaks briefly about her dead sister Emily. Emily used to date Grayson and Jameson before she died. She had a heart transplant and her heart gave out.

♚ Jameson goes into the bathroom to help Avery clean her wound and in a spur of adrenaline, him and Avery kiss.

♚ Oren escorts them back to Hawthorne house, but they decide to keep the shooting a secret.

♚ Grayson tells Avery all about the foundation that she's inheriting. It sounds pretty great to be honest, although Grayson insists that Avery can't just look after individual people, like Harry from the park, but she's responsible for more than that now.

♚ Alisa and Oren take Avery and Thea dress shopping as there's an event coming up. On the way home, a car chases them. Oren admits to using Avery as bait. The driver turns out to be Libby's ex, Drake. They believe it was Drake who shot at them that night in the woods, but who let him onto the property?

♚ Avery attends the event dressed in a look entirely chosen by Thea. It turns out the dress she's wearing and the braid in her hair, and pretty much the entire outfit, was one Emily had worn. It brings back hard memories for the brothers, especially Grayson. Avery rushes to take the braid out but Alisa tells her not to leave. At the end of the night, Grayson confesses to 'killing' Emily.

♚ Avery solves more clues. She finds a "1" on a Winchester rifle. A "0" visible in the Blackwood forest from a helicopter, and another "1" in a Davenport desk. The numbers make Avery's birthday, October 18th (10/18). But they also indicate the day of Emily's death. Jameson gets upset, and he says he doesn't want to play the game anymore because he realizes the old man did it on purpose.

♚ It turns out that before her death, Emily was stringing both Jameson and Grayson along. Jameson found out about it and broke up with her. That same night she talked Grayson into taking her cliff diving. Emily died from her preexisting heart condition. Grayson blames himself because he took her on the outing, and Jameson blames himself because he followed them and stood by when she was dying. He did nothing to help her because he thought she was being dramatic as usual.

♚ Avery discovers that Drake was working with Skye, Grayson's mother. Grayson deals with it by kicking her out of the house.

♚ Avery and Xander head to the tunnels and find that they need everyone down there to unlock the box. Xander goes to get his brothers.

♚ Rebecca shows up as well as Grayson. They realise that Drake had been working for Skye, who let him into the tunnels and told him to shoot Avery. Grayson says he will deal with his mother. 

♚ Everyone is present to unlock the final puzzle in the tunnels under the house. Avery is required for facial recognition, and all four boys' are needed for handprints. They open the box by unscrambling "Avery Kylie Grambs" into "A very risky gamble," and everyone gets a new envelope from Tobias. It seems Tobias was trying to give the boys a reason to make up after Emily's death tore them apart.

♚ The contents of Avery's envelope (a sugar packet) remind her that she met Tobias once in a restaurant when she was a child. He must have kept up with her because there are many photos of her in the desk in her room. She stuck out to him because of her Anagram name which he instantly deciphers. 

♚ When Avery sees a photo of Tobias's late son Toby, she realizes that it is Harry, a homeless man that Avery played chess with in the park. Tobias Hawthorn's firstborn son is not actually dead.

♚ It turns out that Xander helped the others along with the game at his grandfather's request. His letter from the man tells him to find Toby.

—  BOOK ENDS

sources:

+ https://recaptains.co.uk/2020/12/the-inheritance-games-by-jennifer-lynn-barnes/

+ https://www.bookseriesrecaps.com/what-happened-in-the-inheritance-games/

+ modifications from my own knowledge and reading