Review: Glorious Rivals - Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Review: Glorious Rivals - Book #2 The Grandest Games Series - Jennifer Lynn Barnes - July 2025

If you’ve been around The Phantom Paragrapher for any length of time, you know that Jennifer Lynn Barnes is one of my absolute favorite authors. Usually, her books are "one-sitting" reads for me—I fly through the puzzles and the prose like my life depends on it. However, I have to be honest with you all: Glorious Rivals was a bit of a strange experience

In this latest installment of the Inheritance Games saga, we are whisked away to Hawthorne Island. Seven players have arrived, each carrying their own heavy baggage of secrets and motivations, all desperate to win "The Grandest Game."

The stakes are exactly what we’ve come to expect from this series: millions of dollars are on the line, but so are hearts and lives. The players are forced into a high-octane race to solve a myriad of mysteries while trying to survive the increasingly dangerous twists and turns of the island.

I’m not sure what it was about this particular trip to the Hawthorne world, but I felt like I "dragged" through this one a little bit. It didn’t have that usual lightning-fast momentum that I’m used to with Jennifer Lynn Barnes  Yet, strangely enough, I still enjoyed it. It was like a slow-burn puzzle frustrating at times, but still satisfying to piece together.

But then... the ending. Oh my goodness, that cliffhanger! The reveal of the "Three Women" absolutely floored me. That final twist made every slower moment in the earlier chapters worth it. I am already dying to know more about them. I’m truly hoping we get a future book or even a prequel series ,exploring each of their individual stories and showing exactly how their lives interconnect.

While it wasn't a record-breaking fast read for me, the world-building and that shocking ending kept me hooked enough to stay until the final page.

"The stakes get higher, the game gets twistier, and everything heats up."

Amazon: https://amzn.to/49tYGht