Review: Games Untold - Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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Review: Games Untold - Short Stories - An Inheritance Games Collection - Jennifer Lynn Barnes - November 2024

I've been a Jennifer Lynn Barnes fan for longer than I care to admit it all started back in the early 2000s when I picked up Tattoo and was completely swept away. Since then I've devoured everything she's written, but it's The Inheritance Games universe that truly has my heart. And honestly? Choosing a favourite Hawthorne brother is impossible. Xander's humour has me snorting with laughter, Nash's old-fashioned gentlemanly ways make me swoon, Grayson's fierce loyalty makes me feel so safe, and Jameson oh, Jameson with those romantic gestures and that deliciously mysterious streak. They each hold a little piece of my reader's heart.

So when I took  Games Untold off my bookshelf  for the Readers Retreat I attended in Taupo last weekend, I knew exactly how I'd be spending my downtime. Curled up, cup of tea in hand, utterly lost in the Hawthorne world once more.

This collection is a love letter to the series and to the brothers themselves. We get novellas, short stories, and little moments that fill in gaps you didn't even know you needed filled. That Night in Prague gives us the daredevil Jameson in all his glory across three intoxicating nights exactly as romantic and pulse-racing as you'd hope. The Cowboy and the Goth is an unlikely pairing that somehow just works, and Five Times Xander Tackled Someone (and One Time He Didn't) had me laughing out loud in the retreat lounge, earning more than a few amused looks from fellow readers.

The thread that runs through everything here is that line from the blurb that stopped me cold: there is nothing frivolous about the way a Hawthorne man loves. Jennifer Lynn Barnes captures that perfectly  the intensity, the loyalty, the grand gestures wrapped up in puzzles and secrets. Even the shorter pieces carry real emotional weight.

If you're already invested in this world, Games Untold is pure joy fan service in the very best sense. It's not the place to start if you're new to the series, but for those of us who've been along for the whole ride, it feels like coming home. A wonderful weekend read, made even better by the gorgeous surroundings of Taupo.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3RaDxDL



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