Book Review: Glorious Rivals

I love all the books in the Hawthorne universe that Jennifer Lynn Barnes writes and her latest, Glorious Rivals, is the 2nd to last book in the series (aside from the spinoff prequel coming out later this fall), which makes me so sad!

Glorious Rivals picks up right after the end of The Grandest Game but it is best if you also read Games Untold before Glorious Rivals even though it is a book of short stories and novellas because there is key information in those stories that will help you understand Glorious Rivals better. I hope that makes sense since I don’t want to spoil anything!

So as I said, Glorious Rivals picks up after the end of The Grandest Game. The game continues and it is now time for phase 2 of the competition where each competitor is trying to win the grand prize in the game hosted by Avery Grambs and the Hawthorne brothers minus Grayson who became a surprise contestant in the previous book. The remaining contestants – Grayson, Lyra, Savannah, Rohan, and Brady must solve more puzzles and find more clues to get them to the end. They all want to win for different reasons and they’re all good reasons so it can be hard to choose who you’re really rooting for. Meanwhile, Gigi has been kidnapped and everyone thinks she left on her own. But who is behind her kidnapping and what does it have to do with the game? And what is the connection between what happened to Jameson in Prague (during Games Untold) and whoever is interfering with the game? Is it connected to Lyra’s father’s mysterious death?

I loved the book even though each time they solved a puzzle whether in the game or in the bigger mystery going on it seemed to just raise more questions! I love that the chapters are so short in these books because it makes the reading go by so fast. The ending was definitely a cliffhanger and I can’t wait to read what happens next and how it’s going to all wrap up in the last book next year. But, I am definitely going to miss the Hawthornes so much. I hope she writes more in this universe even if the Hawthornes aren’t the main characters!

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