Skip to content
SeriesAuthorsGenresRead nextNew releases
Search
Menu
SeriesAuthorsGenresRead nextNew releases
Home/Read Next/Books Like The Inheritance Games

READ NEXT

7 Books Like The Inheritance Games to Read Next

If you loved The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, you probably want another story filled with elaborate puzzles, family secrets, complicated relationships, and surprises hiding behind extraordinary wealth.

Avery Grambs never expected to inherit a billionaire's fortune. Suddenly, she finds herself living in Hawthorne House, surrounded by secret passages, coded messages, and four brothers who have their own reasons to question her place in the family.

What makes the story memorable is not just the mystery of why Tobias Hawthorne chose Avery. It is the combination of riddles, dangerous secrets, romantic tension, and the feeling that every person in the house knows something important.

The best books like The Inheritance Games share different parts of that experience. Some explore wealthy families whose carefully maintained appearances conceal disturbing truths. Others follow teenagers navigating elite social circles, solving intricate mysteries, or becoming caught between loyalty, attraction, and danger.

These seven YA series offer distinct ways to keep that suspense going.

Quick Picks: What to Read After The Inheritance Games

Swipe or scroll to compare all three columns →

If you loved...Try this seriesWhy it fits
Wealthy families and dangerous social secretsDebutantesA teenager enters Southern high society to investigate her own identity
Private estates and unreliable family narrativesWe Were LiarsA wealthy family conceals the truth behind a troubled summer
Hidden identities and privileged teenage circlesThe Lying GameA girl assumes her missing twin's life among wealthy classmates
Power, influence, and another Barnes mysteryThe FixerA resourceful teen uncovers secrets among Washington's elite
Elaborate riddles and mysterious buildingsTruly DeviousAn unusual school built by a wealthy founder hides an unresolved crime
Relationships complicated by dangerous secretsOne of Us Is LyingFour teenagers become suspects after a classmate dies
Wealthy teenagers and deceptive appearancesThe PerfectionistsFive girls are implicated in a murder matching their imagined plan

1. Debutantes — Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Little White Lies book cover

Best for: Wealthy families, hidden identities, and Jennifer Lynn Barnes's twists

Sawyer Taft knows how to repair cars, but Southern debutante society is unfamiliar territory.

When her estranged grandmother offers her a chance to participate in debutante season, Sawyer sees an opportunity to investigate the identity of the father she has never known.

Entering a world of formal events, privileged families, and carefully guarded reputations, she begins uncovering secrets that connect the people around her in unexpected ways.

What initially looks like a polished social circle soon becomes a place where family connections matter, appearances are misleading, and asking questions can cause trouble.

Why it's similar

Both Debutantes and The Inheritance Games follow young women who enter wealthy environments as outsiders. Each protagonist must understand complicated family relationships while uncovering secrets that powerful people would prefer to keep hidden.

How it's different

Debutantes focuses on Southern high society, family identity, scandals, and secretive social groups rather than a billionaire's inheritance and elaborate architectural puzzles.

Start with: Little White Lies

Explore the Debutantes reading order →

2. We Were Liars — E. Lockhart

E. Lockhart

We Were Liars book cover

Best for: Private islands, family privilege, and devastating secrets

Every summer, Cadence Sinclair and her relatives gather on the family's private island.

The Sinclairs are wealthy, influential, and determined to maintain the appearance of a perfect family. Beneath that carefully managed image lie complicated relationships, conflict, and things no one wants to discuss openly.

After a mysterious accident leaves Cadence struggling with gaps in her memory, she begins trying to understand what happened during a summer that changed her life.

The more she questions the people closest to her, the less certain she becomes about the stories she has been told.

Why it's similar

Both books explore immense family privilege, secrets that shape relationships, and young protagonists trying to uncover truths hidden by influential relatives.

How it's different

We Were Liars is a more emotional, introspective mystery built around memory, family dysfunction, and an unreliable understanding of the past. It does not offer the same steady sequence of riddles or romantic competition found in Hawthorne House.

Start with: We Were Liars

Explore the We Were Liars reading order →

3. The Lying Game — Sara Shepard

Sara Shepard

The Lying Game book cover

Best for: Secret identities, privileged teenagers, and dangerous deception

Emma Paxton learns that she has an identical twin, Sutton Mercer, whose life appears very different from her own.

Sutton belongs to a wealthy social circle filled with fashionable parties, complicated friendships, and people whose loyalties are difficult to understand.

When Emma becomes caught in Sutton's disappearance, she begins living under her sister's identity while secretly searching for answers.

Maintaining the deception is difficult enough, but Emma soon realizes that the people who knew Sutton may be hiding information that could put her in danger.

Why it's similar

Avery and Emma both enter unfamiliar worlds where wealth and family identity determine how people behave. Both must navigate relationships involving mistrust, hidden motives, and threatening secrets.

How it's different

The Lying Game centers on impersonation, a missing twin, and the mystery surrounding her disappearance. Its tension comes from Emma's need to maintain a false identity rather than solving an inherited series of puzzles.

Start with: The Lying Game

Explore The Lying Game reading order →

4. The Fixer — Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Fixer book cover

Best for: High-stakes secrets, powerful families, and clever protagonists

Tess Kendrick moves to Washington, D.C., to live with her older sister, Ivy, a professional fixer who makes problems disappear for powerful people.

At an elite school attended by the children of influential families, Tess quickly discovers that reputations and private information can be valuable forms of power.

Her ability to understand people's motives draws her into solving problems for classmates. Before long, those seemingly ordinary school conflicts begin connecting to much more serious political secrets.

Tess must decide whom to trust as her own life becomes entangled with the dangerous world in which her sister works.

Why it's similar

Both series feature resourceful teenagers drawn into powerful social circles, where secrets carry real consequences and every relationship may conceal another agenda. Barnes's talent for layered revelations also connects the two.

How it's different

The Fixer emphasizes political influence, reputation, and elite Washington society. It has less romance-centered puzzle solving and no direct connection to the Hawthorne inheritance.

Start with: The Fixer, also published under the alternate title The Ruling Class.

Explore The Fixer reading order →

5. Truly Devious — Maureen Johnson

Maureen Johnson

Truly Devious book cover

Best for: Elaborate riddles, unusual estates, and long-running mysteries

Ellingham Academy is no ordinary school.

Created by wealthy industrialist Albert Ellingham, the Vermont campus was designed as a place where brilliant young people could learn in surroundings filled with unusual architecture, winding paths, and puzzles.

But the school's history is overshadowed by the disappearance of Ellingham's wife and daughter, a case that has remained unsolved for decades.

When true-crime enthusiast Stevie Bell arrives, she hopes to investigate the old mystery. New events at the school complicate her work, forcing her to question the people and clues around her.

Why it's similar

Hawthorne House and Ellingham Academy both reflect the unusual personalities of wealthy men who created them. Riddles, hidden histories, complicated relationships, and secrets embedded in distinctive settings drive both stories.

How it's different

Truly Devious is primarily a detective mystery about solving crimes across different time periods. It offers less focus on inheritance disputes and romantic rivalry, and more emphasis on evidence, suspects, and a determined teenage investigator.

Start with: Truly Devious

Explore the Truly Devious reading order →

6. One of Us Is Lying — Karen M. McManus

Karen M. McManus

One of Us Is Lying book cover

Best for: Complicated relationships, hidden motives, and shocking revelations

When a student dies during detention at Bayview High, four classmates become suspects, and the secrets they have worked to protect begin reshaping their relationships.

When Simon, the creator of a notorious gossip app, dies during detention, suspicion falls on the four classmates who were present.

Each teenager has something to hide, and Simon had planned to reveal their secrets.

As the investigation develops, conflicting accounts and changing loyalties make it increasingly difficult to decide who is telling the truth.

Why it's similar

Both mysteries make the characters' motives part of the puzzle. Avery must decide what the Hawthorne family is withholding about her inheritance, while the Bayview suspects have reasons to conceal information about their own lives. Each new revelation changes how the reader interprets the characters' relationships.

How it's different

One of Us Is Lying focuses on a school murder investigation and an ensemble of suspects. Its mystery is less about wealth and puzzle solving, and more about reputation, competing perspectives, and the possibility that someone is lying to protect themselves.

Start with: One of Us Is Lying

Explore the One of Us Is Lying reading order →

7. The Perfectionists — Sara Shepard

Sara Shepard

The Perfectionists book cover

Best for: Privileged teenagers, dangerous schemes, and secrets behind perfect lives

In Beacon Heights, five teenage girls appear to have successful lives and promising futures.

Ava, Caitlin, Mackenzie, Julie, and Parker have different goals and personalities, but they share a strong dislike of Nolan Hotchkiss, a wealthy boy who has hurt each of them.

When the girls imagine a way to kill Nolan, they do not expect anything to come of the conversation.

Then Nolan turns up dead in exactly the way they discussed, making the girls the obvious suspects.

To protect themselves, they must confront the possibility that someone knows what they said and is manipulating events around them.

Why it's similar

Both series expose the darker side of privilege and carefully maintained appearances. Dangerous secrets, shifting loyalties, and characters with hidden motives contribute to the tension.

How it's different

The Perfectionists is a murder mystery centered on five suspects rather than a puzzle-driven inheritance adventure. Its suspense comes from the characters' attempt to prove their innocence while their own secrets threaten to surface.

Start with: The Perfectionists

Explore The Perfectionists reading order →

Which Book Series Should You Read First?

If Jennifer Lynn Barnes's writing style is the main reason you loved The Inheritance Games, start with Debutantes or The Fixer.

Debutantes offers another outsider navigating wealthy families and hidden relationships, while The Fixer replaces inheritance puzzles with dangerous political secrets.

If the Hawthorne family's wealth and complicated history fascinated you, choose We Were Liars. Its private-island setting and family conflicts offer a darker, more emotionally focused story about privilege and concealment.

For hidden identities and shifting relationships, The Lying Game is a strong alternative. Emma's struggle to understand Sutton's life provides suspense rooted in social deception.

Readers who enjoyed solving riddles alongside Avery should consider Truly Devious. Stevie Bell's investigation places a different kind of puzzle inside an unusual environment with a complicated history.

If your favorite moments involved characters questioning one another's motives, One of Us Is Lying and The Perfectionists offer faster-moving school mysteries full of suspicion.

No single series recreates every part of Hawthorne House. The best choice depends on whether you want more puzzles, privileged families, romantic tension, or secrets that unravel across several books.

CONNECTED SPIN-OFF

Want More of the Hawthorne Family? Read The Grandest Game

Before moving on to an unrelated series, you may want to stay in the world of The Inheritance Games.

The Grandest Game is a connected trilogy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, set after the original Avery Grambs storyline.

Avery and the Hawthorne brothers create an elaborate competition on Hawthorne Island, where players compete for an extraordinary prize.

The contestants arrive with different motivations, hidden secrets, and relationships that become increasingly complicated as the game unfolds.

Like the original novels, the trilogy combines puzzles, wealth, strategic competition, dangerous revelations, and romantic tension.

Unlike the seven recommendations above, The Grandest Game takes place in the same fictional universe, so prior knowledge of Avery and the Hawthorne family is helpful.

The three main novels are:

  1. The Grandest Game
  2. Glorious Rivals
  3. The Gilded Blade

The trilogy concludes with The Gilded Blade, published in July 2026.

If you have not yet finished the original series, consult our The Inheritance Games reading order before starting the connected trilogy.

Explore The Grandest Game reading order →

Have You Read Every Inheritance Games Book?

The original Avery Grambs trilogy consists of:

  1. The Inheritance Games
  2. The Hawthorne Legacy
  3. The Final Gambit

The wider saga also includes The Brothers Hawthorne, additional stories in Games Untold, and the connected Grandest Game trilogy.

These works are related, but not every edition, novella, or collection should be treated as another numbered book in Avery's original trilogy.

If you want to continue with the Hawthorne family, the best starting point is to check which stories you have already completed and how the later installments fit together.

See our complete Inheritance Games reading-order guide for an explanation of the original trilogy and connected books.

Frequently Asked Questions

What books are most like The Inheritance Games?

Debutantes is a strong choice for wealthy-family secrets, hidden identities, and another Jennifer Lynn Barnes mystery. Truly Devious is particularly appealing if you loved the riddles and investigations, while We Were Liars offers a darker mystery involving a privileged family.

What should I read after The Inheritance Games?

If you want to stay in the same fictional universe, explore The Brothers Hawthorne and The Grandest Game using the wider saga's reading order. If you want a different series, start with Debutantes, Truly Devious, or We Were Liars, depending on which elements you enjoyed most.

Are there YA books with inheritance mysteries and rich family secrets?

Yes. The Inheritance Games is especially focused on a mysterious inheritance, but We Were Liars, Debutantes, and The Lying Game also explore wealth, family identity, privilege, and concealed truths. Their plots differ, so they should not all be described as inheritance mysteries.

Is The Grandest Game a sequel to The Inheritance Games?

The Grandest Game is a connected spin-off trilogy set in the same fictional universe, with familiar characters and a new central competition. It is not simply Book 4 of Avery Grambs's original trilogy. Reading the earlier books first provides useful context.

What Jennifer Lynn Barnes series should I read next?

Try Debutantes for secrets within wealthy families, The Fixer for political intrigue, or The Naturals for FBI-related criminal investigations and psychological suspense. Each offers a different part of Barnes's twist-filled storytelling.

Explore More YA Mystery & Thriller Books

Looking for another mystery after the Hawthorne family?

Explore our YA Mystery series for detective stories, puzzles, and hidden secrets, or browse YA Thriller series for more psychological suspense and high-stakes danger.

You can also visit Read Next for additional book recommendations or explore the full YA Series Directory.

Explore Related Reading Guides

Books Like One of Us Is Lying

Explore dangerous secrets, shifting loyalties, and mysteries that make it difficult to know whom to trust.

Books Like We Were Liars

Explore another side of wealth and family secrets through summer mysteries, uncertain memories, and emotionally complicated relationships.

Sources & Further Reading

  • The Inheritance Games — Hachette Book Group →
  • Little White Lies — Jennifer Lynn Barnes →
  • We Were Liars — Penguin Random House →
  • The Lying Game — Google Books →
  • The Fixer — Jennifer Lynn Barnes →
  • Truly Devious — Maureen Johnson →
  • One of Us Is Lying — Penguin Random House →
  • The Perfectionists — Google Books →
  • The Grandest Game — Hachette Book Group →
  • The Gilded Blade — Hachette Book Group →

Find YA book series in the right order, explore connected stories, and discover what to read next.

Explore

Series Reading Orders →YA Authors →YA Mystery & Thriller →

Discover

Read Next →New Book Releases →Search Books →
© 2026 YAseries.org
AboutContactPrivacy PolicyAffiliate Disclosure