Welcome to the most popular series here on my blog, Harper’s book reviews! If you have a preteen or teen who has a ferocious appetite for literature, this post is for you!
Harper spends hours pulling the synopses and writing these reviews to both share her joy for reading and provide recommendations to your girls (or boys) as well. So many of y’all have given me feedback that her book recommendations have been a hit with your preteen/teen and some of you even said it made your girls more interested in reading overall because the series are so good!
All book synopses are copied directly from Amazon and all of Harper’s reviews are original and written by her (I didn’t edit them at all). Everytime I read her reviews, I’m reminded what a gifted writer she is at age 12 – her sense of humor is top notch, too!
Series Rankings:
- The Inheritance Games
- The Naturals
- The Selection
- The Debutante Series (book 2 here)
- The Siren
- The Betrothed Series
- The Summer I Turned Pretty
Book Title: The Selection series, (includes three books, The Selection, The Elite, and The One) By Kiera Kass
Book synopsis (The Selection): Prepare to be swept into a world of breathless fairy-tale romance, swoonworthy characters, glittering gowns, and fierce intrigue perfect for readers who loved Divergent, Delirium, or The Wrath & the Dawn.
For thirty-five girls, The Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape a rigid caste system, live in a palace, and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon. But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her, and competing for a crown she doesn’t want.
Then America meets Prince Maxon—and realizes that the life she’s always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.
Book Synopsis (The Selection – The Elite): With even more glamour, intrigue, and swoon-worthy romance, this sparkling sequel to The Selection will captivate readers who loved Veronica Roth’s Divergent, Lauren Oliver’s Delirium, or Renée Ahdieh’s The Wrath & the Dawn.
Thirty-five girls came to the palace to compete in the Selection, and to win Prince Maxon’s heart. Now six girls remain, and the competition is fiercer than ever—but America Singer is still struggling to decide where her heart truly lies. Is it Prince Maxon—and life as the queen—that she wants? Or is it still Aspen, her first love?
Book Synopsis (The Selection –The One): America Singer searches for her happily ever after in this swoon-worthy YA dystopian romance, perfect for readers who loved Veronica Roth’s Divergent, Lauren Oliver’s Delirium, or Renée Ahdieh’s The Wrath & the Dawn.
Entering the Selection changed America Singer’s life in ways she never could have imagined. Since she arrived at the palace, America has struggled with her feelings for her first love, Aspen—and her growing attraction to Prince Maxon. Now she’s made her choice . . . and she’s prepared to fight for the future she wants.
Harper’s Rating: 5/5 Stars
Harper’s Review:
Oh, look it’s one of those cheesy romance novels where there’s an instant connection and after knowing each other for three days they get married. Nope. Wrong. These books are amazing. Kiera Kass develops the story so well and makes completely lovable- but also deep- characters. The characters all grow so much throughout the book, great character arcs. The storyline is impeccable and is impossible to put down (believe me I know, lots of late nights) . Personally I do not think these books go along with the theme of a book like Divergent, because that dystopian society I do not vibe with. However I could be persuaded if our future was like the selection, who doesn’t want the chance to become a princess/queen. These books are amazing, funny, and make you have the urge to scream at the characters as if they can hear you. And you may think the ending is what you think it is,I assure you it is NOT (but it kinda is. Amazing, please buy.
Book Title: The Betrothed Series (The Betrothed, The Betrayed) By Kiera Kass
Book Synopsis (The Betrothed): When King Jameson declares his love for Lady Hollis Brite, Hollis is shocked—and thrilled. After all, she’s grown up at Keresken Castle, vying for the king’s attention alongside other daughters of the nobility. Capturing his heart is a dream come true.
But Hollis soon realizes that falling in love with a king and being crowned queen may not be the happily ever after she thought it would be. And when she meets a commoner with the mysterious power to see right into her heart, she finds that the future she really wants is one that she never thought to imagine.
Book Synopsis (The Betrayed):Can you follow your heart when it’s already broken?
After fleeing Coroa and leaving the memory of her beloved Silas behind, Hollis is unsteadily adjusting to life in Isolte. The Eastoffe family’s affection is a balm on her weary spirit, though Etan, a surly cousin with a deep distaste for Coroans, threatens to upset the uneasy peace she’s found.
While tensions at home ratchet up, disquiet in the kingdom of Isolte is reaching a fever pitch. The Eastoffes may have the power to unseat a tyrannical king—but only with Hollis’s help.
Can a girl who’s lost it all put the fate of her adopted homeland over the secret longings of her heart?
Harper’s Rating: 2/5 Stars
Harper’s Review:
The first book was attention grabbing, funny, energetic, and had great characters. I loved it a lot, but i didn’t feel like the relationships between the characters were fully developed but the plot was understandable. The ending however, never in my life have I read a final chapter and just thought, so all of that was for nothing. (this doesn’t mean don’t read the book, it was a good ending, you will know what I mean once you read it.) After the first book, you can- quite honestly- stop. You really don’t need to go any further unless you really want to know what happens next, and you really don’t have to know. The second book I just got bored with, the plot was very slow and nothing was really happening. I was very close to just quitting on it, until I had a lot of free time after a test. Overall It was just an “eh” series.
Book Title: The Siren By Kiera Kass
Book synopsis: Kahlen is a Siren—bound to serve the Ocean by luring humans to their watery graves with her voice, which is deadly to any human who hears it. Akinli is human—a kind, handsome boy who’s everything Kahlen ever dreamed of. Falling in love puts them both in danger… but will Kahlen risk everything to follow her heart?
Harper’s Rating: 4/5 Stars
Harper’s Review:
I really actually liked this book. It was a great storyline and the characters really made you feel like they were part of a sisterhood- which they are, sorta- The Ocean is portrayed the way you would imagine it to be, comforting, warm, but on the inside holding a temper. The book is really great, it just wasn’t a favorite.
Book title: The Summer I Turned Pretty (The Summer I Turned Pretty, It’s Not Summer Without You, We’ll Always have Summer) By Jenny Han
WARNING: May contain minor spoilers
Book Synopsis: The Summer I Turned Pretty. Belly has an unforgettable summer in this stunning start to the Summer I Turned Pretty series from the New York Times bestselling author of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (now a major motion picture!), Jenny Han.
Some summers are just destined to be pretty.
Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer—they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.
Book Synopsis: It’s Not Summer Without You. Belly finds out what comes after falling in love in this follow-up to The Summer I Turned Pretty from the New York Times bestselling author of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (soon to be a major motion picture!), Jenny Han.
Can summer be truly summer without Cousins Beach?
It used to be that Belly counted the days until summer, until she was back at Cousins Beach with Conrad and Jeremiah. But not this year. Not after Susannah got sick again and Conrad stopped caring. Everything that was right and good has fallen apart, leaving Belly wishing summer would never come.
But when Jeremiah calls saying Conrad has disappeared, Belly knows what she must do to make things right again. And it can only happen back at the beach house, the three of them together, the way things used to be. If this summer really and truly is the last summer, it should end the way it started—at Cousins Beach.
Book Synopsis: We’ll Always Have Summer. Can Belly make a final choice between Jeremiah and Conrad? Find out in the conclusion of the New York Times bestselling The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy from the author of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (now a major motion picture!).
Belly has only ever been in love with two boys, both with the last name Fisher. And after being with Jeremiah for the last two years, she’s almost positive he is her soul mate. Almost. While Conrad has not gotten over the mistake of letting Belly go, Jeremiah has always known that Belly is the girl for him. So when Belly and Jeremiah decide to make things forever, Conrad realizes that it’s now or never—tell Belly he loves her, or lose her for good.
Belly will have to confront her feelings for Jeremiah and Conrad and face the inevitable: She will have to break one of their hearts.
Harper’s Rating: 4/5 Stars
Harper’s Review:
Pretty good, but honestly the first two seasons of the show on Amazon Prime Video are pretty similar to the books, But the third season is a doozy, so If you want consolation read the last 10 chapters of the third book. Let’s be real here, Junior Mint (the teddy bear) was the only unproblematic character, and I will always and forever be team Susannah’s grave. I was expecting the books to be good- and they were- but honestly just watch the show.
Book Title: The Debutante Series (Little White Lies, Deadly Little Scandals) By Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Book Synopsis: Little White Lies (The Debutante Series) “I’m not saying this is Sawyer’s fault,” the prim and proper one said delicately. “But.”
Eighteen-year-old auto mechanic Sawyer Taft did not expect her estranged grandmother to show up at her apartment door and offer her a six-figure contract to participate in debutante season. And she definitely never imagined she would accept. But when she realizes that immersing herself in her grandmother’s “society” might mean discovering the answer to the biggest mystery of her life—her father’s identity—she signs on the dotted line and braces herself for a year of makeovers, big dresses, bigger egos, and a whole lot of bless your heart. The one thing she doesn’t expect to find is friendship, but as she’s drawn into a group of debutantes with scandalous, dangerous secrets of their own, Sawyer quickly discovers that her family is not the only mainstay of high society with skeletons in their closet. There are people in her grandmother’s glittering world who are not what they appear, and no one wants Sawyer poking her nose into the past. As she navigates the twisted relationships between her new friends and their powerful parents, Sawyer’s search for the truth about her own origins is just the beginning.
Book Synopsis: Deadly Little Scandals (The Debutante Series) Think of the White Gloves like the Junior League— by way of Skull and Bones.
Reluctant debutante Sawyer Taft joined Southern high society for one reason and one reason alone: to identify and locate her biological father. But the answers Sawyer found during her debutante year only left her with more questions and one potentially life-ruining secret.
When her cousin Lily ropes her into pledging a mysterious, elite, and all-female secret society called the White Gloves, Sawyer soon discovers that someone in the group’s ranks may have the answers she’s looking for. Things are looking up . . . until Sawyer and the White Gloves make a disturbing discovery near the family’s summer home—and uncover a twisted secret, decades in the making.
Harper’s Rating: 5/5 Stars
Harper’s Review: Debutantes: After dark. These people are insane in the perfect way and the storyline is crazy interesting. There were points in the story where I had to process for hours after reading some of this. Am-a-zing. There was one Saturday where I spent I believe 6 hours reading the second book. What can I say, reading is my day job…and night job. The first book you may seem like, “oh so that’s what that is” wrong. The books have so many layers that when you finish it you feel stripped clean of your sanity. Oh well, there wasn’t much left because I finished these after reading the Inheritance games. Overall great book, must buy.
Book Title: The Naturals (The Naturals, Killer Instinct, All In, Bad Blood) By Jennifer Lynn Barnes
WARNING: May contain minor-big spoilers
Book Synopsis: The Naturals. Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But, it’s not a skill that she’s ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they’ve begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie.
What Cassie doesn’t realize is that there’s more at risk than a few unsolved homicides — especially when she’s sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own. Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem, and that their work won’t be limited to cold cases. Caught in increasingly lethal games of cat and mouse and facing impossible mysteries, the Naturals have to use all of their gifts just to survive.
Book Synopsis: Killer Instinct (The Naturals). Seventeen-year-old Cassie Hobbes has a gift for profiling people. Her talent has landed her a spot in an elite FBI program for teens with innate crime-solving abilities, and into some harrowing situations. After barely escaping a confrontation with an unbalanced killer obsessed with her mother’s murder, Cassie hopes she and the rest of the team can stick to solving cold cases from a distance.
But when victims of a brutal new serial killer start turning up, the Naturals are pulled into an active case that strikes too close to home: the killer is a perfect copycat of Dean’s incarcerated father-a man he’d do anything to forget. Forced deeper into a murderer’s psyche than ever before, will the Naturals be able to outsmart the enigmatic killer’s brutal mind games before this copycat twists them into his web for good?
With her trademark wit, brilliant plotting, and twists that no one will see coming, Jennifer Lynn Barnes will keep readers on the edge of their seats (and looking over their shoulders) as they race through the pages of this thrilling novel.
Book Synopsis: All In (The Naturals). After a string of brutal murders in Las Vegas, Cassie Hobbes and the Naturals are called in to investigate. But even with the team’s unique profiling talents, these murders seem baffling: unlike many serial killers, this one uses different methods every time. All of the victims were killed in public, yet the killer does not show up on any security feed. And each victim has a string of numbers tattooed on their wrist. Hidden in the numbers is a code-and the closer the Naturals come to unraveling the mystery, the more perilous the case becomes.
Meanwhile, Cassie is dealing with an equally dangerous and much more painful mystery. For the first time in years, there’s been a break in her mother’s case. As personal issues and tensions between the team mount, Cassie and the Naturals will be faced with impossible odds-and impossible choices.
Book Synopsis: Bad Blood (The Naturals) When Cassie Hobbes joined the FBI’s Naturals program, she had one goal: uncover the truth about her mother’s murder. But now, everything Cassie thought she knew about what happened that night has been called into question. Her mother is alive, and the people holding her captive are more powerful—and dangerous—than anything the Naturals have faced so far. As Cassie and the team work to uncover the secrets of a group that has been killing in secret for generations, they find themselves racing a ticking clock.
New victims. New betrayals. New secrets.
When the bodies begin piling up, it soon becomes apparent that this time, the Naturals aren’t just hunting serial killers.
Harper’s rating: 6/5 Stars
Harper’s Review:
Murder, FBI, and secret cults oh my! Love love love this book series. I literally didn’t see anything coming or how everyone mattered to the story and everything was connected. The characters are so good, no words can even describe how well developed they are. The storyline was just wow- did you not see how I said secret cults- these books allow you to step inside a killer’s mind and wow is it entertaining. Murder mystery has always been one of my favorite genres but this took it to a whole different level. Bravo, Jennifer, bravo.
This one’s a doozy, buckle up
And now, my favorite book series of all time…
Book Title: The Inheritance Games *sucks in deep breath* (The Inheritance Games, The Hawthorne Legacy, The Final Gambit, The Brothers Hawthorne, Games Untold, The Grandest Game, Glorious Rivals, The Same Backward As Forward, and -coming soon- The Gilded Blade) By Jennifer Lynn Barnes
No spoilers for this one because it’s too good 😉
Book Synopsis: The Inheritance Games . Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea why — or even who Tobias Hawthorne is.
To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man’s touch — and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes. Unfortunately for Avery, Hawthorne House is also occupied by the family that Tobias Hawthorne just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: dangerous, magnetic, brilliant boys who grew up with every expectation that one day, they would inherit billions. Heir apparent Grayson Hawthorne is convinced that Avery must be a conwoman, and he’s determined to take her down. His brother, Jameson, views her as their grandfather’s last hurrah: a twisted riddle, a puzzle to be solved. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege, with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive.
Book Synopsis: The Hawthorne Legacy (The Inheritance Games ). The Inheritance Games ended with a bombshell, and now heiress Avery Grambs has to pick up the pieces and find the man who might hold the answers to all of her questions—including why Tobias Hawthorne left his entire fortune to Avery, a virtual stranger, rather than to his own daughters or grandsons.
Thanks to a DNA test, Avery knows that she’s not a Hawthorne by blood, but clues pile up hinting at a deeper connection to the family than she had ever imagined. As the mystery grows and the plot thickens, Grayson and Jameson, two of the enigmatic and magnetic Hawthorne grandsons, continue to pull Avery in different directions. And there are threats lurking around every corner, as adversaries emerge who will stop at nothing to see Avery out of the picture—by any means necessary.
Book Synopsis: The Final gambit (The Inheritance Games ). To inherit billions, all Avery Kylie Grambs has to do is survive a few more weeks living in Hawthorne House. The paparazzi are dogging her every step. Financial pressures are building. Danger is a fact of life. And the only thing getting Avery through it all is the Hawthorne brothers. Her life is intertwined with theirs. She knows their secrets, and they know her.
But as the clock ticks down to the moment when Avery will become the richest teenager on the planet, trouble arrives in the form of a visitor who needs her help—and whose presence in Hawthorne House could change everything. It soon becomes clear that there is one last puzzle to solve, and Avery and the Hawthorne brothers are drawn into a dangerous game against an unknown and powerful player.
Secrets upon secrets. Riddles upon riddles. In this game, there are hearts and lives at stake—and there is nothing more Hawthorne than winning.
Book Synopsis: The Brothers Hawthorne (The Inheritance Games ). Grayson Hawthorne was raised as the heir apparent to his billionaire grandfather, taught from the cradle to put family first. Now the great Tobias Hawthorne is dead and his family disinherited, but some lessons linger. When Grayson’s half-sisters find themselves in trouble, he swoops in to do what he does best: take care of the problem—efficiently, effectively, mercilessly. And without getting bogged down in emotional entanglements.
Jameson Hawthorne is a risk-taker, a sensation-seeker, a player of games. When his mysterious father appears and asks for a favor, Jameson can’t resist the challenge. Now he must infiltrate London’s most exclusive underground gambling club, which caters to the rich, the powerful, and the aristocratic, and win an impossible game of greatest stakes. Luckily, Jameson Hawthorne lives for impossible.
Drawn into twisted games on opposite sides of the globe, Grayson and Jameson—with the help of their brothers and the girl who inherited their grandfather’s fortune—must dig deep to decide who they want to be and what each of them will sacrifice to win.
Book Synopsis: Games Untold (The Inheritance Games )There is nothing frivolous about the way a Hawthorne man loves.
An amnesiac playboy and the woman with every reason to hate him. A daredevil, his favorite heiress, and three nights in Prague. An unlikely pairing between a cowboy and a goth. Four brothers with an inescapable bond, strengthened by the family they chose, in a house of wonders that promises to always deliver one more secret.
Discover their stories of love and loss, power, puzzles, and life-and-death secrets in this mind-blowingly romantic collection that proves that when you love the way Hawthornes love, there is no going back.
This collection includes:
- That Night in Prague (novella)
- The Same Backward as Forward (novella)
- The Cowboy and the Goth
- Five Times Xander Tackled Someone (and One Time He Didn’t)
- $3CR3T $@NT@
- One Hawthorne Night
- What Happens in the Treehouse
- Pain at the Right Gun
Book Synopsis: The Grandest Game (The Inheritance Games ). Seven tickets. An island of dreams. The chance of a lifetime.
Welcome to the Grandest Game, an annual competition run by billionaire Avery Grambs and the four infamous Hawthorne brothers, whose family fortune she inherited. Designed to give anyone a shot at fame and fortune, this year’s game requires one of seven golden tickets to enter. With millions on the line, those seven players will do whatever it takes to win.
Some of the players are in it for the money. Some for power. Some for reasons all their own. Every single one of them has secrets. Amidst it all is Grayson Hawthorne, tasked with a vital role in this year’s game. But as tensions rise and the mind-bending challenges push the players to their limits—physically, mentally, and emotionally—it soon becomes clear that not everyone is playing by the rules.
Book Synopsis: Glorious Rivals (The Inheritance Games ). Seven players arrived on Hawthorne Island, each with their own secrets and motivations to win the Grandest Game. Millions are at stake, but so are hearts—and lives. The players now must race to win the game, solve myriad mysteries, and survive the twists and turns of Glorious Rivals.
Book Synopsis: The Same Backward As Forward (The Inheritance Games ). You’ve fallen in love with the Hawthorne brothers, now discover the love story of the lost scion of Hawthorne House. Read Hannah’s side of the story, then flip the book over to experience their love anew through Toby’s eyes in this deluxe novel that you can read backward or forward! The lush edition includes designed edges, a special case, and illustrated endpapers.
Hannah Rooney knows how to be invisible. At twenty, she keeps her head down and her eyes open, and so far, she’s managed to avoid being pulled into the dealings of her notorious criminal family. Hannah lives her life in countdown mode, biding her time in nursing school as she waits for her beloved sister, Kaylie, to turn eighteen so Hannah can get them both far, far away from Rockaway Watch and start a new life.
Tobias Hawthorne II acts every inch the entitled heir that he is. As the only son of one of the country’s richest men, there isn’t a door that isn’t open to him. Yet behind his razor sharp cheekbones and devil-may-care attitude, Toby is guarding a nest of deadly secrets and a fiery anger fierce enough to burn everything in his path.
Their lives collide in one tragic, stormy night, where an act of arson and nature leave Kaylie and two others dead and Toby just barely alive—with no memory of who he is. The fisherman who pulls him from the ocean enlists Hannah to help save the very person who she knows took away her sister. Fueled by her hatred, Hannah is determined to deny Toby’s death wish by keeping him alive. He is the last person that she should ever develop feelings for, and she is the first thing he ever remembers seeing.
Some things cannot happen—and some things cannot be stopped.
*Hannah’s side of the story was previously published as a novella in Games Untold
-No synopsis for The Gilded Blade the finale of the series (comes out July 14)-
(Ideal) Reading order: The Inheritance Games, The Hawthorne Legacy, The Final Gambit, The Brothers Hawthorne, Games Untold, the Grandest Game, Glorious Rivals, And lastly, the Same Backward as Forward (I assume it will stay the same once The Gilded Blade comes out, but you may be told to read it after or before the Same Backward as Forward, I would assume after because the Same Backward as Forward explains a lot)
Harper’s Rating: 1000000/5 Stars
Harper’s Review: *slow clap* Jennifer Lynn Barnes, you may just be the smartest person alive. I smiled, I laughed, I threw my book across the room in a fit of rage (metaphorically of course). The covers are breathtaking, I mean, if you go on Amazon you know what I mean. The smiling was from the conversations, the laughing was from the short story One Hawthorne Night in the book Games Untold (If you read it you get what I mean), the throwing my book across the room in a fit of rage was from the ending of Glorious Rivals because I have to wait until July to know what happens. I was left on the most cliffhangerish cliffhanger of all time. Don’t mind me just slowly unraveling here. The only reason I did any of that is because the writing is so good. The characters are amazing, no matter whose POV we got it was always flawless and exuberantly interesting. The plot is amazing. There is a reason that these are my favorite books in the world (and also a reason I love it so much I pre-ordered a signed copy). These are a must buy, so you MUST buy them.
All books are available on Amazon with prices so low, Jeremiah can afford them.
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