young adult, short story collection
Games Untold is a collection of novellas based on Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ The Inheritance Games series characters which we both loved.
Amy’s Review
The first novella, That Night in Prague, tells about three nights that Avery and Jameson spent in Prague. I do remember references to this trip in one of the novels and that Jameson had incurred a mysterious injury while there. Well, not only was the solution to this mystery never divulged in this novella but it was a pretty boring story lacking any plot other than gameplay. And not only that, but it was repetitive in its descriptions (was there an editor?) while still nothing really happened! It ended with no closure whatsoever. I gave this novella 1 star. However, it turned out that we got some questions answered at the very end of this book in the short story titled Pain at the Right Gun. Barnes is, obviously, keeping a spark alive for a future novel. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and give the final short piece of this novel 3 stars. I think it was a mistake to split this story into the two pieces at the beginning and end of the book, personally. By leaving That Night in Prague unfinished, it set the tone of disappointment in this book. I was never quite able to love this compilation after that.
Thankfully, the second novella, The Same Backward as Forward, gave the reader the backstory of how Avery’s mother, Hannah, and Toby Hawthorne met and fell in love. Now this was an intriguing, heartwarming story and it had a plot! And it answered questions and even gave us a mouthwatering tease about another mystery! This story was the beef of this novel—the longest and, definitely, the best part! I give this novella 4-1/2 stars!
The third novella, The Cowboy and the Goth, provided detail behind how Nash and Libby fell in love. It was cute but, like the first novella in this book, was overtly repetitive in descriptions—how many times can Libby describe Nash’s eyes in the exact same way in one short story?…apparently three! I give this one 3 stars.
The fourth novella, Five Times Xander Tackled Someone (and One Time He Didn’t), gives a little backstory for Xander’s relationships with other characters but really didn’t add anything to these characters overall. The best part was the last section (the one time he didn’t) about Xander and Max’s relationship. 3 stars.
The fifth short story, One Hawthorne Night, about how Grayson’s “punishment” for ignoring a Hawthorne 911 Call was cute. 3 stars.
The sixth, $3CR3T $@NT@, was about the Hawthorne Secret Santa game. Sorry, too many rules and no plot other than the game itself which was of no interest to me. I’m sadly getting tired of Hawthorne games. I increased the speed of the audiobook to 1.5 because the story had grown tedious and I wanted to get through it. 1 star.
The seventh, What Happens in the Treehouse, was about Nash’s bachelors party. I kept the audiobook speed at 1.5 with no regrets. It was a sweet look at how much the brothers mean to each other but didn’t really add anything to their world I didn’t already know.
So, overall, I was disappointed. Some of these stories felt like they needed more editing. Some were pointless and boring. A few were well crafted and intriguing. I think I’m going with an average rating of 3 stars, mostly because of The Same Backward as Forward—it’s definitely worth a read for fans of The Inheritance Games series.
The audiobook was narrated by Christie Moreau, Maxwell Hamilton, and Juliette Goglia. Moreau has never been my favorite for these characters. Hamilton and Goglia did good jobs with the material. I’ll give them a B as an ensemble.
Lynnie's Review
"The Same Backward as Forward"
I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this story, but I actually enjoyed learning about how Hannah and Toby and how they became friends. Learning a little more about Hannah’s family was also interesting. This might have been my second favorite story in the collection.
"The Cowboy and the Goth"
This was my favorite story in the book. I adore Nash and Libby, and was very glad to get a little more of their story because both of them are generally relegated to supporting roles in the main books. It was fun to read about their adventures & how they got to know and love one another.
"Five Times Xander Tackled Someone (& One Time He Didn’t)"
My least favorite of the stories. I love Xander, but I just thought this story was dumb and didn’t add much value to the Inheritance Games universe or to Xander.
"One Hawthorne Night"
This story amused me. It gives you a glimpse into the connection between the Hawthorne brothers. Grayson and his leather pants have been discussed in the main books - this is the story of Leather Pants Grayson & it was a fun one.
"$3CR3T $@NT@"
Another story that I thoroughly enjoyed. I liked how the Hawthornes could even turn gift giving into a competition - it suited them. It was a silly story that could have fit in well within one of the other main books. I always enjoy a story that has our main cast of characters together.
"What Happens in the Tree House"
The story of Nash’s bachelor party was another fun one. Have I mentioned that I love when the Hawthorne brothers are together? Yes, I know. From the planning to the execution, we see this event unfold; this felt like classic Inheritance Games. The boys have their own rules with each other and are generally willing, if not good, sports through the shenanigans. Loved it!
"Pain at the Right Gun"
This is the finale to The Night in Prague and it answers the mystery of what happened to Jameson and what he discovered that night in Prague. It was interesting, but left more questions than answers. Amy's right, they shouldn't have split these two stories in the book.
Overall, I enjoyed this collection. But I don’t think it’s necessary to enjoy the series, rather, it’s just another opportunity to spend time with these fascinating characters.
The Same Backward As Forward
Lynnie's Review
So The Same Backward as Forward was interesting. Jennifer Lynn Barnes, once again, gives us Hannah's story, but also
presents us with the same events from Toby's perspective which I found
fascinating. Toby has been a mystery throughout the series; a ghost who could have been, but ultimately wasn't, Avery's father, but who was clearly
an important figure in her life. His story finally unlocks the reason
why Avery was so important to Toby, and perhaps so important to Tobias
Hawthorne. It also opens up new mysteries and gives us clues about Alice
Hawthorne and the mysterious trio of women that we learned about in the
Grandest Game portion of this series, which I'm still eager to learn
more about. It was a great way to get me excited about the next book in
the Grandest Game series which I believe will be released later in the
year.
Having read Hannah's story previously, I didn't read it again here, but I read Toby's half in the Kindle version, and also listened to the audiobook. Toby's section is narrated by Blythe Melin, a voice actor, who is relatively new to audiobook narration, but was WONDERFUL to listen to. He did a great job with the variety of voices and I am very eager to listen to him narrate more books in the future.
Amy's Review
I’d suggest that you shouldn’t bother reading this book unless you’ve read at least the first novel in The Inheritance Games series. I think you need to already know and care about the characters to enjoy this one. I had already read the first half of this book, from Hannah’s point of view in Games Untold (see above). This new novel add’s Toby’s viewpoint to Hannah’s and packages them together to be read one after the other.
Since I do love The Inheritance Games series, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Toby’s side of the story. (I did not bother re-reading Hannah’s viewpoint.) Granted, it was a bit slow at the beginning because he was in terrible pain and, therefore, not good at focusing. There is also an innumerable number of mentions of the phrase “Hannah, the same backward as forward” which is the longest nickname in the history of humanity. But it’s still adorable if you know Toby. I’m sure Barnes just had it on her copy/paste and used it freely. But, truly, it was overused.
Toby’s story was fun to read and Barnes is simply a great writer. I’ve really enjoyed everything I’ve read by her. I enjoyed spending time in Toby’s and Hannah’s (and Avery’s) world again while I wait for Barnes’ next sequel. And there were some new tidbits divulged.
The audiobook of Toby’s portion was narrated by Blythe Melin and he was a lot of fun to listen to. He made Jackson sound a little too sexy, IMO, but I went with it. He wasn’t able to display a huge repertoire of voices due to the limited number of characters in this book but I can tell he has a decent variety of voices. I give him an A!
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