The thrills continue in the second instalment of Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ Grandest Games series, set in the world of the #1 bestselling The Inheritance Games – now in paperback. Seven players arrive on Hawthorne Island, each harbouring secrets and ambitions to win the Grandest Game. Millions are at stake, but so are hearts – and lives. Racing to solve mysteries and survive shocking twists, alliances form and betrayals unfold. With higher stakes, wilder surprises, and heart-pounding tension, this sequel escalates the suspense of The Grandest Game, captivating fans of the TikTok phenomenon whose saga has sold over six million copies worldwide.
That was the logical conclusion, wasn’t it? That the person who’d sent her that ticket had put Lyra in the Grandest Game because of her history with the Hawthorne family? Because of her father’s death.
Because of Alice Hawthorne’s role in it.
“You are no one’s weapon, Lyra,” Grayson said, his tone making it perfectly clear just how rarely he lost arguments of any kind, “bomb or otherwise, and you are certainly not a pawn.”
“Then what am I?” Lyra retorted, her gaze returning to his like a homing missile.
“You are lethal,” Grayson said quietly, “in the best possible way.”
Where did he get off saying something like that and sounding, for all the world, like he meant it? Lyra went to take another step back, but Grayson reached for her shoulder, and the next thing she knew, he’d reversed their positions. Now Grayson was the one standing with his back to the cliff’s edge, and Lyra had the magnificent ocean view.
He’d just put himself between her and the drop-off. “I don’t need your protection, Hawthorne.”
Grayson arched a brow. “Agree to disagree.”
The wind off the ocean picked up again. A front rolling in. A slight shiver passed through Lyra’s body. Eyeing her, Grayson undid the top button on the jacket of his fits-like‑a‑glove suit. The middle button was next.
“What are you doing?” Lyra asked. She wasn’t just talking about his suit jacket, and he was perceptive enough to know that. What are we doing?
“I would think the answer apparent.” Grayson undid the final button on his jacket, and then ...
The jacket came off, and Lyra’s body remembered: My lips and yours. A jagged breath.
“You’d better not be planning on offering me that jacket.” Lyra steeled her voice.
“You’re cold.” Grayson’s lips curved. “And I believe that I have already acquainted you with the fact that when I encounter a problem, I solve it.”
This was about so much more than the damn jacket. It was about his family and hers and an unknown threat. It was about the fact that Odette Morales, the one person who might have known some fraction of the big picture here, had given up her spot in the Grandest Game—and her chance at millions—because of the danger that Lyra and Grayson somehow represented.
The right kind of disaster just waiting to happen.
“I don’t need your jacket,” Lyra told Grayson.
“Perhaps I need to give it to you,” Grayson suggested. “Chivalry. It’s a coping mechanism.”
“I’m warning you, Hawthorne: If you try to put that jacket around my shoulders, I’m taking mine off and giving it to you.” To make her point, Lyra lifted a hand to the zipper on her own athletic jacket—which, to be fair, was more of an outer shirt.
Grayson took a moment to assess whether or not she was bluffing.
Lyra was not bluffing.
“Consider me warned,” Grayson replied archly. He slipped his suit jacket back on.
Lyra narrowed her eyes. “Why do I feel like I lost this argument?” she said.
“Because,” Grayson replied, “I’m still standing between you and the edge of the cliff.”
Extracted from Glorious Rivals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, out now.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za/book/grandest-games-02-glorious-rivals/9780241683668
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