Jennifer Lynn Barnes Books in Order
Jennifer Lynn Barnes is a New York Times bestselling young adult mystery and thriller author best known for The Inheritance Games, the Hawthorne family series that made her a #1 New York Times bestselling author. She has a strong academic background, with advanced degrees related to psychology and cognitive science, she received a Fulbright scholarship at Cambridge, a Ph.D. from Yale, and she has taught psychology and writing at the University of Oklahoma. Her series The Natural is strongly influence by her background, where teenage profilers are recruited into an FBI program.
This page lists all Jennifer Lynn Barnes books in order, including The Inheritance Games, The Grandest Game, The Naturals, The Fixer, Debutantes, her earlier paranormal series, standalone novels, anthology work, adaptations, and awards.
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Latest Jennifer Lynn Barnes Books
More upcoming releases:
- Dangerous Impulses (The Naturals #5) – November 2026
Where to Start with Jennifer Lynn Barnes
→ New to Jennifer Lynn Barnes? Start with The Inheritance Games. It is her best-known series which introduces Avery Grambs, Hawthorne House, the riddles, the inheritance setup, and the Hawthorne brothers.
→ Already read The Inheritance Games trilogy? Continue with The Brothers Hawthorne, then move into The Grandest Game. The spin-off series makes more sense once you know Avery and the Hawthorne family.
→ Want YA crime rather than puzzle-inheritance mystery? Start with The Naturals, where Cassie Hobbes is recruited into an FBI program for teenagers with unusual profiling skills.
→ Prefer political secrets and Washington power games? Try The Fixer. It is only two books and stands completely apart from the Hawthorne universe.
→ Want Southern family secrets without needing a long series? Start with Little White Lies, the first Debutantes book.
How the Series Connect
The Inheritance Games and The Grandest Game belong to the same Hawthorne world. The Inheritance Games starts with Avery Grambs inheriting Tobias Hawthorne’s fortune, after which she is pulled into the family’s puzzles, secrets, and rivalries of the rich. The Brothers Hawthorne follows Grayson and Jameson after the original trilogy and it is a bridge into the Hawthorne universe.
The Grandest Game is the spin-off series. It takes place after the main Avery Grambs arc and brings in new characters while still using the Hawthorne family, the game structure, and the puzzle-heavy world that was first built in the previous books.
The Inheritance Games Series (Books in Order)
The Inheritance Games series follows Avery Kylie Grambs, a teenager whose life changes when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne leaves her almost his entire fortune. The problem is, Avery has no clue who he is, and the Hawthorne family received nothing in the assets distribution. Soon Avery discovers that Hawthorn House is full of riddles, hidden rooms, old grudges, and the young guys who are used to play games with extremely dangerous stakes.
Games Untold and The Same Backward as Forward are connected to this world but are more like companion stories.
- The Inheritance Games, 2020
- The Hawthorne Legacy, 2021
- The Final Gambit, 2022
- The Brothers Hawthorne, 2023
- Games Untold, 2024 (short story collection)
- The Same Backward as Forward, 2025
The Grandest Game Series (Books in Order)
The Grandest Game series is set in the world of The Inheritance Games and follows a new competition created by Avery Grambs and the Hawthorne brothers. Here, the spin-off opens up the game to new players. The series should be read after the main Inheritance Games books, or at least after The Inheritance Games, The Hawthorne Legacy, The Final Gambit, and The Brothers Hawthorne, since the background and setup is very relevant to the whole Hawthorne universe.
- The Grandest Game, 2024
- Glorious Rivals, 2025
- The Gilded Blade, 2026
The Naturals Series (Books in Order)
The Naturals series follows Cassie Hobbes who is recruited into a secret FBI program that is made up of teens with special skills. They know profiling, reading emotions, spotting lies, and analyzing patters, and Cassie is also extremely good at reading people. The series starts as a program for cold cases but soon turns into investigating active serial crimes.
- The Naturals, 2013
- Killer Instinct, 2014
- All In, 2015
- Bad Blood, 2016
- Twelve, 2017 (#4.5)
The Fixer Series (Books in Order)
The Fixer series follows Tess Kendrick, a teenager who moves to Washington, D.C. and discovers that her sister works as a fixer for powerful people. Soon, Tess also starts solving problems at school for her classmates, who have powerful families involved in politics, influence, money, and secrets.
- The Fixer, 2015
- The Long Game, 2016
Raised By Wolves Series (Books in Order)
The Raised by Wolves series follows Bryn, a human girl raised by werewolves after her family is killed. This series has a supernatural element to it, which takes it away from the author’s crime and mystery side into the light paranormal genre. Sweet Sixteen is a short companion story.
- Raised by Wolves, 2010
- Sweet Sixteen (#1.5), 2015
- Trial by Fire, 2011
- Taken By Storm, 2012
The Squad Series (Books in Order)
The Squad series follows Toby Klein, a high school student recruited into and trained in group of cheerleaders who are now underage government operatives in the United States.
- Perfect Cover, 2008
- Killer Spirit, 2008
Tattoo Series (Books in Order)
The Tattoo series, also known as the Bailey Morgan series, follows a group of girls whose temporary tattoos give them supernatural powers. Tattoo is a paranormal young adult series which still involves secrets, friendship cliques and teens that are involved in dangerous situations.
Golden Series (Books in Order)
The Golden series is one of the author’s earliest YA supernatural mystery series, and it follows Lissy James, a teenage girl who moves from California to Oklahoma, who soon discovers that she can see people’s auras. At school, she has to hide her powers from being discovered, but she is also using them to figure out what sinister activities the adults around her are involved in. At the same time, she has to navigate the divided social classes without being destroyed by her enemies.
Debutantes Series (Books in Order)
The Debutantes series starts with Little White Lies and follows 18-year old auto mechanic Sawyer Taft, who is pulled into her wealthy Southern family world to join as a debutante. Soon she learns that the debutantes glittery world is all fake, but she stays because she has her own secrets and questions she wants answers to.
- Little White Lies, 2018
- Deadly Little Scandals, 2019
Standalone Novels
- Every Other Day, 2011
- Nobody, 2013 (also titled At First Sight)
- The Lovely and the Lost, 2019
Short Story Anthologies
- A Visitor’s Guide to Mystic Falls, 2010
- Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions, 2011
- Divergent Thinking: YA Authors on Veronica Roth’s Divergent Trilogy, 2014
Jennifer Lynn Barnes Biography
Jennifer Lynn Barnes, who often goes by Jen, is an American author of young adult mystery, thriller, and paranormal novels.
Official website: jenniferlynnbarnes.com
Jennifer Lynn Barnes was born in 1984 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. During high school, she took part in a leadership conference which meant going to DC where she met politicians. Here she also did mock versions of different parts of the political arena in the capital. This would eventually prove very useful for her series, The Fixer.
Growing up, she had several temp jobs, such as being a competitive cheerleader, a primate cognition researcher, a dancer, a debutante, and even a teen model. All these experiences gave her additional insights that would help her a lot while creating her young adult stories.
After finishing high school in 2002, Jennifer Lynn Barnes enrolled at Yale University, graduating in 2006 with a degree in cognitive science, which studies the brain and thought. She also received a Fulbright scholarship which allowed her to do research on autism at the University of Cambridge in England. She then completed her Ph.D. in developmental psychology at Yale in 2012, after which she went back home to Oklahoma. She has worked in psychology and professional writing at the University of Oklahoma, and her research interests include fandom, fiction, imagination, and the way people respond to fictional worlds.
Jennifer Lynn Barnes began writing young and sold her first published novel while she was still a teenager. Her debut novel, Golden, was published in 2006, and several early series followed, including Tattoo, The Squad, Raised by Wolves, and The Fixer. Those books moved between paranormal YA, teen spy stories, political secrets, and social mysteries before her later work became more strongly associated with puzzles and crime.
Her academic background is especially relevant to The Naturals, a YA crime series about teenage profilers who are working with the FBI. also helps explain the way her later books use patterns, motives, secrets, and social games. Her biggest success, however, came with The Inheritance Games series, which turned the Hawthorne family, Avery Grambs, and Hawthorne House into a major YA mystery phenomenon. The Hawthorn world now includes the original series, the Grandest Game spin-off series, and companion stories.
In January 2025, Jennifer Lynn Barnes participated in a Grammar Girl podcast where she discussed the psychology of fandom. Among others, she talked about how her academic background and the trends in fanfiction helped her understand why some media can built such loyal fanbases.
Jennifer Lynn Barnes has also written original pilot scripts for television networks including USA and MTV.
Jennifer Lynn Barnes Book Adaptations
- The Inheritance Games – announced as a television adaptation in development with Lionsgate and Temple Hill Entertainment (2025)
- Little White Lies – announced as a television adaptation in development with wiip (2024)
Jennifer Lynn Barnes Awards and Honors
Awards
- The Naturals – YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection (2014)
- The Inheritance Games – Goodreads Choice Award finalist for Young Adult Fiction (2020)
- The Inheritance Games – Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2020 selection
- The Inheritance Games – Teen Buckeye Book Award (2021)
- The Inheritance Games – YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers selection (2021)
- The Inheritance Games – YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection (2021)
- The Inheritance Games – Buxtehuder Bulle / Buxtehude Bull (2022)
- The Final Gambit – Goodreads Choice Award for Young Adult Fiction (2022)
- The Inheritance Games – Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award (2025)
Nominations and Shortlists
- The Inheritance Games – Edgar Award for Best Young Adult (2021)
- The Inheritance Games – YALSA Teens’ Top Ten nominee (2021)
- The Hawthorne Legacy – Goodreads Choice Award finalist for Young Adult Fiction (2021)
- The Brothers Hawthorne – Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2023)
- The Brothers Hawthorne – CrimeFest Best Crime Novel for Young Adults shortlist (2024)
thank you so much for this, it helped me a lot with a book report on her
I want other people o like Jen’s books, so read them all!
I love the Inheritance games, I really recommend it!
I just finished reading the Inheritance Games and I enjoyed it very much. There was one mention of a sequel at the end of the book and I am eager to see how this book will play out. When might we expect that sequel to be out?