Jennifer Lynn Barnes Books In Order – Complete List

Jennifer Lynn Barnes is the New York Times bestselling author of the Naturals young adult thriller mystery series, which has been likened by many to Criminal Minds, an FBI series for adults, involving hunting for serial killers. In addition, she is known for her other young adult fiction series like Golden, Tattoo, The Squad, The Fixer, and Raised by Wolves. Her latest series, Grandest Game debuted with the same titled novel in 2024.

Here are the Jennifer Lynn Barnes novels in order for her series, mostly catering to the young adult thriller reading crowd.

Latest Jennifer Lynn Barnes Books

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The Grandest Game Books in Publication Order

1. The Grandest Game, 2024
2. Glorious Rivals, 2025

The Inheritance Games Books in Publication Order

1. The Inheritance Games, 2020
2. The Hawthorne Legacy, 2021
3. The Final Gambit, 2022
4. The Brothers Hawthorne, 2023
5. Games Untold, 2024 (short story collection)
6. The Same Backward as Forward, 2025

The Fixer Books in Publication Order

D.C.’s premier high school fixer, solving problems for elite teens

1. The Fixer, 2015
2. The Long Game, 2016

The Naturals Books in Publication Order

1. The Naturals, 2013
2. Killer Instinct, 2014
3. All In, 2015
4. Bad Blood, 2016
5. Twelve, 2017 (#4.5)

Raised By Wolves Books in Publication Order

1. Raised by Wolves, 2010
2. Sweet Sixteen (#1.5), 2015
3. Trial by Fire, 2011
4. Taken By Storm, 2012

The Squad Books in Publication Order

The Squad is a covert most highly trained group of underage government operatives in the United States.

1. Perfect Cover, 2008
2. Killer Spirit, 2008

Tattoo Books in Publication Order

aka the Bailey Morgan series

1. Tattoo, 2007
2. Fate, 2009

Golden Books in Publication Order

1. Golden, 2006
2. Platinum, 2007

Debutantes Books in Publication Order

1. Little White Lies, 2018
2. Deadly Little Scandals, 2019

Standalone Novels in Order of Publication

• Every Other Day, 2011
• Nobody, 2013 (aka At First Sight)
• The Lovely and the Lost, 2019

Anthologies in Order of Publication

• A Visitor’s Guide to Mystic Falls: Your Favorite Authors on The Vampire Diaries, 2010
• Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions, 2011
• Divergent Thinking: YA Authors on Veronica Roth’s Divergent Trilogy, 2014

Jennifer Lynn Barnes Biography

New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Lynn Barnes, aka “Jen,” 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 quite an exciting teen period, holding various “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 numerous young adult fiction novels.

After finishing high school in 2002, she enrolled at Yale University from which in 2006 she graduated with a degree in cognitive science, which studies the brain and thought. When she first went to the university, she had no idea what she wanted to focus on, so she took a whole bunch of interesting-looking courses in her first year.

While taking a course where she would work in a lab with monkeys, she fell in love with that area of science, and she finally made her decision on her major. Thus she ended up taking several psychology courses along with linguistics and philosophy, as she became interested in learning how our mind works.

She also received a Fulbright scholarship which allowed her to do research on autism at the University of Cambridge in England.

Jennifer completed her Ph.D. in developmental psychology at Yale, after which she went back home to Oklahoma.

She always loved writing, and in fact, she started writing in her early years and finished her first book (which was never published) when she was in high school. She considered it a practice novel which allowed her to further expand her craft. Her first book – actual first published novel was titled Golden, which she wrote when she was 19 and a college student.

This allowed her to enter the Young Adult fantasy and mystery fiction market, in which she wrote most of her subsequent novels.

She has also started writing The Fixer series, which currently includes two books. This is again a YA series, this time, however, more political in nature and with no paranormal elements in it.

I can highly recommend both series (although my favorite is The Fixer, and I really hope the series will see the addition of more books soon). Reading her novels in order is recommended for each series, in fact. Having caught up to all her books so far, I am glad I picked each book in order for the storylines and the gradual character progression in each.

In addition, The Inheritance Games series and the new series The Grandest Game are set in the same universe.

The Inheritance Games spin-off takes place after the events of the main series. The first book, The Brothers Hawthorne was released in 2023 and was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Young Adult Fiction in 2023. The second book, The Grandest Game was released in July 2024.

The author has several series written to date, all with young adult readers in mind (this doesn’t imply that adults can’t read them – I do and I’m far from a young teen reader), some more paranormal in nature than others. She also has a few standalone novels which are well worth reading.

In an interview, she mentioned that for the Natural series she began first developing the main characters and giving each Natural their important skill. With this, she also gave each the relevant background that would lead to that particular aspect each person would get best at. For writing the Naturals series, Jennifer already had amassed a wealth of information and had background knowledge due to her psychology major.

In terms of writing style, the author is a plotter through and through. Before writing a book, she does a lot of careful planning ahead. Her thrillers always have numerous shocking twists and turns, so those have to be well-planned in advance for them to be in the book’s setting. Before any book is ready, it takes each 2-3 months to write a first draft, and then an additional two months of revisions.

The successful American author has a dedicated fan base. Writing from a very young age, she has gained quite a global popularity. Some her books are New York Times bestsellers and IndieBound bestsellers, and several have entered and won the Goodreads Choice Awards for Young Adult Fiction.

The author works as a scientist by day while writing books by night, allowing her to have a double career, albeit very busy.

In January 2025, she 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 Adaptations

Little White Lies, the young adult novel published in 2018 as the first in the Debutantes series is being adapted into a television series by the independent studio Wiip. The news came out in February 2024. In an Instagram post, the author mentioned:

Exciting news for fans of my debutante series! I’ve been keeping a slew of Hollywood secrets lately, so it’s very exciting to get to share this one!…I am thrilled beyond belief to be working with this amazing team!’

Jennifer Lynn Barnes Awards and Nominations

• The Naturals was nominated for the Lincoln Award and the Missouri Gateway Readers Award in 2018
• The Fixer was nominated for the South Carolina Book Award for Young Adultand the Missouri Truman Readers Award in 2018
• The Inheritance Games was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Novel in 2021
• The Brothers Hawthorne was nominated for the CrimeFest: Best Crime Fiction Novel for Young Adults in 2024