Inherit Midnight

by Kate Kae Myers

The Competition:

Outlandishly wealthy Grandmother VanDemere has decided to leave her vast fortune to the family member who proves him or herself worthiest--by solving puzzles and riddles on a whirlwind race around the globe, from the mines of Venezuela to the castles of Scotland. There will be eight competitors, three continents . . . and a prize worth millions.

The Players:

Seventeen-year-old Avery is the black sheep of the VanDemere clan, the ostracized illegitimate daughter. Finally, she has a chance to prove herself . . . and to discover the truth about her long-lost mother.

Marshall might be Avery’s uncle, but there’s no love lost between the two of them. He’s her main competition, and he’ll do anything to win--including betray his own children.

Riley is the handsome son of Grandmother VanDemere’s lawyer. As the game progresses, Avery falls hard for Riley. Suddenly, losing the game might mean losing him, too.

As the competition takes treacherous turns, it becomes clear there can only be one victor. Who can Avery truly trust? And is winning worth her life?

• ISBN10: 161963936X
• ISBN13: 9781619639362
• Publish Date: 5 May 2016 (first published 10 February 2015)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 24 January 2017
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
• Imprint: Bloomsbury Childrens Books
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[pagingserenity]

Inherit Midnight was like a mix of The Amazing Race and National Treasure. It had a few plot twists that I liked. While I did like Avery, the main character, there were times when she annoyed me. I also really enjoyed seeing the other characters develop. Even though I thought the romance was cute, I did have a few problems with it. I also had a problem with the ending. It wasn't really conclusive enough for me, had a few plot holes, and I thought there were some unnecessary plot twists. Overall, I enjoyed reading this.

Final Rating:

3.5/5

You can read my full review on my blog, Paging Serenity.

[ellieroth]

También en: El Extraño Gato del Cuento

Por el nombre y la portada, cogí el libro porque pensaba que era del genero paranormal. No lo era. Pero me hizo dar cuenta que si algún día mi cuerpo de alguna forma llegaría a reproducirse, esta es la clase de abuela excéntrica que sería.

Uno de los personajes que más me gustó/intrigó fue la Abuelo VanDemere, en el libro Avery la describe como una persona serie y un poco fría, pero cuando está sola en su casa está obsesionada con los reality shows. Se me hizo muy chistoso, además como dicen: Uno no conoce todo de las personas.

A pesar de que es una historia que me gustó bastante, es uno de esas veces qué no sé exactamente que decir sobre el libro. Se me hizo interesante por la cantidad de escenarios que podemos leer, la parte romántica no está de desmayo pero tampoco está mal. Riley es lindo :D Muy lindo.

Twitter || Blog || Pinterest || Tumblr || Instagram || Facebook

[shannonmiz]

Well, that didn’t exactly go as planned. First, I should note that I finished this book, but it was my second attempt. The first was in December, and I was just kind of bored, so I decided to revisit later. Well, it’s later. And it wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t amazing either. Let’s break it down, shall we?

The Good:

-The concept is pretty great, really. A bunch of snobby rich kids having to compete for their inheritance? Yes, please.

-It was entertaining, most of the time. The challenges were fun to read about, and it would be a really fun thing to actually be able to do.
It was pretty fast paced after some initial slowness getting into the story. The bulk of the story (the competition, mostly) was easy to read and moved quite quickly.

The Not-So-Good:

-The characters were flat. Avery and Riley were both kind of…. there. Basically, I kept forgetting who was who. And that isn’t ideal when one is a 17 year old wealthy, black-sheep female and the other is a 19 year old dude who works in his dad’s law firm. Seriously, I should not have ever mixed those two particular characters up, but I did. A lot. Especially since their names were gender neutral, I literally had no idea sometimes. Avery was whinier than Riley, so when someone was complaining of the two, I knew who she was.

-It was so farfetched. Okay, I understand that I had to suspend some belief that an old lady was sending spoiled descendants all over the place to play some silly game, and I could do that. But some of it was too much. First, Avery attended this boarding school, and it was some kind of hellish prison that would have been shut down eons ago. (This was where I stopped reading the first time.) Then, everyone is just pleased as punch, and not at all concerned, that this 17 year old is being escorted from hotel room to hotel room with some young man who she basically just met. My grandma is pretty liberal, and even she would probably put the kibosh on that little situation, never mind what stuffy old lady VanDemere would do. Then, Grandmother has all these character traits that everyone should be displaying, but it’s cool when people just start being disgusting excuses for humans (and yes, she knows what is going on).

-Expanding on the last point, these people are awful. Avery’s whining is nothing compared to the nonsense that spews from every other person in this family. They are spoiled, and underhanded, and duplicitous, and all around awful. There is some slight redemption for some, but… mostly not.

-Even the moments that should have been chock full of feels fell flat. Maybe it was because I didn’t care about Avery, but I really think the scenes were just overall not quite there in terms of emotional fortitude. I don’t want to expand on it, because it would spoil a big plot point, but I should have cared a lot, and I only cared mildly. In general, I found the writing to be a bit too simplistic to evoke much feeling

-The twist at the end didn’t make a bit of sense. There was this “twist” at the end, and while it surprised me, the only reason it surprised me was because it came so far out of left field that no one would have seen it coming. It didn’t have a thing to do with the story, and was so wildly off topic and unbelievable that I just was left confused and wondering what the point was.

-Avery was too “damsel-y” for my taste. Especially in the beginning of the book, she would make some ridiculous decision, or just be acting weak and whiny in general, and she'd basically just lament about her misfortunes until Riley swooped in and saved the day. Girl, pick your own self up. Also, she’d get in some sort of ridiculous tiff with Riley, narrate that she didn’t trust him, and literally two sentences later be swooning over him. Uh, what now?

Bottom Line: It had potential, but it just didn’t work for me on any level. For sheer entertainment value, I will give it 1.5 stars, but I can’t in good conscious give more than that. The negatives clearly outweighed the positives, though the concept was fun.

I received a copy from the publisher via Netgalley for review.