Inherit Midnight by Kate Kae Myers

Title: Inherit Midnight
Author: Kate Kae Myers
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Release Date: February 10, 2015
Source: ARC provided by Publisher in exchange for an honest review (thanks Bloomsbury!!)

Summary from Goodreads:

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?

Review

OMG, this book was so much fun!

By now I probably sound like a broken record when I say that I LOVE COMPETITIONS, but I do! Oh so much! In Inherit Midnight, Avery is competing against her relatives to inherit the family business and fortune. Their grandmother thinks that all her offspring have become unworthy through their spoiled and disrespectful behavior but she is giving them another chance to prove themselves. She has set up a series of challenges to test for character traits that she wishes to instill in them and the last man (or woman) standing will win it all. But Avery doesn’t care about her inheritance. Her motivation for the challenge is to stay away from the hell of a boarding school her grandmother stuck her in and to reconnect with her mother, who she just discovered was still alive.

Avery’s family is messed up. There is barely any love between any of them. They manipulate and betray one another on a regular basis, and this competition just brings out the worst in them. But Avery receives the brunt of the abuse, being the product of an affair with the Nanny. Her family members were openly hostile and threatening toward her, which created this dangerous, cutthroat atmosphere and lots of intense situations.

Part of what I found most exciting about this competition was that a piece of their family history was tied into each challenge, and the VanDemere line included some pretty noteworthy people. For example, in one competition they had to follow the same path their ancestors took to smuggle medicine to soldiers during the Civil War. I was fascinated by these little snippets of history, whether they have any semblance of truth or not. And the ability to trace their family line back generations and generations made me want to find my own family history.

I also felt like the side plots added a certain depth to the story - like Avery reconnecting with her mother by reading her old letters, and her complicated relationship with her father. This book wasn't ALL competition, which was nice (even though I still would have enjoyed it regardless). And there was a romance in this book, which a found to be sweet.

Overall, Inherit Midnight hit all the right notes for me and I enjoyed it immensely. If you like competitions and history then this is a MUST READ.