Author Of The Week: Chat with Jennifer Lynn Barnes (The Hawthorne Legacy), Plus Giveaway! ~ (US Only)

Welcome to our weekly special feature post, Author Of The Week!!

Each week we will be interviewing a different YA author and highlighting their upcoming release!

We will also be hosting a giveaway of the book we are highlighting!!

 

 

 

 

Introducing Jennifer Lynn Barnes, YABC’s Author of the Week!!

Jennifer Lynn Barnes is the New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty acclaimed young adult novels, including The Inheritance Games, Little White Lies, Deadly Little Scandals, The Lovely and the Lost, and The Naturals series: The Naturals, Killer Instinct, All In, Bad Blood and the e-novella, Twelve. Jen is also a Fulbright Scholar with advanced degrees in psychology, psychiatry, and cognitive science. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University in 2012 and is currently a professor of psychology and professional writing at the University of Oklahoma. You can find her online at jenniferlynnbarnes.com or follow her on Twitter @jenlynnbarnes.

 

 

Website * Twitter * Instagram

 

 

 

 

Meet The Hawthorne Legacy!

Intrigue, riches, and romance abound in this thrilling sequel to the New York Times bestselling The Inheritance Games

The Inheritance Games ended with a bombshell, and now heiress Avery Grambs has to pick up the pieces and find the man who might hold the answers to all of her questions—including why Tobias Hawthorne left his entire fortune to Avery, a virtual stranger, rather than to his own daughters or grandsons. 

Thanks to a DNA test, Avery knows that she’s not a Hawthorne by blood, but clues pile up hinting at a deeper connection to the family than she had ever imagined. As the mystery grows and the plot thickens, Grayson and Jameson, two of the enigmatic and magnetic Hawthorne grandsons, continue to pull Avery in different directions. And there are threats lurking around every corner, as adversaries emerge who will stop at nothing to see Avery out of the picture—by any means necessary. 

With nonstop action, aspirational jet-setting, Knives Out-like family intrigue, swoonworthy romance, and billions of dollars hanging in the balance, The Hawthorne Legacy will thrill Jennifer Lynn Barnes fans and new readers alike.

 

 

Amazon * B & N * Indiebound

 

 

 

 

 ~ Author Chat ~

 

 
YABC:   What gave you the inspiration to write this book?

The inspiration for the Inheritance Games series came from two things: watching my dad design and build my parents’ dream home (complete with my own personal request for the house: a secret passage in the home library!) and a writing prompt I was using to brainstorm all kinds of book ideas. That prompt was what could happen to make a normal teenager world-famous overnight? One of the ideas I came up with in response to that question was “a billionaire dies and leaves her his entire fortune, and no one knows why.” Then I started to think about the deceased billionaire, his love of puzzles and riddles, and the kind of house he would have built—full of secret passageways!

More specifically, the inspiration for the second book in the series, The Hawthorne Legacy, came while I was writing book one. I had the answer to the overall mystery (why did billionaire Tobias Hawthorne leave his fortune to my protagonist, a total strange?) completely figured out, but as I was writing, a few things popped up in the text that made me think: what if the book one story—and everything I have already figured out—is just one piece of a much larger puzzle? When I got the go-ahead for book two, I added a new ending onto book one to tease that the story wasn’t over, and then book two was born!

 

 

YABC:   Who is your favorite character in the book?

I love the four Hawthorne brothers. All of them! Depending on the day you ask me and what scenes I’ve just finished writing, I might name any of the four as my very favorite (though Xander, the youngest and funniest Hawthorne, is probably the answer a good 40% of the time).

 

 

YABC:   Which came first, the title or the novel?

The novel came first. We went through multiple titles before we settled on The Hawthorne Legacy, but it fits the book so well!

 

 

YABC:   Thinking way back to the beginning, what’s the most important thing you’ve learned as a writer from then to now?

Revision isn’t fixing what’s wrong. Revision is taking your book to the next level—and there is always a next level!

Runner up: a premise is not a plot. You can have a great idea for a book and STILL need to figure out what the plot is.

 

 

YABC:   What do you like most about the cover of the book?

I absolutely LOVE that the covers of The Inheritance Games series are puzzles themselves! Artist Katt Phatt builds these beautiful three-dimensional sculptures that include key items from the book, interwoven with the title. So if you look closely, you get hints about key moments in the books—and sometimes the mystery—from the items embedded in the cover sculpture.

 

 

YABC:   What’s up next for you?

I am currently in the middle of revising the third and final book in the Inheritance Games series, which is called The Final Gambit. Book two answers all of the open questions from book one, so readers who are hoping for closure will get it—but at the same time, if you re-read The Hawthorne Legacy and look closely, you’ll see the seeds that have been planted for the last and biggest mystery, which will turn everything that Avery thinks she knows about Tobias Hawthorne and the Hawthorne family on its head.

 

 

YABC:   Which character gave you the most trouble when writing your latest book?

I always have the most trouble with my protagonists. I write first-person, so I am very much inside my protagonist’s head and have to work to step outside that perspective and develop a greater understanding of the character than the character has of herself. I also tend to surround my protagonists with all of these larger-than-life characters; the supporting cast ends up so full of strong personalities that I inevitably have to focus in revision on making sure the protagonist is at the center of the story and just as compelling as the other characters in the book.

 

 

 

 

 

The Hawthorne Legacy

By: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Publisher: Little, Brown Books For Young Readers

Release Date: September 7th, 2021

 

 

 

 

*GIVEAWAY DETAILS* 

Three winners will receive a copy of The Hawthorne Legacy (Jennifer Lynn Barnes) ~ (US Only)

 

*Click the Rafflecopter link below to enter the giveaway*

 

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