The Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes | Book Review

Title: The Long Game

Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Series: The Fixer #2

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery/Thriller

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Publication date: June 7th, 2016

Pages: 360

My rating: 

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For Tess Kendrick, a junior at the elite Hardwicke School in Washington, D.C., fixing runs in the family. But Tess has another legacy, too, one that involves power and the making of political dynasties. When Tess is asked to run a classmate’s campaign for student council, she agrees. But when the candidates are children of politicians, even a high school election can involve life-shattering secrets.

Meanwhile, Tess’s guardian has also taken on an impossible case, as a terrorist attack calls into doubt who can—and cannot—be trusted on Capitol Hill. Tess knows better than most that power is currency in D.C., but she’s about to discover firsthand that power always comes with a price.

“I lie to her. Because this world is not safe. The people who are supposed to protect us, the people we are supposed to trust… I know that sometimes they are the ones who do the most harm.”

I want to hit myself right now because I cannot believe how much it took me to finish this duology, and why I haven’t done it before because IT WAS SO FREAKING GOOD, guys! I’m so impressed with how much I loved this series, and well, this author’s works in general. The books are amazing and very addicting, and I can’t seem to put them down when I pick any of them up.

I would say this series surprised me the most, because I went expecting something and yeah, I definitely got that, but also everything was so intricate and complex, and very political focused that I didn’t think I would love them as much as I did. But turns out, I sure as hell did. I had a great time reading it and I wish there was another book in the series because THAT ENDING WASN’T AN ENDING AT ALL!!!

“But Henry was right: it would always be different for people like us. 

The closer you’d been to death, the easier it was to feel him breathing down your neck, and the necks of those you loved.”

It took me a bit to remember everything that happened in the first book, because I have a lazy brain when it comes to remembering names, and let me tell you, there were a lot of things going on in the previous novel, so at first I was a bit lost. However, my brain proved me wrong and knew most of the things once I kept reading, so I had no problem to continue with the story at all, and got so engrosed with the story I needed to keep reading to see what was going to happen next and the whole revelation.

The characters have become some of my favourites this year, because they are so intelligent and brave that I couldn’t help but love them and wanted to protect them. In this installment the relationship between Tess and Ivy is a bit closer, and you know how much I adore supportive and loving families, and despite all the shit going down, you clearly could see how much they care for each other.

And let me tell you the side characters were amazing. I love (with capital letters) Asher so much. Somehow he reminded me to Michael, another character from her other series, The Naturals, and how a great friend he was. There was also another character I didn’t particulary like in the first novel, but in this one I did, and it was Emilia. You got to know her more and I think that was what soften my heart a bit more, because in the first one she was the mean girl, and in this one she played a more important role.

“Sometimes the biggest threats come from the inside. Sometimes the system is broken, Tess. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

The mystery was so much better in this book, in my opinion. Even though there was a good one, I would say in this one it took a much more complex path, and that’s something I enjoyed. The plot itself was more intricate, not only dealing with that but with conspiration, backstabbing and political corruption, and that’s something that made the series stand out for me, because I thought I wasn’t going to loved it as much.

The only reason why I’m not giving it a solid 5 stars is that THERE’S NO BOOK ANNOUNCED YET. And clearly there were some things open and in need of a sequel, so if it’s only going to be a duology (which I hope not), I cannot rate it with five stars. But the rest of the book? It was what I wanted and more.

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