Review: The Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Series: The Fixer, #2
Published by Bloomsbury USA Childrens on June 7th 2016
Genres: Young Adult, Thriller
Pages: 360
Format: Kindle Edition
Source: Library
Rating:

The Kendricks help make the problems of the Washington elite disappear…but some secrets won’t stay buried.
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.

Gahh this book is hard to review without giving away much of what happens at the end of book one, but I will try.

The Long Game starts shortly after the events following from book one. Tess has found herself trying to navigate her new life after discovering more secrets about not only her family, her grandfather, but also that there might have been a fourth player involved in the murders that have happened.

Now being a fixer runs in her family, and Tess finds herself thrown into that lifestyle at school. When one of her classmates asks Tess to return the favor and help her win the class presidency, the stakes end up higher than Tess is ready for and secrets that should have been buried come falling out.

Terrorist, murders and secrets, this book really takes you onto one wild emotional ride. I found myself on the edge of my seat once again as I sat there wanting to know what will happen to Tess and her classmates. Some revelations have left me a little on a heartbroken side and we got to say goodbye to a few characters from book one.

The ending was great, though the fact that the author is not writing any more books in this series is a little disappointing, because it leaves you with a lot of unanswered questions. I felt bummed when I realized that after the ringer that we were put through we would never know how all of this was going to end, so let this be a warning to those going into the books, because I found myself debating the unfairness in being left the way it was.

Also, I was a little disappointed that despite Tess’ grandfather who raised her being such a major part of her life and book one, it was kind of ignored in book two.

Overall, this was a great series and it showed quite a lot of promise, the fact that it’s run was cut short, I think is quite a bit disappointing, especially when we are left with a lot of unresolved issues that were major in the book. But, despite all this it is well worth the read because in the end, this series was super exciting, fun and interesting. I definitely do not regret reading.