the-long-game

The Long Game – Jennifer Lynn Barnes – The Fixer #2 – Bloomsbury Children’s – Published 7 June 2016

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Synopsis

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.

My thoughts

Wow. I think this book almost killed me. I’m not sure how I survived the tension, the heartbreak. I think Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ mind must be a very scary place most of the time – absolutely brilliant, but scary.

Wow. Again. I really can’t think of a better way to describe my reaction to this book. Seriously. Wow. Wow. Arhhhhmmbahmsihuggtybi

Deep breath.

Tess is back at school. Life is back to normal, sort of, after she helped uncover a conspiracy within the government, was kidnapped and had her world turned upside down when she learned who her parents really are. She’s back at school and doing what she does best. Fixing things. But when a friend calls in a favour and asks Tess to help her win the school president elections, Tess starts to uncover a very serious chain of events that are linked to the real president’s mid-term elections. Things get deadly, fast.


I love Tess so much. Admire her. Adore her. Think she is so damn amazing. She stands up to people. She hates bullies, she hates the people who sit back and let the bullies continue bullying, she hates the inequality of it all. And she does something about it. She does something in the most fair, meaningful ways and it drives the headmaster nuts and makes the bad guys hate her and makes me love her all the more. She is a strong, caring, capable female. She makes a difference in the most glee-inducing, happy-dancing-invoking way.

But if her world was rocked in the last book it is shattered in this one. Seriously, this book took a very deadly, very scary turn. I was reading huddled in the corner of my room and I couldn’t put this book down and yet I had to keep taking breaks just to stop from hyperventilating. And the twists. Mind blown. Heart broken.

I’m not sure if I will be able to cope with reading the next book but I know I will absolutely have to and I can’t wait.

Everyone needs to read this book. It has incredible suspense, mystery that is clever and twisted, a protagonist that is a true role model and a message of hope and of fighting for what’s right. Congratulations Jennifer Lynn Barnes, you are truly incredible (and just a little bit scary).

More information

Category: Young adult fiction.

Genre: Mystery Thriller.

Themes: Terrorism, Politics, High school, Terrorists, Elections, Bullying, Secrets, Family, Friendship.

Reading age guide: Ages 13 and up.

Advisory: Descriptions or violence, murder and shootings.

Published: 7 June 2016 by Bloomsbury Children’s

Format: Hardcover, paperback,  ebook. 360 pages.

ISBN: 9781619635968

Find it on Goodreads