winter

Additional warnings:

Major spoilers for Chapter 104 and the epilogue (including other characters, not just Javery for epilogue).

I'll try to keep the discussion focused on Javery, but some spoilers about the rest of the book are unavoidable.

I will be adding snippets from the leaked chapters. I may be missing some context, but it's pretty clear about what I've read.

I'm making this post before reading the full book because I genuinely need to get my thoughts out. It's bothering me that much.

THIS CAN BE WRONG BUT I DON'T THINK SO... TAKE THIS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT I CAN BE WRONG.

If I repeat about it being from the leaks it is to remind that the whole book is not out yet.

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Let's start with Chapter 104 aka the last chapter of the book:-

Jameson and Avery are near the lighthouse for some reason (I don't want to spoil the reason) and Jameson looking at the lighthouse and thinking about Toby and Hannah decides to propose.

"Heiress." Jameson's voice came out low and aching, a tender whisper that had Avery looking right at him. "I haven't picked out another ring yet," he said, his heart suddenly beating viciously against his rib cage. "But… " He got down on one knee, and Avery shot him one of those looks that said, I know you, Hawthorne. One of those looks that said, You never learned how to stay out of trouble, but also, You make me bold. "I don't want another ring," she said. "You're going to be sensible about this," Jameson inferred. "You sound awfully sure of that." Avery smiled a wicked little smile, and then she slipped the infinity ring off her right ring finger, moved it to her left, and reached out to pull him up off his knees. "No regrets."

That's the scene, give or take. Jameson himself acknowledges that they're young, but almost losing Avery has clearly shaken him and influenced his decision (I can't find the exact quote right now, sorry).

This isn't the part I have an issue with. The proposal works as a scene, and while it isn't personally my favorite, that doesn't mean it's inherently bad or out of character.

Note:- There is a seperate wedding and proposal. Jameson did not straight up plan a 'surprise wedding'

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We move on to the Epilogue:- it's Avery's POV (Again I am trying not to spoil alot)

I don't have the full chapter, so this is my best attempt at piecing the leaked snippets together (old screenshots + my own connecting the dots, so some context may be missing).

The epilogue takes place on the Fourth of July, around eight months after Chapter 104. Libby's twins are about three months old, and Avery is trying on wedding dresses with Libby, Max, Alisa, Zara, Lyra, Thea, and Rebecca. There's a lot of banter, but Avery's inner monologue makes it clear that she hates wedding planning and the pressure of the media expecting a perfect "Cinderella" ending.

After Avery chooses the dress, Gigi arrives, says something about "phase one" being complete, and Alisa asks everyone to leave except Lyra. Avery wants to show Lyra something after changing, but Lyra insists she stay in the dress. The two talk for a bit until fireworks begin. Lyra spots one, says it's her cue, and runs, with Avery chasing after her in the wedding gown.

They arrive at the Fourth of July carnival, which Avery realizes has been transformed into an intimate wedding. She even notes that it reminds her of her eighteenth birthday party that Jameson secretly planned for her. As the crowd parts to form a makeshift aisle, Avery looks up to find Jameson waiting at the end of it. Her immediate thought is essentially, "Jameson wouldn't..." followed almost instantly by, "...actually, he absolutely would."

Oren comes up next to her and tells Avery that she had once told him that she wanted him to walk her down the aisle.

Next part is what I pieced together about the wedding in text...

Oren came to a stop, and it took me a moment to realize that he was handing me off -to Xander. "I made a second, smaller catapult," Xander informed me archly. "For your bouquet." "I don't have a-" Libby made a catch, stepped forward, and pressed a bouquet into my hands. Blue roses. I breathed in the smell of them as Xander stepped back from escorting me and Nash stepped in. I looked up at him. “Breathe, Avery.“ I breathed, and I just kept breathing until Nash handed me off to Grayson. "For old time's sake," he told me, "how about I call you Ms. Grambs one last time?" Oh, Grayson. Some people were simply meant to be-in a way that transcended romance, in a way most people probably couldn't even describe. "It goes both ways, Ms. Grambs," Grayson said, and then suddenly, I was standing right next to Jameson. Avery Kylie Grambs. A very risky gamble. We still hadn't come up with a good anagram for Avery Kylie Hawthorne or Avery Kylie Grambs Hawthorne or Avery Grambs Hawthorne or whatever name I decided to take on next. But I'd hated wedding planning, and I didn't want the wedding of the century. I wanted this. "You," I told Jameson, "are in so much trouble.” "Always," Jameson murmured. Always trouble. Always … this. Always … us. All of us. "A chaos of Hawthornes,“ I murmured back, "indeed."

That's as far as I could find.

I've intentionally left out a lot of details to avoid spoiling other characters and storylines, but give or take, that's the sequence of events as I was able to piece it together from the leaked excerpts.

Now, keep in mind that this is all based on leaked snippets rather than the full chapters, so I could be missing important context. I genuinely hope I am, because I'd much rather be proven wrong once I read the complete book.

That said, even from the pieces we've seen, the overall direction gives me a weird feeling. And that's why I'm so frustrated and upset. So, here's why this bothered me so much.

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First of all, I'm not against marriage, nor am I against people getting married young. Personally, it's not something I prefer, but that's simply my opinion and not the issue here.

My issue is that, based on what we've seen, this doesn't feel like the Javery I've spent multiple books getting to know. It almost feels like their characters did a complete 180.

At the end of The Final Gambit, Avery talks about what she wants for her future. She was supposed to be applying to UConn, experiencing travelling. Jameson, too, repeatedly talks throughout The Brothers Hawthorne about wanting to do "great things" with his life and figuring out who he is beyond Avery and what his gradfather taught him to be.

Then, in That Night In Prague, Jameson gives Avery a promise ring. To me, that scene worked because it wasn't about rushing into marriage. It was Jameson saying, I'm serious about us. One day, when I've become the person I want to be, I want forever with you. It felt like a promise of a future, not a decision to skip straight to it.

That's why this direction feels so jarring to me. It doesn't feel like a natural progression of the future the books had been building toward. It feels like those individual goals suddenly took a back seat in favor of rushing to the finish line.

I genuinely tried to make peace with them getting married at 20 and 21. I really did. I love Javery and JLB enough that it actually hurts to admit how much this decision doesn't work for me.

At the end of the day, though, it's JLB's story to tell. I don't have to like every decision she makes, and if I end up disliking this direction, that's on me as the reader.

What gives me pause isn't just the marriage itself... it's the context. 'The Inheritance Games' is primarily marketed toward teenagers, many of them young girls. Yes, Avery and Jameson have lived extraordinary lives, have unlimited resources, and have been together for years. Their circumstances are far from typical. But I don't expect every younger reader to separate those fictional circumstances from reality.

Even then, I was trying to make peace with it because other YA books have ended with young marriages too. But most of the examples I could think of, like 'The Cruel Prince', exist in fantasy worlds with completely different social norms, so the comparison only goes so far. I was genuinely trying to convince myself this didn't bother me as much as it clearly does.

Now we get to my actual issue: the way the wedding appears to play out.

They were already planning a wedding, yes. But planning a wedding together is not the same as surprising your partner with the actual ceremony before they've even had a chance to mentally prepare for it.

From the leaked excerpts, Avery comes across as confused, disoriented, and completely caught off guard. And what really bothers me is that, from what we've seen, there isn't a moment where she and Jameson actually talk before she walks down the aisle. We don't see him checking that she's okay with this or giving her the space to make an informed decision in the moment.

Maybe the full context changes my opinion, and I genuinely hope it does. But based on the leaked material, I don't think this is a romantic trope we should normalize. A surprise proposal is one thing. A surprise wedding—where the bride herself doesn't seem prepared—is another entirely.

What also stood out to me is that everyone around them seems perfectly okay with it. Again, I could be missing context, but based on what we've seen, no one questions the situation or even checks whether this is what Avery wants in that moment.

To use The Summer I Turned Pretty as an example, even though Belly and Jeremiah wanted to get married young, the adults around them pushed back. They questioned the decision because they cared. Here, that concern seems absent, and that feels out of character for the Hawthornes and the people closest to Avery. These are people who have consistently looked out for them, so seeing everyone simply go along with a surprise wedding feels icky.

For me, it's less about their age and more about the lack of visible concern or conversation. If this is really how the scene plays out, it gives the impression that no one stopped to ask whether Avery was comfortable with what was happening, and that's what doesn't sit right with me.

I think this scene hit me particularly hard because I'm Indian. I've heard so many women from older generations talk about being invited to what they thought was a normal family gathering, only to arrive and discover it was their own wedding. They were so shocked and overwhelmed that they didn't even feel like they could object.

I'm not saying that's what JLB intended, nor am I equating Avery and Jameson's relationship with forced marriage. Jameson does propose beforehand. My issue is that, based on the leaked excerpts, the wedding itself still appears to come as a surprise to Avery. (I'll reblog tomorrow with the relevant quotes)

Knowing that situations like this have happened—and, in some places, still do—the scene unfortunately brought those stories back to mind. That's why it feels so unsettling to me. Even if the intention was to write something romantic, the execution feels out of touch with a reality that many women have experienced or continue to experience.

With all that being said, this is why I'm so upset with how this saga appears to end. I have other reasons too, but those are conversations for another day.

What bothers me most is that it doesn't feel like Avery or Jameson. Jameson is the same person who asked for Avery's consent before even kissing her, so him seemingly surprising her with the actual wedding feels completely out of character. And Avery, who is so logical and likes knowing what's going on, just being okay with it doesn't feel like her either.

Maybe the full context changes everything, and I genuinely hope it does. But based on what we've seen so far, this ending just doesn't feel like Javery to me.

There are also scenes involving two other characters that left me equally frustrated, but I'm intentionally not discussing them here. I'm hoping there's more context that I haven't seen, and I also didn't want to spoil that part of the book for myself, since it was very intertwined with the final blow of the plot.

What's especially frustrating is that The Grandest Game wasn't even supposed to be about Javery, yet the conclusion of that trilogy still ends with them. And if the leaked excerpts are accurate, it's an ending that I personally don't find romantic at all. Instead of feeling like the fairytale ending it seems to be aiming for, it feels oddly unsettling.

At this point, I know these are still leaked snippets, and there could absolutely be context I'm missing. I genuinely hope there is because I'd love nothing more than to be wrong. But based on what I've read, I can't bring myself to excuse this. I've defended a lot of JLB's choices over the years because I trust her understanding of psychology and character writing, but this is one decision I don't feel comfortable justifying.

If Jameson and Avery's actions are meant to be read as a trauma response after almost losing each other, then I wish the story had explored that instead of seemingly presenting a surprise wedding as the solution. To me, that's not a particularly healthy message for a YA audience. If the goal was simply to give fans a Javery wedding, I honestly think a longer time skip that allowed both of them to grow into that decision would have fit their character arcs far better. The Final Gambit's ending felt much more true to who they were.

Nothing can really be done now except wait for the full book and, if these concerns still hold up, respectfully voice them once it's released. This post isn't coming from a place of hate. Quite the opposite, actually. I have so much love and respect for JLB that writing this has been genuinely difficult. I also apologize for discussing leaked material, but I needed to explain why these excerpts have left me feeling so disappointed.

More than anything, this ending just doesn't feel like what The Inheritance Games set out to be.

To me, TIG was never about reaching a picture-perfect happily ever after. It was about healing, growing, learning to trust, and finding a family in the most unexpected places. That's what made the ending of The Final Gambit work so well—it felt like the natural combo of those themes.

This, at least from what I've seen, feels like it's chasing the image of a fairytale ending rather than staying true to the emotional journey the series spent multiple books building.