Audiobook Review: The Ruling Class by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Ruling Class
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Narrator: Ina-Marie Smith
Series: The Fixer (Book 1)
Publication: Bloomsbury YA (September 2, 2025)
Length: 10 hours and 5 minutes

Description: This mystery thriller by the bestselling author of The Inheritance Games is a gripping story of high stakes, betrayal, and unpredictable twists.

Any problem can be fixed for a price . . .

When Tess Kendrick is  isent to stay with her older sister in Washington D.C., she has no idea that Ivy is the capitol’s go-to “fixer,” a person who can make powerful people’s scandals disappear with a snap of her fingers. Tess never thought she and Ivy had much in common, but when she enrolls at the exclusive Hardwicke School, she soon finds herself thrust into the role of high school fixer, solving problems for the children of the D.C. elite.

But secrets pile up as each sister lives a double life, and their worlds come crashing together when a scandal from the halls of Hardwicke reaches Capitol Hill. As the stakes turn deadly, Tess must uncover who’s behind the power play before she becomes a target herself.

My Thoughts: Seventeen-year-old Tess Kendrick lives in Montana on her grandfather's ranch. She has been taking care of him while he is developing Alzheimer's, but the school alerts her older sister Ivy Kendrick when Tess's behaviors change. 

Ivy sweeps Tess away to Washington, D.C., where she works and transfers her grandfather to a facility in Boston for possible treatment. Tess resents being swept away by the older sister she thinks abandoned her years earlier. She doesn't even know what Ivy does.

Tess is enrolled in the Hardwicke school where she meets the children of Washington's movers and shakers. Many of them know more about Ivy than Tess does. She learns that Ivy is a fixer who manages to take care of a multitude of problems in Washington.

Many of her classmates look at Tess as their own fixer which isn't far from the truth. When she comes upon a freshman crying in the bathroom, she's the one who confronts the older boys who have taken pictures of her and confiscates the phone. She later learns that the girl is the Vice President's daughter and the picture taking slime is the son of the Whip. 

When she arrives, things are already in turmoil. Her fellow student Henry's grandfather is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He dies under what the grandson believes are suspicious circumstances and her new friend Vivvy's father is the man who operated on him. Vivvy overhears enough to believe that he killed him. 

Tess and her new friends are busy investigating. So is Ivy but their investigations, while on parallel tracks, are secret from each other. 

This was an engaging and suspenseful thriller filled with secrets. I loved getting to know Tess and empathized with both the disruption in her life and the uncertainty in it. Tess has lots of problems to solve not least of which is the relationship with her sister. Luckily, she has the brains and ability to do so. 

The cliffhanger ending is sending me running to The Long Game which continues the story. 

I bought this audiobook May 11. You can buy your copy here.