This story of a family shaken by its dead patriarch's possible affair was too boring and contrived to finish.

This book opens with the death of the patriarch Rupert, leaving behind a very wealthy, upper class family consisting of his wife Eleanor and his five sons who have all been raised to fit into their own niche-one a doctor, one a music prodigy, one a prosecutor, another a law professor and the last a Hollywood agent. Not long after Rupert's death Eleanor is informed that the estate is being sued by a woman claiming to have two sons fathered by Rupert. While all five sons are thrown into turmoil questioning the veracity of this Eleanor is decidedly unfazed and seemingly unconcerned. Did she know if Rupert fathered these children or is this just a ruse? The book continues with each chapter told from a different person's perspective, which along with their significant others, becomes quite confusing trying to remember who goes with who. It is a very well written, although somewhat slow paced book more along the lines of a soap opera.

If I had to sum up my feelings about this book in one word it would be ambivalent. While the story kept my interest, it felt very long. There is no doubt, the Falkes are one loving yet dysfunctional family!

Couldn't put it down. Well constructed story line. Nicely developed characters. A plus book.

What a great read!
The story begins with the death of the Falkes family patriarch and the havoc that ensues following an unexpected
discovery. The plot traces the members of the family focusing on the parents relationship with their five sons. What follows is an exciting, fast-paced revelation of secrets and how they affect all involved. The author writes with sensitivity infused with humor and pathos.
When you finish this find, you'll want to immediately follow the author by reading her other book.

A solid 4 star read.

Told through alternating perspectives, we meet Eleanor and Rupert, parents to the inimitable Falkeses; Harry, Will, Sam, Jack, and Tom. With each chapter, we flip from the past to the present as each son comes to terms with their father's death, the family secrets that come to light, and confronting who they are.

I thought this was a fast-paced, well written story about the messy, complicated thing that is called a family. It doesn't pussyfoot around secrets and lies, but rather shows each character, warts and all, unapologetically as we muddle through their grief.

If you read and loved The Nest then I think you will enjoy this book as well. You may not always like the characters, but you will be drawn to them. The Falkeses are a family that just draw you right in.

Recommended read.

This novel is so unique in just the depth of the voices within it and the style in which it is told. You will fall in love with and loath with characters and keep reading because you will want to get to the end but not want it over!

The Heirs
By Susan Rieger
If you like to breathe deeply or sleep, this book is not for you. It begins when death jolts a wealthy New York family. Rupert Falks succumbs to cancer and as his secrets are revealed, his wife and sons unfurl their personal loathing and devotion to him. Their grief transitions immeasurably by the exposed pieces of Rupert’s life they both adore and abhor.
It’s rags to riches. It’s history repeats itself for the pleasure of naivety and self-indulgence. And it’s family striving to be more, failing, then settling for what they can. .
While there seemed to me at first to be an overabundance of telling and backstory, keep reading. The richness and riches of this family will both sadden you and lure you inside until you feel you are one of them.

A bit of a repetitive plot, but the vivid characters more than make up for that. I really enjoyed the original take of characters and the different perspectives. Each characters had a clear defined voice which made the story interesting and engaging.

I have to say I love dysfunction families, and this one family was a good example. However, I didn't particularly like any of the characters, and I was put off by Eleanor, the mother. Unbelievably beautiful and worshiped by one and all, I found her perfection irritating and implausible. Somehow she managed to ensnare the lifelong love of two men, merely by her loveliness When she found out her late husband betrayed her, her reaction seems to be too saintlike. Where is her anger? Without proof, she wants to give her husband's other family a generous settlement, against the wishes of her attorney and one of her sons. That seems to be the root of the conflict in the book, and it was rather lethargically portrayed A sub-plot involving a still besotted suitor goes nowhere, and the happy resolution of her gay son's quest for a baby are less than enthralling. Money seems to be the answer to every problem in this book..

My apologies, I will not be providing a review on our website for this novel. I found it to be quite dry and boring. :-( Terribly sorry, but I cannot write a review for a book that I did not enjoy - it's not something I do. I appreciate the availability of the eBook being made available to us, I'm terribly sorry I am unable to provide a positive review at this time.

For anyone who adores characters and the way that each person's history might contribute to a larger picture, this is a must read.

This was a gorgeous exploration of the spiderweb way that one man's connections interact with the world and, without having the clichés found in a butterfly effect novel, the way that the decisions people make affect generations to come.

This is split up into chapters that loosely focus on characters and the way that the main events had played into their lives. Rupert and Eleanor had five sons, each of whom is well drawn and has a distinct personality from the others. Rieger's ability to create people that feel absolutely real is astounding, and while I was excited to read about new characters, I also found myself aching to know about the interplay between them all.

I enjoyed the general atmosphere of this book and the way that it read. While there wasn't a clear and distinct plot and it felt at points like a collection of short stories, I enjoyed the way it begun and the succinct way that it wrapped itself up, simultaneously giving answers and creating questions.

Rieger's talent for breathing life into characters is one I look forward to seeing again in the future.

I received this book through Netgalley and so glad I did. The title sums up this book nicely. I really enjoyed this book. There are many characters to keep straight but once you get that down, it’s great. The story evolves around the father’s, Rupert, abandonment, survival, education, marriage, love relationships, and death.

Each chapter is about a character. The first chapter introduces Eleanor, (Rupert) wife, and their five sons. Rupert and all of his sons are Princeton educated and very successful. The sons’ relationships, marriages and children extend the family – the heirs. Its ironic Eleanor and Rupert have five sons but their grandchildren are all girls!

I highlighted a number of philosophical lines that I want to remember. For example, “Not all men but most … are buying their mothers a gift. And when their wives show their disappointment, by returning it or burying it in the back of the closet, the men are baffled, hurt.” So true!

There are a couple of surprises in the story that feel real. I recommend this book. Don’t give up with the number of characters at the beginning. It’s worth it!

Eleanor and Rupert had a long and happy marriage on New York City's upper east side before he passed away after battling cancer. They were married for decades and raised five happy and healthy sons Rupert, being the Englishman he was, did not show much affection to his children, but was utterly devoted to his wife and family. Despite his proper behavior, the boys loved him and adored their mother. Eleanor grieves for her husband like any woman would and six months after his death she is contacted by a woman claiming to have had two sons by Rupert. She is suing his estate for what she feels is fair for her children. Eleanor takes the news a lot better than her sons as all of them deal with the news that the man they thought was full of honor and integrity had cheated on his wife and family. Each of the five sons handles the news in different ways, but ultimately it is Eleanor's decision on how to handle this news. What will the news of his philandering ways do to the legacy of Rupert Falkes?

The Heirs was an easy book in which to get lost. I know it doesn't really seem like a page-turner, but I really couldn't put it down. In a matter-of-fact way, the author gives us the history of Eleanor and Rupert's marriage. Starting with Rupert's final days in the hospital and working backward, but not sticking with any chronological timeline. I very much loved Eleanor and her subtle wit that must have made raising five sons so much easier. We learn that Eleanor was very much in love with another man, but her parents disapproved of him because he was Jewish. She met Rupert while at school and even though he was an orphan, his English heritage made him much more acceptable to her family. The further you get into the book you realize that Eleanor was not Rupert's first love either. I liked all of the sons and the author seemed to really focus on two of them, Harry and Sam. I would have liked to get to know the others as well as we got to know them. But Sam was my favorite, for sure, and each of them let the news of their father's philandering impact them in different ways. The end of the book kind of snuck up on me, but the conclusion was one that made sense.

Bottom line - Even though The Heirs is one of those books that has a flashy premise and some salacious details, I don't think it is going to be a book for all to enjoy. The Heirs is a painstaking look at one family's history and what happens when they discover their father led a secret life. While I thoroughly got swept up in the story, I don't think everybody will enjoy it like I did. Let me know what you think!

Details:
The Heirs by Susan Rieger
On Goodreads
Pages: 272
Publisher: Crown Archetype
Publication Date: 5/23/2017
Buy it Here!

Good complex family story. Lots of connections and very relatable!

All the stars. I adored this book and was so sad when it ended! It's a slow but rich story covering generations and a wide web of connected characters - it's a story of marriage and parenthood, a story of fidelity and infidelity, and most of all, a story of Eleanor Phipps, a woman I desperately want to be like when I grow up. It is warm and detailed and filled with such incredible dry wit. I loved reading and thinking about just how true it is that children will never, and should never, truly understand their parents. The Heirs is a wonderful saga, and it will stay with me for a long time. Highly recommend.

I just put “The Heirs” on my list of Top 10 novels for 2017. I’m sure I will read many other great books this year (at least I hope so!), but “The Heirs” was exceptional. The death of Rupert Falkes, the patriarch of a wealthy New York family, is a blow (in varying degrees) to his wife Eleanor and their adult sons Harry, Will, Jack, Sam, and Tom. The Falkes family has always seen themselves as a particulary tight-knit unit - “Team Falkes, Always Team Falkes.” The brothers label themselves “The Five Famous, Fierce, Forceful, Faithful, Fabled, Fortunate, Fearless Falkeses.” But their closeness is thrown into turmoil when Eleanor receives notification of a lawsuit against Rupert’s estate, filed by Vera Wolinski, claiming that Rupert is the father of her two sons. Eleanor and her sons all have different reactions to the possibility that Rupert fathered other children, but they are baffled by Eleanor’s seeming acceptance of that possibility and her desire to set up a trust for the Wolinski boys. The brothers question whether they really knew their parents at all. The Falkes family is not the only one questioning paternity, as other families in their orbit are confronted with the effects of unknown or uncertain paternity. The introduction of these other families provides additional depth and complexity to the rich portrait Rieger paints of family relationships. Written with nuance, wit, insight, and an intricate and captivating plot, the “The Heirs” is a masterful work of literary fiction. It now has a permanent place on my bookshelf and I know I’ll be reading it again.

My review was posted on Goodreads on 5/25/17

I read really enjoyed this book. It is beautifully written, the characters are likable and I was engaged from the beginning.

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The Heirs begins with the death of the family Patriarch, Rupert Faulkes. Rupert had it all. Rupert had a beautiful wife, five well doing adult sons, a beautiful home and secrets to boot. When Rupert died, his secrets would later surface and smear his families reputation. Soon after he passes a woman comes forth with a letter and a lawsuit saying she had two of his sons, and wanted to be compensated.


Eleanor being a woman of class had her attorneys look through everything to see what truth there may be to what this woman is saying. Through this journey of Rupert's past you are able to see the fallacies, and challenges that come when someone leaves behind secrets. These secrets aren't just Rupert's secrets they are the whole families secrets that come to light.


Eleanor leads this family with everything she has learned over the years that she has been married to Rupert in order to navigate the secrets that have come to light, but also to conceal what she has hidden for years.


The people you think you know he best you may not know at all. Do you truly know the people you call family? Will your secrets come out once you are gone?
The Heirs is a beautifully written book with great character development. Each chapter was dedicated to a person within the story but carried through to other people and their involvement within the story. Even though each chapter was for one person each person had a part in a chapter or more to tell the story they wanted shared. I appreciated that there was a third person narrative running throughout the book.


With each character developed I wasn't bale to really connect with one in particular. With certain characters there could have been less detail to serve the book in great purpose. In other parts there wasn't enough detail there, or clarity. The secrets that were told weren't solidified as to their answers. I think with more from certain characters there would have been more clarity. With this book having so many characters, there could have been less time spent on some characters and more on the others.


The chase to find out the truth of these secrets is what kept me reading into the wee hours of the morning. I wanted to have the finality of the answers, but non were truly given. There was too much mystery about Eleanor and her past that wasn't shared. If there would have been some more light shed on her past then we could have gotten a better sense of her and Rupert's relationship. Eleanor is a very likeable character because she starts as this simplistic character who will do anything to keep her family together and do the right thing. Everyone wants that in a parent whether they admit it or not. As Eleanor's character developed you were able to see that she was so much more complex. If the author would have spent a little more time on her I think she would have unfolded to be a much more complex but amazing character.


The main issue I dealt with was that there was so definitive answers for what secrets were out.


The Heirs as a whole was a read for entertainment and kept you engaged enough to keep reading. With the dramatics of the secrets and the characters there was more than enough to keep you interested throughout the whole book.

It has been a long time since I enjoyed a work of contemporary fiction as much as I enjoyed this book. I was so reluctant to put it down that, f time permitted, I would have read it in one sitting.

As someone who reads for character, this book was a gift. There was a complexity to each character and an interpersonal dynamic in this family tale that fascinated me. The characters weren't created to inspire the reader's love, or acceptance, they were simply "being." I loved their complexity and the way they were so self-contained. These features made the story riveting to me and the book one of my favorites this year.

NetGalley provided me with a complimentary copy of the book in return for an honest review.