Title: The Inheritance
Author: JoAnn Ross
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

When conflict photographer Jackson Swann dies, he leaves behind a conflict of his own making when his three daughters, each born to a different mother, discover that they’re now responsible for the family’s Oregon vineyard—and for a family they didn’t ask for.

After a successful career as a child TV star, Tess is, for the first time in her life, suffering from a serious identity crisis, and renewed resentment around losing her father all over again.

Charlotte, brought up to be a proper Southern wife, gave up her own career to support her husband's political ambitions. On the worst day of her life, she discovers her beloved father has died, she has two sisters she never knew about, and her husband has fallen in love with another woman.

Natalie, daughter of Jack’s longtime mistress, has always known about her half sisters. And she can’t help feeling that when Tess and Charlotte find out, they’ll resent her for being the daughter their father kept.

As the sisters reluctantly gather at the Maison de Madeleine to deal with their father's final wishes, they become enchanted by the legacy they've inherited, and by their grandmother’s rich stories of life in WWII France and the wounded American soldier who would ultimately influence all their lives.

I actually really enjoyed this read! Tess was kind of unlikable at first, but she grew on me as she mellowed out a bit. As did Charlotte, who actually grew a pair and stood up for herself with her horrid, cheating husband. I would have enjoyed seeing more from Natalie’s viewpoint, as I liked her the best.

The stories of the three sisters, interspersed with tales from their grandmother’s time in the French Resistance, made for a compelling read, fraught with family tensions and truths waiting to be discovered.

JoAnn Ross is a bestselling author. The Inheritance is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Harlequin in exchange for an honest review.)

Thank you to #netgalley and #harlequintradepublishing for an advanced copy of this book to fairly and honestly review.
I cannot say enough good about this splendid story! The Inheritance tells the story, of the three daughters of photojournalist Jackson Swann : Tess, Charlotte, and Natalie who come to know of one another when they visit they inherit the family vineyard at his death. While learning of the depth of their father’s life experiences and the deep love discovered by their grandparents growing from heroism during WWII, the women redefine their lives and the meaning of love and family. An amazing novel! Thank you Joann Ross!!!

Ive never read Joann Ross before but after reading THE INHERITANCE, I quickly made a list of all of her previous books to read! Its quite the list let me tell you. This is a dual time line story, told in the time of World War II and the present. The present involves three half sisters coming to terms with their father’s death. The WWII story is about their grandmother and the French Resistance. Fascinating to say the least.

Charlotte, Tess, and Natalie are brought to Oregon to their father’s winery for the reading of his will. Being that they have never met before, there are many secrets and hurt feelings revealed. Once you start reading THE INHERITANCE be prepared not to do anything else until you finish. Ms. Ross pulls the reader in from the very first page as the story consumes them. I found myself afraid to turn the page for fear of what was going to be revealed next. I can’t believe I’ve never read this author before and Joann Ross is going on my auto buy author list right now!

The telling of how their 96 year old grandmother meets their grandfather was adventurous and heart stopping. Tess and Charlotte are meeting their grandmother for the first time and they are jealous of Natalie and the times she was able to spend with their father as well. I finished THE INHERITANCE in three days, but it will live in my heart much longer. I find myself thinking of the characters and the story often, and feel privileged to have been able to read it. If you enjoy bittersweet stories of love, war, and sacrifice, you will love THE INHERITANCE. The characters are all resilient spirits and their journeys were at times heartbreaking, inspiring and triumphant. When the story ended I was thinking that with their personal revelations many of the characters’ stories were just beginning. The message I took to heart in this story was that love is universal and love can heal.

Madeleine and the rest of the characters grew with each passing page, until I loved each and every one of them and their stories. THE INHERITANCE had me reaching for my box of Kleenex more than once. A war/love story like none I’ve read before. It’s filled with tradition, honor, triumph and tragedies. I strongly strongly recommend THE INHERITANCE.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Harlequin through Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This book has three half sisters who don’t know each other, meeting after their father’s death. They also discover they have a grandmother with a rich history to share. The sisters warily come to their father’s vineyard in Oregon, but quickly discover they have something to gain from this new family relationship. They learn about their father, their grandmother’s history and discover things about themselves.

When Pulitzer Prize winning conflict photographer Jackson Swann died, the most important thing that he left to his three daughters was not the award-winning Oregon winery that had been handed down in his family for generations, but each other.

The problem, the one that he left to his lawyer and his winery manager, was to get them to accept. Not just the winery – although certainly that, too – but mostly each other.

Tess Swann, Charlotte Aldredge and Natalie Seurat are all adults, all have – or have at least the shreds of – artistic careers of their own. But they’ve never met. They haven’t necessarily known that the others even existed.

These three women have been gathered together, not so much to celebrate the life of the man who links them, but rather to pick up the pieces of their own.

Tess, after a successful career as a child actress, a spectacular failure as a pop singer, and another successful career as a best-selling novelist, is looking for a third act in a life that has already seen plenty. She comes to the winery to recharge and search for a story idea that will get her past her writer’s block.

Her career sacrificed to her controlling husband’s political ambitions, her supposedly perfect marriage in tatters, Charlotte comes to the winery in search of respite and a place to call home – because her soon-to-be-ex-husband’s over-gilded and over-decorated faux antebellum McMansion certainly wasn’t it.

While Natalie returns to the winery to mourn the father that she knew best of all the sisters, and to make sure that her beloved, 96-year-old grandmother is doing as well as she can in the wake of her only son’s death.

Whether they will find what they are each looking for, or something more, or merely closure, they have one growing season at the winery to figure it all out together – or to tear themselves apart.

Escape Rating B: Like yesterday’s book (and a fair number of books in the chick lit/women’s fiction/relationship fiction genre), this is a story about three women, all of whom, coincidentally or otherwise, are at a crossroads in their lives or that face a crossroads because of the events of the story that bring them together.

In this case, the death of their larger-than-life father, no matter how much (Natalie) or how little (Tess) he participated in their lives. Jack Swann, who never seemed to quite know what to do with any of them when he could, manipulates them all after his death in a way that could have been horrible, but isn’t.

He provided an opportunity for all of them that he couldn’t have managed in life, for them to meet, be obligated to spend time together, get to know the grandmother that only Natalie was allowed to know about, and discover the legacy of the family they share.

The story of The Inheritance is, in a word, charming. Just as Jack Swann himself was, even if he couldn’t ever manage to stick around. The sisters are different enough from each other to stand as individuals, while at the same time sharing just enough characteristics to seem like they might make their initially tenuous connection work.

Their father turns out not to be the glue that ultimately binds them. That position is reserved for their grandmother Madeleine, who tells them the story of how she met and married their grandfather in France fighting for the Resistance in WW2. A story which inspires Tess’s writing, Charlotte’s realization that the life she has is not the one she wants or needs, and Natalie throwing caution to the winds in order to pursue the man she’s loved all her life.

I was charmed by this story, and thought that the way that the lives of the sisters finally mingled was lovely even if it was a bit contrived in the service of the story. There were a couple of bits that niggled at me.

Tess never met her father. That he didn’t raise her was one thing, but they never seem to have met at all in her conscious memory, and we never do find out why. As many family secrets as get revealed – and there are PLENTY – that omission felt like it just…dangled. Even after his marriage to Charlotte’s mother fell apart he was still a real if occasional presence in her life. But not Tess.

Second, there’s the show/tell repetition of Madeleine’s fascinating story about meeting, falling for and marrying her American pilot, Robert Swann. It’s a lovely and romantic story, and it serves as inspiration to all three sisters even though Tess is the one who plans to turn it into a novel. But we read Madeleine’s account as she remembers it and then it is repeated as she tells it to her granddaughters. While it’s normally better to show instead of tell, by the way the story works the telling feels like the better option. But one or the other would have been sufficient.

So I enjoyed reading The Inheritance, but it didn’t quite hit the spot as well as yesterday’s book. That’s possibly because this one reminded me a bit of Rhys Bowen’s World War II books, particularly In Farleigh Field, one of the subplots in Pardonable Lies, part of the Maisie Dobbs series and a third book I can’t put my finger on and it’s driving me bananas. It could be just because it’s a bit too similar to yesterday’s book and would have been a better read not quite so close.

But if you’re looking for a charming read that touches on a few dark places but doesn’t go too deeply, includes not one but four happy endings, and tells a lovely story of a surprising sisterhood, The Inheritance is a great way to while away some cozy reading hours.

This book was really amazing from beginning to end. I could not escape the world JoAnn Ross created with her storytelling and her come to life characters. Can't wait to get in print!

This is my first book by JoAnn Ross and it was one I was excited to read. The story is about three women who discover they are sisters when their father, Jackson Swann dies from lung cancer. Jackson left his daughters inheritance in his will but the stipulation is they have to come to his vineyard in Oregon for the reading of the will. Despite the reluctance, all three sisters agree to go to Oregon and meet for the first time.

The cover drew me into this book but to be honest, it took me quite a bit of the book to understand how the cover fit. The first half of the book is about the three sisters, their background, things they are dealing with in their lives, their relationship (or non relationship) with their father. Once the will is read and the sisters know what their inheritance is, the book changes to focus on the vineyard and its history. There were many times reading this book and seeing how much was left, that I thought a sequel would be perfect as I would love to read more about the sisters and the vineyard.

A story of three sisters who are forced to deal with each after their father’s demise. Two didn’t even know the existence of the others. They grapple With the new family dynamics and residue from the past. Punctuated with character development each sister has her own issues to fix. There are flashbacks to WWII which enhance the story. I like any kind of sister trope, but especially estranged ones.

Tess, Charlotte and Natalie are half sisters who inherit their father’s winery. Growing up they had never met or even knew about each other. The stipulation of their father’s will brings them together. Tess and Charlotte also meet their Grandmother for the first time.
There’s a lot going on in this book. We also get some insight to their Grandmother’s life working with the resistance during WW2. I do wish the book had gone on a little bit longer. All in all it was an enjoyable book.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

This book was very good. A historical fiction with a bit of a love story thrown in.

Jackson Swann had a full life. He traveled all over as a photographer. But what he left behind was somewhat heartbreaking. In many ways he was a bit selfish. He had three daughters by three different women. Two of whom he had married and was still married to one. After his death the sisters are brought together for the reading of his will. Jackson did love his daughters. In his own way. I still think he was selfish and not so great for Tess, his eldest daughter. But he did seem to love the girls. He should have maybe done a bit more but who knows. It could be just what it was meant to be.

Tess, Jackson's oldest, is a famous author and child star. She's lived her whole life not caring a bit about Jackson Swann. Calling him her sperm donor. She's had a full life though. As a child star and then an author with a best selling series she has a lot to be grateful for. When Donovan comes to tell her that her father has died of lung cancer and talk her into coming to Oregon for the reading of the will and to meet two sisters/half sister she declines. She doesn't want anything from Jackson. But of course Donovan changes her mind and she agrees.

Charlotte is the middle daughter who is married to a real piece of work who you will honestly hate. He's a jerk from the get go. She agrees to go to Oregon also. She wants to meet these sisters she never knew anything about. She's kind of happy to know she has them. But will all be ok. Will they accept her and her Southern ways? Will she fit in? She's really a very strong young woman when she has to be.

Natalie is the youngest and the one Jackson has spent the most time with. He was truly in love with her mother but they could not be married. Natalie is a sweet young woman who knows what she wants and goes for it. She's a photographer like their dad. She's also in love with Donovan. But will things work out? Will the other two sister's accept her? Will they hate her because their father spent so much time with her?

Madeleine is Jackson mother and she's a former resistance fighter from WW2 where she met and fell in love with Robert, her longtime husband. She had lost him ten years prior to losing Jackson. She's strong but still morning the loss of her son. She's also very happy to finally meet her other two granddaughters, Tess and Charlotte. She has been a part of Natalie's life of course. She is crazy about all of these young women and makes them feel welcome and loved.

Then we have Gideon. He is in charge of the vineyard. Jackson never had a real interest in being a farmer or owning this vineyard but would not sell it either. He hired Gideon to run things. Gideon and his young teen daughter live on the estate and are very close. His wife Becky had died of cancer when their daughter was just a small child. Moving to Oregon was the move they needed to start over.

This is a very good book. It runs smoothly and keeps you interested. You get to know each character. What they do and how they feel. Who they love and who they will love. How they feel about each other and other's in their lives. As Madeleine tells them about her time during the war and how she met their grandfather you will see what life was like for her during the most horrible time in history. Or one of the most horrible times. What she did as a young teen to help and how she met Robert. This book will keep you tuning the pages. Maybe not as fast as some but it's still a great story. It's a historical fiction/love story all in one. I enjoyed it.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #JoAnnRoss, #Harlequin for this ARC. This is my own true feelings about this book.

4/5 stars and I recommend it highly.

The Inheritance by JoAnn Ross is a stand alone novel. At the start, we meet Jackson Swann, a famous photographer, who spent his whole life going to dangerous sites to take dark and morbid photos. Jackson is home at the family estate, knowing he is in the last days of his life due to a cancer battle. Jackson works with his friend and manager of the estate and vineyard, Gideon to finalize a will.

A short time later, upon Jackson’s death, the family lawyer meets separately with Jackson’s three daughters from different mothers, and neither knowing anything about each other. With the will to be read, the lawyer pushes each daughter to attend the reading of the will at the estate, Maison de Madeleine, in Aberdeen, Oregon.

First, we meet Tess, the oldest daughter, who hasn’t seen her father all these years, and resents him. She is a famous tv actress and now a well-known author. Wanting nothing to do with the estate, she reluctantly gives in to learn more about her father and her newly found half-sisters.

Charlotte, who is married and considered a Southern Belle, but at the same time the lawyer advises her to come to the estate, she learns her husband has been cheating on her. When she confronts her husband, he tells the truth, and says he loves the other woman. Charlotte decides to leave and see what the inheritance and her sisters are like.

Natalie, the youngest daughter, is the only one who has seen her father often, as he was living with them for many years. She too is a famous photographer like her father, but her photos are of more bright and pleasant things.

When the girls arrive separately, they will meet their grandmother, who is in her nineties. The story line will revolve around the girls meeting each other, and learning all about their grandmother’s rich stories of life in WWII France and the wounded American soldier who would ultimately influence all their lives. They learn quickly about the terms of the will, which states that the 3 sisters must stay at Chateau de Madeleine through the next harvest before inheriting the business. The most valuable piece of the inheritance is the winery, which has had very successful wines, and a large part of the inheritance includes this.

What follows is an emotional story line, as we watch the sisters begin to accept each other, as well as the men who become part of their lives. Each of the sisters manage to rise up to get past some personal issues, especially acknowledging each other’s as true sisters. Gideon was a great addition, as he also was part of the inheritance, as he was the one who would keep the winery going, and I loved him and Tess together. The grandmother’s telling of the past during the war in France, was very well done. I also loved the grandmother, Madeleine.

The Inheritance was a wonderful, heartwarming story of love, forgiveness and happiness. The Inheritance was very well written by JoAnn Ross. I suggest to read this book.

As the 3 sisters from one father and 3 different mothers reluctantly gather at the Maison de Madeleine to deal with their father's final wishes, they become enchanted by the legacy they've inherited, and by their grandmother’s rich stories of life in WWII France and the wounded American soldier who would ultimately influence all their lives.

Three sisters who didn’t know each other existed needed to get together after their father passed.

They didn’t know each other because each sister had a different mother, and their father never really kept in touch.

As the attorney handling the estate of their father met each sister at her home and invited them to the reading of the will, he was worried they wouldn’t comply.

They did comply, and two of the three sisters were shocked when they saw the house that looked like a house in France and when they met a grandmother they never knew about who was born in France and was part of the French Resistance. The attorney declared success!!

A slow start to this book did lead to a terrific story line about the sisters, the house, and the information their grandmother relayed about her life as a member of the French Resistance.

Readers are treated to a book about the joy of finding family, finding love, and realizing happiness can come at any time in your life no matter how late.

An enjoyable read for women’s fiction fans and WWII fans. 4/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the story of Jackson Swann's family and how he brought his daughters to Oregon after his death. The editing of the book was why I did not give this 5 stars. The F and L and every word was split and there were places where JoAnn Ross showed up in the story.

JoAnn Ross’s anticipated women’s fiction debut couldn’t have come at a worse time for the author. It was the first year in 38 years that she didn’t publish a book! Despite having had 8 surgeries in 11 months and 2 hospital-borne Superbug infections, the author was able to rely on a village of people to bring this dream to reality. I believe this novel only furthers Ross’s message – struggles, although difficult and sometimes unavoidable, have the ability to pull us closer to loved ones and rely on their strength, culminating in a formidable force.

This New York Times bestselling author with more than 100 novels published, drew on her love and knowledge of the Pacific Northwest in this recent saga. Set just 50 miles from the author’s home, the Chateau de Madeleine winery in Aberdeen, Washington is the meeting place for a struggling and grieving family.

Tess Swann, a novelist with an acting background, Charlotte Swann Aldredge, a Southern designer with a failing marriage, and Natalie Seurat Swann, a French photographer are three estranged half-sisters who’ve grown up without contact or, in some cases, without prior knowledge of each other. Their father, Jackson Swann, has recently died and they’ve been summoned to the winery for a reading of the will.

Upon arrival, they meet their 96-year-old grandmother, Madeleine, who shares stories about how she met their grandfather. The girls learn about a fearless woman who joined the French resistance and met her future husband, a WW2 American pilot. Expertly woven into the story is the concept of inheritance. The Swann girls learn that not only are they inheriting the Oregon winery their grandfather built for his French war bride, but they have also already inherited their grandmother’s strength and tenacity. At a time when they each are facing a crisis of their own, this knowledge has the ability to unite them….a conclusion already foreseen by their deceased father.

The terms of the will state that the 3 sisters must stay at Chateau de Madeleine through the next harvest before inheriting the business. Will they be able to stand each other long enough to sell their portion? Will forgiveness allow them to become a family? Can their grandmother’s wartime experience help them navigate their struggles? Can they use this opportunity to consider what ‘could be’?

Pour yourself a glass of merlot and enjoy this emotional multigenerational and wartime love story - a fantastic and engrossing read about family secrets, rivalry, history and loyalty that bond a family together.

Publishes September 7, 2021.

I was gifted this advance copy by JoAnn Ross, Harlequin Publishing and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book a lot. The characters were well written and the plot was interesting.

This is the story of 3 sisters who grew up not knowing each other. Their Father has recently died and left them shares in a winery he owns. The story is about the sisters learning about each other and forgiving the Father who neglected them. We also have a Grandmother who was part of the resistance during WWII who tells her story in a narrative to the family. I really enjoyed that part of the book. This is a story about a family coming together and learning to love each other. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

Three sisters meet for the first time after they are told their father has died. Gathering at the family owned winery, they don’t realize their lives are about to be changed forever. This was a good story, combining historical fiction with a modern story and drizzled with romance!

Well, this book was a surprise! I had just finished reading three books by another author and had to check to be certain this wasn't written by the other author as the location and plot was very similar. I was pleased to find out it was written by a different author, Joann Ross, and that it was only similar on the surface.

This story is about three half sisters who really don't know that they each exist. They share paternity in their father, a highly esteemed photographer, who dies from cancer and leaves his considerable estate to the three daughters, hoping to unite them. It is a little dicey at first, as the eldest daughter never even knew who her father was, and nearly refused to go to the reading of the will. The second and third daughters also had reason to not attend the funeral or reading, yet they all managed to attend, thus managing to form their own sisterhood.

For the measure of a couple of months the girls all live in the mansion their father had left, learning about the extensive vineyard and property he had inherited from his own father. The future of the famous property depended on the ability of the girls to decide to keep the business running or sell it off, take their gains and walk away from each other.

While waiting for harvest season, they manage to learn about each other, and they eventually become a true family. All perfectly wealthy on their own, due to the inherited creativity from their father, they find a purpose in family and form a close bond.

A great "feel good" read: one that warmed my heart. We could use more good books like this one.

Great story about sisters who lose their father only to find each other, a French resistance fighter grandmother, and the loves of their lives.