I really wanted to love this one. It seemed to have it all there. It was atmospheric, it was weird at times, there was suspense, there was a murder and a mystery, yet somehow at the end, it did not feel like it was ticking all the right boxes for me. While it is definitely very well written, the story is skillfully told and the characters are great, for some unknown to me reason I was expecting more from it. By no means, at no point did the book fall flat for me, it was good, really good. I think it was me, not the book. I was the problem with my weird high expectations.

"There should be some kind of warning when your life is about to change forever."

When Ruby McTavish, the heiress to a massive fortune, dies, she leaves it all to her adopted son Cam. But Ruby's infamous wealth comes with strings attached, ones that Cam would do anything to escape. Cam abandons the fortune, but a summons ten years later brings him and his wife, Jules, right back into the mystery and lies of the McTavish family.

I loved this book! Told in the alternating perspectives of Ruby, Cam, and Jules, this book hooks you very early on. There's so many mysteries--did Ruby really kill her husbands, and if so why? What's the deal with Ashby house? Why did Cam come back? What's up with Jules?--and I just love the way they all unraveled. My only real complaint is that Cam and Jules really blended together, to the point that it was difficult to tell whose perspective I was in.

I haven’t been a huge fan of Rachel in the past but this book changed my opinion of her writing.
I’ve been in a bit of a slump lately, I picked this book up this morning and was unable to put it down.

It gives Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo vibes. I loved the letters from Ruby, the 2 point of views from Jules and Camden. Everyone in that house was holding secrets.

So many murders, secrets, gossip, hate, jealousy. It didn’t have too many twists but it wasn’t even needed in my opinion. The ending was great and tied everything together.

I will continue to read more Rachel Hawkins’s books because of this one!

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for my honest opinion!

I’ve read most of the books by this author and they are always fun for a quick and thrilling read - but this is my favorite by far! I love that she always has a twist or two and I never quite know how it will end - thrilling but not too scary that I can’t sleep! Loved it.

I loved Rachel Hawkins's previous books and The Heiress was not the exception.

A brilliant page-turner. I couldn't put it down. I believe this has been the most exhilarating Rachel's book so far.

Love the multiple POVs, always do in a book. Dark, twisted, and captivating. I just wanted to keep reading. I was immersed in the story from beginning to end.

Thank you, St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the free advanced copy, in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing a copy of The Heiress in exchange for an honest review!

This is my first time reading a Rachel Hawkins thriller. I have read her romance work published under Erin Starling (I can't believe we didn't get a new installment in 2023!) and one of her YA novels from several years ago. I'm not sure if this is a me issue but when I hear thriller and think of the thriller genre I tend to envision something extremely fast paced, filled with many twists and turns. This is not really what this book is. I would classify this as more of a mystery novel than a thriller novel. For me it brought to mind a mashup of Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Knives Out but only in the loosest sense of those works. Part of the novel is letters written by the now deceased Ruby McTavish detailing her past and how she earned the moniker "Mrs. Kill-more" and part of the novel is her adopted son, Camden, returning to Ruby's estate with his wife, Jules, and attempting to deal with his overly entitled family members. I found the beginning of this quite slow and it did take me a while to get into but I ended up very intrigued by Ruby's story and there's a big twist in the middle that finally got me hooked, desperate to find out what happened next.

Thank you so much to the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I have loved every book by Rachel Hawkins so far and this might be my favorite. I didn’t know anything about it before diving in and I loved how immediately immersive it is.

Ruby is part of a big fancy family up in the Appalachian mountains, except is she? Scandal ensues. Follow Ruby’s life through cryptic letters she’s written, news articles, and present day Camden, her adoptive son, having to return to Ashby House with his wife to take care of some loose strings.

This one wasn’t for me. I got about 30% and decided to DNF. I just found that it wasn’t keeping my attention and the characters didn’t have any pull for me

Thank you to St. Martins Press and Netgalley for my Gifted copy

This was a fantastic book. This book sucks you in from the first page and holds your attention right to the end. I loved that it’s written in the form of letters, old newspaper articles and chapters in the current time. The twists were many and so unexpected throughout the entire book. I highly recommend this addictive read!

Once this book got going, I couldn’t put it down. I found myself reading “just” one more chapter over and over again. The twists and turns kept me hooked.

I am the first to say that the trope of the ultra-rich family with dark secrets isn’t one I often read. I put this ARC off for months, despite great reviews from my Goodreads friends, and I can see why. I think I asked to review it to give the author another chance after reading a book I found mediocre, and while this is better than mediocre, I think maybe this author just isn’t meant to be one of my favorites.

All of that being said, there were definitely parts of this book that were really good. We have two stories in one, both revolving around a wealthy family, the McTavishes, and the massive estate they own in Tavistock, North Carolina. The Ashby House is almost an institution, and the family has always been the most powerful in the area.

The book starts with the abduction of Baby Ruby McTavish (later to become Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore, if you want to be proper about it) in 1943. The toddler was taken, but later found being raised by a couple of grifters. Ruby was reunited with her family, and later in life had her own children, including her adopted son, Camden.

Cam and his wife Jules have never wanted to own the house, despite everything being left to him in Ruby’s will. Suffice to say, her biological family is not too thrilled about the inheritance being given to an adopted child who isn’t a true McTavish. Camden never wanted it though - not the house, and not the money. He never spent a penny of what his adoptive mother gave him. His wife, however, would love to be living in The Ashby House, and being part of that blue-blooded society.

Half of the book is about what to do with the house and money, but the other half is full of letters that Ruby wrote to Camden before her death. In them, she purges herself of her wrongdoings - specifically killing of her four husbands. The letters are written formally but are shocking in nature; this is a mother coming clean to her son, the son she chose to be the heir.

The writing style in this book wasn’t my favorite. The plot wasn’t my favorite. The slooow burn is not my favorite. The family is an overdone mess. Still, this book was a good cozy mystery, and in the end (which I actually didn’t care for) I enjoyed the story more than I thought I would. If you love cozy mysteries and slow burns, this will be your book. For me, it’s 3.5 stars.

(Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Rachel Hawkins and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on January 9, 2024.)

Title: The Heiress
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Genre: Thriller
Rating: 4.3 out of 5

When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge mountains. In the aftermath of her death, that estate—along with a nine-figure fortune and the complicated legacy of being a McTavish—pass to her adopted son, Camden.

But to everyone’s surprise, Cam wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.

Ten years later, Camden is a McTavish in name only, but a summons in the wake of his uncle’s death brings him and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but coming home reminds Cam why he was so quick to leave in the first place.

Jules, however, has other ideas, and the more she learns about Cam’s estranged family—and the twisted secrets they keep—the more determined she is for her husband to claim everything Ruby once intended for him to have.

But Ruby’s plans were always more complicated than they appeared. As Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will––and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.

Okay, the McTavish family is horrible. All of the McTavish family, blood relatives or not. This was an engrossing read, but these people were horrible. Lots of twists and turns here, and Ruby’s POV was fascinating—and horrifying. I liked Cam and Jules, but there’s more to them than meets the eye, too. If you’re looking for a twisty thriller read, give this a try.

Rachel Hawkins is a bestselling author who lives in Alabama. The Heiress is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

(Blog link live 1/11).

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I truly enjoyed this read. There’s were definitely aspects that revealed themselves early, but there were enough variables and unknowns that it stayed a page turner. Is anyone really good? Do you ever really know anyone? Or the truth?

I thought this book was a pretty solid mystery thriller but nothing exceptional. The plot twists were somewhat predictable but not entertaining nonetheless.

This book has three alternating POVs: Camden (Ruby’s adopted son and heir of the McTavish house & fortune), Jules (Camden’s wife), and letters from Ruby McTavish. I absolutely hated the narration style in Jules’ POV where she speaks directly to the reader. I already dislike it when the POV character purposely misleads or straight-up lies to the reader about key information to generate a big “plot twist.” It’s even worse when the POV character does that and then talks to the reader about how “it isn’t what it looks like” and launches into a multi-page explanation. In my opinion, it’s lazy writing and a total cop-out to actually having to explain motivations or integrate backstory into the narrative without an obvious infodump.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I finished this in one day! A beautiful estate, family secrets revealed, love and betrayal, suspense, intriguing characters, and unexpected twists. The story is told from multiple perspectives who each add a unique viewpoint. The storyline jumps from past to present and includes occasional news releases that add to the story. I read this on my kindle but I could envision it being a fantastic audiobook as well.

Bland, nothing unique or noteworthy, boring storyline and I was just disappointed in general because I was really looking forward to this one.

This book started off a bit slow for me but after I read about 50% of it, I couldn't put it down!! I loved the format of it as well. The mix of letters, articles, and the POV chapters really fleshed out the story. There's a huge plot twist in the end that I really enjoyed! I'm glad I ended the year with such a good read.

I've really been loving Rachel Hawkins (the Villa was one of my best of the year) and I adored this one!

Wow! This book blew me away! What terrible, despicable people. Talk about characters you love to hate.
Everybody had a secret. Everybody had an agenda. Most of the family was trying to stab the others in the back. Definitely not a family you want to join. Even money isn't worth putting up with these backstabbers. I devoured this book. It was hypnotic. You couldn't help but be sucked into the story of this family of vipers.

This book was just okay. The letters were exciting but the overall “drama” didn’t really ramp up until the last 15% of the book. I didn’t really find this as a book I was eager to continue reading, but I also wasn’t entirely bored by it.