The Heiress

Rachel Hawkins

This book was different. I’ve read other books by this same author that I enjoyed but this one fell a bit flat.

It was interesting but nothing outstanding. The amount of unnecessary deaths didn’t seem to fit. I did enjoy the relationship between Cam and Jules. However, how the hell dis they get a happy ending?

It was ok, just not my personal fav.

Thank you Netgally for allowing me to review this book prior to the publish date.

✭ ✭ / 5


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⭐️Book Review⭐️ The Heiress

Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for the #AdvanceReviewCopy

Release Date: January 2024
Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Summary: Ruby McTavish comes from a wealthy family and is the heiress to the family estate and fortune. She’s well know by her own right having been married 4 times and experiencing all 4 husbands dying while under her watch. Coincidence or something more sinister?

10 years after her own death, her son, Cam and his wife Jules, return to the family home to face his unloving relatives who believe Cam should not have inherited the family fortune. What will it take to reverse the will that leaves Cam everything and win back what the family feels should be theirs by birthrights?

My Thoughts: This was fantastic! The characterization, plot twists, and the suspense all made this one a great read! A bit of a slow burn but it worked so well. With several narrators, including part of the story delivered epistolary, we gained insight into the ugly past that ultimately shaped the characters’ futures. The vivid and wild descriptions of the house and property brought the place to life, almost as if Ashby House was a character and I loved that.

Containing themes of dark family secrets, inheritance, and murder this one packs a punch.

I think this is my favourite from this author!

If you enjoy a book with lots of family history, secrets, and several conniving characters, this one is for you!

Five stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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#rachelhawkins
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#bookreview

My God, I cannot wait for this to hit shelves so I can publicly scream about it on all my socials. My favorite book by Rachel yet!

This was definitely a page turner. I am never disappointed in the author's books. And I love an ending that continued to unravel itself. Good winter vibes!

Thank you Netgalley and St Martin's Press for allowing me to read an advanced copy of The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins.

This story is about the McTavishes, a rich family who lives in the Ashby House high in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Ruby McTavish has had a checkered past from being lost in the woods when she was a child to being mysteriously widowed to four men. She passes away and leaves the family's house and money to her son Camden McTavish. However, Camden wants nothing to do with the McTavishes or the inheritance. He moves far away and lives in an apartment with his wife making low wages. Ten years later, Camden's uncle passes away and he is summoned back to the house. He reluctantly goes back and takes his wife with him to sort things out.

The POVs of the story are Camden and his wife, Jules. In between the Camden and Jules chapters you get multimedia of news reports, magazine articles, and letters from Ruby explaining her notorious past. The McTavishes minus Camden are all awful greedy people who care about nothing but their own personal agendas to obtain the house and the money. And although Ruby was a dark character, I still rooted for her at times. People who just read general fiction or are getting into thrillers should start with Rachel Hawkins books. She's great at storytelling and character-building before the ending blows everything apart.

One thing I noticed while reading was the idea of an older woman writing about her husbands. Mix that in with the glimpse of the woman in the green dress on the book cover and the description of Ruby wearing the green dress gave me full Evelyn Hugo vibes. I'm not sure if this story was inspired by Evelyn Hugo but it feels like a small piece of it was. So if you like Evelyn Hugo and thrillers, this story could be for you! That aside, the story overall was a good one and I enjoyed the journey with the reveals along the way.

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
Gothic romances have a few things in common that readers expect and return to the genre again and again to find. Rachel Hawkins understands this, and delivers in full with The Heiress. A happy couple, haunted by the past that they’ve run all the way to the Colorado Mountains to escape, a family mystery that sent them back, and a gorgeous southern manor filled with dysfunctional family. A perfect kind of mystery you won’t want to put down. Delighted to recommend this to my mystery and gothic loving friends. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC. The book releases on January 9, 2024. Happy New Year reading!

3.5 stars rounded up. This book started out slow and kind of confusing. I had to keep going back to remember who was who. Around halfway, it picked up and started becoming a lot clearer. The format between present day, letters from Ruby, and articles kept me engaged. While I did figure a good chunk of the twists out before they were revealed, I still enjoyed the reveals and the twists I didn't expect had me intrigued. I liked this one but it wasn't my favorite by Rachel Hawkins.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for this e-ARC. This was such a fun read! It’s definitely a slow burn. So much build up and backstory before a a really great full throttle ending. And I’m not saying the backstory stuff was boring at all. It was very intriguing trying to figure out what all of these clues were trying to tell us. The last 30% of the book was very fast paced and I initially was going to stop reading at like 70% but I just couldn’t. I needed to know what was going to happen! If you like rich people, family drama you will love this! 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Rachel Hawkins is a very good storyteller! Jules and Camden, married for ten years, move from Colorado to Camden’s inherited family mansion, Ashby House, in North Carolina. The story is easily told from different perspectives and different timelines, with lots of satisfying twists and turns. I really like this author and I look forward to reading more. Recommended!

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of The Heiress in exchange for my honest review. I normally really love Rachel Hawkins' thrillers but this one was a bit disappointing. I thought the overall plot was compelling but ultimately fell flat for me. The main plot line about Ruby's kidknapping was never really addressed/answered and a lot of the "twists" were quite predictable for me.

Rachel Hawkins' books keep getting better. The Heiress might be my favorite of hers yet. I know I said that about the last one but this one really hit all the marks. I'm a sucker for a book with old world, southern charm and family dynamics. I love flawed characters when there is redemption of some sort that comes into play. I'm not super sure that anything about The McTavish's was redemptive but the plot was juicy from the beginning. It was a bit of a slow burn but it didn't drag. I felt like Hansel and Gretel with the breadcrumbs gobbling up each one waiting for the next secret to be revealed. The ending answered questions I didn't even know I had. I, however, have one complaint and it's been my complaint with each of Hawkins' books is the excessive swearing. It honestly isn't needed and brings the writing down in my opinion. In this case, the way in which it was incorporated was smartly done but it still could have been left out and it would have taken nothing from the book. I know that I'm not the only one with this criticism and it did kind of seem like it was done on purpose this book as a bit of a screw you to critics lol but whatever, author's prerogative and all that. Regardless, I couldn't put the book down and when I did, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

•The Heiress (ARC)💰•

📚Genre: domestic thriller
🤔Rating: 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺(5/5)
#️⃣ of pages: 304
👯‍♀️ read if you like: family dramas, unreliable narrators, fast paced books, Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
⚠️TW: suicide, abuse
📆Publishing Date- January 9, 2024

👍🏼:
•loved that the twists kept coming the whole book, even up until the end!
•we love multiple POVs, especially when one is from a series of letters from someone already gone 🤫
•short chapters make this one easy to fly through

👎🏼:
•nothing negative to say!

Overall…
TBH, after The Wife Upstairs, I haven’t *loved* the other books released by Hawkins…until this one. I think this thriller was an excellent return for her & gives all the twisty, page turning elements that TWU gives. The narrators are all extremely unreliable and the twists continue to come the more you read. I predicted a couple of them but it was still so well-written that I couldn’t put it down. Really, really enjoyed this one!

Thank you @netfalley and st Martins press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

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Over 20% into the book and I’m bored to death. Can’t continue with this one after talking with others who’ve read it!

The Heiress by Racheal Hawkins– A family drama that has so much suspense this book was well played right to the end.

Thank you NetGalley for another amazing read.

Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore, aka “Mrs. Killmore” certainly left her mark. Married and widowed four times over, the press had a field day with her reputation, but money has a way of insulating people, and Ruby had a lot of it.

Camden swore he would never come back Ashby House; he was going to find his own way in the world. The “house” which is more of a large estate that also comes with half of the town of Tavistock and a nine figure fortune belongs to him, but he doesn’t want anything to do with it. When family calls insisting he come and release money to fix things around the estate “the prodigal son returns”. His homecoming is exactly as he expects, and he tries to warn his wife Jules of his poorly behaved family that resents him. Camden was adopted by Ruby, therefore his aunt and cousins, who reside in the home consider him an interloper at best and a downright thief at worst.

As Jules and Cam stay to work on the estate, Ashby House slowly releases her secrets. And man does she have more than a few. This novel is so hard to describe without giving away Rachel Hawkin’s brilliantly woven twists throughout the plot. The Heiress is a book to be devoured in one sitting, and will have the reader guessing until the very end. This is Hawkins’ best work yet!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author Rachel Hawkins for the advanced copy of the book. The Heiress is out January 9th. All opinions are my own.

If you love rich people family drama, multiple timelines, letters, and a story full of lies then you will like this.
The beginning was a bit slow for me and I didn't know what to expect going into this. After a couple chapters, it does start to pick up. It has three main characters, Ruby, Camden and Jules. Each character had their own flaws and faults, but as the story goes on we unfold each of them. The novel showcases that family doesn’t always mean what you think it does.

This is my first Rachel Hawkins book but after reading this one, I will be picking up her previous books!
Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the chance to read in exchange for honest opinion.

What a fantastic story, and quite possibly my favorite from Hawkins so far!

For starters, I appreciated the layout of the story. You have Camden and Jules in the present day and then letters from Ruby and newspaper clippings to tell the story of the past. Sometimes alternating timelines and character perspectives can get confusing or feel like too much, but I felt like the way it was done here, allowed the story to unfold and flow perfectly. There was just the right amount of past information revealed to make you keep wanting to know more and just the right amount of mystery and intrigue going on with Camden and Jules to keep you on a string, anticipating what would come next.

I have to admit that I didn't fully expect to enjoy this book as much. I am a huge fan of Hawkins so I knew it'd be a good read; I just didn't find the premise to be super intriguing. This is a bit ironic since I felt the exact opposite about the premise of Hawkins's novel last novel, The Villa; I was beyond enthralled with the premise of that one, but then felt like the book itself fell a bit flat. I went into The Heiress without any over expectations to the plot, but I felt instantly hooked from the start which only grew as the story unfolded.

I felt there was just the right amount of surprises and twists so it didn't feel over done. I guessed one secret about Jules correctly pretty early on, but there were still a few things Hawkins kept me guessing on till the reveals. By the end, all of the characters had their moments of being unlikable, but I felt like that fleshed them out and made them feel more real.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this one and so a big thank you to Net Galley, St. Martin's Press, and Rachel Hawkins for the privilege of reading this eARC!

*The Heiress will be out January 9, 2024!

Thank you to St. Martin's press and netgalley for providing me a copy of The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins. This books was full of suprises, secrets, and drama. Families are a part of this story where wealth plays a role. This story is told in multiple points of view and is told in letter format. I will read another book by this author.

Rachel Hawkins is BACK with a vengeance in this twisted gothic suspense about an infamous heiress and the complicated inheritance she left behind.

One sentence to describe this book: Dysfunctional family drama and rich people with DARK secrets behaving badly...and possibly murder?👏🏽 These family members are VILE and morally corrupt, murder following them everywhere they turn. It starts off as a slow burn drama with an element of mystery but once it pops off, the surprising twists (and a couple predictable ones) just keep on coming and FIT SO WELL.

What I especially loved:

- Evelyn Hugo vibes but DARKER.
- Mixed media (letters and articles) vivid memories from Ruby’s past through letters.
- Jules speaks directly to the reader in her POV.
- The gothic Ashby mansion as a character.

The plot, the characters, the twists - I devoured the storytelling in The Heiress in ONE DAY!
Definitely add this one to your list.

WOWW this was such a fun read. If you mixed your favorite thriller with THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO it would be this.

My favorite part of this book was the unexpected "lack" of a plot point. It was a lot of main character POV's telling their stories and playing with your mind on what would happen next but this definitely wasn't a WHODUNIT. I thought it was really exciting just reading about this UBER wealthy woman and her insane family and it was more fun to be along for the ride than being concerned about who did what. It was a nice change of pace for most thrillers I read.

I loved the story telling, the heiress was SO FUN and full of personality which made her chapters fun. I equally enjoyed following along with her son Charlie, and his wife, Jules. I feel like in a multi character POV story, I favor one persons chapters over the other, but that was not the case here.

Overall, this is A MUST READ. It was so fun, and exciting and I felt myself grinning anytime the good guys won.

Thank you so much St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!