When Ruby McTavish dies, she leaves everything, including the Ashby House, to her adopted son Camden, much to the dismay of the rest of the family. But Camden wants nothing to do with her estate and moves across the country to get away. He meets and marries Jules, and together they return home to Ashby House after the death of his uncle.

The story alternates between Camden, Jules, and Ruby as narrators. Camden and Jules share present day narrating while also shedding light on how they met one another and the secrets they brought to their relationship. Ruby shares her story via letters that highlight her tragic life, from her disappearance/kidnapping as a young child to each of her relationships with her four husbands and what led to each of their demise.

There were so many twists and turns in the story that it was hard to keep up. Each secret that was revealed made sense, kept me turning the pages, and even left me guessing which direction the author was going to take the story, and how they were going to wrap everything up in the end. This author's books have been hit or miss for me with this one being more of a hit than her last one.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review.

This was a slow start for me. Finally getting to do a review from a book off of Netgalley! 😬
This book definitely had some twists. I wasn’t expecting Jules to be apart of the scandal, even thought she fell in love with Camden. Overall, a good first read by Rachel Hawkins. I am excited to read more books by this author.

When she was a toddler, Ruby McTavish went missing from a family picnic in the mountains near their North Carolina home. Missing for almost a year, there was always speculation about whether the child who was returned to them was really Ruby. Almost 70 years later, Ruby's adopted son gets an email telling him that it's time for a reckoning and he needs to come home.
Psychological fiction with multiple plot twists. Just when you think you know what's going on, there is a twist in the story. I liked this novel much more than the author's previous book The Villa. If you liked The Maid's Diary with its twisty plot and alternating narrators, you'll enjoy Hawkins' upcoming book, due to come out in January 2024.

✨ARC review ✨

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
Release date: 01/09/24!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

There is nothing like a death to bring out the worst in a family. Especially when it’s a wealthy family & they are not happy about the will.

When Ruby passes away - she leaves everything to her adopted son Camden. He cares little about the inheritance and leaves the toxic family. He begins a new life & now lives with his wife Jules.

10 years later, he reluctantly returns to the house. The family drama begins instantly - secrets, betrayals & lies come back to life.
This makes people start to question - is everyone who they say they are?

Rachel does it again with a page turning thriller with all the plot twists. It keeps you glued to the book. I highly recommend!

Thank you NetGalley for the early copy!

Thank you for giving me the chance to read this book while on vacation! I wasn’t prepared for the introduction & it took me a bit to understand what was happening with all the characters. But I enjoyed it and would read more from this author.

First off, this was my favorite Rachel Hawkins books even though it took way too long for me to get into it. Once I got into the story, I couldn’t put this down. A solid 4 stars!

Thank you NetGalley for the digital ARC of this title.

The Heiress is a bit complicated - one of those stories that unfolds as you read it. It centers around a wealthy North Carolina family with an interesting history - the matriarch Ruby was kidnapped as a child, then married and widowed 4 times, childless, she adopts Camden, who is resented by his aunt, uncle and cousins. Camden escapes to California and marries Jules after Ruby dies but they are talked into coming back to NC to deal with the estate that Camden has inherited. The cousins are all pretty terrible, and Ruby, Cam, and Jules all have done some terrible things too. The most interesting part of the book is Ruby's story, which is told through flashbacks in her letters.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for my Advanced Readers Copy of this book!

Ruby McTavish has led quite the life. As a child, she was kidnapped in the woods behind her home, found months later. As an adult, she has been married and widowed 4 times, extremely wealthy and owner of the grand Ashby House. Upon Ruby's death she leaves her bank account and the Ashby House to her adopted son, Camden, who wants nothing to do with the money, the other McTavish's or the house. Ten years later Camden is asked to return with his wife Jules. The elegant Ashby House is filled with secrets and so is the McTavish Family. Is Ruby who she says she was all those years? The answers will shock you.

I have enjoyed every book I have read by Rachel Hawkins. I love that there are always twists and turns that I never see coming. The Heiress is no different, full of questions that keep the pages turning. Written in part present tense with the past being told in letters from Ruby.

Hawkins is always a delight to read. Highly recommend!

Oh my goodness...I really liked this book. it was so interesting and I appreciated that it was told from Jules, Cam viewpoint with Ruby letters sprinkled in. Was very surprised on how Jules was so open to the money when she knew Cam was not. Such a great story plot and so many twists and turns. Ruby or I should say Mrs. Killmore seemed like such a character. s everyone who they seem to be? No. Does everyone have secrets? You bet the do and plenty of them! The drama, and the wild twists and turns kept me glued to the pages. This is a fun read and would be a great book club discussion book.

Thank you so much NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of "The Heiress" by Rachel Hawkins. Rachel is one of my favorite authors so I was overjoyed to be given early access to this book. I feel like every book she writes gets better and better with each release. The Heiress is an amazing book. I could bit out it down as I wanted to know more and more about Ruby's story. Was she really Ruby or another child that was returned to her parents disguised as their missing child? Camden was given a gift of being the "luckiest boy in North Carolina," but was that really true? The life of a McTavish was not all it really looked like from the outside looking in. Absolutely loved this book from beginning to end!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for giving me the opportunity to read this early. This book is out in January 2024.

I’ve got some mixed thoughts about it. While i was super interested in the story, the characters fell a little flat for me. And there was A-LOT going on. It was really hard to keep up with all the family members, and who was related and who wasn’t. I wish it would have been a little easier to follow along. I had to go back a few times to keep track of what was going on.

With that being said, it was still a good book. Basically evil people doing evil things and getting away with it. Wish it would have ended a little differently. Some of the twists i saw coming but there were a few that surprised me. It was an easy read and definitely had my full attention.

I really enjoyed this!! Rachel Hawkins doesn't ever miss for me, I really enjoy her writing and how she tells the story. The characters were really good as well and I was fully invested the whole story!

It took a minute to get into it, but once it got going, hard to put down! The letters and alternating POVs added to the suspense. Some of the twists were predictable, but the story had you hooked to keep going. The different story lines come together well and it's a fast read. Definitely recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC! Review live now on GoodReads and StoryGraph

I always know I'm going to get something good when I get an ARC of a Rachel Hawkins book, and this was no different. The story was unique, fun, exciting, and caught my interest. The story follows a woman and her husband as they go back to his childhood home, but all is not as it seems. Her husband is an adopted son of the heiress to a huge family fortune, and there is family strife, infighting, and secrets, so many secrets. The story had unpredictable but believable spoilers, and was hard to put down at all points. The characters were realistic, and the entire book was a great spooky season read. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a great thriller that won't take up too much of your time, but WILL take all of your attention for a few days.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn’t sure what I was into but the twists and turns were just incredible. I usually get the twist early but this was like mind blown and I enjoyed the ride.

The Heiress is a wonderful ride into a live long story of murder, family, mystery and death. I loved the way the story unfolded through letters from the past to the presented and the way I as a reader was able to enter so many characters' minds into their narratives and points of view. This was a very interesting and captivating story. The Heiress is a wonderful fall/winter read and it really is an atmospheric story that will hold the reader captive until the very end.

Cam and Jules are a couple living a simple life in Colorado, but are dragged back to Cam's North Carolina home thanks to Ruby McTavish, a mysterious and bold woman who had passed years prior. Cam being the heir to her estate has caused major drama in the McTavish family, as Cam is Ruby's adopted son. Family secrets, backstabbing behavior and many marriages fuel this multi POV novel. I could tell from very early on what the big reveal would be related to, so I wasn't as stunned as I was hoping to be by the end, but this novel kept me engaged, and I enjoyed it overall. Thank you to Rachel Hawkins, Netgalley and St. Martin's press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an advanced copy of this book from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley.

After the death of the infamous Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore, her estate and vast fortune pass to her adopted son, Camden. However, Cam wishes to have nothing to do with the McTavish legacy and lives a quiet life as an English teacher in Colorado with his wife, Jules. A decade later, Cam's uncle's death summons them back to the grand Ashby House, the McTavish family estate. While the house is as magnificent as ever, returning to it reminds Cam of why he left in the first place.

Jules, on the other hand, is determined to help her husband claim everything Ruby intended for him. But as they delve deeper into Ruby's enigmatic family, they discover hidden secrets, including the rumors surrounding her childhood disappearance, the mysterious deaths of her four husbands, and the true reasons behind her adoption of Cam. The more they uncover, the more they realize that family ties and inheritances can be far more complex than they initially appeared.

This book held a fascinating concept of whether one can truly break free from their family's influence or their destined path. The backdrop of Ashby House added a rich layer to the narrative, as generations of the McTavish family are inextricably tied to the estate. The recurring themes of wealth, secrets, and their consequences were compelling, highlighting how money can make almost any problem disappear, even murder.

As for Ruby, her letters provided an intriguing glimpse into her character, although I expected her to be a more nurturing and parental figure considering her tumultuous past. It's no wonder that Cam found it challenging to escape his family's legacy, even with his determined efforts.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

An okay read but it didn't completely hold my interest.

2.75☆

I loved and hated this at the same time. I was flipping through the pages, reading quickly, because I wanted to find out what was going on. However, there was a LOT of info and not much going on. At the end, I was thinking “that’s it?”. It was a decent read but predictable and slow.