What an atmospheric, dark, and twisted ride!

Camden, the son of the infamous Ruby McTavish and Heir to Ashby house and the McTavish family wealth, is called back home to take care of the deteriorating estate. There, with his wife, he must face his estranged family and come clean on some of his secrets. Turns out, he's not the only one hiding some big things.

This was a quick read with alternating viewpoints, letters, and newspaper articles that each kept me wanting to read more. I really enjoyed the historical fiction part of this book written through Ruby's letters, and the dark tones of this story. Overall, a great read and I think my favorite Hawkins read thus far!

Holy smokes, this book blew me away. I loved everything about it. The pacing was top notch, the different formats and POV's were expertly done and the tension was *chef's kiss*.

The ending was perfect as well... I love characters with a bit of grit, and although I don't love when an ending feels too wrapped up in a bow, I don't mind when it feels like there is a bit of a seedy underbelly to that perfect bow-wrapped ending. This delivered that for me.

I have read a couple of Hawkins' other books but haven't read all of them. This one makes me want to go back and devour the rest of her backlist!

‘There’s nothing as good as the rich gone bad.’

The Heiress, told from alternating POV’s, will have you asking the question: Are humans born evil or made evil?

This whole family, some of which were family by blood, others by bond, but all together making an evil and manipulative flock of humans.

I mean, murder, backstabbing, murder, murder, murder, lies, greed to the nth and murder again. Their pedestals seemingly all posted way up high in that mountain that surrounds the oh so posh and coveted Ashby House.

Twisty and twisted to the very last page. You won’t see any of it coming. Read it!

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

Pub date: 1.9.2024

**Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me an early copy of the eARC to read and review.**

This was my first Rachel Hawkins book. I bought a copy of The Wife Upstairs from the bargain section of my local BAM! last year, but I haven't gotten around to it. After reading The Heiress, I'll be sure to pick it up sooner rather than later.

I guess I expected more of a thriller than what I got in reading The Heiress. Instead of mystery and suspense, it was more family drama. Sure, there was the unknown aspect of who was who and what really happened, but it wasn't suspenseful, and it sure wasn't thrilling.

Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed reading this book. Had I gone into it thinking it was more like contemporary or literary fiction, I think it would have hit the mark better.

Note: Content, including a full review and other mentions of this book, will be posted to my TikTok account within a month of publication.

Despite her popularity, Rachel Hawkins is a new-to-me author. Releasing in January I grabbed a digital arc for The Heiress.

The Heiress is a story about a dysfunctional family, greed and mayhem. It was twisty with a somewhat Gothic setting and unsavory characters. It's literally a book full of secrets.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it was well written with its many twists and turns. The chapters were actually nice and short as it alternated between Camden and Jules - the perfect setting for JustOneMoreChapter. It was very much a character driven story and though it didn't have as much of a Gothic feel that I was hoping for the plot made up for that. As well, it had an ending that I liked.

An addictive, entertaining read. I'm off now to check out other books by Rachel Hawkins now.

My thanks to St. Martin's Press for a digital ARC in exchange for a honest review.

There are secrets and then there are the McTavish secrets!!! The beginning of the book drew me in, and the second half of the book blew me away.

The McTavish family is one of the richest families in North Carolina. They live in Ashby House, their beautiful estate, with sprawling grounds and woods with hiking trails.

When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore, the richest woman in North Carolina, died she left everything to her adopted son, Camden (Cam). Cam, the sole heir, doesn't want the money. He wants to be free of the dysfunctional McTavish family and live happily with his wife, Jules.

But when he is summoned to return, Cam goes back to Ashby house, and the rest as they say is history...…

This was such a well thought out book. The first half of the book had me wanting more. I was intrigued by Ruby's letters and what they revealed. Rachel Hawkins had my attention from the very beginning and the book kept getting more interesting, more addictive, and more shocking as more was revealed. There is drama, secrets, and twists galore! Just when I thought this book could not get any better, it did! I enjoyed both Cam and Jules POV's in addition to reading about Ruby through her journal entries.

Gripping, shocking, well written and dramatic. I can't wait to read what Rachel Hawkins writes next!

A big thank you to Netgalley for this ARC. I haven't read a book this fast in awhile! SO GOOD! Rachel Hawkins is slowly becoming one of my faves...I'll read whatever she puts out after this! I loved how each chapter was told by a different person and the twist at the end...chef's kiss! I would love to see this one be a movie someday.

took awhile to get into but it was fun. i liked ruby and the way all the characters connected in the end

Wow! This story is about the heiress Ruby, her wretched family and her redeeming son. I loved all the twists and turns this story took, I was hooked and had a hard time putting it down. The letters that Ruby wrote intertwined with Cam and Jules story, perfection! This book will be a top read for me this year!

This was incredibly good! I could see it being picked up by some book clubs for sure. Highly recommend from me! Rachel Hawkins does it again!

This was my first book by Rachel Hawkins and boy it did NOT disappoint! I absolutely loved every minute of this suspenseful delight. It reminded me of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (Taylor Jenkins Reid) but with a dark twist- if all of Evelyn’s husbands had died, and she was rumored to have killed them all. But that is just part of what’s going on in this book! Additional plots enter in with the points of view of Camden and Jules, who both seem to be hiding something as well. Sometimes different stories/plots mixing can make things messy or confusing, but Hawkins pulled this off flawlessly.

I hated having to put this book down, and I would highly recommend it if you’re a fan of mysteries/suspense. And it’s a must read if you check off the below items, too.

📖 Read if 📖 :
✔️ You liked The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo but wished it was a thriller instead
✔️ Villainous (and sometimes justified) and morally gray characters
✔️ Real page-turners
✔️ Family drama (especially among extremely wealthy families)
✔️ Main characters keeping secrets from you

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

⭐ 4.5/5

➡It's been ten years since Camden McTavish set foot in Ashby House, the sprawling North Carolina estate he inherited from his adoptive mother, Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore, the richest woman in North Carolina. In those ten years, Cam has moved across the country, married the love of his life and become an English teacher in a small Colorado mountain town, distancing himself as much as possible from the ostentatious life of the McTavish family.

Pulled back to Ashby House by obligation, he'll have to face the family he left behind, the secrets each of them is harboring and Ruby's complicated history if he ever has any hope of moving past the past.
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💭 "There was this darkness that seemed to cling to me, a past that people only ever spoke about in whispers. A suspicion, even inside my own heart, that I had been placed in the wrong life, living out a role written for someone else."
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🙏 Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of The Heiress. All opinions are my own.

🎯 What I loved: This book was deliciously twisty and intensely engrossing. The McTavish family was concealing more secrets and deceptions than there are cheerios in a box. At times, it felt like a game of clue had come to life with the number of people killed in crazy ways in this book, but it was so very entertaining and the characters were juicy. Ashby House was as much a character as it was a setting and I couldn't tear my eyes away until the very last page. It was absorbing and satisfying and Rachel Hawkins, true to form, has again crafted a perfect harmony of characters and a blended letter/dual POV narrative that is simply impossible to put down.

🙅‍♀️ What I didn't: Nothing. This was so well done! It was character driven vs. action driven but was extremely interesting- I found myself playing a fun game of connect the dots with the characters and their generational connections.
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Read if you love:
* twisty family history
* dual POV chapters with letters interspersed in the story
* inheritance drama
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See also: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, The Golden Couple, The Family Game

This book was filled with family drama, lies, secrets, and murder. This book goes between Camden, his wife Jules, and a few letters from the deceased Ruby McTavish, the heiress of Ashby house and richest woman in North Carolina, Camden is Ruby’s son and the heir to everything but wants nothing. When him and his wife return to Ashby house to deal with some family issues the drama starts and doesn’t end until the last page. This book is a great read with some very unexpected twist! I am so happy I was chosen to read an advance readers copy through NetGalley. I would definitely recommend this book!

I was hooked from the beginning of Rachel Hawkins' The Heiress. So many secrets, twists and turns! Brilliant!

This is both a well written, well thought out thriller but also a book that raises a lot of great questions for discussion in the classroom. My students will enjoy it and it gets them to think. Glad to have this book to recommend

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eGalley of this book.

This was an addictive read with a southern gothic feel to it. I really liked it and the cover of the book is gorgeous. I would love to see this made into a mini series or movie. I’ve read, The Wife Upstairs, and The Villa, which are good books too, but enjoyed this one more.

Family dynamics are huge in this story, as well as, a complicated legacy along with a vast fortune of tainted money. Rachel Hawkins books are centered around strong and fascinating female characters that make for a compelling read. You won’t be disappointed by this book. One of my favorite twisted family suspense reads in a while.

Any time an old house features heavily in a book, I automatically want to read it, and Ashby House - the house in The Heiress - did not disappoint. It's a huge, gothic/Victorian style home made of stone set deep in the misty forest on top of North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains. And better yet, it is full of secrets and lived in by awful people who are also full of secrets. Add in the decades-old mystery of a three year old girl's disappearance and then reappearance, her scandalous life story slowly unfolding via letters (usually not something I enjoy, but it was done correctly here and I always wanted more when one letter ended), and main characters who are not necessarily being truthful with each other...I was hooked right away. I did not want to put this one down, but also didn't want it to end. The twists and turns kept coming, and a few I may have guessed at but others I did not. Either way, I absolutely loved it, and it is going on my Favorites shelf. It's set to be released in January, and if you enjoy twisty reads, you definitely need to add it to your TBR list.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an excellent thriller, her best to date. You think you are reading one story and soon it becomes something else entirely up to the very end. Underneath it all is a philisophical tale of what makes one good or bad and can we escape what we are born into and what we come into later. Read this book!

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins is such a good read. It has a full cast of characters; some likable and others not so much. It is full of mystery, murder and plot twists that keep you guessing the whole way through. Finally, it takes place in a beautiful historical mansion in the mountains of North Carolina. I cannot recommend this new book enough! You will love it!
Thank you for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Ruby McTavish went missing from the idyllic estate called the Ashby House. After being missing for three months she was found at the Darnell’s. You would guess Ruby would go on to live a quiet unremarkable life. Ruby is not that kind of person. After burying four husbands (that should be its own separate story) and gaining a fortune from her family. Ruby finds herself alone and with a heavy-to-carry revelation. That is when she decides to adopt Camden. After growing up at Ashby House Camden wanted anything but that life. After 10 years of avoidance, Camden returns home. The events that follow will shake up the Ashby House and the McTavish’s.

I originally thought this book would be like a telling of the Lindbergh baby if the baby had returned home. It was So much better! Ruby eventually known as Mrs. Kill More lived a wild life. There were consequences to living as she did and her family’s immense wealth and secrets. Camden chose to not live that life but returned after continual pressure from his wife Jules. Camden and Jules could not have guessed what the future had in store for them.