When Ruby the richest women in North Carolina dies her estate in the Blue Ridge mountains pass her to her adopted son Camden.Camden is not wanting the estate or the wealth. Years Camden is wanted back at the estate after his uncle’s death and the estranged family has plenty of secrets!! As the drama tightens at the estate so does the secrets that Ruby has left behind.

Y’all, I freaking loved this book! I still have goosebumps lingering as I write this!

If you love a thriller, The Heiress is where it’s at! I’ve always been a fan of Rachel Hawkins writing, but The Heiress easily just became my new favorite of hers! Hands down!

I did the audio, and kudos to the cast! High fives all around- especially to the narrator for
Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore, Eliza Foss. Foss lending her voice to this character made her come alive for me; a southern drawl and regal air. I couldn’t get enough of Ruby’s sinister tale.

The gothic atmosphere of the legendary mansion, Ashby house, set in the Blue Ridge Mountains, was scrumptiously eerie and foreboding of a chilling tale. And don’t get me started on the painting of Mrs. McTavish herself, hanging at the top of the stairs. I thought it was going to come alive at any moment and have me running for the hills err mountains.

5 stars for this haunting masterpiece!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my review copy!
I have read and enjoyed several of Rachel Hawkins’ books, and this one was no exception.
Following a young couple as they uncover deeply buried secrets in the past, this definitely kept me intrigued and guessing. While I thought I had everything figured out, there was a single piece I missed, which I enjoyed being surprised by. Highly recommend!

I LOVE a good family drama, especially when there is a lot of money involved to spice things up. I loved the alternating points of view, twists and turns, character building, and just everything. I think this is my favorite Rachel Hawkins books so far! I was drawn into this fast paced, gothic thriller immediately and breezed through it. I didn't want to ever put it down.

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

This book is a wild intriguing ride - if you want to be whisked away to a gothic mansion set high up in the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains. But beware the McTavish family who inhabits this manor is truly dysfunctional.

The main characters are Ruby, the heiress to manor and fortune, the matriarch, who was kidnapped and recovered as a small child. She is four times widowed and has adopted a son, Camden which sees as an act of redemption for unrelated sins. She has a voice and point of view in this book through letters since she has died and left manor and money to Camden who had no desire to stay at the house with his great aunt, uncle and cousins who despise him but as the book opens needs to return to oversee urgently needed repairs. With him he brings his wife Jules who dreams of a future in a manor instead of their rental on a teacher’s salary.

This story is told in alternating voices (Ruby, Cam, Jules) and timelines. It is a story of power and corruption through power, greed and jealousy, engineering life to run smoothly just because you can.

Entertaining and twisty, this book was captivating and kept me engaged and reading!

A really engaging and dramatic family thriller with layers of twists -- some I guessed, some that were a complete surprise but looking back completely made sense and were satisfying. The story is narrated by Jules and Cameron, a young couple in Colorado, and interspersed with news reports about the House and its occupants, and letters from the House's late matriarch, Ruby. I hesitate to say more because of potential spoilers.

I just have to accept this author isn’t for me. Unfortunately, with every book, I’m left feeling wanting more. Sometimes too little excitement, sometimes not enough. It just feels like I can’t get the perfect ratio here unfortunately.

This book unfortunately didnt meet the mark either. I know a lot of others are great fans of Rachel Hawkins, so it may just be a case of different strokes for different folks and that is okay.

This was a really fun mystery. It was thrilling while also being extremely sad at times. Rubys relationship with duke and his abuse, and even more so when she confessed to Andrew what she had done and saw him slowly fall out of love with her. How he let her kill him and how she stopped but he still ended up dying.

Camden and Jules were interesting as well and while I didn’t see the exact connection between them at first I’m glad they got their respective happy endings. The whole aspect of the “kidnapped child” and “changeling” lore is one I also really liked as well,

Would definitely read more by Rachel Hawkins!

I really enjoyed this book. Like that I couldn’t guess what was going to happen next. Love these types of books.

Having enjoyed other novels by Rachel Hawkins I was excited to read The Heiress a thriller about the wealthiest woman in North Carolina, her heir and the people who wanted a piece of her estate.

Ruby McTavish, is the richest woman in North Carolina. She died 10 years ago and left her estate to her adopted son Cam. Once Ruby died Cam moved to California and began a new life, without his extended family. Forced to return, Cam, and his wife Jules, must confront all the twisted family secrets to lay claim to their inheritance.

The timeline alternates from the present to the past, which covers Ruby’s childhood and her four doomed marriages.
The author excels at keeping the reader interested through the POV changes,

This is a book filled with dysfunction and not nice people. Read it!

This is one Rachel Hawkins book I actually enjoyed!

Ruby McTavish is one of North Carolina's notorious women - not only is she one of the richest women in the state but she is one of the most scandalous. Ruby has been married 4 times and each time, her husband dies. Not only that, she was kidnapped as a child and returned after about a year. After she dies, she leaves everything, including the huge McTavish mansion, to her adopted son Camden.
Camden wants nothing to do with his inheritance and instead chooses to live a relatively normal life with this wife Jules. But after the death of his uncle, Camden must travel to his childhood home but wants to leave right after the funeral.
However, Jules has other plans. She absolutely loves the home and wants her husband to get everything that is rightfully his - and hers as they are married. But she soon realizes that not everything is simple at the McTavish home.

Sooooo I was totally intrigued by the blurb and the twist; THAT PLOT TWIST!
I was able to binge this book and definitely recommend it. It does fall a bit flat in some areas, and can feel like a slowburn but after being disappointed in Rachel's other two book (𝘙𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘎𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘴 & 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘝𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢) I didn't really go into this with high hopes.
I definitely wished the epilogue had a bit more just because it does leave you with more questions than answers.

The Heiress was a perfect gothic thriller. Be ready to sit down and finish this book in one sitting! 5 stars Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy. Rachel Hawkins is not an author to miss.

4 stars...

Fast paced and an easy thrilling read! I enjoyed how this was written in alternating POV - Cameron & Jules, with also excerpts from Ruby's letters, magazine articles, newspapers, etc.

My favorite by this author is still The Wife Upstairs (or Reckless Girls), but I enjoyed this better than last year's The Villa.

I really like Rachel Hawkins and have read several of her books. This is the first one to my knowledge that isn't a reimagining or based on a classic story. The pace is great and keeps you hooked without giving away too much too early on. RH is an autobuy for me, And I know this is silly, but I also really like the visuals of her book jackets and how they look together on my shelf. A small thing for some, but a big deal for avid book collectors and readers.

This book was DAZZLING!! This book has gothic vibes and it very multifaceted. It was addictive and kept me in a chokehold until the very end. Take an abandoned mansion and throw in some family drama, lies, and deception, and you have a creepy masterpiece. This book is told from multiple POVs and in a multi media format, and I loved it!

While listening, I thought I had it figured out early and wondered where the story would go. Yet I was so wrong. There were twists and secrets galore. The plot developed at a fast pace and there was such well thought-out character development. I really got to know these characters.

I listened to the audiobook, and it was a whole VIBE! I love a great mixed media audiobook. This one was like listening to a movie. I was engrossed!

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

I wasn't able to read this book because life has been extremely busy, so I will rate this 5 stars to compensate. The blurb looked very promising though, and I will read this when I get the chance and I will edit my review

I said to myself that this year I would branch out and try some new to me author's and books I wouldn't normally think I would enjoy. I "Knew" I had to try this one because it's a very popular author and has many reviews. What the heck, I'll try it I thought.
I know my opinions are in the minority here, but I wasn't interested in it. I'll clarify by saying I didn't think it was a bad book and I didn't dislike it but it didn't hold my interest though I did read it the whole way through. Are her other books a different writing style or basically the same as this?
I wasn't impressed with the writing style. To me it felt disjointed and chaotic, the story was not continuous, it was jumbled and all over the place. Going back and forth of topics, modern then back in time then slipping back to modern and having newspaper articles too. I know a lot of people enjoy reading this author, but I was not the right audience for it.

Pub Date 09 Jan 2024
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

This is my favourite Rachel Hawkins book by far! I listened to the audiobook in two days. I just couldn't stop. I highly recommend!

Read Completed 12/19/23 | 2.75 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, St. Martin's Press, for the audiobook review copy. This free copy did not affect my review in any way.

I'm becoming less and less connected to Rachel Hawkins' thrillers and that bums me out! But each one is a little bit different and I don't think I've connected to one as much as THE WIFE UPSTAIRS. I don't love rich inheritance stories but I still had hope that I would connect with it based on my previous experience with the author. This one just didn't do it.

For a long time in this book, it felt much more like a family drama than a thriller. The majority of the interest in wrapped up in the letters from Ruby, telling her history and the story of her husbands. I felt like this really brought the book down. It was supposed to be, thrilling, I think? To hear about how she killed them all, but it wasn't the point of the book at all and was really a different concept entirely. I didn't even feel like it was a sinister thing -- at least the tone allowed for you to feel sympathy for Ruby.

The beginning of this was also excruciating for me. I didn't want to give up quickly -- again, based on my past experience with the author -- and then I had gone too far and didn't want to quit. I didn't know that Ruby's POV was going to be a POV throughout the whole book and her part was longer than Cam's and Jules' so it felt like their story kept getting cut short. I just wanted to be in the present, and this was also an issue that I had with THE VILLA so I was getting irritated by the same writing style again.

The twists were.... okay. Not enough for me to love the book or change my mind about the beginning. I can't stand the spoiled, entitled rich family and I liked the juxtaposition of Camden being the good person, not wanting the inheritance. I just wish we had gotten more from him. I guess I felt like things weren't very balanced, story-wise. The POVs didn't seem balanced until closer to the middle when we spent more time with Cam & Jules, but even then, Ruby's letters kept cutting long portions into the story. It made more sense later on when she moved past the husbands and got into more family drama & secrets. I guess I just felt mostly disconnected from everything that was going on.

I can see why people like this book but ultimately, it wasn't my style. I DO like trying to read different thriller vibes and I always like to try to read the books of authors I've enjoyed in the past, but this one just didn't click for me. (It actually happens a lot for me and thriller authors.) I'm glad I finished it to see what it was all about, but the beginning was so hard to overcome, and the finale just wasn't really that exciting for me.