Ruby McTavish, kidnapped as a little girl, then found safe and sound living with a family grieving the death of their own child. Upon Ruby's death she left a string of dead husbands, a dysfunctional family, a large fortune and an adoptive son who wants nothing to do with anything McTavish.
When her son Camden is called back to the family Home, secrets start to unravel.
It seems everyone in Ashby house has a secret.

I really enjoyed this book, the writing and story grabbed me immediately, the kind of book you think about reading when you're not reading, the kind of book you count down the minutes till you can pick it back up again.
So why not 5 stars?
I found the ending clunky, the epilogue was wordy, yet quite vague.
And not having clear cut answers to some questions just put me off.

All in all this was a great read, a solid 4 stars.

I really enjoyed this. It gave me such Evelyn Hugo vibes. I love a story where you’re never really sure who you can trust and everyone is a little bit bad, a little bit (or a lot) morally grey. I loved that there were several plot- twists and reveals and that there were so many ways this could have gone. The pacing in this was perfect and I loved the addition of the letters, I felt that like that added a bit of realness and relatability to the story.

Overall, I really enjoyed this and would recommend it to others.

Fantastic! My favorite Rachel Hawkins so far!
This is a twisty, edge of your seat story, I could not put down.
You follow a few different POV’s one being Ruby, the heiress to “old money” fortune, you follow all the tragedies that have occurred through her life. You also follow her adopted son Cam, and his wife Jules. Every storyline kept me interested and I couldn’t wait to see how it all unfolded. I wound definitely recommend this!

Another engaging thriller from Hawkins, this one is really wonderfully structured. Hard to review without spoilers but this may be Hawkins best thriller yet. Great prospect for adaptation for film.

Oh, for the LOVE of Money!

What would you do to get your hands on an inheritance? Rachel Hawkins shares the lengths that one family is willing to go in order to lay claim to 'family' money in her latest novel, The Heiress. So many secrets, twists, turns, and LIES that unfold between the pages, I was unable to put the book down once I started it! I loved the plot, the setting, and the characters, so much so that I found myself either vehemently hating or passionately sympathetic to each of them. Hawkins has written a bit of everything into this novel, from drama, suspense, and romance to greed, murder, passion, all from a southern gothic, dysfunctional family, point-of-view (well, three povs to be exact). If you like smouldering, yet pervasively sinister thrillers, I would definitely recommend this book!

Ok. Wow. This was such an engrossing thriller! But I was not expecting that twist at the very end. As the words played out, my mouth dropped open. I reread it to make sure I got it right. Rachel Hawkins, I love your writing & you struck gold with The Heiress like Ruth with her McTavish wealth! And I just LOVED RUTH! Her letters were the best part!

Thank you, Rachel Hawkins, St Martins Press, & Netgalley for my copy! All opinions are my own.

This really cemented Rachel Hawkins as an auto-buy author for me. The twists and turns are always so fun. And while I did guess one of the major twists for this story, it was written in such a way that I honestly can't tell if I guessed it exactly or if Rachel just did that good of a job leading me there. Aside from being twisty though, another thing I love about Hawkins' books is that none of them are similar.
The characters are almost all unlikeable but also so intriguing that you still have that "I have to know what happens" feeling for all of them. Rachel also always does an excellent job of wrapping things up and there are never any gaping plot holes that just eat at me later on.
The Heiress has a lot going on with the dual narrating, unreliable narrators, the multiple timelines, and the articles and letters supplementing the stories. It all ties together in a very well-done true crime type of way though.
I'd say this is a medium paced thrilleresque drama. If you like Riley Sager or other books from Hawkins, you will likely love this one. It also has a very Rachel Hawkins hook to it where you can't stop thinking about it when you take a break, so you end up reading it super-fast to see what happens next.

The Heiress is a mystery in whose characters are mostly unlikable, with a suspenseful curious plot about greed, deep secrets, narcissism and murder…lots of murder. With one shocking twist after another, it will continually keep you enthralled and on your toes! It is so juicy!

It all begins with the disappearance of a young girl named Ruby McTavish from a very, very wealthy family who live on estate named Ashby House in North Carolina. She disappears during a picnic. Gone as if she never existed. Her mother, devastated falls to pieces. But, months later, a man emerges with Ruby and says he took her because his own daughter had died, and his wife was beside herself. End of story, right? Well, not really…

With Ruby back and a new sister born named Nellie, the emergence of hatred between not only them, but other family members begin. It is obvious that this is not your regular family, and as time passes you see that the McTavish’s get whatever they want. And as Ruby grows up, she realizes she must follow in her father’s footsteps as she is the heiress apparent. At a young age Ruby marries her first of four husbands. You see, they all seem to die…and she also decides to adopt a son. His name is Cam. 

As Cam grows up, as close as he is to his mother, or as close as she allows him, he sees the spectacle of the McTavish clan and realizes there is something wrong with them and eventually leaves and marries a woman named Jules. But when his uncle passes away, he must return to the famous Ashby House estate because you see, he is now the heir as Ruby died a while ago. The rest of the family needs money and he holds the purse strings, so he must put his fears and memories aside and go visit a place he has not stepped foot in for years. So as Cam and Jules, who seems excited at the prospect of seeing the infamous house, ascend on Ashby, he feels the hatred coming off his relatives, Nellie, his cousins Ben and Libby. The only ones left with the McTavish name. And they have an agenda and it’s not good!

Through a series of letters Ruby has written, we begin to see what dark family secrets have been hidden for years. How Ruby kept them all at bay and how she was able to keep secrets from them never to be found. But who were the letters meant for?

And as the jealousy and greed of those still alive begin to become apparent, Cam decides he needs to walk away again from this dysfunctional, evil group of relations. But Jules isn’t so sure. You see she has her own secrets. 

Can evil run in a family? Is it genetic? The Heiress will not disappoint and will keep you guessing until the end. Which of these materialistic, self-absorbed, egotistical relatives will finally try to burn the McTavish name down? The answer will shock you!

Thank you #NetGalley #St.Martin’sPress #RachelHawkins #TheHeiress for the advanced copy.

A fast moving mystery with rich family history in a North Carolina mountain town. There were too many twists to count.

See full review on The Atlanta-Journal Constitution:

Ruby “Kill-more” McTavish is a North Carolina lumber heiress who was famously kidnapped as a child in 1943. She was returned months later and went on to grow up and bury four husbands before her own death, bequeathing her estate to her adopted son, who is forced to battle their entitled relatives for Ruby’s multi-million-dollar riches. So begins the intricate setup for Alabama author Rachel Hawkins’ latest domestic thriller “The Heiress,” a compulsively readable dive into the ugly ways people manipulate and mistreat each other to maintain power...

https://www.ajc.com/things-to-do/the-heiress-a-modern-day-thriller-with-parallels-to-wuthering-heights/R2LV43QOLVGOTB6RPC7OT55524/

I freaking loved this book! I literally could not put it down and ended up reading it in one night. I loved all the family drama and was wondering the whole time if Jules and Cams marriage was going to remain intact.

Apparently I will read and love anything Rachel Hawkins will write!! I loved this story. The family was so toxic and I was completely addicted. I loved how you could trust no one and everyone was lying about something

Review — “The Heiress” by Rachel Hawkins (2024)

Categories — Thriller/Suspense, Domestic Drama, Sort of Mystery?, Family Affairs, Rich People Problems, North Carolina, Multi-POV, Quick Pace

Pub Info — January 2024, St. Martin’s Press. 4.03 average currently and 14.4k ratings.

The Author — She’s written a handful of books with the most recognizable probably being The Wife Upstairs, Reckless Girls, and The Villa

Quick Summary — A couple (Cam & Jules) return home to Cam’s childhood mansion after the death of his rich and notorious adoptive mother. Cam wants nothing to do with his inheritance but is called back due to legal & personal circumstances. What ensues is unfolding of secrets, drama, and a bunch of lies.

More Info (No Spoilers) and Thoughts ⤵️

• This is a multi-pov story between Cam & Jules. In between, there are news articles or letters from Cam’s deceased mother, Ruby, that bridge the past and current timeline. This allows for a speedy story and quick read. Very fast paced.

• I haven’t read “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” but I’ve read enough reviews to know and concur that this one has similar vibes. If you liked that book, you may find similar things in this one.

• The setting is chiefly a small rural area in a dangerous mountain-confined mansion in North Carolina. Atmospheric in this way.

• I wouldn’t describe this as the most thrilling book I’ve ever read. It was a quick paced read with some interesting plot premises, so I’d describe it as a secretive family drama with some mystery elements to it.

• This is a story of a whole lot of rich people problems. Very rude characters bickering over money and property and genealogy, and the deceased Ruby being one of the worst of the bunch. If you can handle a string of unrelatable unlikables, carry on.

• The writing style is very casual, driven forward by the interspersed “news articles” and “letters” that tell Ruby’s past. There is a lot of cursing, so if that puts you off then be aware.

• Ultimately, I have to admit I think this wasn’t a strong fit for me. However, I’m in a minority, as many reviewers have left glowing comments for this one. So, I always say give it a go anyway!

I'm a huge fan of the 3 other books I've read by Rachel Hawkins, so this has been high on my list of 2024 anticipated releases. Thank you to NetGalley for an early copy!!

I will admit that this one took me awhile to really get into, and I had to start it 3 separate times to fully become invested. This is likely a personal thing, because I just don't typically like stories about basic rich folks, and that's exactly what this was -- that said, I liked this way more than I expected to from the first few chapters.

The Heiress is a dysfunctional family mystery centering on Ruby McTavish, a woman who was kidnapped and then found as a child, and grew to be an extremely wealthy and well-known old lady. The chapters are told from multiple character's perspectives: Camden (Ruby's adopted son), Jules (Cam's wife), & Ruby herself -- although she's no longer around at the start of the story, we get her POV from chapters told in the form of letters she's written, and I loved how distinct her voice was. Sometimes with multiple POVs can be a bit muddled, with characters blending into one another voice-wise, which is one thing I love about this author's books: she's SO good at multiple perspectives, with each person feeling completely unique and fleshed out. Although they're all quite flawed, I came to really love Ruby, Camden, and Jules -- despite of, or maybe in spite of, everything else I learned as I read.

This book is like Evelyn Hugo meets gothic mystery with lots of murder, although it didn't quite hit as hard for me as Evelyn did - didn't have the same emotional impact, even though I liked the main characters.

I think I liked The Villa a bit more than this, but this is the second book now by Hawkins that I've felt matched Taylor Jenkins Reid in theme/vibe (but with more blood), and I like that it's becoming something I can expect from her. Will absolutely continue reading her books and I do recommend this for others!

OOOO boy this one was hard to put down. Lots of characters but easy to differentiate. I loved the old money scandal, while I thought I had some things figured out, there was definitely some I didn't and that was fun! Rachel's books are always so easy to devour, I have to slow myself down to savor them. I went back and forth with audio and physical and it was so good. I especially liked the audio so I could do some house chores ;)

I’ve read a few reviews over the last month and everyone seemed to like this but didn’t think it was great, so I went into this with low expectations but was blown out of the water. The beginning started a little slow but I enjoyed both timelines (the past in epistolary). I figured out one of the twists pretty early on but I liked that everything was explained and not left ambiguous. I enjoyed this much more than The Villa.

If you enjoy a slow burn story full of suspense and multiple point of views, I urge you to read The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins.

Ruby McTavish, heir to the McTavish fortune dies and leaves everything to her adoptive son, Camden. After her death he and his wife, Jules travel back to his childhood home where they're met with opposition from his aunt and cousins.

The story is told in Ruby's, Camden's and Jules's point of views. It's full of lies, deceits and secrets at every page turn. Slow burn, but yet filled with anticipation, I couldn't wait to get to the next part. The characters were well-drawn out and I could picture all of them. There were a couple moments that I had an inkling about Jules's story and I was almost right.

The Heiress was an enjoyable read and I'm looking forward to reading more of this author's work.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins.

The Heiress was a fun yet intriguing mystery/thriller. By fun I mean I wasn't sitting on the edge my seat but I definitely wanted to keep turning the pages! The action was simple yet effective and it felt more like a "cozy" mystery than anything. I haven't read Rachel Hawkins before but would definitely check out her back list after reading this one! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC!

Ruby McTavish (Callahan, Woodward, Miller, Kenmore) was North Carolina's richest and notorious woman at the time of her death. Born into a wealthy family, she was kidnapped from the family grounds as a young child, only to return months later. She also married four different times to men that ultimately died early/tragic deaths.

Following her death, she leaves everything in her will to her adopted son Camden, who does not want any of it. He hasn't even returned back to Ashby house since Ruby's death. Still living in the home are Ruby's sister and her family. However after the death of his uncle, Camden and his wife Jules decide to go back to the home to make much needed repairs to the home.

Jules is enamored by the home and the legacy that Ruby left behind. Additionally, letters are found in the home, written by Ruby about her life, her four husbands, and her kidnapping as a child. Secrets never once spoken.

This book will keep you on the edge of your toes! A psychological thriller full of twists, with multiple viewpoints. It's asks the questions, what would you do for love? How far are you willing to go for revenge?

Thank you to Rachel Hawkins, NetGalley, and St. Martin's Press for this Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was by far my favorite book by Rachel Hawkins! It was super twisty and filled with suspenseful family drama. There were just so many secrets that it felt like there was reveal after reveal.

I loved Jules and Ruby! Having morally gray main characters is always something I enjoy. The letters were a wonderful touch and made the story even more intriguing.

The Heiress is a captivating and immensely entertaining family drama that I highly recommend.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.