Thank you to St. Martins Press for my complimentary eARC and to MacMillan audio for my complimentary audiobook. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Heiress was a great listen! It is a very paced thriller with no time to be bored. That family was unbelievable. So entitled, so out of touch. But that’s what made it such a great story ! Rachel Hawkins is becoming one of my favorite thriller mystery writers.

So many twists and turns. I had an inkling about how it was all going to work out. But I was still surprised at the end. My favorite chapters were Ruby’s. Such a fascinating life she lived.

All the narrators did a fantastic job with their characters. So many POV’s but each character had their own narrator. It was easy to follow.

I have read most of Rachel Hawkins newest books and by far my favorite is her newest one The Heiress. It is her typical mystery/thriller, but why try something different when you do so well with what you are doing. Her imagination seems fit for thrilling story telling.

North Carolina's notorious rich woman Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, her adopted son Camden inherits her fortune and house, but Camden wants neither. Instead he leaves North Carolina, moves to Colorado, gets married and becomes a teacher.

Fast forward ten years and Camden is back at the McTavish mansion, Ashby House with wife Jules in tow, because his uncle dies. The family drama begins to play out as Jules learns more and more about the McTavish family and the secrets they have hidden for years. They certainly have a few.

The story is easy to read and moves fast. It is highly entertaining, especially if like me, you love a good monied family gone bad type story. The family provides plenty of entertainment with their secrets and back stabbing. There are plenty of morally gray characters in this family.

The Heiress is a great story. The writing is clever, the atmosphere is intense and the ending twists and turns multiple times keeping you turning those pages.

If you haven't already, pick up the Heiress by Rachel Hawkins.

This was a super fast paced, highly entertaining family saga with loads of murder, tons of secrets, and an immense amount of drama. The characters are unlikeable, however a select few, had some redeeming qualities. This book is the definitive of eat the rich…or rather let the rich eat the rich!

Camden wants nothing to do with his adopted family. Their wealth is tremendous but so are the secrets and the pure evilness. When he left, he never returned. Good riddance! That is until the death of his uncle. Now Camden and his wife, Jules are back. And it is just as he imagined it would be, except only worse.

This is a book I want to think about a minute before I post my review. But it is also a book I want to share with everyone so you can go BUY IT NOW and we can discuss it!

I was so engulfed in all the secrets, family drama and mystery surrounding this estate. I listened to this book in almost one day. Camden is someone who broke my heart and yet…then there is his wife Jules. GEEZ! I still don’t know what I think about her. As a reader, you pick up on quite a few things where she is concerned. And it all comes together as one big twist at the end! And no one can forget about Ruby! And that is all I am going to say about her!

This cast of narrators, Dan Bittner; Eliza Foss; John Pirhalla; Patti Murin, is amazing! Fabulous job with this crazy family! Greed is a powerful thing!

Need a wonderful family drama with massive secrets….THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

“Truth is something we chose to believe.”

Wow, THE HEIRESS is gripping. Not in the typical thriller way, but in the “What in the world is this family DOING?” kind of way. HAPPY PUB DAY, @ladyhawkins ! Thank you for my early digital and audio copies @macmillan.audio and @stmartinspress .

The storyline is a meshing of perspectives, from Cam, Jules and Ruby- some from the past (Ruby) and some from the present (Cam and Jules). Cam is the heir apparent to the MacTavish fortune (and an elaborate home settled in the mountains of North Carolina), only he is refusing to take part in anything to do with the MacTavish fortune.

I was hooked to Ruby’s stories and why she lost 4 husbands over the course of her life (much like Jackie O’s story), and Ruby’s life is quite interesting: she was abducted from her family’s land while in the woods as a young girl, and found 8 months later in a sleepy little southern town (also sounds much like a cross between the Lindburgh baby and Patty Hearst!).

There were a couple of “surprises” that weren’t surprising to me at all (ugh Ben and Libby), and other things that happened in the storyline that left me shocked!

Loved the Knoxville cameo, btw.

If you like a good, keep you guessing who/what/why/how then you will like this one!

CW: death of family members, murder, adoption

Thrillers are not my go to genre but I'm trying to branch out into new genres. I couldn't stop listening!! The multiple points of view and multiple narrators were so engrossing. This was my first book by Rachel Hawkins and it did not disappoint. I loved that it was a thriller, mystery, and family drama all wrapped up in one book. There were so many unseen twists and turns that I was captivated the whole time. Highly recommend you listen to the audiobook version.

The Heiress!!!!
Wow such a fun read, I loved the twists and drama between family’s I love the truth hidden behind the lies !
And boyyyy is there many fake truths .
I adore the past written in letters and the present between husband the heir and wife,
I wasn’t able to guess a thing about this book which I’m always trying to do in these types of generes . I love Ruby and all her husbands , and adore the heirs wife she’s a real one. I wasn’t expecting this end at all I didn’t see it coming the truth above all the truths! (: a must read if you love Rachel Hawkins and if you love a fictional mystery thriller .
Slow pace in the beginning and picks up toward the end . I adore the setting of the estate and the visuals given though not to many, it really set the scene for me ! Cam and ruby truly had a great bond but Ruby is a master mind .

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Cam wants to leave his past in the past. Once his wife Jules finds out that Cam's past life left him rich with an estate, she will do anything that she can to live the luxurious lifestyle! Cam is very happy with their quiet & normal life in Colorado. How far will Jules go to get what she wants?

It's official, Rachel Hawkins is on my 'read everything they write' list. This is my third non-ya novel of hers and I swear they just keep getting better and better.

I had a fairly rough time last year finding thrillers that hit the right spot for me. It's my brain unfortunately. So when I find an author that keeps hitting the proverbial sweet spot, that auto notification for new releases, gets checked.

The Heiress is a psychological gothic thriller that takes the premise of a missing child and an affluent family and twists secrets and familial history into an addictive page turner. I had the ability to listen to the audiobook and loved the setup for this one. The audio is narrated with multiple POVs by the talented Dan Bittner, Eliza Foss, John Pirhalla and Patti Murin. I love when an audio has a large cast of voices, it brings a distinct flavor of voice to each character.

There are some parts that do move a little slow but Hawkins has a way of keeping me engaged as a reader. A little predictability in some of the overall plot but the drama and mystery made this book for me.

If you love thrillers and haven't tried Hawkins yet, I highly recommend picking one up as soon as possible.

In a world filled with domestic thrillers/mysteries, it can feel like you’re reading ever-so-slight variations of the same book. This story, however, feels completely fresh and I was captivated. The pacing and revelations are perfect and it pulls together really well.

I never write the entire plot out in my reviews because I think if you’re reading reviews, you’ve already read the synopsis, just know that this one has multiple views from interesting, well-formed characters, murder, mystery, and intrigue. If you’re into that, I think you’re going to love this one.

I’m grateful to NetGalley for the ARC.


(Review also left on Goodreads, Instagram, and Amazon)

What would you do with deep, dark family secrets? Could you keep them, benefit from them, even perpetrate them? This book is about a mess of family secrets that begin to surface when a death in the family occurs. Money and infamy are driving factors for the choices that have and will be made. Dark and twisty, I did not predict the connects as they fell into place. Ultimately, does anyone know the whole truth?!

The narrators provided excellent vocal depth to the story. Having a cast helped to keep the various POVs aligned.

Thank you NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, St. Martin’s Press, and author Rachel Hawkins for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Camden McTavish is wealthy. Actually he is beyond wealthy. His adopted mother, Mrs. Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore, has left her entire estate to him. Seeing what wealth has done to the family, he hasn't touched any of his money and is living a simple life teaching in Colorado. But when his uncle dies, he learns his ancestral home needs a lot of work and is forced to go back to North Carolina to deal with it. His wife, Jules, is excited - Ashby House is amazing and its theirs! But it's not that easy. Cam was adopted, and has been tormented by the rest of the family his entire life. Not one person in the house is a decent human being, save the housekeeper/cook. Cam decides, at Jules' behest, to try and get along. But there are many secrets at Ashby House, more than any single occupant of the home knows. Peppered throughout the story are letters showing us Ruby's life - and it was not all good. In fact, some of it is very, very bad.

What happened to Ruby? Was she incredibly unlucky, having been widowed 4 times, or was something else going on? And why did Ruby adopt a sad boy and make him her sole heir?

This family may win the award for the most dysfunctional group I've ever see. Even the current living members - Aunt Nell, with her sour face, who has been jealous of Ruby her entire life; Ben, her grandson, who went so far as to become an estate attorney in the hopes of legally robbing Cam of his inheritance; or Lily, her vapid granddaughter, who has a horrible track record for both marriages and careers - are all living off the family teat because heaven forbid they be adults, move out, and get lives. It's not hard to understand why Cam has moved across the country. But Jules, who claims she loves him, just keeps pushing and pushing him to go back. Honestly, I didn't like her from the start, and it only got worse. This book is the literary equivalent of a train hitting a busload of children, then hopping the tracks and running through a nursing home before coming to a stop in a dog shelter and blowing up hundreds of puppies. And I couldn't look away.

Four solid stars.

5 Stars! This is probably one of the best mystery/thrillers I have read in a while. So many twists and turns and each of the main characters have so many secrets they are keeping from each other. Camden, prodigal son of Ruby McTavish returns home with his wife Jules 10 years after Ruby's death to take care of massive estate he has inherited from his mother Ruby. The reader learns that Ruby led quite an eventful life due to the letters she has written shortly before she died that tells about her many husbands and how she became so rich. In these letters are secrets nobody has ever known and these letters are read throughout the book. Camden and Jules also have secrets that the reader eventually learns about. This story is so twisty and it kept me guessing to the end.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan for the ebook and audiobook of The Heiress. I had every intention of going between the audiobook and ebook but the audiobook was so good I stayed with it. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and this was well done because there were multiple narrators. Two female narrators and two male narrators. Many times having male narrators for the male characters and female narrators for female characters allows the listener to really get involved with the story instead of only have one narrator for all the characters. I find that sometimes I get a little confused when a female narrator voices the male characters and they all sound the same. So thank you Macmillan for an ensemble cast.

Thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for the ARC.

This was fine, I was never super into it but it kept me listening as it was an easy, fast read.

It’s rare for a book with multiple perspectives to be equally compelling from each POV, but this one was really well executed. It reminded me of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, but as a thriller. I’ve read several books by this author (including her Halloween ones!) and this was by far the best, will definitely be recommending it.

3.5 stars rounded to 4 on GR.

Entertaining and sharp. I enjoyed the movement between past and present. A fun read that kept me turning the pages.

For fans of family drama, mystery and secrets lives of the wealthy this one if for you. I really enjoyed the audio and found this a great way to read the book.

Thank you netgalley and St Martins press for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ruby McTavish was from one of the wealthiest families in North Carolina and her life was filled with drama. Between getting kidnapped then returned at a young age, then having each of her four husbands suddenly die, there has always been a lot of mystery to her. After her death, her estate and wealth is all passed down to Cam, her adopted son. The other surviving McTavishes are livid he got all the money and Cam wants nothing to do with it or them. Ten years later, after his uncle’s death, Cam returns to Ashby House with his wife Jules. But as they are there so many family secrets come unraveled.

I think this was my favorite of all of Rachel Hawkins’ books by far. It was so twisty and filled with secrets, lies, and deceit. So many of the twists caught me off guard, and I devoured this book far too quickly because I needed to know what other secrets would come up and how this story would play out.

I LOVED the audiobook - with a different narrator for each POV, it was so easy to follow. Dan Bittner, Eliza Foss, John Pirhalla, Patti Murin all did an amazing job bringing the characters and the story to life.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the advance copies.

Rachel Hawkins pens another beautiful story filled with family secrets and sibling rivalry. The Heiress is similar to The Villa when it comes to complex relationships and hidden pasts. Set in the Blue Ridge mountains, everyone is enthralled with a wealthy family and the drama that surrounds them.

Thank you Net Galley for this ARC.

If Rachel Hawkins isn't on your list of best psychological thriller authors yet, this book is sure to solidify that!

This was a fast paced and engaging story told from multiple points of view; it spans the past and present from the various characters, as well.

Cam is adopted by a very wealthy woman but he chose to walk away from the riches of his childhood and is now a teacher living happily in Colorado with his wife Jules. Their life is interrupted when Cam's uncle passes away and Cam is summoned back to his childhood home. When the couple arrive, they receive a less than happy welcome. While Cam is determined to quickly return to his life in Colorado, Jules has other plans when she sees just how much Cam left behind.

Cam's mother, Ruby, had many secrets that are revealed slowly throughout the novel. They include being kidnapped as a child and the mysterious deaths of all four of her husbands.

Are any of Ruby's secrets directly tied to Cam? Why was Cam so determined to leave his life behind and start again? And why is Jules hell-bent on convincing Cam to stay at the home that seemingly made him so unhappy? Ruby certainly isn't the only character with secrets; and she's not the only one who is willing to stop at nothing to keep them buried.

This book is a 2024 MUST READ! It was released yesterday, on January 9th. Thank you to NetGalley, Rachel Hawkins and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for a review. It was a thrilling, engaging, and delightful five out of five star read!

This audio was on point. The cast of narrators truly made this story line so enjoyable to listen to. It’s a slow burn with lots of family drama. Who doesn’t have that, am I right?! The twists that unfolded at the end were SO GOOD!

•Secrets & Lies•

👉🏼What secrets are you keeping?