There is always that one eccentric relative we all have. This one was a doozy. Ruby McTavish disappeared at 3 years in the mountains of her family home and was found months later and reunited with her family. This eccentric lady lived a life full of secrets and scandal which are revealed through a series of letters. Her son and his wife go back to the family home where secrets are revealed. This book has me quickly turning pages unable to put it down.

I'm a huge fan of Rachel Hawkins, but this one wasn't my favorite, it was good, but not as good as her others. I loved the story of Ruby and how the story of her past was woven in through the current timeline.
I feel like the hints of the ending should have been more subtle. You knew something was coming and it was a little too easy to piece together the ending.
I still loved it, just not quite as much as Hawkins' other titles.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

WOW, I loved this book. What a messed up family, when they say money doesn't buy you happiness it should also say it doesn't give you common sense or a heart either.

This book starts out with a newspaper article from 1943 about a upper class little girl being kidnapped from a family picnic and then jumps to present day....but don;t worry it will all come together throughout this amazing story created by the Queen herself, Rachel Hawkins!!!!

Camden and Jules are living a quite happy life in Colorado far away from the Ashby Estate that he grew up at when he gets notice that his mother, Ruby McAllister has died and the family wants him to come home. He is the sole heir of Ruby's estate and has immediately become very wealthy....one problem Camden wants nothing to do with the money or the family.

I loved how this story was told in part by Ruby's POV through letters she has written explaining every aspect of her life and all her marriages. It felt like Ruby was still alive telling the story. I was intrigued by the family dynamics and just kept wanting to read on. Then the plot twists started to show up and not just one or two. By the end of the book just when everything was revealed and shared, you think you are all done but NOOOO here comes the biggest twist of the story. So well done and Rachel Hawkins does not disappoint on this one!!!....Enjoy!!!

The Heiress is full of gothic mystery elements, pulpy, soapy family drama, and more than one murder. But it's not campy, or at least not to me. I thought it was delightful, and I was fully engaged in all three of the different POV's. Some of the mystery elements were not hard to figure out, and some the character gleefully told the reader. I still wasn't sure how it would come together or end, and therefore I enjoyed this book throughout. Likely now my favorite adult read from Rachel Hawkins.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press via Netgalley for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

Hawkins - I am a HUGE fan!
Jules and Cam return to his childhood home and the family he walked away from. As an adopted member of the massively wealthy family, Cam started his own life.
Jules has a hidden agenda - in love with the house, the lore of the family.
And of course Ruby.
Loved the narrative!

If my first read of 2024 is any indication of the kind of reading year I’m going to have, then it’s going to be an AMAZING one!! It look me less than a day and a half to fly through 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴, but this book is so much more than just an addictive read - it’s clever, twisted, immersive, and even charming at times. Ruby McTavish is a FORCE that I won’t soon forget!!

Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore was the wealthiest, and most notorious, woman in North Carolina. She first made headlines as a toddler when she was kidnapped on the grounds of her stately home, the Ashby House. Later in life she became known as Mrs. Kill-more, after being widowed 4 times under mysterious circumstances. Upon Ruby’s death, her entire fortune and the Ashby House went to her only adopted son, Camden, who wants nothing to do with it. He leaves NC to start a new life free from Ruby’s money and his scheming, jealous family members. But with the encouragement of his wife, Jules, he returns home to Ashby House to settle things once and for all.

I love historic homes like The Biltmore, and always think if walls could talk, what stories they could tell! Well the Ashby House would tell a seriously twisted tale of secrets, scandals, family drama, and murder!

The story unfolds through multiple POVs, letters, and newspaper articles. As Ruby reveals what happens throughout her life from childhood through each of her marriages, we learn more about the secrets she’s been hiding beneath her polished facade. The characters are ruthless and vulgar, but they are also compelling and dare I say likable! I absolutely loved how everything comes together in the end!

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 is a fun, juicy read full of secrets and betrayals that will have you flipping the pages as fast as you can! If you enjoy thrillers with dysfunctional families, enigmatic characters, and old homes of the wealthy, you won’t want to miss this one!

Thank you St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the e-ARC for review!

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5 (rounding up!)

• gothic suspense/family drama
• wild characters
• fast-paced

I really, really enjoyed this one and found myself flying through it! I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love when a house in a story feels like a character. It really helped set the great atmosphere. I loved how we got multiple POV and timelines from letters, emails, and newspaper & magazine articles. This is the author's best work yet IMO. Such fun twists!

🗣️ Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the opportunity to read and review this book via gifted eARC! All opinions are honest and my own.

I really enjoyed this book, especially the multiple POVs.

Also, can we talk about how stunning this cover is? Amazing!

Rachel Hawkins does it again in her newest book “The Heiress”. This book keeps you guessing to the end. This book is action packed and makes you want to keep reading it.
Camden is called back to his family home, but is unsure if he wants to go. His wife Jules encourages him to go and face his past. When they make the journey back, the past comes to haunt everyone involved. Well the past hurt them, or will they find their forever home.
Highly recommend for everyone.

A few things first -
1. This cover is a VIBE. Probably will be one of the best covers of the year and this book is out in January.
2. Rachel Hawkins books always draw me in. No matter what.

Now onto my thoughts! I was so, so excited to start this one after hearing some give it 5 stars 😯 and while I did really enjoy this, I thought it was going to be a little more thrilling. This has multiple POVs and timelines. It was much more family drama than anything else. I think had my expectations been different I would have probably enjoyed this more. I should know by now that expectations ruin everything!

I will say though overall I enjoyed the story and how it moved along after a slow start and I got over the fact that it was going to be much more family drama. The last bit of the book does pick up and the pace of the last 20% was the perfect way to end this book!

3.5 rounded up!

Wow, I absolutely loved this book! Just when I thought I had it all figured out the plot took several twists and turns and I was left with my jaw on the floor. I have always loved Rachel Hawkins’ writing and character development and I may have to consider The Heiress my favorite book she has written so far. The setting and the characters are intriguing and authentic. 5 stars!

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the eARC of The Heiress! All opinions in this review are my own.

The Heiress is full of secrets both past and present. I like how Ruby's letters are interspersed with the present day action because you are able to get the full story without an info dump or two timelines. There were so many twists and turns that just when you start to think you know everything about the characters, one of them reveals another secret!

I love how the settings of Hawkins's thrillers always factor in as a character as well. The sinisterness of Ashby House (along with the portrait of Ruby) create this atmospheric backdrop for the darkness that is revealed throughout the book. Hawkins's ability to create such vibrant settings are part of what make her thrillers so good!

Loved all the twists! The alternating POVs worked really well and had two clear & distinct voices. Great pace…I read it in a day because I could not put it down!

Another winner from Rachel Hawkins! It took me two days, yup, two days to finish this book. The mark of a great thriller to me is how fast I devour it and I could not put this book down.

With its multiple POVs, I was sucked into the story. I loved the letters from Ruby. It added to the mystery of the Ashby House and all of its secrets.

Did I guess the twist? Well, kind of. It was definitely one of my guesses but there was so much going on in story that my mind kept formulating all these ideas.

Overall, I thought this was a great thriller that kept me engaged and on my toes.

4.25/5 stars

This book was a wild ride. With gothic elements centered around an ancestral mansion (Ashby House) set deep in the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains, it focuses on the McTavish family...and these folks put the dysfunction in dysfunctional.

Ruby, the matriarch, was kidnapped as a small child, recovered and as the oldest child, inherited a nine-figure fortune. She is four times widowed and a force to be reckoned with. At her death, she leaves the house and money to her adopted son Camden, who fled the control and manipulation inherent in the family at the young age of 20. Ten years later he is asked to return to help restore the mansion to its former glory by his cousins Ben and Libby and his aunt Nelle who are still in residence. Will he be pulled back into the legacy of Ashby House, or can he and his wife Jules forge a new beginning?

This story is told in alternating voices (Ruby, Cam, Jules) and in quite a few timelines. The timelines became a bit confusing at times with all the switching back and forth and involving some new characters here and there. But the greed, jealousy, hatred, deceit and power mongering made it well worth a little whiplash on the timelines. These are deeply flawed individuals, and they keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what they have planned around the next corner. None are above reproach, but are they redeemable?

Entertaining and with a bit of a wondering ending, it's definitely a whirlwind of surprises.

My sincere thanks to the author, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing the free early arc of The Heiress for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

I've read every one of Rachel Hawkins' thrillers, and they've all been satisfying and twisty takes on the theme of rich people behaving badly. This one is definitely my favorite.

In the fifties, toddler Ruby McTavish disappeared from her parents' North Carolina mansion, leaving them distraught until an Alabama man confessed to having kidnapped her to replace the daughter that he and his wife had lost. This is only the beginning of Ruby's infamous reputation. Four husbands, all dead. A family who seems to hate her. And all her riches bequeathed to the son she adopted later in life.

Ruby certainly had her secrets.

Now in his thirties, her adopted son Camden is summoned back to deal with the estate he inherited and wants nothing to do with. His surviving family, still living in the McTavish mansion, despise him, and the feeling is mutual.

His wife, Jules is determined to convince him to reclaim what is his.

The story unfolds from both Camden and Jules' perspectives, interspersed with news clippings and excerpts from letters Ruby wrote toward the end of her life. It seems that Ruby wasn't the only McTavish with dark secrets, because both Camden and Jules have their fair share.

Ruby's story is one of privilege, luxury, betrayal, violence, and spite, and everyone else is left to deal with the money and secrets left in her wake.

I really enjoyed the tone of this novel compared to Hawkins' other books. The first-person narrative, particularly in Jules' sections was assertive and conversational, shattering the fourth wall and treating the reader as a confidante. Jules was entertainingly unlikeable, while I found Camden to be relatable, if flawed. And Ruby was deliciously wicked while still feeling like someone you'd probably like to party with. The perfect unrepentant villainess.

If you're a fan of Hawkins' other works, keep an eye out for some little easter eggs, since the books share a world.

If you like dark family secrets, vicious rich villains, and lush throwbacks to the 60s, 70s, and 80s, this book will check all your boxes. I thought it was a hell of a lot of fun.

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins is a twisty, suspenseful, gothic thriller about a wealthy, morally bankrupt family from North Carolina. The plot features a deceased heiress, Ruby McTavish, and her family that will do anything for her fortune. Murder, blackmail, and family secrets, all set at the beautiful but creepy family estate, Ashby House. Alternating timelines and points of view (from Ruby, through a series of letters, her adopted son, Cam, and Cam’s wife, Jules) kept me highly entertained. All of the main and ancillary characters have something to hide, and their secrets are slowly, cleverly revealed. Ms Hawkins may well be my queen of gothic novels. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. Pub date: 1/9/2024

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC!

I have to be honest, this took me a while to get into but I kept pushing along because normally Rachel Hawkins’ books get me every time! And it did take a second but it finally got twisty and I was hooked! It was definitely more her gothic thriller side like The Villa was, but still a decent dysfunctional family story. I definitely didn’t see the connections coming and all the murders from the family, but definitely make it a good story! I will continue to read more from Rachel!

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for sending me this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
The Heiress was my first book by Rachel Hawkins and I really enjoyed it. I saw it getting a lot of praise on Bookstagram and of course I got FOMO, so I grabbed in on Read Now on NetGalley.
I couldn’t put this book down and I really enjoyed it. I love books about family secrets, especially when they take place in massive old estates, like Ashby House. I also was so intrigued when I saw comparisons to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – The Heiress is kind of like that book in that Ruby McTavish was wealthy and had several husbands. I understand the idea that it had the same kind of vibes, but I think the direct comparisons mostly end there.
There were a few twists along the way and while I didn’t figure any of them out, I felt like maybe the ending wasn’t quite shocking enough. Maybe it just to be explored a bit more. But also, is it just me or did anyone else not understand what the last line meant? Someone please explain! DM me!
Anyway, I really liked the letter format, which is how we mostly learn about Ruby so we are getting it from her in the first person, and the news articles that gave us more information about Ruby’s life. I also liked that there were several points of view with Camden and Jules both narrating the story.
Ultimately, If you want an engaging thriller that’s also a family drama, I would recommend The Heiress.

The Heiress is a fun, multi-POV story about the remaining family of Ruby McTavish, a wealthy heir in North Carolina who mysteriously disappeared for months when she was a child. A widow four times over, Ruby adopted her son Camden, and his arrival to the family was not received well. Camden has spent the last decade since her death distancing himself from the home he inherited, not touching the money he inherited either. But when another family death pulls him back home to North Carolina, the secrets of the McTavish family collide and lead to a surprising conclusion.

I enjoyed this story and the way it was told
Through multiple perspectives as well as through letters from the late Ruby. While some of it was predictable, the McTavishes world felt very vibrant and real.