I really enjoy the irreverent, sassy tone of Rachel Hawkins's adult fiction. The Heiress is filled with the quirks and bad behavior of the the insanely rich, and I always enjoy these stories. The behavior in this one is very, very bad, and it also adds in an aging, rambling old house, which hits even more points for me. This is an entertaining, speedy read with some interesting twists.

What a fun, quick ride this was! This was my first Hawkins book and I'm so glad it was. I really enjoyed the multiple POV - especially from Cam. It's so rare we get male POV in thrillers written by women. I also enjoyed the breaking of the third wall by Jules. The story sucked me in right away. The writing was witty and engaging, giving just enough so that you wanted more and more but not too much to where you felt like you already knew what was going to happen.

This is a family thriller, themes of rich/poor, privileged and not and of course secrets secrets secrets! I had a hunch about a few things, but there were for sure a few twists that I did not see coming!

Absolutely enjoyed my time with this one and will be picking up more by Hawkins!

I found this book very readable and overall interesting. I was continuously intrigued and had to keep reading in order to find out what happened. I didn't feel particularly tied to any of the main characters but overall enjoyed this. I would recommend if you're in the mood for something chill but still a little dark.

Ten years after his adoptive mother, Ruby McTavish, dies, Cam returns to the palatial estate where he grew up. In so doing, he also returns to a town which reveres his family, but to an aunt and two cousins, still living on the Estate, who revile him. Despite having been left the family fortune, Cam rejected his family and lives humbly with his wife, Julie, off his income as a teacher on the other side of the country. And so the games begin, with Cam's family constantly trying to undermine him, and Cam regretting his decision to return.

"The Heiress," by Rachel Hawkins is a fabulous novel, with engaging characters, competing agendas, and the right number of plot twist, which makes putting the book down, near impossible. A highly recommended read.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

4.5 stars! Pretty sure Rachel Hawkins gets better with every single book. The Heiress was fascinating and you'll kind of love to hate Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore, or should we say "Kill-More?"
When Ruby dies she leaves everything to her adopted son, Camden, who wants nothing to do with Ruby or the rest of McTavish clan. But 10 years after her death, Cam can no longer ignore his familial responsibilities and must return to Ashby House, set in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains. He does so reluctantly but at the urging of his wife, Jules, who has her own motives for visiting Ashby House.
The twists and turns just keep coming in this one and you'll be surprised until the very last page.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this e-arc.*

Gothic mystery with a fair share of plot twists.

Things that worked for me: the novel is presented in multiple POVs including news and letters.
My favorite chapters is Ruby.
She speaks a lot about seizing our moment and day and I love her voice. Her letters and confessions make us keep going. Her character is delightful honest and fun.

My second favorite thing is the focus on the characters and plot. A large amazing palatial house and have the survivors figure out who gets what. There are murders to reveal, and truths to uncover. It is entertaining and this is my first time in contact with the author's work. I like the writing style. Reads considerably fast. I finished it in two mornings.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for this e-ARC.

If "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" was a thriller, it would be this book. While the book had some slow areas, my favorite parts were the stories about Ruby's husbands.

Where there's money, there's drama, and this book definitely delivered on that. It makes you think about how money doesn't equate to happiness. This whole family is very shady.

Loved all the twists in this book. Loved how Ruby wrote letters explaining things from the past. This was my favorite Rachel Hawkins book so far!

Buckle up, buttercups, because The Heiress is going to take you on a wild ride as readers learn about the glamorous life of Ruby McTavish, her deceased husbands (count em, 4), meet her son Camden, and learn why he has rejected his inheritance and family for all these years. I loved the use of letters and multiple viewpoints to learn the dark secrets of the McTavish’s past, and the way that Hawkins wrapped everything together was fantastic. The twists and turns of this story kept me engaged, entertained, and enthused.

I absolutely adored this read!

It reminded me in a lot of ways of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo but with a mystery twist and I loved that. Ruby’s character is incredibly intriguing with a very interesting personality that makes you love reading her chapters. I was enthralled with reading more of her past.

I loved the multiple POV’s and the chapters that were letters from Ruby’s past.

The only critique that kept this from being 5 stars for me was that the numerous characters that were integral to the plot coupled with how in depth the plot went was almost hard to follow, but I still loved it 🩵

Would absolutely recommend!

w: there is domestic violence and murder

This book was so enjoyable and such a quick read. It was fast paced the entire time and had me guessing until about half way through. I am typically good at guessing the ending of a book and this one wasn’t difficult for me to guess. However, this one had some extra turns I wasn’t expecting. There were moments I second guessed myself but I NEEDED to keep reading to know the ending. Such a good book, definitely picking up more of this authors books! I received this as an ARC in exchange for a review.

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
So here's this Southern gothic tale about this North Carolina socialite, Ruby, who made a name for herself (not always in the best way) by getting kidnapped as a kid and later turning into a bit of an unfortunate widow with her four late husbands. She leaves her massive fortune and estate to her adoptive son, Camden. The story kicks off when Camden rolls back home with his wife, and then the crazy wealthy family drama and secrets start unfolding. It's not exactly a rollercoaster of a plot with crazy cliffhangers in every chapter, but it sure kept me going back to it. Def a more slow burn (but not too slow) Family drama thriller with a couple of twists and turns.

I love going in with as little plot details as possible. I love the way it switched multiple POVs and parts of the story were told through letters and newspaper articles. Being a Southerner myself, now living in California, I loved all those Southern vibes and quirky characters.

One of my favorite tropes is stories of rich folks and their not-so-honorable deeds and this was a good mix. I read the book and listened to the audio. The audio was a blast, with different voices for all the characters. Even the accents on the audiobooks were well done. And SHORT CHAPTERS! I can never say it enough how much I love short chapters.

This was my first dive into Rachel Hawkins’ world, and I'm definitely coming back for more.

The Heiress is my first Rachel Hawkins and it will certainly not be my last! This was a twisty and enjoyable mystery thriller and I had a great time reading it. I loved the atmosphere of The Heiress. The setting of Ashby house is very compelling and evocative, and offers strong connections to other gothic tales about looming houses and families.
One of the storytelling conventions of The Heiress uses letters which Ruby, the wealthy socialite at the heart of the story, has left detailing her past. At first, I wondered why the whole book didn’t lean into this epistolary style for its entirety, but I was rewarded by there being a clear reason for this choice as it continued. The shifts in narration support the story in very compelling ways and the way the book weaves them together was very enjoyable.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my advanced copy of this book.

Another perfect book! It took me a minute to get into the book but once I was I loved the story. I am a native of NC so like I liked this aspect of it. Her books never disappoint.

Rachel Hawkins has always been a hit or a miss for me.. unfortunately this one fell under the miss category for me. It was just alright.

Despite how short this book was, it felt very long and like some things really drug out. The first half was very slow before the twists and turns started to come around 50% into the book. Some twists were good whereas others I thought were a little far fetched. I found most characters unlikeable.. and the characters that I liked at the beginning, I did not like at the end..

This is advertised as a thriller, but I felt like it was focused more on family drama than as a thriller.. Positives is that it was a very quick read!

Thank you Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press & Macmillan Audio for an ARC of this book / audiobook!

Thank you NetGalley and Rachel Hawkins for an ARC of The Heiress. This book was truly an amazing read. This book is told through 3 POVs. First, Camden, an orphan boy who inherits the fortune from the McTavish family. Second, Jules who is Camden’s wife. Third perspective is through letters left behind by Ruby McTavish the heiress and “husband killer” who has passed away. Primarily set in the Ashby House, this book was well paced out and full of twists. I highly recommend this book if you’re a thriller or mystery lover who loves multiple POVs and twists.

A great twisty thriller! I was legitimately shocked by some of the revelations at the end. My favorite parts of thrillers are the twists, and this one did not disappoint!

I will say this book had a slow start for me, and it took me longer than normal to get through it. But once things got going, they really got going! I usually love how Rachel Hawkins writes these incredibly bingeable books that I devour in a few days - this book was a little different for me. But the twists made up for that!

The Heiress was really good but also really messed up?? Which, to be clear, is a positive review for a thriller.

The Heiress is a story told from three perspectives. First is Camden McTavish, Cam for short. He was adopted by Ruby McTavish, an heiress with a sordid history of four mysteriously dead husbands and a very wealthy and toxic family. He was bullied by the rest of his family members because he wasn't really "one of them," so after Ruby dies, he escapes and doesn't look back until he's returning to Ashby House, his childhood home, for the first time in 10 years. Second is Jules, his wife. And third is Ruby herself, told through a series of letters she wrote in the months before her death. All three of these perspectives have a lot of foreshadowing and a lot of "well, you'll see" or "I couldn't tell him/her/them."

The Heiress has all the makings of a book about a whole bunch of terrible people being terrible, which I don't enjoy reading. And the rest of the McTavish clan are definitely bad people: Cam's cousins Ben and Libby who were willfully ignorant at best and abusive at worst when they were growing up, and Nelle, Ruby's sister, who constantly reminds Cam that he isn't one of them. But somehow, Cam and Jules are both better people and also likable. One thing that I really liked throughout the story is how much they love each other. They're both keeping secrets from each other, but they tell you it's for a good reason, or to protect the other one, which, I more or less believe. Even after [no spoilers but all the crazy bonkers stuff that happens in the last few chapters], they still love each other.

There were a lot of twists in the last 20% of the book. Some of them I expected, and others made me literally gasp out loud. I don't need my mysteries to be unsolvable as the reader, but I also like there to be some unexpected twists. And some of the twists are... kind of messed up. Like, I felt like I needed a crime board and a family tree and some red string.

This is also a pretty quick read -- there aren't so many chapters, and the interspersed letters and news articles also make it go by quickly. If you're looking for a screwy family, haunted-ish gothic house, murdery mystery thriller, I'd pick this one up.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an eARC of The Heiress in exchange for my honest review.

The Heiress may be one of my favorite Rachel Hawkins books yet.
The foreshadowing, the secrets, the lies, family, mystery and the twists that keep coming is what makes this book so special.

Right from the beginning we get a little piece of something a bit twisted. A little out of left field and I wasn't sure where it was going to go from there. But that's what made the story so special. Trying to put the pieces together. The letters and newspaper clippings kept me coming back and totally enamored with Ruby, who self admittedly was a murderer that was never caught.

Camden McTavish must return to a home that he wants nothing to do with after a death. The home and the family are toxic. He is bringing back his wife Jules who seems quite excited by the chance to see where Camden grew up. Is it the money or is she truly fascinated with how Camden is tied to the McTavish family?

I really enjoyed how we got the present from Jules and Camden's POV and then we got a piece of the past by reading Ruby's letters. As those letters build up to who Ruby truly was, we also got to see how the whole family was connected in one way or another. The story had that dark sinister feel, but it also was quite genius the way the secrets played into the lives of each family member.
Although it took me a hot minute to be fully engrossed in the story, I was immediately drawn to Ruby and the life she lived. I wasn't sure how all the pieces were going to fit together in the end, but it all worked out.

The Heiress is a book that is filled with secrets and has that gothic vibe that surrounds the house and the characters that inhabit it. If you like a little history and sinister actions with your stories, check this one out.

This was fairly entertaining but I felt confused for a lot of the book. It felt a little too twisty. But overall I enjoyed it.