Camden McTavish is a seemingly normal guy who works as an English teacher in Colorado and is happily married to his wife Jules. Cam receives an email from his estranged cousin Ben summoning him back to his family home in North Carolina. Soon after, Cam and Jules pack their bags and head to North Carolina.

But to Jules's surprise, Cam tells her that they are not headed to just any home, but to a sprawling mansion in the Blue Ridge Mountains called Ashby House. Can tells Jules more about his adopted mother Ruby who was a wealthy heiress who not only was a widow 4 times over and the victim of a kidnapping as a toddler but the fact that she also left her 9 figure fortune to him but Cam refuses to touch the money.

As soon as they arrive at Ashby House Jules falls in love and feels that her husband deserves the house and fortune left to him. But obtaining his deserved inheritance won't be easy. Residing in Ashby House are Cam’s great aunt Nelle and two cousins who feel they deserve the inheritance and will do anything to get it.

The Heiress is a fast and entertaining read and in my opinion, has been the author's best work yet.
This family drama is full of morally grey characters who are full of secrets and backstabbing behaviors. The ending is filled with multiple plot twists that kept and overall I enjoyed this one and would recommend it.

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins will be available on January 9, 2024. Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the gifted copy!

This was a really good and surprising thriller/family drama. There were a lot of unexpected twists. I liked how alternated between Ruby's letters explaining the past and the present day. You will not want to put this book down! Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

This book was AHHMAZING! I honestly loved the slow burn building of suspense and not knowing exactly what everyone’s secrets were until the very end! This was actually a really quick clever little read!

Wow.
I’ve read a few Rachel Hawkins before and while they weren’t my particular brand, I could get behind them over all. But Wow. This one is fantastic, the twists were twisty, the plot was devious, and the characters were sinful….it really was an excellent book.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC, I can’t wait to read the next Rachel Hawkins book.

Another Rachel Hawkins home run!

This was fantastic. The premise gave me Evelyn Hugo vibes but obviously very different and MUCH darker. I loved the idea of the unlucky baby Ruby…the kidnapping, the husbands all dying, the house on the mountain and the awful family.

Rich people behaving badly is truly one of my favorite genres to read and this one was a true SMASHING success of a book. I think this may be my new Hawkins favorite, edging out The Wife Upstairs. I found the story to be very well paced, the characters all super suspect, the twists and plot turns so well done.

I love how Hawkins writing style feels more elevated and mature and I cannot wait for her next book to come out!

I was really excited to read this book because I LOVED "The Wife Upstairs". I didn't feel that this one was as good. Here's what I did like. I loved the letter aspect and reading Ruby's confessions to Cam. I feel like I really got to know her character through the letters. I really liked the way all of the characters developed as the story flipped back and forth from things that happened in the past to now. I did feel myself getting a little lost at times with a few of the connections. I was sometimes confused about what was current and what was in the past and felt myself rereading pages at times. I loved how everything came together in the end but was not blown out of the water with the story. I don't want to post any spoilers.... but I will say there were a few great connections and twists that I didn't expect. I would absolutely give this story a 3.5 if 1/2 stars were allowed.

That was a wild ride.

While I hated every single character in this book, it captured my attention and kept me turning pages until the stunning conclusion because of all the twists ad turns within the story. I had to find out what was going to happen next.

It also says something about the author when they make you have strong emotions about characters, and I definitely had strong emotions about these. Hawkins just keeps getting better and better with every book.

Thank you for the arc NetGalley! This book was different and in a gothic type way.

When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge mountains. In the aftermath of her death, that estate--along with a nine-figure fortune and the complicated legacy of being a McTavish--pass to her adopted son, Camden.

But to everyone’s surprise, Cam wants little to do with the house or the money--and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.

If you want to know more, The Heiress comes out the beginning of 2024! I definitely recommend it!

Not awful but also nothing that hadn’t been done before and done better. The characters were just there, the twists were predictable, the plot wasn’t unique… Just fine if you want a “shitty rich family has secrets and fights over inheritance” thriller, I guess.

With so many twists and turns it’s like it’s own amusement park! Im a big fan of Rachel Hawkins and this new one is fabulous. I loved it even more than The Villa. Jules and Camden leave Colorado to head back to the Carolinas to deal with the McTavish family estate after years trying to avoid the aftermath of Ruby’s death. As old family money often does, the secrets and betrayal run deep and no one is as they seem! If you’re a fan of Rachel’s other books then definitely check this one out!! Thanks so much to Rachel, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this e-arc!

A solid 3 Stars from me! I enjoyed The Heiress and found Ruby MacTavish to be such a fascinating character. I do wish I would have gotten a bit more backstory on each of her husbands to really understand her character development over the years, but that part was pretty glossed over. My favorite character was definitely Jules.

The twists kept me on edge, and I was genuinely surprised by at least 1 of them. I think this was really strong from Hawkins, and I enjoyed this more than some of her more recent novels like The Villa and Reckless Girls.

I've enjoyed Rachel Hawkins' books in the past, and the premise of The Heiress intrigued me, so I was thrilled to be given an ARC for her upcoming release.

At the heart of The Heiress is a wealthy, dysfunctional family story unlike any others I have read. Cam and Jules head back to the Blue Ridge Mountains (always a great book setting) to deal with his family after the death of his adopted mom and cousin. Everyone has something to hide and something to lose. Chaos and conflict inevitably ensure.

The characters are unique without feeling cliche. I figured out a lot of the plot about halfway into the book, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it. I enjoyed the setting and trying to unravel a crazy and convoluted family tree.

You will like The Heiress if you like houses that feel like characters in a story or you like to pop some popcorn and read about unlikable people doing crazy things for money–or other interesting reasons.

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for this advanced copy.

Thanks so much St Martin's Press and NetGalley.

“THERE’S NOTHING AS GOOD AS THE RICH GONE BAD.”

Without going into too much detail, Rachel Hawkins has another hit here. I enjoyed all the suspense from this story that had me locked in from the very first page. Wow!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

“THERE’S NOTHING AS GOOD AS THE RICH GONE BAD.”

If that ain’t the truth! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - I love stories like this, and Rachel Hawkins is great at telling them. Another twisty thriller down.

This was a suspenseful mystery that kept me turning the pages wanting to find out more. I enjoyed the book and all the twists and turns the whole way through. However, there was quite a bit to tie up at the end! Didn’t really connect with any of the characters, but that’s probably because they were all crazy.!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Heiress follows a couple generations of the McTavish Family. Specifically, the Heiress herself Ruby McTavish and her adopted son, Camden. Ruby ends up dying, leaving the Ashby house to her son, but some of the other family members have something to say about that.

10 years later, there is another death in the Family, and Camden gets sucked back into the world of the Ashby House. During this time here, they start contesting his right to the property, and all the while LOTS of secrets start coming out and things start getting really messy.

The thing is… this book wasn’t bad… I just didn’t actually care about ANY of the characters. I didn’t find any of them likable. I liked the Flashbacks we got regarding Ruby and her previous husbands… but it wasn’t like they revealed anything that we didn’t already know. I found it just kind of boring, and I was waiting for a big plot twist… but we pretty much saw everything coming. The most interesting part of the whole book was the epilogue…

This was my first Rachel Hawkins book, and I definitely want to give one of her other books a try. This one just wasn’t for me.

Camden McTavish: adopted prodigal son of heiress AND former kidnapping victim AND former wife of 4 (dead) husbands, Ruby McTavish, returns home to the NC mountains with wife Jules to tie up some loose ends with the family estate and the family Estate.

Because the McTavish family- like the entire selfish, money hungry, and kind of psychotic extended family- lives in a beautiful albeit old and slightly out of date Estate known as Ashby House. To put it mildly they are essentially royalty.

Back to Ruby though, whose story (from kidnapping survivor to the deaths of husbands 1-4) is told through letters and articles dispersed throughout the present day narrations Jules and Camden.

Alarmingly the husbands aren’t the only *suspected* murder victims, everyone’s hiding something from someone else, and nothing from the 1940s on that concerns Ruby, Camden, or Jules is as it seems.

✍🏼🏞️💰✍🏼🏞️💰✍🏼🏞️💰

I HATE giving away anything in a twisty thriller so I will briefly (I’m never brief) say - I really enjoyed this one!

Definitely in the vein of her other twisty psychological thrillers, this one is probably my favorite of Rachel’s 4! I guessed a couple of the twists before the end but I was still anxiously awaiting the final chapters for it all to come together.

Ruby was a lot of things, most not stellar- but I could have read an entire book of just her letters. The audacity of that woman to be both likable and diabolical; bravo Miss Hawkins 👏🏼.

Read this if you like: Family drama and/or feeling like your family is not at all or less dysfunctional, a dual timeline, spilling the tea, and a true crime undertone.

Here's the thing, Hawkins's books always start out so enthralling for me. Then somewhere, they get a little lost and little unrealistic. I am sad to say, this one follows the same path as many of her others have for me.

I was all for the mystery in this one. "Where is Hawkins taking me with this?" Was she the kidnapped child or wasn't she? Who is the rightful heir? I was all in! The book wove its way into my head pretty fast, and I was determined to ferret out all the secrets.

Eventually though, the book slowed. Then it just left me feeling a little let down. It's like Hawkins had everything figured out except how to reach the ending she wanted. Around the 80% mark of the book, I was losing interest. By the end, I just felt bereft.

Loved this book and this author so much! Such an interesting plot and character development. Enjoyed the twists that I did not see coming!

“We’re made up of many different types of people, is my point. Good ones, bad ones. Most of them, like me, probably fall somewhere in the middle.”

This is a twisted, wild ride and I enjoyed it every step of the way. While I usually criticize books for trying to do too much, this one absolutely nailed it! Told through dual points of view – Cam’s and Jules’ – we get the current turn of events. Letters from Ruby fill in the historical gaps. And, the way it worked together kept me turning the pages.

I loved the sass and determination of Ruby. Her letters were a breath of fresh air. And, I appreciated that Jules was not a superficial gold digger, and Cam was not the rich boy snob. While I did have one of the twists figured out, it did not ruin the story for me, and instead made me keep reading to see how Hawkins wove it all together.

Verdict: 4.5 stars