"The Heiress" by Rachel Hawkins is a gripping gothic suspense novel that delves into the dark and enigmatic world of an infamous heiress and the tangled legacy she leaves behind.

The story revolves around Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore, a woman who, in life and death, is North Carolina's most notorious and wealthiest figure. Ruby's life has been marked by tragedy, from a high-profile kidnapping in her childhood to four marriages, each ending in a husband's mysterious death. Her stronghold is Ashby House, a grand estate in the Blue Ridge Mountains that has witnessed both her power and her secrets.

The narrative takes a riveting turn when Ruby's adopted son, Camden, decides to distance himself from the house and its complex history, opting for a simple life as an English teacher in Colorado alongside his wife, Jules. However, after a decade, the death of Camden's uncle draws him and Jules back into the orbit of Ashby House, a place they once tried to escape.

As they return to the family estate, the eerie and unsettling legacy of Ruby resurfaces. Dark secrets and unanswered questions about Ruby's past and her string of husbands' mysterious deaths begin to unravel. The story masterfully weaves together elements of mystery, suspense, and family drama, keeping readers on the edge of their seats.

Hawkins excels in creating a brooding atmosphere, rich with tension and a sense of foreboding. The setting, with its grandeur and history, becomes an integral character in the narrative, adding to the novel's gothic allure. The characters are complex, flawed, and deeply human, making their struggles and motivations relatable and engaging.

"The Heiress" explores themes of inheritance, family bonds, and the far-reaching consequences of one woman's actions. It skillfully reveals the layers of deception and intrigue surrounding Ruby McTavish and her tumultuous life. The author's storytelling prowess shines through as she expertly navigates the dual timelines and intricacies of the plot.

Overall, "The Heiress" is a captivating and suspenseful read that will appeal to fans of gothic mysteries and family sagas. Rachel Hawkins delivers a tantalizing tale filled with secrets, lies, and a sense of impending doom, making it a must-read for those who enjoy a well-crafted and atmospheric thriller.

Once again Rachel Hawkins did not disappoint. “The Heiress” had so many twists and turns and I could not put this book down! If your looking for a fast suspenseful read this is it!

Really great book!! Everything in it was soo intense and interesting! Would read it again definitely.

THE HEIRESS was a fun suspense ride from start to finish! I sympathized a lot with Camden. I wouldn't want anything to do with those people neither! Jules was suspicious to me from the start but I rabbit appreciated how get story unfolded. The real star of this book was the heiress herself. Ruby McTavish was quite the character and she kept me on my toes. Nature vs. Nurture really came into play in this book. I don't think she was multidimensional as much as she became what age was surrounded by. If not financially greedy she was surely emotionally greedy. I won't say more because I don't want to give anything away I will say that every single person in this book was hiding a secret (some more than one).

Lydia and Faith at the end were my favorite part😉

Amazing! A slow burn that had me guessing until the end. This is the first book I have read thanks to NetGalley, and it did not disappoint. Towards the end, the relationship between Jules and Camden gave me the same kind of vibes as the relationship between Love Quinn and Joe Goldberg in You- such a great read!

I’ve had hit-and-miss luck with Rachel Hawkins, and unfortunately this one is another miss. I liked the premise of The Heiress at first (I’m always a sucker for a book with built-in articles and such to support the main narrative), but I eventually just found this boring.

Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore. She was famous at a young age as she was kidnapped and her fame grew as she got older, having been married 4 times, each husband dying and under questionable circumstances. She adopts and raises a young boy, Camden, who goes back to Ashby house, the home he grew up in, 10 years after Ruby's death, with his wife in tow. His wife, Jules, wants to convince him to stay, but Cam wants no part of the life there or the 'family' that still resides there.

The heiress is a must read. It is full of twists and turns you don't see coming. I love the way Rachel always leaves you guessing at the end of her books, but I'd love to see more! I have so many unanswered questions!!

This contemporary mystery is quite the page-turner!! I thoroughly enjoyed getting tangled up in the web of lies. This extended family has woven.
In a Vanderbilt-esque mansion in the mountains of western North Carolina, lives, and extremely wealthy family, the McTavishes. One day, the prodigal son, Camden and his wife, Jules, are summoned to return. They drive cross country, each with very different goals in mind.
Camden wishes he never had to return and face his mean-spirited family. Jules is hoping to make the mansion their new home…but both Camden and Jules are keeping a lot of secrets from each other!!
I felt that the story was fast-paced and interesting. Some of the supporting characters are a bit one dimensional, though.
And have I mentioned the money? And which family member actually owns it all?

If you’re looking for a fast paced, evil family mystery, this one’s for you!

First of all, I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the chance to read an advance copy of “The Heiress.” It was my introduction to Rachel Hawkins’s work. I’ve heard a lot of good things about her writing, and I was excited to read this example. So it makes me really sad to have to say that I probably would not have finished the book if it hadn’t been a review copy.

I won’t give away any plot surprises – of which there are many. I’ll just say pay attention and don’t let your guard down because in “The Heiress” things – and people – are not always what they seem. There are lots of twists and turns, just as you would expect in a gothic thriller. But this book is so enormously improbable, it’s almost more of a dark comedy. Very dark. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with dark comedy, and once I readjusted my perspective, I did actually enjoy some of the book.

To be completely honest, I think my major complaint was the language – why all the swearing and “naughty” words? The book would be so much more enjoyable without that. Several readers have mentioned that this book seems more like a young adult novel than one written for grown-ups. And I think that’s a fair summing up. Maybe Hawkins just threw in all the expletives to make it sound more adult. Adult, as in X-rated. Whatever the reason, I was put off by it, and I only hope that her editor manages to convince her to clean it up before the final version is published.

LOVED THIS BOOK!!! Rachel Hawkins does it again!

Absolutely loved the suspense in this book. I love the switching of characters in different times to tell their family story.

Twists throughout the book right up to the last pages.

Thank you netgalley for the ARC!

I really enjoy Rachel Hawkins's writing, and "The Heiress" was another hit for me. The story untangles the complicated backstory of the McTavish family, an extremely wealthy family, residing in a spectacular mansion that holds all sorts of secrets and lies. As the matriarch, Ruby's adopted son, Cam, finally returns to settle issues with the estate, we learn all about Ruby's marriages, the dramatic events that put her in the news, and the fraught relationships among the family members.
This story grabbed me from the jump. Well-paced, and with twists and turns throughout, this novel is full of well-rounded, complex characters and page-turning intrigue!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The extremely wealthy Ruby McTavish is a famous heiress, well infamous. When she was a baby she was kidnapped and after a long dramatic manhunt she was returned to her family. She was called a black widow after burying four husbands. She was the sole heir to the family's vast wealth but she remained living in her family estate, Ashby House, in the town of Tavistock with her sister's family. They are all the stereotypical spoiled brats, rude, ungrateful and the only way they haven't gone to jail is via their money. Since she had no children of her own and never wanted to leave her vast fortune to these horrible people she decided to adopt the "luckiest boy" alive. Camden never thought of himself as lucky, he hated growing up at the Ashby Home and since Ruby's death has be burdened with taking care of it and its inhabitants. After pleadings from his wife Jules they finally return to the homes as more secrets from the past emerge threatening to end the McTavish family for good.

I have read a few of Rachel Hawkins novels and have enjoyed them so I was happy to get a copy of her newest work. I enjoyed how the story unfolded both from various character povs and letters from Ruby herself revealing her dark secrets from the grave. Money truly brings out the worst in these characters but that makes it all the more entertaining. The main characters are intriguing and move the story along as old relationship wounds are opened back up. I would have loved a little more back story from Ruby's letters since it is basically the second plotline. There are a few nice twists to keep the suspense going. Overall this is an enjoyable read.

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins joins her impressive line of suspense novels!The book is told from different points of view about an heiress of a large house and fortune who had been kidnapped as a child and then found.She had been widowed four times.Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore leaves her large inheritance to her adopted son Camden.Camden wants to continue his life as a teacher and wants nothing to do with the inheritance or the others in his adopted family but he and his wife of ten years Jules go back to have closure on the past.You will want to keep reading to learn the rest of the story!Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to enjoy the ARC of The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins!It will be enjoyed by readers of gothic suspense.

This was a breath of fresh air! It was my first novel by Rachel Hawkins and it was perfectly imperfect. For the most part, she had me guessing what the twist would be. Even though I saw it coming, it did take a long time for me to get there (which is a plus!). I couldn't put the book down! I love how she still left me guessing in the epilogue. A++++

✨cowboy like me. this book is cowboy like me in book form, minus the western imagery. the main couple starts off in colorado, the main part of the story is told in the carolinas, but the western vibes aren't there. BUT THE COWBOY LIKE ME VIBES ARE!!!

✨this book doesn't come out until january, so i'm not going to say much, but this book is structured like the other rachel hawkins thriller/mystery books. they're not too serious, can get a little dark, with plot twists secured within them.

✨for this book we follow camden, who was adopted into the McTavish family where his mother was notorious for disappearing as a child, her money, and her dead husbands. it was giving evelyn hugo with the mediocre husbands and blasts into the past. camden is married to jules and early on in the book they receive news that takes then from their home in colorado to the McTavish family estate in the blue ridge mountains. when they arrive things seem slow, but everything cooks together to a satisfying conclusion.

✨i enjoyed the characters enough, thought the mystery element was fun to follow, and loves the multiple husband angle and plot motivated by people who will do whatever they need to do to secure themselves financially. that is always interesting to me. the main thing that keeps me from giving this a 5 star was the fact that some of the smaller details and mysteries felt thrown into the wind and weren't explored enough for my liking.

✨pick this up if you enjoy the other rachel hawkins novels! i would rank this as my second favorite with 1.) the villa, 2.) the heiress, 3.) the wife upstairs, and 4.)reckless girls. i can't wait to read what is next from hawkins!

✨thank you netgalley and st. martin's press for allowing me to read this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Wow. What a read.

👵🏼🔥📝💰🏯👩🏽‍❤️‍👨🏻

<i>The Heiress</i> is a masterfully told domestic thriller about an extremely wealthy family and just how corruptible a piece of the pie can be. One of the main voices of the story comes from Ruby McTavish, the matriarch of the McTavish family, in the form of letters. These letters detail important points of her life, including the mysterious deaths of her four husbands, providing the reader with another fascinating story within itself.

The second voice is Camden’s, Ruby’s adopted son and thus, heir to the McTavish fortune. However, because he has been adopted, he is not accepted by the rest of the McTavish family and they will go to any lengths to regain what this rightfully theirs.

Lastly is Jules, Cam’s wife. Jules loves Cam with everything she has, but she craves a better life. Having had a rough childhood, and still living less than comfortably, she craves a home like Ashby House and the wealth and protection that the McTavish name can provide.

I’m not going to lie, for the first 30% of this book I wasn’t all that interested. I had read the blurb and thought I’d love it, but it didn’t really come together for me early on. There were so many random mentions of things that didn’t make sense, and at the time seemed like plot holes. However, by the end I was COMPLETELY BLOWN AWAY. Each and every part of the story is perfectly woven together with a pace that gradually increases. By 60%, I couldn’t put the book down. I had to find out what secrets Ruby, Cam, Jules, and even the rest of the McTavishes were hiding. And it was all every bit as juicy as I’d hope it would be.

I highly recommend picking this book up. You will not regret it. I’ve read other novels by Rachel Hawkins and loved them, but <i>The Heiress</i> might take the cake for most intricate and twisty.

4.5/5
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for a review. I was not required to give a good review, so please know that all of my thoughts are genuine.

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5867831932

This was a book that grabbed me right from the beginning. If I didn’t have to work I would have finished it so quickly. Loved the different characters point of view and there were definitely twists throughout the whole story. Loved the style of writing.

One of my favorite thrillers I’ve read recently! Rachel Hawkins is an auto read author for me, and this might be my favorite of hers so far.

I loved the “mixed media” with letters and news article snippets alongside the central plot. While I did predict one of the major twists, it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the story at all.

Such a clever and unique book full of creative twists all throughout the story. Even though the story felt a bit slow, I did enjoy the POVs from different characters, old letters, and news articles. Definitely a book that I would recommend!

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the early read.
The author did a great job of building suspense and delivering a twist that was simultaneously unexpected and totally plausible. The evils of old money was masterfully intertwined with a breathtakingly beautiful setting.

4 out 5