The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins was a great story. Camden and Jules find themselves the heirs to an exuberant fortune and a giant, beautiful house filled with mystery. Camden the adopted son of Heiress Ruby wants nothing to do with his mothers fortune or his adoptive family. He especially wants nothing to do with the home he grew up in. Camden had been contacted by his family multiple times, but finally with the push of his wife Jules decides to head back to his huge mansion in a small town, completely owned by his family.

It is obvious the rest of the family is angry that Camden is the heir to their biological family's entire fortune, but at what lengths are they willing to go to, to have it return to "its rightful owners". This twisty and fun story, explores the life of Ruby McTavish (who by the way is 4 times widowed), and her complex history with men and her family. Hearing each letter written about one of Ruby's husbands was a highlight and something I thoroughly looked forward to. I wanted to keep reading, just to find out what Ruby did next.

The twists were surprising, especially at the end, but not a thriller as I half expected. Solid 4 star read! I love Rachel Hawkins

Great story, fabulous ending

This starts out like a dysfunctional family drama, but as a fan of the author's previous work, I expected a little mystery or a few twists. I was not disappointed.

Ruby, the first-born daughter of a wealthy North Carolina family, disappeared as a child. That just started her drama. She was married and widowed four times. The first marriage ended just a few months after her wedding. Her only family remaining was a sister married to an alcoholic wastrel, a niece, and a nephew. Ruby's father's will left everything to her. Her sister got a significant but relatively paltry amount from a bequest from their mother, along with permission to live in the house for her life by her father. Childless Ruby adopted a boy, Cameron. Cameron escaped his toxic family by moving to California and working as a bartender and later school teacher. He and an actress (well, an actress at a historical museum), Jules, go back to the family mansion at the request of the nephew to straighten out some financial details and look at needed house repairs. Cam's aunt and cousins are living at the house and deeply resentful that so much of the fortune went to Cam, who has no blood ties to their family.

The family is the stereotypical selfish, entitled kind. Cam is different. He wants to return to his "normal" life as soon as possible, but Jules loves the family home and would like to convince him to stay and kick out the family.

The story alternates between letters from Ruby that tell about her life, including her husbands' deaths, Cam and Jules.

I loved this book. I read it until I couldn't keep my eyes open. When I woke up four hours later, I read until I finished it. The end has just enough twists to make it great without jumping the shark.

Highly recommended.

This was a perfectly played out mystery, layered with unreliability and intrigue. Every minute of this book was enjoyable!

The McTavish family and estate have a long history, and the heir to it all is called back to the one place he never wanted to go back to. Camden and his wife Jules take a break from their quiet life and venture to Ashby House when Cam’s uncle dies and the will is read.

Cam, the adoptive (and only) son of the late matriarch, Ruby McTavish, is heir to the house and a large inheritance. Surrounding him is the family he left behind, the family who never accepted him, who never gave up the chance to tell him he was not one of them. Can doesn’t want it, but he has to make an appearance at Ashby House.

Everyone in this book has secrets, including Jules, who wishes to come clean to her amazing husband, and Ruby, who has more secrets than all of them combined. Can left the family before Ruby’s death and stayed away afterward… until now.

Through these pages, we get tons of sibling rivalry, dark pasts, and uncovering of deceptions long since buried. This was possibly my favorite book from Hawkins so far. There was so much to love about it.

I think everyone killed someone.

The Heiress is about how messed up families are, especially rich, entitled families. So much drama, so many mental health issues! Ruby McTavish is the McTavish family matriarch and we follow her life in a series of letters she wrote. Meanwhile in present day, we follow her adopted son reckoning with being Ruby's sole heir. Camden doesn't want anything to do with the McTavish family or any of the money left to him. But his wife does.

Short, quick, easy read with a few not very shocking twists. I didn't have them figured out but they didn't change the story to drastically. Enjoyed the read but it was underwhelming.

Thank You to St. Martin’s Press for the ARC provided through NetGalley. This book will be published on January 9, 2024.

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this advance copy in exchange for my review.

WOW another perfect book from Rachel Hawkins!
I've loved everything that Rachel has written so far, The Wife Upstairs being my favourite, but The Heiress might have just bumped it for first place.
The Heiress was the perfect amount of suspenseful and twisty. Secrets and lies are told throughout with multiple POVs and timelines.
If you loved The Woman in the Window for it's Film Noir vibes, you'll love this so much.
I simply cannot say one bad thing about it, it was beautiful.

The Heiress

When Cam is summoned back to his childhood home in the wake of his uncle’s death, his wife Jules can’t understand why he’s so hesitant to return to the estate and fortune his adoptive mother Ruby, the heiress to the McTavish wealth, had left him. The McTavish clan is home to something far more sinister than the beautiful mansion in the Blue Ridge mountains, however, with rumors of Ruby’s past—including four dead husbands, and an array of family members desperate to claim their piece of the pie.

Hawkins’s gothic thriller brought all of the twists you’d hope for, and then some. While very palatable and an overall fun read, there did almost get to be the feeling of there being too many twists, almost as if after the first couple, Hawkins was like “hold my drink.” That being said, I did thoroughly enjoy reading this piece.

The alternating chapters between Cam’s and Jules’s points of view, inter-spliced by letters from Ruby confessing about her past, worked really well to slowly reveal the motivations of each character and ultimately build to the major “twist” so to speak.

This is the perfect read for fans of Riley Sager’s The Only One Left.

9/10 - Really enjoyed this book! I found myself constantly wanting to pick the book back up and learn more about the main characters. There was a lot to unfold, and I really liked the story line. Highly recommend when it comes out in Jan of next year!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing this digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this thriller. Rachel Hawkins continues to impress me with her writing and ability to perfectly tell a story that unravels a little bit at a time. I highly recommend this to anyone looking a fast paced thriller with a great plot twist.

This is my third Rachel Hawkins book and right now it is still the same. It just didn't really work too good for me. It is not great but it is good. I liked it but was not really fond of how the "twist" went.

Oh my goodness! This book was so fun to read, especially if you love mysteries and thrillers. This book had so many twists and turns, some you were expecting but Hawkins through you off in many of the plot twists!

Ruby McTavish is the richest woman in North Carolina. She died ten years prior to where our story begins. She has left her entire estate to her adopted son Camden, who wants nothing to do with the life or the rest of the McTavish family. Forced to return, Cam and his wife Jules visit Ashby House where they must face family secrets in order to claim what is rightfully theirs.

Throughout the story, we alternate between three main points of view: Ruby's (from the past told through letters), Cam, and Jules. Ruby's past is captivating!! All three are hiding dangerous secrets from each other.

This story, the mystery of Ruby's childhood, along with the characters secrets and the way they are connected to each other kept my turning the pages. This book is hard to put down. A must read for mystery lovers!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, St. Martin's Press, for providing an ARC for me to read in return for my honest review.

First off, thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC of this book in exchange for my review! I’ve read Rachel Hawkins’ latest 4 novels now and I have to say that I believe this is her strongest overall. I’d recommend this one for fans of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
The novel alternates between first person present day and the letters of Ruby McTavish. Ruby’s story had me captivated; in fact, I could go for more Ruby and less present day. But alas, the present day chapters were equally essential for pulling the story together. The story flowed smoothly until the end where I feel like the “shock factors” got a little busy. Overall, I will be recommending this novel when it comes out in January!

I loved the spooky atmosphere and the spine tingling mystery at the heart of Rachel Hawkins’ newest novel. I had very similar feelings when I first read Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. This is the perfect kind of thriller for me. Clues, puzzles, and the feeling as if time is of the essence but unsure why. I will be recommending this to all my friends.

This was an entertaining suspenseful novel. I enjoyed the gothic elements and didn’t see some of the twists coming, but it almost had too many secrets and deceits. Some families are that way though, and this is certainly the story of a complicated, complex family. Good pick if you want a mystery that isn’t scary or gruesome.

Thanks, St Martins Press, for eARC!

This one- so many secrets, so many lies! It made my head spin but it also made it very hard to put down. This is a chilling and suspenseful family drama set in the mountains of North Carolina. Quick synopsis without giving anything away - Ruby, a well known heiress who was the victim of a childhood kidnapping and was suspiciously widowed 4 times, passes her entire estate to her adopted son Camden after her death. Camden has been living in Colorado with his wife Jules, and wants nothing to do with the estate and the infamous “Ashby House,” after being rejected his whole life by his relatives who still live there. When he finally makes his way back, more secrets are revealed as everyone (including unexpected people) fight to get the upper hand and control of the estate.

I liked how this story moved through the perspectives of the three main characters, and included elements like news articles and letters. It felt like pieces of a puzzle that were fitting together. It’s definitely a complex and layered story that was fun to read. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an ARC of this book!

What a wonderful book! From start to finish I was hooked. Who wouldn't enjoy a book about an old house, an heiress and tons of secrets? But the twists....not just one. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and thankful I received this advanced copy. Rachel Hawkins is always a must read for me and this one was excellent.

Is being born I to a wealthy, powerful family a blessing or a curse? What about being adopted into one? For Camden, it’s definitely the latter. Not only was he adopted into this family, but his mom, the heiress, left all of the estate to him. The rest of the family is resentful and crooked. Each of them made Camden’s life miserable, and he tried to escape them by moving far away.

And then there’s Camden’s girlfriend, Jules. She has secrets, and she knows what she wants. But what exactly are those secrets and how is she manipulating the situation to her advantage?

The story drew me in with all of the over the top wealth, twists and characters. I recommend it.

“This house is as twisted as the people who live in it.”

Ooooh, hello, my new favorite Rachel Hawkins book! Old southern money, a gothic mansion that is riddled with secrets, murder, family drama… what more could you want in a twisty domestic thriller?

We follow three POV’s ;

Camden - The heir to the McTavish fortune. Adopted by Ruby, the beloved heiress of Ashby House.

Jules - Camden’s wife of ten years, may or may not have some crazy secrets or her own.

Ruby - McTavish royalty, bad bitch. Her POV comes in the form of previously written letters, and she is by far one of my favorite characters ever written in a thriller novel. I just want to have tea with her and gossip.

I couldn’t stop reading this, I needed to know what was going to happen next. It’s so rare that I stay up until 5am to finish a book, but here I am. All of the twists within this messed up, greedy, insane family had me hooked from the very beginning. Ashby House was the perfect setting, and Ruby’s interjecting letters made it feel that much more alive. A new favorite of mine. I’ll be thinking about Ruby for a long time. All I have to say is, “GOOD FOR HER!!!!!”

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All of these thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is marketed as a thriller, but I think domestic drama is more suitable. The storyline is engaging and entertaining even though all the characters are unlikable. The ending two twists were good. I think these books would be for people who want a thriller but can’t pallet them.

I’ve been trying to get my hands on The Villa and The Reckless Girls by this author but I never got around to them until this novel, I decided to read it this morning with breakfast in my bed with my door shut from the world.
Can I say I was HOOKED! Only breaks were to get water or bathroom breaks. I read this in almost three hours! I was slowly starting to lose interest in suspense past couple years because most suspense novels haven’t been really interesting with twists, plots and so forth. However, Rachel Hawkins really knows her stuff. She’s showing the ability to be the Queen of the suspense. She really crafted The Heiress and executed really well with different twists, plots, and so forth. I love how she used newsletter’s articles, letters and different POVs. I love the beginning, the middle, and the ending! The ending….WOW! Thumbs up.
I’m going to grab those two novels I mentioned above and start reading them. I hope they’re as good as this one. I’ll be looking out for her upcoming novels.
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this entertaining eARC! As usual, my review is purely my own and not influenced by anyone.

Hawkins has such an enticing way of telling stories and I love the way that this one unfolded. I love a good family drama but often feel like they are usually a hit or miss. This was a hit!

I had ideas playing in my head and though at times I was partially right, there was still more to uncover. Although most of the characters were assholes (some because of who they were and others because of who they had been forced to be), I really thought they were well developed and realistic.

So excited to share in the hype for this one.