Hawkins is one of my favorite thriller writers. the twists and turns get me every time and this was no exception.

I loved this book! it was full of suspense and hard to put down. The subject matter was very unique and unlike things i've read recently. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time!

I loved this author's novel, The Wife Upstairs, but I had a hard time finishing her book Reckless Girls. I went into this book somewhat blind and I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed this book. My thoughts from the beginning were as such: 1) Ruby sure does have a dark sense of humor. 2) Jules definitely has a secret. 3) Why did Camden leave NC?
I like the way this story was told with different time periods between the letters and the present. I felt that I got to know Ruby through her letters and got a good sense of who she was even though she is dead. The McTavish family is definitely ruthless and will do whatever it takes to get that inheritance!

This book kept me guessing and the pages turning.

Thank you NetGalley and Rachel Hawkins for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - it was a quick read and the best way I can describe it is as “the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo” but with a domestic thriller/murder story.

I find all of Rachel Hawkins’ books incredibly easy to read and very bingeable. THE HEIRESS is no exception, and I really enjoyed this. It may be her best out of the thrillers Hawkins has written. I loved the family drama aspect and the mysterious intrigue into the life of Ruby McTavish. I could have used a bit more interaction with the family as a whole to really round out this plot, but otherwise this was a fun read.

Out January 2024! Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book was fascinating from the get go!
This book was enjoying and entertaining - I flew through my reading of this book!

Ruby is an elderly woman who has written letters about her life since childhood that help expose long held secrets and explain their current lifestyles and family drama.

Family isn’t what you’re born into but the people you surround yourself with!

The last chapter threw me for a loop, what I was believing for the whole book was wrong. My detective skills y’all are going to shame with these new thriller books.

There was a lot going on in this book and it was amazing and layered quite well. Definite must read for the season.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

This was an engrossing and VERY quick read. We are brought in with confessional letters and we stay for the twisty murder minds involved throughout the story. I love old houses, and just wish we had a TAD bit more of some house descriptives - I wanted to feel like I was sitting in the house while everything was going down. A nice little addition might have been spending some time in the period of Cam living in the house as a teenager. It would have rounded out Libby and Ben's characters a bit, made them more villainous.

A great, fun read. Recommended.

Loved the mystery with a splash of historical fiction. Rachel Hawkins is so good at creating her characters, and this book showed just that. Loved it

This was a fast, engaging mystery with twists that I did not see coming! The McTavishes are a rich family with lots of hidden secrets and when the matriarch, Ruby, passes away the family estate is in debate. She left everything to her adopted son but he wants nothing to do with the money, the family, or reliving the difficult connections they still have. The family is none too eager to welcome him home either. The setting is a gloomy old estate and it really sets the stage for rich people behaving badly (one of my favorite themes). I enjoyed this book to the last page! Thanks to Rachel Hawkins, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is my 4th book by Rachel Hawkins and it did not disappoint. My favorite one yet! So many great twists and turns in a story set in my home state of NC! It read very fast and left me wanting more. Surprises all the way through the epilogue. I highly recommend this quick new gem by Rachel Hawkins.

Thankyou to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for the ARC and chance to review.

This might be my favorite book by Rachel Hawkins so far! The Heiress is about Ruby McTavish, infamous heiress of Ashby House. Kidnapped when she was three years old and then found and returned to her family, Ruby grew up and went on to marry four times and become a widow four times. Now her adopted son Camden is back home to take care of the fortune and house that Ruby left him. But what secrets are Ashby House and the McTavish clan hiding?

I loved the concept of The Heiress and thought it played out well. The plot was interesting and seemed like something new and fresh compared to all the mysteries and thrillers out there. Ruby was a fascinating character and seeing her side of things from letters she wrote made the story all the more unique. I tend to read books faster and get into them easier when you can get to know the characters, and this was no exception. I had NO idea how the story would end up, but was definitely curious to find out what happened to Camden, his wife Jules, and the crazy McTavish family. Definitely check this one out if you’re interested in stories about interesting family relationships!

This is not the first book I read by Rachel Hawkins. Among their adult fiction, I’ve read both ‘Reckless Girls’ and ‘The Villa’. I enjoyed ‘The Villa’ a lot as it gave me a cozy gothic mystery set in an Italian villa. I have a weakness for gothic tales so when I heard about ‘The Heiress’ I was intrigued and requested the advanced readers copy. There were many elements of a gothic mystery novel in ‘The Heiress’. A rich mysterious family, an old house and many secrets held between the characters. While there have been a lot of books with these same elements, I wanted to see what Rachel Hawkins could add to this genre.

The atmosphere and set up for this book was really enjoyable. Camden, who is part of the McTavish family, has come back to the Ashby estate after the death of his uncle. He brings along his wife Jules and she meets him family for the first time. Camden does not get along with his family members. Camden was adopted by the head of the house Ruby before she died and in her will, she does not leave the estate to any of her blood relatives but to Camden. This adds a lot of tension between the family members.

Out of all the characters, I found Jules to be quite funny and refreshing. The character Ruby was also very interesting to me as her life is revealed through a series of letters. The other characters I found to be flat and stereotypical for this type of book. As the book went on, I found it hard to keep track of all the characters relations. As each secret was revealed it felt as though the story just got more confusing. I felt as though if the book was longer, it may have helped with the pacing of the story. Everything was revealed on after the other that it made it hard to follow the story. There were also a lot of backstories of the characters I would have liked to learn more about.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s press for providing me with an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

Rachel Hawkins does it again! Somehow every book she writes is amazing! The Heiress is definitely one of my favorites of hers and of 2023! Secrets, secrets and more secrets! Everybody in this book has a secret or two (or three or ten!) The writing is fantastic, it flows nicely. The pace is perfect and I never wanted to put the book down! When I say I wanted to read it at stoplights when I had to leave the house I am not exaggerating! (Don’t worry, I fought the urge!) The characters are all well developed. I loved getting bits and pieces of the truth and the past in the letters Ruby wrote. There were so many bits and pieces all over the place that all fit together by the end! Perfection!!

Short chapter books are my favorite. It seems to make books go by faster. But this was also a great read. I was addicted and couldn’t put it down. I was skeptical going in as this was my first Rachel Hawkins books because her others haven’t had the greatest reviews. But this one exceeded my expectations.

A fabulous mystery from start to finish and another home run for Hawkins! I loved Reckless Girls and The Villa, and The Heiress definitely does not disappoint. Ruby's tale perfectly mirrors and intertwines with Cam and Jules modern-day issues, while telling the illicit story of her past (RIP all the husbands). This is one you won't want to put down the moment you pick it up!

You might think you know where this is going, but you don’t. A fun read that sucks you in. Will definitely be looking for more of her books to read!

What an atmospheric, dark, and twisted ride!

Camden, the son of the infamous Ruby McTavish and Heir to Ashby house and the McTavish family wealth, is called back home to take care of the deteriorating estate. There, with his wife, he must face his estranged family and come clean on some of his secrets. Turns out, he's not the only one hiding some big things.

This was a quick read with alternating viewpoints, letters, and newspaper articles that each kept me wanting to read more. I really enjoyed the historical fiction part of this book written through Ruby's letters, and the dark tones of this story. Overall, a great read and I think my favorite Hawkins read thus far!

Holy smokes, this book blew me away. I loved everything about it. The pacing was top notch, the different formats and POV's were expertly done and the tension was *chef's kiss*.

The ending was perfect as well... I love characters with a bit of grit, and although I don't love when an ending feels too wrapped up in a bow, I don't mind when it feels like there is a bit of a seedy underbelly to that perfect bow-wrapped ending. This delivered that for me.

I have read a couple of Hawkins' other books but haven't read all of them. This one makes me want to go back and devour the rest of her backlist!

‘There’s nothing as good as the rich gone bad.’

The Heiress, told from alternating POV’s, will have you asking the question: Are humans born evil or made evil?

This whole family, some of which were family by blood, others by bond, but all together making an evil and manipulative flock of humans.

I mean, murder, backstabbing, murder, murder, murder, lies, greed to the nth and murder again. Their pedestals seemingly all posted way up high in that mountain that surrounds the oh so posh and coveted Ashby House.

Twisty and twisted to the very last page. You won’t see any of it coming. Read it!

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Pub date: 1.9.2024