Not quite sure what I was expecting, but this was a lot of fun! Every time I thought I had figured which way the story would go, it zigzagged in a different direction. A clever slow burn that combines some of my favorite themes--the gothic house, a mysterious family history, a changeling. This is the first Rachel Hawkins I have ever read and will look into her other books.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advanced reader's copy.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

I feel like book is more of a family drama than a thriller. With that being said this book was middle of the road for me.

Ruby McTavish, the wealthiest most infamous woman of Tavistock, victim of a high profile kidnapping, widowed 4 times and has an adopted son Camden, is the leading character of The Heiress! Up on a mountain top in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina Ruby lived in the most exquisite estate, Ashby House. Upon Ruby's death, she wills her estate and inheritance to her adopted son, Camden, not the McTavish family that still resides at the Ashby Estate. Camden for many reasons doesn’t want the inheritance or anything to do with The McTavish family. He leaves and moves to Colorado becoming an English teacher when he meets and marries his wife, Jules! Camden receives an email disclosing his Uncles death and is requested to Ashby Estate. He has absolutely no intention or desire to return but Jules is curious and would love to see what is behind the stories and history of the Ashby Estate and the McTavish family, so they go!
Upon their arrival, the familiar resentment and hatred is apparent when Camden sees Ben, Nelle and Libby. They despise his patriarch in the family because he is not “their blood”. Having been gone for 10 years, the Ashby Estate needs work. Over the next week , family drama, secrecy, lies and truths are all revealed. This twisting psychological drama takes us back to a century old era.

If you enjoy a twisted novel filled with a story of a family whose bonds stretch far beyond the grave, this book is for you.
I enjoyed it! Great character development. Surprises ! I actually think It would be a good “ Bookclub” choice! Lots to discuss and unwind and question .
Thanks to @netgalley and @Stmartinspress for this ARC!

I really liked this twisty tale. There were a couple of twists that became obvious as they were about to be revealed, but in this case I dont feel like it took anything away from the story.

I'll be honest, I approached this book with trepidation. After reading "The Wife Upstairs" I didn't think I could stomach a Hawkins book. I hated that book. I haven't read a Hawkins book since. But the premise of this book was interesting enough to bring me back into the fold. There was a brief moment in the beginning when I groaned to myself and thought "here we go again..." but I was pleasantly surprised. Hawkins created a truly interesting story with some pretty interesting characters. I can see (from two books) that she likes to write women who can be abrasive or who are just very... "i did ~something~ but it was worth it."

The mythos of this story is strong and in some ways it reminds me of Seven Husbands because of the story structure, but if it is derivative its in a good way. I really enjoyed reading from Ruby's POV and I wish she had been involved in the story more.

Surprisingly, to me, Hawkins says a lot about nurture versus nature in this book, along with how the elite can (or can't) make amends for the things their ancestors might have done. I found the idea that these people didn't have to do anything because centuries ago their ancestors did a lot of things... a very cool idea in this book.

This had such a great premise! The survivor of a famous kidnapping became a widow four times over and then dies. Her estate is huge and we're off!

We get to see the POV of Camden (Ruby's adopted son), Jules, (Camden's wife), and Ruby (through a series of letters). I really liked the change of the POVs as we uncovered the story.

I got to say the ending of this was fantastic and had me thinking about it for days afterwards! I feel like this would make an awesome movie!

I really love reading this author’s books. There is so much mystery surrounding the heiress of the McTavish fortune and her family. I was interested through the entire book. The family drama and the wild twists made this a quick read. Definitely recommend for fans of the author and people who like multiple POV, rich people family drama and secrecy family history and scandals.

The Heiress is a simple story at it's core; someone inherited a fortune, wants nothing to do with the family, but must go back and right the ship. Or so we thought...

This novel has such great turns, unexpected plot twists and surprising character development. Just when you think you know who did what and why, you're completely wrong. The character development is so fun.
It was told from three perspectives: Jules, Camden, and Ruby. I thought that may get distracting or confusing, but as I read, the story sucked me in, and I didn’t want to put it down. I loved learning the complicated pasts of the characters. Although I was able to predict one twist in the story, it in no way impacted my surprise at the the story’s resolution. I would definitely recommend reading this book.

The gothic family drama with a side order of ‘rich people behaving badly’ will have you rolling your eyes and emitting evil cackles and gasps!

This will appeal to a wide range of genre lovers, has fantastic tension, great twists, and is shared through three different POVs.

I was gifted this copy by St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review

While I am a fan of Rachel Hawkins, this book was not my favorite. I enjoyed the multiple POVs and the articles interspersed throughout. This was really well done and helped the reader to understand the background of the family and characters. This is a story of family drama, wealth, inheritance, and backstabbing. The pacing was slow for me and the storyline did not stick with me. I will definitely still be reading all of her books, so I do recommend giving this one a try if it sounds like your vibe!

Wow, so this was a fun read. If you’re looking for a twisty-but-not-too-dark palate-cleansing thriller, The Heiress is your book.

I’ve read all of Rachel Hawkins’ thrillers, and while they’re all typically pretty entertaining, this one is probably her best executed one from beginning to end. I did feel like The Heiress treads a lot of the same ground as The Wife Upstairs, but The Heiress didn’t have the baggage of having been inspired by a classic novel. (My main gripe with The Wife Upstairs was how the ending completely crapped on the ending to Jane Eyre. I enjoy retellings, but if you’re going to completely change the plot/ending, it should at least be in the spirit of the original work….but I digress.).

Hawkins does well with multiple timelines/POVs, and The Heiress is no exception. I particularly enjoyed the letters from Ruby McTavish to an unnamed recipient that tell Ruby’s backstory throughout the book. (Having watched too much Bridgerton, I couldn’t not hear Ruby’s voice as Julie Andrews with a posh southern accent.) Jules and Camden are a lot more likeable (if still flawed) as co-protagonists than some of Hawkins’ previous protagonists, and their actions make sense, even when they’re keeping secrets from other characters.

If you’re looking for a fun book to binge on a rainy weekend or a trip to the beach, I recommend giving The Heiress a try.

I’m not a fan of dual timelines but this book was very easy to follow even though it also had multiple POV’s as well. Thoroughly enjoyed the twists and the ending.

3.5 stars

A nice quick read by Rachel Hawkins. An adopted son returns to his lavish North Carolina home with his wife in tow. Cameron McTavish has rejected the enormous fortune left to him by his adopted mother. But now's he back to deal with the remnants of his hateful family. A lot of twists and turns in this book and a nice little one in the epilogue.

Thank you to NetGalley, St Martin’s Press and Rachel Hawkins for an advanced copy of this book.

I have read and enjoyed all of Rachel Hawkins’ books, but this one is my favorite yet.
I really enjoyed the dual timelines and multiple points of view. The Heiress had me hooked the very beginning. The story was well paced and I thought the two timelines flowed together nicely.
I highly recommend picking this one up when it debuts in January 2024. Thank you #netgalley and St.Martins Press for this advanced copy of the Heiress

Ahh, I loved this so much! This gave me Knives Out vibes in the best of ways and I ALWAYS love myself an unreliable character. Rachel Hawkins has been delivering some great thrillers since The Wife Upstairs, I can't get enough. Always one of my first recommendations!

I love a good, slow burn with twists and unreliable characters and this fit the bill perfectly. The Gothic setting and dual timelines told through letters from Ruby to Cam created a slow but steady build to a draw dropping climax. As with any book I get from Netgalley that I rate four stars or above, I'll be buying a copy on release day to support the author. Happy reading!

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

I received an ARC from the publisher for an honest review.

The Heiress is a simple story at it's core; someone inherited a fortune, wants nothing to do with the family, but must go back and right the ship. Or so we thought...

This novel has such great turns, unexpected plot twists and surprising character development. Just when you think you know who did what and why, you're completely wrong. The character development is so fun. It's hard to write about without spoiling anything, so I'm just going to say, no one is who you think they are.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and read it in two days! It's a Must Read and I give it a 10 out of 10.

This book was so dark and twisty — some twists you see coming, and others build throughout.

I usually struggle to enjoy books without a character to root for— I won’t get into why that wasn’t this book, for spoiler related reasons. Everyone had a slightly villainous bent, but where that usually puts me off, I found I really wanted to know how the story would unfold, so found myself reading it whenever I could.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the mountains of NC and the author gets the the feel and the mannerisms completely right in my mind. If she hadn’t specified, I probably still would have linked it to that area in my mind.

I loved that she punctuated first person narrated chapters with letters, newspaper clippings, magazine interviews.

While I can’t say the characters felt particularly fleshed out, more like caricatures of grasping, dilettante relatives, that didn’t feel like the point. It felt more like the generational wealth of Ashby House itself was a character, corrupting everyone who touched it, in their own ways. The main driver of the plot is the way each of the characters is plotting against and for others; and watching that maneuvering play out was the major payoff.

I’d recommend this to people who like books that include correspondence, unreliable narrators, gothic horror, a whodunit vibe, and who don’t mind casual mariticide (none of the descriptions are particularly gruesome for what that’s worth). I would not recommend this to people looking for lovable or charmingly flawed characters — that’s just not this book. But gosh I sure couldn’t put it down!

Gothic Mystery in Modern Day. The story is told from three perspectives: Ruby McTavish, the ruling matriarch, until her death story through news clippings and letters that she is writing to someone, but as the reader, we don’t know who. Ruby has lived many lives and many husbands. Second is her adopted son, Camden. He is called back to his inheritance and to deal with his past, along with his Wife, Jules, who is the third perspective. All three have generational secrets, and once everyone is back at the house, letters and secrets are revealed, and decisions are made.

I found it a fast read, but nothing surprising jumped out. Well written.

Ebook/Mystery: I want to thank Netgalley for a copy of the book. It doesn't come out for a few more weeks, so no spoilers, just how I felt.
Rachel Hawkins plots and writing is flourishing with every book. I loved this book. It was a fun thrill ride from the beginning. The ending part of the novel was too much plot and could be more simple with motive just being naked greed.
I definitely recommend it.

I went into the book ready for a fast-paced thriller with an atmospheric setting. I got an atmospheric setting with a slow burn family drama. There were moments it was hard to track who was who and who was related. I wanted more thrill from this book. All the twist seemed to come in the last quarter of the book. The pacing was too slow for an advertised mystery thriller.

Pros of the book: atmospheric, southern family drama with a dash of death.

Anything by Rachel Hawkins is a must-read for me. The Heiress is a good 4 star read with several good twists. About halfway in, it seemed like a 3 star read because not much happened but it definitely got better. Rich family living in a huge home story. It gave The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo vibes with one of the main characters having 4 husbands and telling the stories about each of them.