Not sure how I feel about this book. Was a bit slow in the beginning. It had a few twists and turns which were good but I didn’t feel like it was a really good mystery/thriller story. I did like the characters and thought the premise was different. I did want to finish it and figure out what happened so I did enjoy it but I didn’t enjoy that it didn’t have that big of a mystery.

Rachel Hawkins set a high bar with her atmospheric and compelling novel, The Villa, and her newest novel is no less impressive! Hawkins returns with another gripping mystery, well developed and intriguing characters, and an engaging plot that was as surprising as it was expertly crafted. Hawkins is establishing herself as a must read author and a standout writer in the mystery/thriller genre. Highly recommended!

I really enjoyed this book. I have read another book by this author and I loved them both!
I was engaged all the way to the end!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced readers copy of The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins. Ruby a rich woman, who has had quite a life, depicts her life in letters that tell her story through out the book. Husbands who have died, an adopted son who left for a life away from all the crazy family problems and a news story about how she was kidnapped as a child. This is just one part that brings much intrigue to the tale of Camdon and his wife Jules. Who find their way to North Carolina and Ashby House which holds many secrets and lies. Each have their own reasons for hiding their truths. Unputdownable!! Bravo Rachel Hawkins, your best book yet!

What a gripping read! There was so many unexpected twists and turns! If you enjoyed The Wife Upstairs by this author then I definitely think you will like this book!

I thoroughly enjoyed this read by Rachel Hawkins. I enjoyed the story told from multiple points of view, especially the letters from Ruby. I don't think any of the characters were incredibly likable but I was still turning pages quickly to find out what happened next.

This was so twisty!!!

Money can't buy happiness they say, and I guess for some that just isn't true.

Being told from multiple perspectives makes this book so fun. It's so much better being in each character's head. I'm feeling bad for Cam, but also confused with his decisions until we learn more about his nut job family. Ruby seems so unlucky with all of her dead husbands until you learn a little more about each of them. Jules is just out to help her husband be the man she knows he can be, but is that really the goal?

I lost all sense of time once I started this book, it's so easy to get wrapped up in it!

Couldn’t put this one down! There were so many twists and turns. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives, as well as the letters. My only hold-up was that I had a hard time keeping track of all the connections between the characters, especially at the end. Overall, I highly recommend this family drama!

BOOK REVIEW 💯 📚

"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."

So happy to be gifted this ARC of Rachel Hawkins book thanks to Netgalley!!
I was SO excited to read Hawkins newest book, however this one honestly fell a little flat. Definitely still worth the read, just wish there was a little more detail

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#alliesbookreads #bookrecommendations #bookworm #books #followforfollowback #booklove #booklover #bookstagram #botm #bookreview #bookreviewer

Let me start by saying, I liked this one A LOT more than I originally thought I was going to! When I first started to read this book I was a little confused, I feel like it just throws you right into the middle of the story. However, once I got a chapter or two in I had a hard time putting it down! It is told in multiple POVs, newspaper clippings & letters from the heiress. Normally with books that are told in multiple POVs, I end up liking certain ones more than others and that definitely wasn’t the case with this book. While I loved the letters from Ruby aka “Mrs. Kill-more”, I also loved how the rest of the story unfolded with Cam, Jules & the remaining living McTavish’s. Let’s just say, the characters are all not what the originally seem so be prepared for some twists!

I’m mad at myself for waiting so long to read a book by Hawkins. She’s been on my radar for a while but just haven’t gotten a chance to pick one up off my TBR. Let me tell you, her books have definitely moved to the front of my list! Do yourself a favor & pick this one up.

Thank you NetGalley & St. Martin’s Press for an eARC of this title for an honest review!

This was a quick suspenseful read. This book definitely had me guessing until the end. Thank you for the arc of this book. It was my favorite of Hawkins books so far.

Short synopsis: the well-known, multimillionaire McTavish family is FULL of crazy secrets. The Heiress to their throne, Ruby, (who is well known for being abducted & returned as a child, and re-marrying 4 times), has adopted a child (a shock & betrayal to the family?!) & left the entire McTavish fortune to him & only him in her will. We’ll keep it there for now b/c I went in blind and it made the story so much better.

💭 This gave me thriller version of “Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” & I absolutely loved it. I flew threw this one pretty quickly as it is relatively short and to the point!

This is my first book by Hawkins and I really do love her writing style. The multiple POV & the incorporation of the letters kept its mystery throughout and always left you wanting more.

I could see one of the twists coming but ONLY because the clues given seemed like they were MEANT for you to piece them together before the ending, which is also something I loved.

This book is the definitely of organized chaos and I encourage you to pick it up once it’s out!

4.5⭐️ wow. Thank you NetGalley for an early copy! Multiple POV mixed in with letters & lots of twists- loved this story. Once I got into it, I couldn’t put it down & devoured it in one sitting.

Rachel Hawkins can be hit or miss for me - I liked The Wife Upstairs, didn't really like Reckless Girls, and now The Heiress falls somewhere in the middle. I think the reason for my review being what it is is that going in I was expecting more thriller and less family drama but boy was there ever a lot of family drama, basically the first 2/3 of the book. It was also giving The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo vibes to me, probably because that was another book with multiple husbands that I went into thinking there would be a thriller aspect and turns out that is not the case.

Overall if you like an easy read, family drama and some lil twists, I'd say this book is worth the read!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars: I was hooked right from the beginning and wanted to keep reading. But as intrigued as I was with the story, at times I also felt it was going nowhere & somewhat repetitive. I liked the way the story was told with Ruby writing letters but I felt like the last chapters & epilogue tried to wrap everything up in a quick explanation rather than weaving into the plot; although the twists were satisfying and unexpected. Thank you Net Galley, Rachel Hawkins, & St Martin’s Press for the advanced copy of The Heiress-publishing on Jan 9.

"There should be some kind of warning when your life is about to change forever." (loc. 53*)

Ashby House is a legend, and so is the family that owns it. When Ruby dies and ownership passes to her adopted son, Camden, he wants nothing more than to forget the house, forget the tens of millions of dollars that come with it, and live a quiet and normal life. But his wife, Jules, isn't so sure that the money wouldn't make a difference...and the rest of Cam's family is not content to let that money lie untouched in a bank account they can't access.

To complicate matters: everyone knows more than they're saying.

I read this because I love a good enormous-rambling-house mystery, and also because I read a number of Hawkins' YA books once upon a time and have been curious about what she's done with adult mysteries.

The shift in genre has paid off: this is *satisfying*. You know early on that most of the characters are harboring secrets, and few of those secrets, when they come out, are surprises—but learning the hows and the whys and the outcomes makes it worth it to keep reading. I can get frustrated with twists so sharp that they zigzag without warning, but here, for most of the twists, we can see enough of the shadow of what's coming that the twists feel like they fit naturally into the story. Few characters come out of this book looking squeaky clean, but somehow I still found myself rooting for many of them, and that's satisfying too.

The one thing I really would have liked more of: the house! I live in a studio apartment, and that suits me just fine, but I'd like to get the house drama *somewhere*. I wish we'd seen more of Jules exploring, wandering through a library and billiards room and servant's quarters that haven't been used in decades and seeing it all through her eyes, or Ruby's.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*I read an ARC, and quotes may not be final.

How many murdered husbands is too many?! 💍

I think I just finished a premier example of a modern gothic family drama.

Camden & Jules have been married for ten years, living in Colorado, far away from his past in North Carolina & the inherited fortune & family ties he left behind. When they are called back to the family’s estate— Jules is ready to embrace life in the famous McTavish family, but Camden is in turmoil.

We can’t discuss this book without talking about Ruby— the late matriarch of the McTavish family. I don’t know that I’ve ever had more mixed emotions about a character. Even now, having read this, I don’t know if I love her or hate her. She’s really a picture of nature vs nurture.

Equally as complicated is Jules. In the end, I loved that I never knew how I was supposed to feel about her or her intentions. I thought Hawkins did that really well— balanced that tension.

I went around and around while reading this one trying to land on how I felt about it. The POV shifts could at times be off-putting, but I finally decided on a big 4/5 stars. I absolutely LOVED the twists, because they kept coming. They weren’t huge revelations, but little fine-tuned details that eventually blew the plot wide open. We all know we love a plot-driven story over here!

It fell shy of that fifth star for me due solely to language. There’s quite a lot of harsh language. I also think there’s room in this story for a TW for suicidal ideation. It’s not a major theme, but there is content that touches on it.

This one registers a 1/5 on the FOTMS scale. There was almost no on-page spice, but it is discussed and insinuated between a husband and wife.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Rachel Hawkins & NetGalley for an advanced copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

💵💵💵💵/5

Thank you for allowing me to read this book as an ARC.
I have loved every single one of Rachel Hawkins' books but this one tops all her others! It is soooo amazingly good, I could not put this book down. The storyline develops and makes it more and more suspenseful. I thought I had everything figured out but was completely wrong. The twists and turns kept on coming, from beginning to end.
I loved the way the story developed and was written from the different protagonists. I truly think that each of the characters was a protagonist. Each individual story and point of view built the story and made it more interesting and mysterious.
Rachel Hawkins topped herself with this book. While I loved all her other books, this one truly seems to be her best. The suspense starts from the first chapter and keeps building. It keeps the reader glued to the story. This book was definitely 5 🌟 for me!! I cannot wait to read all her further books.

Rachel Hawkins best yet!!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St Martin’s press for an e-ARC of The Heiress.

Camden McTavish is begrudgingly returning to Ashby House and the family he happily left a decade ago. Despite his adoptive mother’s incredible wealth she left to him when she died, he has spent his adulthood wanting nothing to do with any of it. His wife, Jules, on the other hand, wants him to confront his past and his estranged family.

This book was delicious and I ate it up. Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore was such a fun character, and I loved the short chapters of her letters, shifting perspectives between Cam and Jules, and news articles. While the plot did seem to idle for a bit, the end kicked it up in high gear and had me hooked. Ruby’s secrets were delectable, the rich and entitled cousins were perfectly easy to hate, and it was such an entertaining story.

Highly recommend for a variety of readers! It’s not quite what you’d think of as a mystery/thriller, but has a lot of those elements to make for a fun read.

Rachel Hawkins does it again! The Heiress is full of twists and turns. Some are predictable whereas others keep you guessing. I enjoyed this book and couldn’t put it down.