Rachel Hawkins has written a compelling, riveting mystery in The Heiress, and it is easily my favorite book by the author!

Ruby McTavish was notorious for being the richest woman in North Carolina, and also for that string of dead husbands in her wake. Upon her death, her gorgeous mansion and all of her wealth are left to her adopted son, Cam. Cam moved away years ago, married, and set up his own life in Colorado. His cousins beckon him home to help with some things around the estate, and Cam and his wife Jules go to North Carolina for the first time in their marriage.

The backstory is told in letters that Ruby wrote to someone, each detailing the circumstances of her life and of the deaths of her four husbands. The format was great, alternating between the letters, present day in Cam or Jules’ POV, and in newspaper or magazine articles about Ruby’s life. The format felt fresh and very engaging.

I could not put this one down. The story was fascinating, with layers upon layers of intrigue in this one family’s past. It is full of morally grey moments, deception, and snappy dialogue. It is a short read that keeps you constantly wanting more, and I would highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’sPress for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Murder, family rivalries, and a gorgeous but creepy mansion set this story up for some fun twists and an entertaining read.

I loved the juxtaposition between ugliness and beauty in the characters’ actions and thoughts, and their surroundings. While I was slow to latch on to the plot, overall, the direction and finale held my attention and were satisfying.

The only drawback for me was that the tone and voice of the book had a juvenile feel even though it wasn't intended as Young Adult. Others are rating this much higher so maybe it'll be different for you.

That being said, I’d recommend this to other readers.

Thank you to Rachel Hawkins, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for my advance copy due to publish on January 9, 2024.

Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo but make it a thriller. 3.75 stars.
Pros: page-turner; rich people problems; family drama; quick read; short chapters; a mix of multiple POVs, news clips, diary entries; got me out of a reading slump
Cons: no big crazy twist; slow burn; needed to write out a whole family tree to keep up with all the characters; a bit confusing at times

I was thrilled to receive an ARC of The Heiress from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, and this cryptic-thriller definitely delivered! The book's style, with three perspectives intertwined, kept me engaged throughout. We hear from Ruby McTavish, the enigmatic heiress, as she writes letters revealing the truth about her four deceased husbands. Then there's Camden, her adopted son, who inherits a massive fortune and Ashby House but chooses to stay far away. And lastly, Jules, Camden's spunky wife, who has secrets of her own.

The story unfolds through letters, first-hand accounts, and newspaper articles, making it a fast and enjoyable read. The mysteries surrounding the deaths of Ruby's husbands and the hidden intentions behind her inheritance kept me on my toes. If you enjoyed Freida McFadden, you'll love this captivating and suspenseful tale of family bonds and dark secrets. The Heiress is a compelling page-turner that will keep you guessing until the very end.

I love a good family picture drama and this one was excellent. Hawkins did a wonderful job of delivering the family’s secrets and drama at just the right pace.

4 stars
Thanks to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for the Advance Copy. This review contains my honest opinion.
If you enjoyed The Villa, you’ll enjoy this.
I love the way Rachel Hawkins writes. Something in her style has me flipping pages and staying up til the wee hours to see what happens next.
The story centers around the McTavish family, a Vanderbilt-wealthy clan from North Carolina. One day, their 3-year-old daughter Ruby goes missing in the woods surrounding the family estate. The search is on, and the world holds their collective breaths. When all hope is lost, a little under a year later, they find Ruby living with a poor family (the father was, at one time, an itinerant worker on the estate) and she is reunited with the wealthy McTavishes.
This is the story of Ruby’s life, that of her family, Ruby’s adopted son Cam, his wife Jules, and all of the secrets and lies that make up their lives, hidden behind the force field that only great wealth can buy.
I loved the way that most of the secrets are revealed through letters of confession that Ruby writes. It adds a lot to the level of anticipation as she ends each one with “more on that later.”
I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone who loves family drama and family mysteries.

I inhaled this book flying through the pages as quickly as I could. So many twists and turns in the plot. I absolutely loved Ruby and her letters were my favorite parts of the book. She was sinister and hysterical. I loved the format of the book with Ruby's letters, newspaper and magazine articles and Cam and Jules’ alternating points of view. It’s a slow burn thriller with plenty of dysfunctional family drama and rich people behaving badly and I loved all of it. I will be recommending this book to everyone. Wow! What a ride!!!

Loved this book! Fast and addicting read, I didn’t want to put it down! I thought it was very well-written and I was engaged through the entire story. The only drawback for me was the news articles that were interspersed - I didn’t love the format of that although I did think most of the information from them was relevant for the overall story. Reminded me a little bit of Evelyn Hugo!

Thank you to the publisher, to Net Galley and to the author for the opportunity to review. My review opinions are my own .This is a fabulous engaging story I read from cover to cover. I was so entranced I was unable to put this book down. The author is a favorite writer of mine from Net Galley and all her work is outstanding.

The story is told from three points of view. One historical , two modern day. The premisis is a mysterious gothic mansion and a family fortune from North Carolina. A fortune and mansion to be inherited by a adopted son who wants nothing to do with the family, the mansion or the money. His wife has other ideas and she begins a journey of her own to have control of the estate and all they stand to inherit. A mystery surrounds the family that dates back generations as well as questions unanswered to be discovered. The mystery deepens as the wife investigaes the background of the family and their fortune. A wonderful story . I highly recommend this book for your reading enjoyment and all works by this wonderful author.

The Heiress 🌿
Thank you @stmartinspress for the gifted copy of Rachel Hawkin's upcoming novel! {partner}

Genre: Mystery
Format: 📖
Pub Date: 1.9.2024
Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

"Bloom where you're planted, people like to say, but they ignore the fact that planted is sometimes just a nice way of saying stuck."

I cannot wait for you all to read The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins in 2024!

It is one of those stories that's so easy to get lost in. I can't tell you the last time a book pulled me in as this one did - I could tune out the rest of the world, and when I had to put it down, I found myself continuously thinking about the characters and storyline. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough, but I didn't want the book to end. Absolute perfection!

In some ways, I was reminded of a darker version of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo as Ruby McTavish had that same type of personality - larger than life, taking no prisoners, and having no regrets until the end (and even then, I'm not sure). While we never hear from Ruby in the present day, we're provided vivid details of her life through letters, which was fascinating and added an extra air of mystery to the story. My one takeaway is that I would not want to cross Ruby McTavish.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the viewpoints of Camden and Jules. I tried to think of the last mystery I read that was told from the perspective of a husband and wife, but I came up empty. Jules also breaks the third wall a few times and speaks directly to the reader, which I loved.

🤓 Dysfunctional family
📖 Short chapters
🗣️ Husband & Wife POV
📝 Past perspective in letters

Overall, The Heiress is just one of those books that cast a complete spell over you while reading. I was in awe of the complex story and can see this being made into a movie.

Throughout this whole book, I kept waiting for a big reveal, or something that made the thriller worth reading. It was a fast read in that the chapters were short and single-page news articles were interspersed throughout, but looking back, there was nothing that kept me on the edge of my seat. If you're looking for a slow burn literary thriller, you can find it here.

It's been years since the Heiress to McTavish House, Ruby McTavish, has passed. Her adopted son Cam, wants nothing to do with the estate, but when his estranged family starts sending emails begging him to return and repair the estate, he must come to terms with long buried secrets.

Atmospheric but Plodding and Anticlimactic, I honestly wasn't in love with this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC!

Do you ever read a book and feel like the author wrote it specifically with you and all your weird obsessions in mind? That was this book for me. Easily my favorite Rachel Hawkins book to date. Although I've enjoyed her previous works, this is the first one that I felt she really nailed the follow-through. A great setting, likeable (and not-so-likeable) characters and a decades-long mystery that I was racing to uncover before it was revealed to me. Plus - a black-widow-type character, which I always find fascinating (don't tell my fiance that). I cannot wait for this book to be released so the masses can enjoy it!

What does Jules have to do to get her husband to enjoy his massive inheritance?

Cam’s adoptive mother was (in)famous - Ruby McTavish was kidnapped as a child & miraculously found months later. You’d think that’d be enough notoriety for a lifetime, but adult Ruby was widowed FOUR times. Now that she’s passed on, Cam is the beneficiary of her sizable estate - but he doesn’t want anything to do with his family. After years of living within the means of an English teacher’s salary & a historical reanactor’s pay, Cam’s wife Jules is ready to see where he grew up & hopefully get him to take advantage of all the benefits associated with being a McTavish.

But going home to Ashby House (where a couple of Cam’s cruelest relatives still reside) isn’t as simple as Jules had hoped - the secrets in a place like that tend to pile up over the years…

Rachel Hawkins has done it again: this story was a complicated knot of family drama with no one really completely a “good” person, but you did end up rooting for certain characters over others. The way it was told with letters & articles & alternating POVs kept it fresh & absorbing. I loved the little reference to The Villa (another amazing Rachel Hawkins read), & the way that several details were attended to in the end was supremely satisfying.

Thank you to NetGalley & St. Martin’s for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

rating: 4.5 stars*
if you’re looking for a mashup of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and The Family Game, look no further than The Heiress! i don’t like to talk too much about plot, but what moves this book forward is figuring out the rich family’s history. after all, it can’t stay buried forever, and everyone has a secret…

all of Rachel Hawkins’ adult thrillers have been no less than 4 stars for me (with the exception of Reckless Girls, which i didn’t like, unfortunately). i’m so glad to say that The Heiress was a hit!

as is the case with Rachel Hawkins’ writing in this genre, she does a great job establishing character personalities and dynamics, then turning everything on its head. i appreciate that she takes her time doing this, making the twists and payoff totally worth it. not to say that the book is slow paced, but it reads a bit more historical, with secrets and reveals picking up the pace in the last quarter or so (i found this to be the case with her last book, The Villa). i just don’t want people going into this book thinking they’re going to get a fast-paced thriller.

i really enjoyed this reading experience overall, and was turning the pages so quickly! those plot twists had my head SPINNING. if you like Hawkins’ other work, i think this will be a hit. this is now one of my favorites from her.

read this book if you like…
🤫family secrets
💰rich people drama
🎞️historical fiction
✉️letters in books

The Heiress comes out on January 9, 2024. thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Rachel Hawkins, & Netgalley for the ARC!

Not my favorite from this author. I lost interest and didn't care much for the characters. I found the language a bit unnecessary. I think, however, many of my patrons will enjoy this read so I will recommend it. My favorite part was reading Ruby's letters throughout.

Out for general publication in January 2024 this is a brilliant mystery book. I loved the style, the mystery is revealed through letters, press cuttings and alternative narratives from Camden and Jules. Small town dramas, backstabbing families and the power of money all get explored in a tale that kept me gripped and guessing till the end.

Thanks @netgalley @stmartinspress @ladyhawkins for the early access.

#theheiress #rachelhawkins #mysterythrillerbooks #canyourecommendagoodbook #bookreview #netgalley

Thanks to Netgalley for the E-ARC. Let me start off by saying that this book was the best one out of the other 2 I have read. Theres not much I can say about it because its just one of those books that you need to go in blind and just go with it you wont be disappointed. The twist and turns were on point Read this you wont be disappointed I cant stress that enough

For fans of :
• Multiple POV
• Dual Timelines

In hopes to re-write her husbands memories and feelings of the Ashby Home, Jules and Cam head to NC. Jules simply cannot fathom having access to a mansion and millions but choosing to avoid them because you have a difficult family.

The McTavish family is southern royalty, in the worst way. Money, greed and power have tarnished them all, well almost all of them. Libby, Ben and Nelle are jaded by being the “spares”, second best, the back-ups. Driven by vanity they will capitalize on anything to get ahead.
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I absolutely tore through this book! So excited to have had been approved for an ARC of “The Heiress”.

The theme of families paying off karmic debts was thrilling! I thoroughly loved having letters and news articles sprinkled throughout to book, carrying the reader back to Ruby’s timeline and catapulting back to Cam/Jules. Typically I find myself underwhelmed by the “big reveal” but in “The Heiress”’s case, I was pleasantly surprised by the connections between the main characters.

I’d been looking forward to this but it’s a bit of a disappointment coming from Rachel Hawkins. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve read it but I’ve already forgotten some of the details. The story follows Cam, whose adoptive mother, Ruby McTavish, died 10 years ago. Now that her son (Cam’s uncle) is dead, Cam has to return home to sort out the inheritance. He is joined by his wife of 10 years, Jules, who knows almost nothing about Cam’s youth at the grand McTavish House. Back in his childhood home, Cam must deal with her uncle’s kids and with Ruby’s sister, who are all against Cam inheriting the McTavish estate and fortune. Weaving alongside this narrative is Ruby’s backstory, told through letters she’s writing.

Parts of the book are fun - I like the relationship btw Cam and his cousins, and really wish we could’ve gotten more of it, both in his youth and in the present. However, Ruby’s backstory felt so been-there-done-that… the poor little rich girl with 4 dead husbands and an enormous fortune to leave to her adopted son, who wants nothing to do with the McTavish estate.

The family drama was fun, but overall the book was slow and long-winded with an unsatisfying ending.

I did something dumb, very dumb, I started this book at 11 pm and told myself that I would just read for a few minutes and then go to bed. Silly me, I know myself better than that. This book has murder, family drama, multiple POVs (a weakness of mine), and suspense. I finished this fantastic book around 3 am and then couldn't believe I was just expected to go to bed after all that.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.