I loved this book! Not only was it a page turner, it was completely original. I didn't know how it was going to unfold. I highly recommend this and other Hawkins novels such as Reckless Girls and The Wife Upstairs.
When one of North Carolina's wealthiest women dies, everything is left to her adopted son. This creates a bit of drama within the family and sets up a twisty and satisfying story!
Thank you to the publisher for this copy, my opinions are my own.
Lana Cole

This book kept me on the edge of my seat! I couldn’t put it down! There were so many twists I couldn’t predict.

This one kept me guessing with many twists and turns of events. An ominous and engaging thriller kept me turning pages. Money really does make people do crazy things!

This was a slow burn for me. I took me until about 30% to really become invested. After that I really enjoyed it. Loved reading the letters from Ruby. It definitely had Evelyn Hugo vibes. Had a good twist!

3.5 ⭐️


Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC !

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins was a fast-paced and gripping read. I enjoyed it, but felt that it was too much like a horror version of "Evelyn Hugo." The book just did not have enough of its own tone or unique qualities to make it stand out in the long term. A good summer read, but not one I would include in my top books of 2023 list,. I will say, however, the ending is very strong and leaves the reader thinking about what is to become of its main characters and if they will ever escape the grip of their past and who they are to their core as they step into their futures.

Book Review: The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins by St. Martin’s Press


Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this entertaining book in exchange for an honest review.

The primary character, Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore, is depicted as a series of letters in flashback format – a confessional, if you will – on things that transpired during her life and her multiple marriages – all of which ended with Ruby a widow four times over. Ruby was famous (and as we learn, infamous) for having been a kidnapping victim when she was a child. The family was astoundingly wealthy and the mystery of her kidnapping and ultimate return to the family is a key and subtle plot point. Although she never had any children of her own despite multiple marriages, she adopted a young boy, Camden. Upon her death, Ruby leaves her entire estate and wealth to Camden which greatly impacted and annoyed the other surviving McTavish family members who felt the estate – and Ashby House -- should have been distributed to them as the “blood” relatives.

Camden left the area for many reasons, but principally because the McTavish family members were a complicated lot, and unpleasant, competitive, calculating and downright mean to him. Although he was still the heir, he didn’t return until summoned 10 years later by an attorney representing his uncle, who had just passed. When he returns, it is with his wife Jules who feels Cam should return to North Carolina and take possession of what is rightfully his.

So many questions remain, the answers to which are slowly revealed as the story unfolds. Although Cam is not a McTavish by birth, he is Ruby’s heir – and with that comes a lot of responsibility and having to put up with the McTavish relatives – none of which harbor any good feelings towards him, nor he for them. As we learn, money makes people do unthinkable things.

Rachel Hawkins knows how to write a thriller. In THE HEIRESS, the spotlight is on a massive mansion in the Blue Ridge mountains instead of a villa in the Italian countryside. Cam and his wife Jules live a simple, quiet life in Colorado until they return to Cam's home town in North Carolina to face his estranged family and his inheritance of Ashby House and the McTavish family money. Lots of twists and turns in this story, where everyone is an unreliable narrator and everyone is playing the long game. A modern Gothic tale featuring an old house frozen in time, family secrets, backstabbing relatives, a changeling, and more!

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this early! This may be my favorite Rachel Hawkins yet.
This story about the impact of money and wealth on the human condition is told from mulitple POVS and timelines: Camden, an adopted heir to a fortune he doesn't want, Jules, his wife who wants to see what money could bring to their family, and confessional letters written by Ruby, an heiress, Camden's mother, and a 'husband-killer'.
Typically I am not a fan of the 'unreliable narrator' but this book did such a good job telling you the narrator was lying to the other characters, not to you, for motivations beyond the page. It worked really well to set up suspense and secrets as we learned if Ruby was really a killer, why Camden so desperately wanted nothing to do with his inheritance, and if Jules had a bigger part to play in than just devoted wife. The twists were compelling and I did not see most of them coming!
Overall, this is an excellent read that I did not want to put down: a twisty tale of the human condition and a real introspection into money, morals, and what we'll do for independence.

Solid 4 stars. Was a page turner from the start. This was told from different POV from different time periods that I found myself flipping back a forth to understand sometimes.

Fortunately, I did not guess the ending on this one, but I did not find the twists all that shocking. So I only gave 4 stars for the weak ending. But will continue to read and love Hawkins!

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and give honest feedback.

Ah! Another awesome one by Rachel Hawkins! This one was so twisty and fun!!! I had such a good time reading this and it went by so quick! I’ve really enjoyed everything I’ve read by this author! The characters weren’t exactly likable but I was rooting for them. If you’re looking for something that’ll have you reading as fast as possible to discover all the secrets, this one is for you!!!

Rachel Hawkins sticks the landing!

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I like Rachel Hawkins. I like that she draws inspiration from other books, kind of like retellings, I like the voice she writes in, I like her attention to detail. In her last 3 books, I’ve enjoyed them all the way up until the ending, then something goes awry. That was not the case here, Great job, and I can’t wait to read the next one!

•Plot: 5/5 (There’s a lot going on here and I loved every minute of it.)

•Characters: 4/5

•Writing: 4/5

•Ending: 5/5

4.5✨

Hear me out: the Lindbergh baby meets Evelyn Hugo meets the Biltmore. That’s a really poor job of summing up this multilayered plot, but bear with me. Years ago, Baby Ruby was kidnapped in the forests close to her palatial North Carolina estate. She’s found and grows up to be the heiress of an immense family fortune. This book weaves the tale of Ruby’s four, um, failed marriages, the question of her legitimacy as heir to the McTavish fortune, and the return of her son to his “ancestral” home. In anybody else’s hands, all these moving parts probably would have quickly come off the rails, but Hawkins kept the story moving at an enjoyable (and believable) pace. I could not get enough of this book and burned through it in an evening. A great mystery with lots of twists!

Special thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Rachel Hawkins for my advance copy.

I was conflicted about my rating of The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins so I had to walk and think through it. Kudos for an inventive, creative, engaging story. I had issues with too many twists and turns to the point it detracted from the plot for me. There was plenty of foreshadowing but some of the twists were late in the novel and were, in total, quite bizarre. That I didn’t want to put it down settled me at the higher rating.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This story played well due to the seamless transition between different points of view (Camden, Jules, Ruby's letters) and various news articles chronically the infamous life of Ruby. I highly enjoyed the pacing of this story and the truly awful family. Some of the plot points were expected but WOW was this an enjoyable book. I wish there was more of Ruby because her letters were like talking to someone talking with a perpetual twinkle in their eye.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

What a perfect, twisty ride! I was sufficiently entertained and surprised throughout the whole book. I read it in one afternoon, just desperate to learn what was going to happen next, The characters were well developed. I loved the dual POV, well three, when you count Ruby's letters. I thought they were expertly placed throughout the novel to keep it moving along well. I will continue to recommend Rachel Hawkins to everyone I know. The Heiress may have become my favorite of hers yet.

Camden McTavish and is wife, Jules, lived a simple life in the Colorado mountains, until the tentacles of his previous life wound around him, forcing him to return to his family estate in North Carolina. His socialite mother,Ruby, bequeathed him Ashby House, and all of the blood sucking relatives that came with it. When Camden was plucked out of an orphanage at an early age, the newspapers dubbed him “the luckiest boy in North Carolina,” The treachery and corruption of the life he had been trying to escape, is revealed slowly, and satisfyingly by the author. Rachel Hawkins is at her best when she takes supposedly ordinary people and unveils their secrets.

I was so excited to read this as I’m a big fan of Rachel Hawkins previous titles but this one fell very flat for me. I found the story to be very disjointed and the pacing was l off. I didn’t find myself eager to keep reading until about 70% through. Once the story did pick up, I found that I had predicted every twist and turn until the very end. Every character was unlikeable and I found that not one of them had a redemption arc for me. I didn’t think that Ruby’s letters added much to the story and I truthfully think there was just way too much going on (the death of the husbands, the kidnapping, the secrets each family member had, Camden’s adoption, etc.) I’m so sad I didn’t enjoy this novel but I look forward to reading any of Rachel’s future works. Though this one was not for me I highly recommend The Villa by her to anyone looking for a fantastic read.

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

Overall, the book was well-written and I enjoyed the formatting of jumping back and forth between perspectives as well as the letters/news clippings. It helped build on the story in a way that simply telling the tale would not have achieved.

I was, however, a little let down on the actual story and the twists and turns I expected to see… I was expecting a thriller (based on previous reads from author) and got maybe a “mystery-lite” at best. This was more just a family drama with a few reveal moments of new twists in the family tree or the past of family members and main characters. I would have expected the ending/big twist to be more than what it actually ended up being. I also felt like there wasn’t as much character building as necessary to help readers truly connect and care about the married main characters. Loved Ruby and her tales of life events through her letters made me admire her even with the wrong doing that occurred, I wish I would have felt as in-depth about Cam or Jules!

I did enjoy that the author chose to break the 4th wall and engage the reader, as if we were sitting together and being told the story!

I got 60 pages into this book and I am really confused and also very bored. I don't believe in reading something just to finish it if I'm not enjoying it then I will not be continuing. Not a book for me. I do like this author however. I wish this book was less confusing and had a more interesting premise. I also don't like the way it's broken down there's letters there's newspaper articles there's different people's povs. Very considering.

Great story line. Very slow moving at times. I prefer books that I hate to pit down. The Heiress was a good read but I was so into it that I couldn’t wait to read the next chapter