Cunning and interesting We learn about Ruby‘s life through Cam snd Jules. The twists and turns in the plot kept me reading. I enjoyed hearing how each little bit of this mystery unfolded! Thank you to ARC for the advanced copy.

I really wanted to like "The Heiress" by Rachel Hawkins. I've seen her books floating around, and the premise sounded like my kind of gothic-tinged mystery. Unfortunately, I ended up DNF-ing this one at the 50% mark, and honestly, I'm not sure I could have pushed through much further.
The biggest issue for me was the sheer lack of depth. It felt like the story was skimming the surface of everything – the characters, the plot, the atmosphere. Everything felt paper-thin. I kept waiting for something substantial to happen, for some kind of emotional hook, but it just never materialized. I was left feeling completely detached from the story.
The "mysteries" felt predictable, and the characters, despite the dramatic setup, were incredibly bland. I just couldn't bring myself to care about what happened to any of them. It felt like a checklist of gothic tropes, but without any of the heart or tension that makes those tropes work.
This is actually the second book I've tried by Rachel Hawkins, and sadly, I haven't been impressed by either. I'm starting to think her writing style just isn't for me. I’m really disappointed, because I enjoy gothic mysteries, but this one just didn’t deliver. Perhaps if you enjoy books that are light on depth and heavy on predictable plot points, you might enjoy this one. But for me, it was a complete miss.

This was such a fast book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. The twists were good, only a few were surprising, but I just enjoy Rachel Hawkins' thrillers. Comforting and a great palette cleanser.

Book was really fast paced read. I enjoyed it a lot and kept my attention. I’ve read a lot of Racheal’s books and this is one of my fave. Can’t wait to see what else she does.

I absolutely loved this book. It was a lot of fun! Rachel Hawkins is a great author.
The Wife Upstairs was my first book by her, but this was so much better!

Rachel Hawkins writes amazing books. This one was a bit of a slow burn but I stuck with it. What a main character name too lol Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore. Gothic and atmospheric.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy of The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins in exchange for my honest review and feedback. OMG - I have no words! What a story! So many twists and turns that will leave you hanging on until you reach the very end. Such a great book! Highly recommend.

I requested this on NetGalley before it came out last year and I’ve been getting caught up on these reads. The premise of this book had me so curious. And I finished listening to this book with my mouth wide open in shock.

The twists and turns did not stop. All of the narrators were so well done. Each point of view had secrets the characters were holding on to. I think Ruby was my favorite. Her accent was nailed perfectly. Ruby’s written letters were fascinating as she spilled all of her secrets to one reader. (Can’t say who, but WOW.) Jules and Camden were also excellent. I couldn’t keep track of the times I was left in awe at the unexpected turns the story took.

The other characters are held together by greed and money and secrets. As Camden is called home to Ashby House to sort out his inheritance (and so much more!)

The author does a great job with ending chapters in such a way I had to keep reading. The story is told with 3 points of view and newspaper articles to give a background story. I absolutely loved how it was written. I remained invested the whole time.

I received a NetGalley approval for the ebook. I listened to the audio on Libby.

Rachel Hawkins delivers another gripping, atmospheric read with The Heiress, a novel packed with dark family secrets, an eerie mansion, and a lingering sense of unease. Set in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Ashby House is more than just an estate—it’s a character in its own right, steeped in the legacy of Ruby McTavish, the enigmatic, scandal-ridden heiress whose death leaves behind more questions than answers.

Told through multiple perspectives, including Ruby’s own letters, the novel expertly weaves past and present, peeling back the layers of deception surrounding Ruby’s infamous life—and her adopted son Camden’s reluctant return to the McTavish family. His wife, Jules, quickly finds herself drawn into the house’s sinister pull, and as buried truths come to light, the novel ramps up with gothic tension and creeping dread.

While some twists are a little predictable, the richly drawn setting, compelling characters, and slow-burn suspense keep the pages turning. Fans of The House in the Pines or The Family Upstairs will love the mix of Southern gothic vibes and psychological intrigue.

Slow burn mystery. Love this author and will read all her books. A great cast of characters in a gothic setting that you love to hate. Def recommended to fans of this author and fans of gothic mysteries. Thank you to publisher for my copy!

Whenever I see Rachel Hawkins with a new book, I MUST read it out of loyalty because I loved her first book so much. However, I've tended to find her other books a hit or miss. Unfortunately, this one was a miss.

This book was great! Thrilling without being cruel or graphic. Jules married into wealth that her husband has tried to get away from. Until it pulls them both back into the estate and reveals truth amid speculation.

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins is a gothic-tinged thriller filled with family secrets, old money, and a mysterious inheritance that comes with more questions than answers. Hawkins excels at crafting an atmospheric setting, pulling readers into a world where everyone has something to hide.

The dual timelines and shifting perspectives add layers to the mystery, and the slow-burn suspense keeps you engaged. However, some twists feel a bit predictable, and certain character motivations could have been explored more deeply.

3.5 stars — a moody, twisty read with strong gothic vibes and family drama, perfect for fans of character-driven mysteries, even if it doesn’t quite hit its full potential.

"The Heiress" was a great, suspenseful page-turner. .

DNF

I was intrigued at the beginning, but the more I read, the more I stopped caring.

I'm a hard sell on mystery-type stories to being with but I had heard so many good things about this author so I wanted to give it a try. Unfortunately, this wasn't for me.

I just finished The Heiress, and while I wanted to love it, it ended up being pretty predictable. The setup had so much potential—Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore (yes, that many last names) was North Carolina’s most notorious woman, leaving behind a trail of mystery, wealth, and unanswered questions. With a kidnapping in her past, four dead husbands, and an eerie family estate in the Blue Ridge Mountains, this should have been an addictive read.

Unfortunately, despite the intriguing premise, the story didn’t deliver many surprises. I kept waiting for a twist that never came. That being said, I did enjoy the different POV inserts—they helped move the story along faster and gave a deeper look into the characters' minds, which kept me engaged even when the plot felt predictable.

One thing I did appreciate was the wrap-up at the end. Even though the journey to get there felt a little underwhelming, the conclusion tied everything together in a satisfying way.

If you like slow-burn family dramas with gothic vibes, you might enjoy this one, but if you’re looking for a shocking, twisty thriller, this might not be it.

Have you read The Heiress? Let’s chat! 📖✨

#BookReview #TheHeiress #Bookstagram #TwoStarRead #GothicFiction #HonestReview

Rachel Hawkins has served up a tale of twisty suspense in The Heiress, where nothing is quite what it seems in a sleepy little town in North Carolina. The tale starts with a kidnapping and while it is thought that the child is returned unharmed, we soon learn that is not the case. Ruby McTavish recounts her history of the past, with chapters of present day interspersed. Trying to figure out how they all link together was an interesting challenge

If you like psychological thrillers, you will enjoy this book!

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy of The Heiress in exchange for my honest review and opinion. This gothic style was SO good. Lots of small town family drama, murder, and mystery.

Rachel Hawkins is one of those authors who I have a love/hate relationship with because her books are very hit or miss for me, yet I still read them because they're fast and easy reads. For reference, her thrillers are <350 pages, if I recall correctly, and most just barely hit the 300-page mark. Her last couple of thrillers I found too predictable and it just wasn't fun for me to read. I chalked it up to the fact that I did read quite a lot of thrillers a couple of years ago so I started figuring out the plot twists and calling the shots ahead of time.

When I realized that I hadn't read a single thriller in 2024 aside from The Fury a year ago, I thought that reading another one with a year of not reading anything from the genre would be enough to bring that suspense and "on the edge of my seat" feeling that I've missed so much. I know people have compared The Heiress to Saltburn, but considering I haven't watched the movie (that bathtub scene that went viral on Twitter is uh...something else.) I can't say how similar it is.

I was wrong about being on the edge of my seat, but not as wrong as I thought I would be.

Everyone in the story is bad in their own way. Jules was one of those morally gray characters that bordered on being a villain and I definitely had my suspicions about her from the get-go. She wasn't fooling me with her, "I just want to get to know more about my husband and where he grew up because he never talks about it" shtick. After all, let's be honest, would you want to go see the mansion your husband grew up in knowing he's sitting on millions and millions of dollars from his mom's will and not want any of it for yourself?

Camden was like that dude in the one Vine who's sitting at Waffle House watching a fight break out and he's like, "Can I PLEASE get a waffle?" (If anyone here is old enough to remember Vine, you'll get the reference.) He's the only person in the story who was essentially true to his word and didn't want to use a single penny of his inheritance from Ruby's will when she passed. He has his dark secrets too, but I feel like a lot of it was chalked up to guilt.

Call it intuition or a hunch, but as soon as I saw that "changeling" definition within the first couple of pages before the main story started I figured out almost right away what really happened to Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore on that fateful day she was thrust into the national spotlight as a missing heiress when she was a baby. The letters Ruby was writing that were interjected throughout the book in between the chapters were a nice touch and she very much gave me Evelyn Hugo vibes strictly because she was famous, rich, had multiple husbands, and was famous for HAVING multiple husbands throughout her life, all of whom died under mysterious circumstances. Well, "mysterious" circumstances, but I'll leave it at that. I enjoyed reading about her life and why she was the way that she was. I used the process of elimination to find out who she was writing the letters to which took away another element of surprise, but I didn't expect how she and the person she was writing the letters to were connected which was nice and made up for it.

What I didn't expect was the ending and how everything tied together. Sure, it was one of those "villain reveals their giant secret plan at the end" sort of tropes, in my opinion, but it was interesting to see how there were multiple players involved and how it spanned over YEARS and it wasn't just this makeshift plan that was put together in a week or two. I also loved the subtle references to Rachel Hawkins' other thrillers, like The Villa and Reckless Girls. The references aren't major enough to the point where your understanding of the book will be hindered unless you read them, but they're nice little Easter eggs for Rachel Hawkins fans who've read all of her previous thrillers.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this a LOT more than some of Rachel Hawkins' other thrillers, although some parts fell flat to me. It's definitely an improvement from her other thrillers, and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.

Family secrets and wild plot twists make The Heiress a true page-turner. Others agree, as it quickly gained widespread recognition after its publication. I look forward to reading more of Hawkins' work in the future because of how much I enjoyed this title!