In this southern Gothic In this southern Gothic thriller we find ourselves in North Carolina. The story centers around a multi generational, morally bankrupt family living in an ominous feeling mansion called Ashby House.

There are 3 POV that alternate with newspaper clippings and letters from Ruby before her death.

.Ruby - NC's richest and most notorious woman known for her four dead husbands.

Camden- Ruby's son, through adoption,
and sole heir to the McTavish fortune (much to the rest of the relative's dismay ).
But Camden has been gone from home for years - disowning the family and fortune..

Jules - Camden's wife of 10 years, has her own secrets...much like her husband and Ruby.. Although, unlike Camden, she wants to fight for the inheritance.

The Heiress proved to be a novel that was hard to put down. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough, and I found those letters from Ruby the best parts of the book because they reveal so much of her twisted past.
I've been a fan of Rachel Hawkins since reading The We Upstairs, and this new book is on par with its writing style.

If you love sinister family members, secrets, and mind puzzling mystery... you will love this book.
Hawkins creates such wonderful characters, you find yourself liking and then hating them as well 🤣
Who among them can you trust?
Drama, lies.murder, secrets. You can't go wrong with this book?

Thank you to Netgally and St. Martines Press for the advanced copy.
All opinions are my own.




find ourselves in North Carolina. The story centers around a multi generational, morally bankrupt family living in an ominous feeling mansion called Ashby House.

There are 3 POV that alternate with newspaper clippings and letters from Ruby before her death.

.Ruby - NC's richest and most notorious woman known for her four dead husbands.

Camden- Ruby's son, through adoption,
and sole heir to the McTavish fortune (much to the rest of the relative's dismay ).
But Camden has been gone from home for years - disowning the family and fortune..

Jules - Camden's wife of 10 years, has her own secrets...much like her husband and Ruby.. Although, unlike Camden, she wants to fight for the inheritance.

The Heiress proved to be a novel that was hard to put down. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough, and I found those letters from Ruby the best parts of the book because they reveal so much of her twisted past.
I've been a fan of Rachel Hawkins since reading The Wife Upstairs, and this new book is on par with its writing style.

If you love sinister family members, secrets, and mind puzzling mystery... you will love this book.
Hawkins creates such wonderful characters, you find yourself liking and then hating them as well 🤣
Who among them can you trust?
Drama, lies.murder, secrets. You can't go wrong with this book?

Thank you to Netgally and St. Martines Press for the advanced copy.
All opinions are my own.

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 4/5 stars

read if you like:
♡ multiple pov
♡ dual timeline
♡ southern gothic thriller laden with rich people drama

➸ blisteringly quick, the heiress is a tantalising family drama, veined with mysteries, betrayals and pliable truths. periodically framed with newspaper clippings, correspondences, emails and the like, rachel hawkins invites us to do a little sleuthing of our own for a more heightened engagement with the novel.

➸ it’s been years since prodigal son and heir to the exorbitant mctavish family wealth, camden mctavish, cut ties with the rest of the mctavishes and turned away from his inheritance. an inheritance left to him by the matriarch and his adopted mother, ruby mctavish whose name was once and still is, on everyone’s lips in north carolina. so when camden is contacted by his estranged cousin following camden’s uncle’s death, requesting his return and offering him an olive branch - he and his wife jules resolve to return to his childhood estate, ashby manor. finally reunited with his family, secrets which refuse to remain in the deceased matriarch’s grave will bring about a day of reckoning for every last mctavish.

➸ by punctuating the present with these references to the past, wherein each event is related through the lens of whomever is writing it, hawkins viciously wrong-foots the reader every step of the way. therein also lies the heiress’ greatest achievement as a thriller as we are offered this unprecedentedly intimate, voyeuristic look into this rich family’s dirty laundry. besides shards of the pasts glinting through the present storyline, povs flit between the deceased and infamous, ruby, the rags-to-riches tale that is the adopted camden and his loving wife jules - all these dizzying diversions further enshrouding us in confusion as we strain to navigate this cobweb of stories. happily, my attempts to force my way out of the plot’s labyrinthine architecture and predict the ending proved embarrassingly fruitless and i only expelled my held breath when all was said and done.

➸ conclusion :
secrets slink through every page of the heiress in a binge-worthy and unputdownable puzzle, which, if solved, will open doors to this family’s sinister skeletons.

thank you netgalley for the arc !

Ruby McTavish does not suffer fools. The victim of a kidnapping as a toddler, returned later to her family and it is there the story turns. Living with the rumor tag the Ruby of today is not the same child that went missing all those years ago. Ruby gives the reader an full accounting of her life and marriages in clear black and white. Ruby’s death only adds to the mystery of who really deserves all those millions. A family fighting for the money that each believes they deserve. It’s a tight fisted fight to the very last section. What a read!

Wow! This book was not at all what I expected....which actually kept me deeply engrossed to find out what would happen next. It was like an onion with many layers to the story to peel. There were very unexpected surprises and twists that I did not see coming. Great storytelling.

This was so fun!!! I’ve read but haven’t loved a lot of thrillers lately, so this was a refreshing change to that pattern. This was my third Rachel Hawkins book and favorite so far. I didn’t love The Wife Upstairs (2 stars), I enjoyed but wasn’t 100% wild about Reckless Girls (3 stars), and I really liked The Heiress (4 stars). Most of the action happens in the last 25% of the book, but that wasn’t a detractor for me.

Her writing is so solid (especially for a mystery/thriller… sorry, I love them but they don’t always have the best writing). So even though it was a slower burn for most of the book, I didn’t mind and still got through it quickly. It’s told through several people’s perspectives which also kept it interesting. There were some twists I saw coming and some that surprised me. The characters didn’t blow me out of the water, but they weren’t those horribly stereotyped characters in poorly written thrillers. (I’m coming down so hard on thrillers/mysteries, but this is one of my favorite genres!!! Just a lot of bad ones out there.) Will definitely read what Hawkins writes next.

This book was great as I expected! I loved all the twists and turns! Only thing I think it was missing was a years later she finds out that he knew the whole time that she knew who he was! Otherwise I loved it!

This has been the best thriller I have read so far this year! I have enjoyed all of Rachel Hawkins books but I believe this one is her best yet! The quality of the writing, the intricacy and twists and turns of the plot, the suspense, the relationships between husband and wife and family are so deftly written. It was incredible. I couldn't put it down and know that you won't be able to either! TEN STARS!

“The Heiress” is Rachel Hawkins’ newest novel. I’ve read almost all of her other books, and this one continues to be as good as her other works.

Cam is an orphan adopted into the richest family in North Carolina. Despite this, he hasn’t had contact with his family for years due to his past and a complicated relationship with his family. He chooses to settle down as an English teacher, entirely rejecting his inheritance and family. When a relative passes he decides to face up to his past, and travels back home with his wife, Jules. Coming back to the infamous Ashby house dredges up painful memories, along with the scandalous past of everything that has taken place there before.

If you’re a fan of Rachel Hawkins’ previous books, I think you’d definitely enjoy this one. “The Heiress” publishes on January 9th 2024. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of this novel.

I've read all of Rachel Hawkins thrillers and this one is just as fun as the others. My favorite is still the Wife Upstairs, but this far surpassed the villa for me, which I didn't care for as much. A quick paced, fun read and I recommend it. The covers of all her books are also stunning, which I love

The Heiress reminded me of a number of books, but is something altogether different. There are secrets, deceptions, murder, family drama, and deceipt. Each character is complex, and many are not who they seem. The book has surprises and twists all the way through and kept me on my toes. I have read Rachel Hawkins previous books and I think this is my new favorite. I highly recommend to lovers of twisted thrillers like Verity.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the Kindle ARC. The Heiress is a fast-paced and twisty thriller. I've read one of Rachel Hawkins other books and enjoyed it also. Jules and Camden are a young married couple - happy with a simple life. Camden is the adopted son of Ruby McTavish - the famous baby Ruby that was kidnapped and found in the early 20th Century. Things aren't as clear cut as they initially seem and there is plenty of family drama with one big twist at the end. The Heiress is a very satisfying, hard to put down suspense novel.

Really enjoyed this book! The setting was perfect and I was engrossed in learning everything about this fictional family. The book was a little slow at times but overall a great read! Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

The Heiress by is definitely one of my top reads of 2023 and my favorite Rachel Hawkins read.

Such a unique story and I loved multiple POVs (especially with Ruby’s letters). One I didn’t want to put down and get like a quick read overall.

Thoroughly enjoyed the labyrinthine journey the author took me on, through different viewpoints without being messy, and gradually leading the unsuspecting reader to a rather startling denouement. I received this as an advance copy from the author via NetGallery and am voluntarily leaving this review.

This book gets better the deeper you get into reading it, and it’s definitely engrossing for a one day read!

Much of the book follows Ruby McTavish’s relationships with her various husbands in a way that feels very similar to the seven lives of Evelyn Hugo. But it’s more than that! Interspersed with the past (tools via letters) is the present, and we follow Cameron, Rubys adopted son, and his wife as they return to the house and town where he grew up. Why did he leave? Why does he have such a strained relationship with his aunt and cousins? And why is his wife so keen to get him back there? Quickly the book reveals itself to be sprinkled with little mysteries, and it’s satisfying to put all the pieces together.

This is certainly a plot driven book; I found the characters to be either somewhat unlikable or pretty neutral. Also, I wish I could say Ruby’s serial relationships felt unique, but they didn’t. But overall the pace of the second half of the book made up for that, and I definitely enjoyed this!

Great storyline, in depth character development, and some crazy plot twists had me turning these pages as fast as I could! This is one for the book clubs because there’s so much that can be discussed about the characters personalities, their choices, and how things led them to where it did. I really enjoyed this one! It was a nice change in storyline from a typical thriller.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a readers copy of this title. My reviews never contain spoilers and are freely given.
Camden is married and the adopted son of Ruby, the heiress who died and left the family fortune to him. This causes him to flee the family home since it caused contention with the rest of his adopted family, who feel they should be the rightful heirs.
Who was Ruby? She disappeared at age 3, was miraculously recovered, married and widowed 4 times and was suspected of maybe having something to do with her spouse’s death. The truth is revealed in the book which is told from family members points of view and letters written by Ruby. Excellent story and I highly recommend.

This is the third book of Ms. Hawkins that I’ve read and it’s my favorite by far. I really enjoyed the storytelling and how it unfolded. For me, mysteries are all about withholding and revealing information to the reader and The Heiress does a great job at that dropping tidbits along the way.

The bulk of the book alternates between Jules and Cam, while other sections are letters from Ruby plus a smattering of newspaper clips. I don’t want to say too much and spoil anything, but this mosaic of narratives does an excellent job of weaving together the story.

I eventually could see how some elements were going to tie together but even still, the conclusion was so satisfying. I find it hard sometimes for a mystery’s resolution to bear the weight of its premise, but I think The Heiress sticks the landing quite well.

Pulled me right in and had read to the 23% point before I noticed just how much I had already read. This kept me turning the pages, desperate to read it all, and I began and finished it in a day.

I loved the set up of this one, dual POVs and articles/letters about and from Ruby.

Ms Hawkins has become an auto-read author for me and I was thrilled to be invited to read an early copy of this and even more thrilled during and after my reading of it.

I enjoyed this one so so much. Deliciously twisty and fun!

The Heiress is an absolute recommendation!!!



Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the DRC!

Wow! Where to start? I was u prepared to read The Heiress. Yes, I have read a couple other Rachel Hawkins books, but this one kept me guessing until the end. So many secrets, so many lies, and so many murders all wrapped up around Ashby House nestled in the Bkue Ridge mountains Of North Carolina in a tiny town outside of Asheville. Camden and his wife of 10 years, Jules, return to Tavistock to finalize arrangements at Ashby House where he has to face his miserable past and equally miserable relatives. As the sole heir to the mansion and the massive fortune that goes with it, Jules is filled with dreams of staying and living in the house with which she instantly falls in love. But secrets from beyond the grave and jealousy conspire to make their dreams quickly turn into nightmares. The story is told from different perspectives, but it it Jules, who directly speaks to the reader. Is there anyone who is truly good or truly bad? That is the question the reader will have to answer when the last page is turned. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. This one will keep you thinking long after you’ve finished.