I've enjoyed most of Rachel Hawkins' books as they've been hard to put down page turners and The Heiress was no exception.

I can’t wait until this book is available so I can tell my friends how fabulous it is. I read lots of mysteries with twists and turns, but this one out does them all

I received a digital release of this book through NetGalley. This is an honest review.

I’ve read Rachel Hawkins in the past. I really liked The Wife Upstairs, but was really disappointed in Reckless Girls.

I’m here to tell you, this is MY FAVORITE book of hers by farrrr. I’m not sure if call it a thriller, more of a drama - but that doesn’t make it any less amazing. The multiple characters and storylines flowed together beautifully, and there was the perfect amount of scenery and action to keep me completely engaged.

While I did figure out a few “twists”, it didn’t deter me from wanting to finish the book.

Do yourself a favor and grab this when it comes out in January 2024.

Thanks, NetGalley, for giving me the opportunity to read this!

#earlyreview #netgalley #arc

I loved this book! The premise of this book was about an heiress and her life story. It’s packed with love, betrayal, murder and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing until the end.

It’s not so much of a “who done it” murder mystery as it is a bit of a memoir. I liked the characters and thought they were well thought out. Absolutely recommend!

Thank you #Netgalley and the author for letting me read this for my honest review.

The foreshadowing definition of changeling begins The Heiress, the compulsively readable mystery by the talented Rachel Hawkins. The heiress is Ruby McTavish, the richest woman in North Carolina, who has recently died leaving her vast fortune to her adopted son Cam. Ruby is notorious in her home town of Tavistock. She lived in the ancestral Ashby House, was kidnapped for several months and miraculously returned when she was three, and was married and tragically widowed four times. Sadly, her closest family, sister Nelle and her grandchildren Ben and Libby, are unpleasant grifters. Cam, her son, now lives with his wife Jules in Colorado and wants nothing to do with the greedy McTavish clan. However, a pleading letter from his nemesis Ben coupled with Jules’ wishes to see his childhood home, convinces him to visit. This is, of course, a mistake.

This novel, with its multiple unreliable narrators punctuated by excerpts from Ruby’s letters and newspaper clippings and set on a gloomy estate is a tour de force! Rachel Hawkins pulls the reader into a world of secrets and betrayal, a world where nothing is as it seems. 5 stars.

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

Ruby McTavish is the victim of kidnapping as a child. At three years old she is abducted, but alas she is returned to her mother and father.

She comes from money, enjoying her estate in North Carolina. Ruby earns the nickname Mrs. Killmore after her four husbands wind up dead. With no heirs to her estate, she decides to adopt a son, Cam.

Ruby’s death causes Cam to reluctantly return back home and see family. He brings his wife, Jules along for the journey. Chaos ensues and of course, someone else winds up dead. But who is to blame?

Multiple POVs and twist after twist for this one! I really enjoyed the characters and writing by Rachel Hawkins. Thank you Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

I can not say enough good things about this book! I was sucked right into the world of Ashby House and all it’s residents. I truly did not want this book to end.

When Ruby McTavish passes away and leaves her entire estate to her adopted son, Camden, he wants nothing to do with the money or the family. He stays away for ten years and when he goes back to the estate, he is quickly reminded why he left.
When I started this book I was expecting much more of a thriller. Instead, it was a slow burn and didn't pick up until the final third of the book. I was also slighted disappointed that the old mansion wasn't more a part of the plot. I did love how everything tied together in the end. Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

I requested this up based on the author after reading a backlist book recently. I like her fast paced plot that skips along and multiple narrators. Jules's voice was witty and my favorite. I like a book that makes you root for characters that are "bad guys" - don't we all have some bad guys in us?

I typically like books by Rachel Hawkins. The Heiress was promising but somewhat predictable. The perspective switches kept me turning the pages as I tried to figure out the motives behind each character, but I wasn't that shocked by the plot twists. I had to really think about the characters and their relationships at the end because it began to get confusing as a multigenerational thriller. Overall, it was an entertaining read, but not one of my favorites.

The Heiress is a novel with shifting POV. The story alternates from husband Cam, wife Jules, and the diary letters of the late Helen McTavish, Can't adoptive mother. Excellent setup of Cam being summoned home after a decade, and marriage, away from the family estate. He inherited Helen's millions but has no interest in the money, or supporting the aunt and cousins who remained in the mansion bitterly resenting Cam. POV from Cam is revulsion about going home mixed with wounds that need to be cauterized. The secrets are established early on with hints from Jules' POV making evident that unbeknownst to Cam she has been stalking the house and cousins for years, and Helen slowly reveals we rest about her life and who Cam is. For people who enjoyed Gone Girl, Girl on a Train, and The Last Thing He Told Me. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I have grown up on the writings of Rachel Hawkins and consider myself a long-time fan. I checked the library every day in middle school after reading Hex Hall, bugging those poor librarians to death wondering if they had the next book in the series. It’s my earliest memory of impatiently waiting to devour what this author will write next.

Without fail, my jaw hit the floor during this ending’s big reveal. The almost tangible burning I feel when reading her works is the constant temptation to rip the bandaid off and spoil the ending is almost impossible to ignore. It eats at me. I know I’ll never be able to guess “whodunnit” but I want to solve the mystery myself the entire time. A true exampling of a page-turner. She is consistent with her masterful conclusions, carefully balancing her last words with powerful statements of self-reflection and wonder. I will always be first in line for her next work, anticipating what is to come.

I consider myself the critical reader, constantly wondering and comparing my experiences from an author’s previous works against the current read at hand. That being said, The Heiress wonderfully achieves the twists and turns I could not get enough of when reading her previous thriller, The Villa. Hawkins is an exquisite storyteller and reading her thrillers is such a treat for me.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for making my experience possible. By granting me access to this digital ARC, readers like me get to participate and advocate for the success of works by these wonderful authors.

My favorite Rachel Hawkins now. Found it to be fast-paced and enjoyable and I never could predict where it was going. I liked the style of alternating narrators and that Ruby's parts were told in letters
I will be recommending this title.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

It has been a long time since I’ve read such a fast paced book. At first I wasn’t sure I’d like this book —- so many characters. But I soon learned who is who. The characters have their own secrets and tell their own confessions.

Ruby writes letters, but to whom? You wonder what’s going on and how the characters are interconnected. The ending explaining all the twists is satisfying. Highly recommended.

By far my favorite Rachel Hawkins book to date! The Heiress was so face paced and I was hooked right away. I could not read it fast enough.

I loved that you get multiple viewpoints, as well as articles throughout the book. I thought I knew where this was going to go, but I was wrong, and loved the ending!!

This book has it all: family drama, murder, secrets, and a rich family living in a huge mansion!

Thank you NetGalley for an early copy of The Heiress in exchange for an honest review

Usually thrillers and mystery are not genres I am drawn to so I really didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. The Heiress was my first read by author Rachel Hawkins, it is filled with twists and turns which kept my interest from cover to cover and I really enjoyed her writing style.

Camden McTavish wants nothing to do with his family, he was adopted into the McTavish family when he very young but as far as his extended family are concerned he never was and never will be a McTavish. However, the problem and the focus of most of this book is Camden inherited the family fortune and their estate with the death of his mother Ruby McTavish which means he will never be free of the family who despises him. Ruby herself has led quite a life of intrigue and not only does she leave behind an enormous fortune but also a string of dead husbands.

I book was well paced, I feel like I got a really good idea of who each of the characters were as the author carefully unwrapped their complex history and tied it up beautifully at the end. While they are certainly flawed you couldn't help but be invested in the protagonists and the outcome of their story. Their lives were formed by tragic circumstances and abuse but together they find a way to form a new family in spite of everything they have endured.

What I loved about this book:
- multiple points of view. The main view points are Camden McTavish and his wife Jules but we also hear from his notorious mother in the form of letters she has written in the days leading up to her death
- Lots of multigenerational family drama
- there were so many twists and turns, some I saw coming, some I should have picked up on as there were definite hints throughout the story and others took me by surprise

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for an advances copy of The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins.
The story features a very well known deadly widow who dies leaving her extreme wealth to an adopted son, including a massive mansion in the mountains of North Carolina. The will angers the immediate family but Camden, the adopted son is unmoved and stays away from the estate, beginning a life across the country.
However, when another death occurs, Cam is forced to return with his wife. What they face is years and years of secrets and death as well as a very angry Aunt and cousins.
I love how it's told in multiple POVs and told as a story to the reader themselves one on one. The story is told between 3 characters, Ruby, Camden, and Jules, which gives you the feel of something unsuspecting and sinister that might happen. There were so many twists Rachel Hawkins set up perfectly! This was a psychologically thrilling page turner and so much fun to read!

Rachel Hawkins returns with a Gothic suspense thriller about an adopted son, returning to his North Carolina roots, to deal with the aftermath of an inheritance (a mansion) ten years after his mother died and left an eight figure fortune he walked away from.

The narrative is told via 2 POVs, an epistolary, and newspaper clippings: Cam/Camden, the returning prodigal son; his wife Jules/Julia, who has never been to North Carolina or met any of her husband’s relatives; and also via the decade old tell-all letters left behind by Ruby McTavish +4 surnames (all dead husbands). Matron Ruby was notorious due to being kidnapped at age 3 and discovered unharmed a year later in 1943 (long before DNA testing); the circumstances of the sequentially dying spouses just added to her “fame.” And since the author helpfully gives us the dictionary description of “changeling” at the start and references to famous cases, we immediately suspect that Ruby’s story is even more deeply layered. And Cam and Jules are here to obviously stir up things.

As Ruby’s letters reveal her past, the current timeline discloses the ongoing toxic relationships still thriving at Ashby House. Hawkins builds the suspense and then throws in multiple twists. In the end, this s a book about complicated family ties and money and greed destroy integrity and create secrets. 5 stars!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES So many green eyes, in fact. Jules’ are so dark green they’re almost black (“dark hazel”) and Cam realizes they are like Ruby’s. And also Duke and Libby have green eyes. Cam is the odd man out with one blue and one brown eye, a rare case of heterochromia.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): YES Cam bemoans the state of the sunflower garden, which are currently brown stalks. But it’s September and sunflowers (basically hardy weeds) are usually still in full bloom unless there’s a killing frost (and this is unlikely in North Carolina)

I LOVED this book. It definitely had an Evelyn Hugo vibe with the multiple husbands but it included that thriller twist. Loved the twist at the end. I wish that it hadn’t ended there and I could read more about that part. Overall, fantastic book that I absolutely loved!

Hawkins made me genuinely care for the protagonists and the outcome of their story. The twists were subtle and surprising. By far my favorite of her work.