This is one of the best books I have read all year. As someone that has read all of Rachel Hawkins books, I have to say this is her best work yet. The characters and atmosphere are wonderful. I live near where the story takes place and truly hope Rachel writes more books that capture the spirit the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Wow! What a great book! So many layers, secrets, deceit and subterfuge. A seemingly normal, loving couple and a mother turn out to be anything but. Little by little the clues of who did what and who they really are will keep you guessing and turning pages. Definitely my favorite Rachel Hawkins book so far!

I loved this book! I was sucked in from the first page and couldn't put it down until I found out the truth! I don't always like multiple narrators but it was done so well and I truly loved all of the characters, flaws and all! Another 5 star read by Rachel Hawkins!

Oh my goodness! This book is a brilliantly smart and extremely addictive read that you won't be able to put down. With unexpected twists and heart-throbbing pacing, it draws you into a captivating mystery set within the claustrophobic Ashby House. The secrets hidden behind its closed doors, along with its notorious and heartless inhabitants, add to the intrigue. And let's not forget Ruby McTavish, also known as "Lady Kill-more," whose unreliable, sarcastic, and intimidating personality seals the deal.

I must admit, after reading the author's previous work, "Wife Upstairs," I didn't enjoy their subsequent releases as much. However, with this ominous and engaging thriller, they have made a triumphant return. The story is filled with intertwined mysteries that fit together like puzzle pieces, making you want to read faster to uncover the big secrets.

The narrative unfolds through three distinct points of view. First, there's Camden, an orphan boy who unexpectedly inherits a nine-figure fortune from the McTavish family. His decision to reject the family's money and sever ties with his living relatives may be scandalous or considered a foolish move. He moves to Colorado, becomes a teacher, lives in a small rental with his wife, and never looks back. That is until his cousin Ben, his childhood tormentor and a pretentious bully, contacts him after their father's death to deal with the family's problems.

Our second point of view is Jules, Camden's beautiful and supportive wife. She finally sees a glimmer of hope when her husband decides to return to Ashby House. Having grown up in poverty and working a dead-end job at a museum, where she portrays historical figures by churning butter for tourists, Jules yearns for the wealth and lifestyle they deserve.

The third perspective connects with readers through the letters left behind by Ruby McTavish, the infamous heiress and presumed husband killer. Ruby's four husbands mysteriously died under suspicious circumstances, but her family's money silenced any further investigations.

The story introduces us to other estranged family members, including cousin Ben, an estate lawyer who wears fake smiles and has unnaturally white teeth, and his sister Libby, a spoiled and cunning woman willing to go to great lengths to claim her share of the inheritance. We also meet great aunt Nelle, Ruby's resentful sister, who has harbored jealousy towards Ruby for years and doesn't hide her disdain for Camden's existence.

Behind the closed doors of Ashby House, numerous secrets lurk. Is Ruby truly a cold-blooded killer? Or is she a miracle child who was kidnapped at the age of three, only to be found living with another family who insisted she was their daughter?

But these aren't the only secrets that will upend the delicate balance between family members. Each character hides larger truths that have the power to change their entire lives, including Camden and Jules, who may seem better than the McTavish clan but have their own skeletons in the closet.

Expect the unexpected as you dive into this gripping read. It will keep you on your toes, and you'll find yourself wanting to devour it in one sitting, even if it means staying up all night. In my opinion, this is the author's best work yet.

I would like to express my gratitude to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a digital reviewer copy of this brilliant read in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Who holds the most secrets and can you ever truly trust anyone? These questions and more are answered in The Heiress, which takes the reader on a wild ride. I was a little confused at the start of the book, but once I got going I found it hard to put down and I just wanted to see what the ending would hold.
Told from multiple points of view the reader is placed into the lives of the McTavish family and all of their secrets both past and present.
I enjoyed the quick pace and the overall story. Another winner from Rachel Hawkins.

Three and one-half stars

Review of Uncorrected Digital Galley

Jules and Camden, married for about a decade, seem relatively content with the simplicity of their lives. He teaches English in an all-boys prep school, she portrays a pioneer woman at the living history museum in Golden, Colorado.

But both have secrets in their pasts, and when Camden’s family asks him to return to Ashby House in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, will the truth of his past come to light? And what of Jules’s secrets? Who has more to hide . . . and who has more to lose?

=========

Prefacing the story itself, information from Bill Naracott gives some information about those who go missing; a newspaper article provides the basic information about three-year-old Ruby’s disappearance.

Throughout the telling of this dark tale, chapters switch between the points of view of Camden and Jules as well as between past and present. Interspersed are newspaper articles that provide background information. Also peppered throughout the telling of the tale, readers will find expository letters written by Ruby to an unidentified person; additionally, at several points throughout the narrative, characters seems to be speaking directly to the reader.

These characters, mostly unlikeable [mostly despicable], give new meaning to the term “dysfunctional family.” Everyone holds secrets; everyone seems to have some sort of checkered past; everyone seems to “get away” with abominable behavior simply because of their “family money/donations.”

As the twisty plot slowly provides revelations, readers will find themselves pulled into the messy melodrama created by each of these family members, many of whom consider themselves “entitled” to everything without any effort on their part. Astute readers will identify the “surprise” twist in the plot early on, thanks in part to the inclusion of a definition and relevant examples.

There’s a strong sense of place throughout the telling of the tale. However, the extensive use of a particularly offensive expression is certain to be off-putting for many readers and lowers the rating for this book.

I received a free copy of this eBook from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley
#TheHeiress #NetGalley

In classic Rachel Hawkins form, this book had me enthralled. I couldn't put it down.
If you think your family is bad or messed up, this will make your family look wonderful, trust me. The secrets, lies and betrayal never stopped and had me reading for hours on end. The story flow was great and all the characters were flawed, even the ones you think might be ok and that is what I like about this kind of story. When you ask yourself, "can it get any worse?!", and then it does, oh yeah, that makes for a great story.
I loved how at the end of the book you were still guessing and wondering "what really happened?!" Some don't want a book to end like that but sometimes it's nice to have it open ended like that or have more questions then answers. But it has to be done right and this one was done right.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Publishing Press for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. I truly enjoyed it.

Who has the most secrets? Camden marries Jules after meeting her on wing night at a bar. Seems like the making of a classic modern romance… there is so much more beneath the surface. He is the heir of a fortune back home in NC, but he does not want his millions. Why? Is Jules really okay with her butter churning living history museum job in Colorado? An attentive reader will catch clever details scatted throughout this back and forth, past and present style story. Slow to start but quickly becomes quite intriguing. 4/5

This was a delightful little "onion" of a book- meaning that the reader kept peeling off layer after layer, revelation after revelation. I was absolutely floored once I realized who Ruby's confessions were written to, and that was only ONE of the twists in this roller-coaster novel.... so many "mystery/thriller" books I've read recently end with some damsel in distress, hiding/running from/facing off with a weapon- wielding protagonist of some sort, and it was an unbelievably welcome relief to be free of that in this book. Maybe that's an odd thing to be grateful for, but as a reader and a bookseller, I was thankful for the elimination of that cliche.... I really was rooting for Cam and Jules, and I don't think a better ending could have been written for this book. I think Rachel Hawkins is quickening a really big name for herself, and this book will only add to that. I'm excited to see what she writes next.

I loved this book !! Cam and Jules are married and living a quiet life in Colorado. Cam comes from a very wealthy family in North Carolina and he left home at a young age and never looked back. That is until a death in the family has Cam and Jules traveling to his family home, Ashby House, to settle some financial affairs. Cam's mother was Ruby McTavish who went missing from the estate as a child and as an adult she had been married 4 times and widowed 4 times. In this book we get dual POV's from Cam and Jules. We also get letters that Ruby has written and news articles about the family. I really enjoyed the way this was written and the story pulled me in right away. I could not put this book down !
Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for a copy of this book for review.

Another absolutely wild ride from Rachel Hawkins. She’s become one of my very favorite suspense novelists and this one hits it out of the park again. Cam is the reluctant heir to his adopted family’s fortune, and the rest of the family hates him for it. His wife, Jules, secretly longs to live in his slowly decaying family mansion in North Carolina. An email from Cam’s cousin encourages him to finally go back home - and then it gets crazy. We find out that Cam’s adoptive mother, Ruby, has an even more checkered past than we thought, and that there are lots of weird family dynamics and secrets going on, and that not everyone is who they seem…. This book had me tearing through the pages dying to know what happened next, equally as invested in the letters from Ruby that tell her story as in the present day drama unfolding. I absolutely loved it!

Wow! This was such a good book. Normally I stick to historical fiction, social issues books or beach reads so this one was out of my “comfort reading zone”. I was so surprised how hard it was for me to put it down! It just kept sucking me in deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole of twists, misdirections and lies. Just when I thought it was going to zig, it zagged in a different direction. It had a really interesting twist near the end, one I did not see coming but made sense in the whole story.

The characters were believable and even with the main characters I was not sure if they were to be loved, pitied, trusted or hated.

I look forward to reading more by this author.

Anything from Rachel Hawkins calls my name immediately, so when I saw The Heiress, this was no exception. Hawkins uses multiple viewpoints to put you in the shoes of many key characters, Ruby, Camden, and Jules. Ruby’s point of view is very similar to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, divulging in decade old secrets of the famous “Mrs Kill-more”. Camden struggles between the family he’s been raised by and using his last name for good. Jules is the supportive, naive wife until she isn’t… Hawkins does a great job tying all storylines together without rushing the ending.

🪴 Family Estate, Family Drama, Family Secrets 🪴
Cam wanted to escape his lavish, southern estate wrapped in family drama and the secrets wrapped up in its walls. Following some family deaths (his uncle and his mother, Ruby), his wife, Jules, encourages his return to wrap up some loose ends. The twisty secrets that follow keep everyone on their toes.

❤️ The atmosphere of this story steals the show! I loved the descriptions of the Ashby House and the surrounding area.
❤️ The mysteries unfolding from Ruby's past and the characters' secrets in the present day created a multilayered story.

The twists were natural and progressed through the story. Some reveals were predictable as Hawkins left us just enough breadcrumbs to follow. Each twist was perfectly placed and her chapter endings kept me wanting to read late into the night.

📖 Compulsively readable. I could not put this story down. The short chapters and unique format kept me reading. Hawkins weaves in letters from Ruby, news stories, and chapters from both Cam's and Jules' points of view. These were well-balanced and easy to follow!

🪴 Readers who enjoy family drama, gothic stories, twisty thrillers, and maybe a little Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo vibes will love this one! I have previously read The WIfe Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins and found that The Heiress was a more robust and more enjoyable read for me!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this title prior to publication day in the form of an eARC, it was a joy to read and review!

The Heiress might just be my new favorite Rachel Hawkins novel. This story has a decidedly gothic feel but also reads like a mystery with a huge helping of family drama added in. The multilayered main characters were fun to figure out, and I especially enjoyed the book's cunning yet charming namesake Ruby McTavish and the letters she wrote to her heirs. Those dishy little reveals of pieces of Ruby's backstory straight from the source kept me reading and not wanting to put the book down. I loved every second of it and wouldn't hesitate to read it again! Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press and the author for providing an uncorrected digital galley to me for review.

I loved this book. I loved how it always showed what a strong marriage Cam and Jule had.... even as more and more major things popped up that they were hiding from each other. I loved how seamlessly chapters went between the viewpoints of different characters, as well as between the past and the present. I loved all the twists and turns and how totally believable and timely they were. The ending was extremely satisfying to me, which doesn't happen very often. Authors tend to leave out what happens to minor characters who I find myself wondering about a day or so later, or they go to the opposite extreme and tell what happens to pretty much every single person we have read about but the mailman.. The one thing I DIDN"T think like about the book was half-page or longer statements at the end of some chapters. Some were from newspaper stories and others were from people. If I could ask the author ONE question, it would be why on earth did she put them in there? There was one in particular. that really destroyed my focus. I was reading a Ruby chapter and then suddenly it was talking about Ruby in the 3rd person. At first I thought she used the wrong name, but I kept reading that page over and over again and didn't know who else they could be talking about or who this person was. I flipped back to see if I had missed a page. Nope - the page numbers were consecutive and the previous page had "I" being Ruby. Maybe a file had gotten left out or switched with a different book? But I clearly wasn't going to figure it out so I just kept reading, wondering the whole page who on earth this person actually was. Then I turned another page and saw it was one of these statements by somebody I'd never heard of before or since, and I certainly didn't see what that inclusion added to the book. But I liked this book enough that I'm going to check out her other books. I highly recommend it.

I was quite impressed by this novel. Immediately I was sucked into the world of Camden and Jules who have been living a relatively simple life in Colorado. Camden is the adopted son of Ruby McTavish, an heiress. After Camden's uncle's death, he is left to sort the immense family estate in North Carolina with his money-grubbing extended McTavish family members vying for the inheritance.

The reading was very immersive. I enjoyed Ruby's perspective, as she was a legend with FOUR husbands who ALL died mysteriously. In her letters, we learn about her life and these four men. While I really enjoyed these parts (with a more twisted Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo vibe), these men felt like they were fun add-ons for the author to fill pages because these men really didn't tie in to the present day story. But I did really enjoy Ruby's backstory.

For the most part, I enjoyed the present day storyline as well. I thought the mansion had an isolated and dilapidated feel. The characters were interesting, but of course they aren't fully formed as in most thrillers. The ending felt a bit rushed, so the pacing had a few problems towards the end.

All in all, this thriller is worth your time. I found it to be an engaging read with enough breadcrumbs that it didn't seem outlandish, except perhaps slightly in the last chapter and epilogue.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Another hit from Rachel Hawkins. Loved all of the gothic vibes and twists and turns in this novel and the plot kept me reading late into the night. Looking firewood to more from this author.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/126919284

Ruby McTavish was best known for her 4 dead husbands, more money than god, a family of Insanity and a headline of when she was kidnapped/missing as a child. 10 years after her death her son comes back to his families estate to settle things with the McTavish family for once and for all. This book did have lots of twists and turns and secrets. It was a family drama with short enticing chapters from multiple POV. Overall, I wasn’t turning the pages because I wanted to know the ending, more that I just wanted to get through it. Many will love the secrets unfold, but it wasn’t for me. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC for my honest review.

This book was quick paced and so fun to read - I had a hard time putting it down. Following multiple POVs we discover a wealthy family’s secrets and begin to understand how money can open doors, make people look the other way, and turn emotions hard. Past and present are woven together wonderfully by the author as we learn bit by salacious bit of the truth.