Thanks so much to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with this e-Arc! I have a planned review of this on my Instagram and will also review on Goodreads once I get to this read. This is one of my most anticipated reads of this year! Until then, I am giving a star rating as a placeholder on Netgalley. Stay tuned for my in depth review on all my social media platforms!

Love how Hawkins weaves a story from different perspectives and doesn’t shy away from using headlines, chapter names, emails, etc. to tell the story. It makes the mysteries very immersive. As I read, I feel like I know more than any individual character, obviously, but still not the whole story and that keeps me interested.

At the outset, I thought this might become a good and well-scoped take good take on the Missing 411 phenomenon and true crime abduction stories that have gripped pop culture in recent years. It was intimately scoped to one region and one family and I could clearly see the connections, but it still read like a mystery novel rather than a book attempting to posit a theory about the current themes in the supernatural or true crime. I loved all the twists in the story and the ending, but was ultimately left feeling there might have been more to be said about this angle and the missing hikers mentioned a few time throughout.

Finally, I also love how Hawkins seamlessly inserts small references to her other books!

I really, really enjoyed this mystery. The alternating viewpoints and inserts of other POVs (news clippings etc) made a really compelling puzzle to figure out. The setting was very well constructed and the details were good. Highly recommend.

I really enjoyed this book! Jules McTavish has married into the (in)famous McTavish clan, and the story opens with the decision to return to the family hope in North Carolina after a lengthy estrangement. Although her husband, Cam, has inherited the McTavish estate from his mother, his relatives are extremely resentful of that fact because Cam was adopted and thus in their eyes is not a "real" McTavish.

The author does a great job of building suspense and going back and forth in time to fill out the picture of the dysfunctional dynamics. This was a real page-turner with lots of twists and turns along the way. If you're a fan of domestic suspense novels, this is the book for you.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

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