3.75 stars rounded up to 4

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for access to this title. All opinions expressed are my own

Rachel Hawkins is one of those authors that I am always eagerly anticipating their next novel. The Heiress provides me with two of my guilty pleasures- inherited estates and characters with lots of secrets.

When married couple Cam and Jules are called to Cam's adoptive families estate, the atmosphere of the novel increasingly becomes suffocating and I wondered if anyone would make it out alive. This book was hard to put down and I ended up gulping it all down in a matter of hours. Although I saw a few revelations on the horizon, I still closed this book with a smirk on my face.

Worth the hype!




Publication Date 09/01/24
Goodreads Review 23/02/24

This Alabama author will forever be one of my favorite thriller writers! I could not put this one down! I loved the old school vibes here too!

Thank you, Netgalley, the author, and St. Martin's Press for the gifted e-book! ❤️ #gifted. My review is comprised of my honest thoughts.

Read this book if you like: Multiple POV, chaotic families, letters, gothic atmosphere

Wow. This pulled me in the whole time. I had no idea where it was going. It's so addictive. I gasped so many times. I read this from start to finish quickly. I highly recommend it!

The best family drama I’ve read in along time. Remarkably wild! I don’t know what it says about me that I loved Ruby, but she made me laugh!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this advanced copy! This was my first Rachel Hawkins read. I really enjoyed it. The beginning was a little of a slow burn for me but by mid point it really started to pick up. I was hooked. I thought the characters were complex and interesting. I liked the use of descriptive language when talking about Ashby House and Tavistock,NC. I did not see the ending coming. I was surprised when all the puzzle pieces started coming together. I’d be interested in reading any future continuations (if applicable). I’d give it a 4 star rating.

<b>There should be some kind of warning when your life is about to change forever. </b>

The Heiress is another great addition to the collection of Rachel Hawkins slow burning mystery thrillers. I’m going to say this story is like if the song “The Last Great American Dynasty” by Taylor Swift was a mystery thriller set in the mountains of North Carolina, laced with twisted secrets, and the main characters weren’t as prepared for the money and all that comes with it.

I love Rachel Hawkins' books. They are incredibly gripping from the beginning and keep you hooked until the end. I loved the plot of this book. I think her books just keep getting better and better.

Thank you to all who told me to read this. From the first few pages, I was mesmerized by this tricky and seductive story with so many levels and variations of truth. Simply stated, this is the story Ruby, an heiress. Was she truly the kidnapped little girl returned to the family a year later? What about the deaths of all four of her husbands? Why doesn't her heir, Camden, want anything to do with his inheritance or anyone in the family? You may think you know at several points in the story, but you would be wrong.

Ruby McTavish, kidnapped as a little girl, then found safe and sound living with a family grieving the death of their own child. Upon Ruby's death she left a string of dead husbands, a dysfunctional family, a large fortune and an adoptive son who wants nothing to do with anything McTavish.
When her son Camden is called back to the family Home, secrets start to unravel.
It seems everyone in Ashby house has a secret.

I really enjoyed this book, the writing and story grabbed me immediately, the kind of book you think about reading when you're not reading, the kind of book you count down the minutes till you can pick it back up again.
So why not 5 stars?
I found the ending clunky, the epilogue was wordy, yet quite vague.
And not having clear cut answers to some questions just put me off.

All in all this was a great read, a solid 4 stars.

I really enjoyed this. It gave me such Evelyn Hugo vibes. I love a story where you’re never really sure who you can trust and everyone is a little bit bad, a little bit (or a lot) morally grey. I loved that there were several plot- twists and reveals and that there were so many ways this could have gone. The pacing in this was perfect and I loved the addition of the letters, I felt that like that added a bit of realness and relatability to the story.

Overall, I really enjoyed this and would recommend it to others.

Fantastic! My favorite Rachel Hawkins so far!
This is a twisty, edge of your seat story, I could not put down.
You follow a few different POV’s one being Ruby, the heiress to “old money” fortune, you follow all the tragedies that have occurred through her life. You also follow her adopted son Cam, and his wife Jules. Every storyline kept me interested and I couldn’t wait to see how it all unfolded. I wound definitely recommend this!

Another engaging thriller from Hawkins, this one is really wonderfully structured. Hard to review without spoilers but this may be Hawkins best thriller yet. Great prospect for adaptation for film.

Oh, for the LOVE of Money!

What would you do to get your hands on an inheritance? Rachel Hawkins shares the lengths that one family is willing to go in order to lay claim to 'family' money in her latest novel, The Heiress. So many secrets, twists, turns, and LIES that unfold between the pages, I was unable to put the book down once I started it! I loved the plot, the setting, and the characters, so much so that I found myself either vehemently hating or passionately sympathetic to each of them. Hawkins has written a bit of everything into this novel, from drama, suspense, and romance to greed, murder, passion, all from a southern gothic, dysfunctional family, point-of-view (well, three povs to be exact). If you like smouldering, yet pervasively sinister thrillers, I would definitely recommend this book!

Ok. Wow. This was such an engrossing thriller! But I was not expecting that twist at the very end. As the words played out, my mouth dropped open. I reread it to make sure I got it right. Rachel Hawkins, I love your writing & you struck gold with The Heiress like Ruth with her McTavish wealth! And I just LOVED RUTH! Her letters were the best part!

Thank you, Rachel Hawkins, St Martins Press, & Netgalley for my copy! All opinions are my own.

This really cemented Rachel Hawkins as an auto-buy author for me. The twists and turns are always so fun. And while I did guess one of the major twists for this story, it was written in such a way that I honestly can't tell if I guessed it exactly or if Rachel just did that good of a job leading me there. Aside from being twisty though, another thing I love about Hawkins' books is that none of them are similar.
The characters are almost all unlikeable but also so intriguing that you still have that "I have to know what happens" feeling for all of them. Rachel also always does an excellent job of wrapping things up and there are never any gaping plot holes that just eat at me later on.
The Heiress has a lot going on with the dual narrating, unreliable narrators, the multiple timelines, and the articles and letters supplementing the stories. It all ties together in a very well-done true crime type of way though.
I'd say this is a medium paced thrilleresque drama. If you like Riley Sager or other books from Hawkins, you will likely love this one. It also has a very Rachel Hawkins hook to it where you can't stop thinking about it when you take a break, so you end up reading it super-fast to see what happens next.

The Heiress is a mystery in whose characters are mostly unlikable, with a suspenseful curious plot about greed, deep secrets, narcissism and murder…lots of murder. With one shocking twist after another, it will continually keep you enthralled and on your toes! It is so juicy!

It all begins with the disappearance of a young girl named Ruby McTavish from a very, very wealthy family who live on estate named Ashby House in North Carolina. She disappears during a picnic. Gone as if she never existed. Her mother, devastated falls to pieces. But, months later, a man emerges with Ruby and says he took her because his own daughter had died, and his wife was beside herself. End of story, right? Well, not really…

With Ruby back and a new sister born named Nellie, the emergence of hatred between not only them, but other family members begin. It is obvious that this is not your regular family, and as time passes you see that the McTavish’s get whatever they want. And as Ruby grows up, she realizes she must follow in her father’s footsteps as she is the heiress apparent. At a young age Ruby marries her first of four husbands. You see, they all seem to die…and she also decides to adopt a son. His name is Cam. 

As Cam grows up, as close as he is to his mother, or as close as she allows him, he sees the spectacle of the McTavish clan and realizes there is something wrong with them and eventually leaves and marries a woman named Jules. But when his uncle passes away, he must return to the famous Ashby House estate because you see, he is now the heir as Ruby died a while ago. The rest of the family needs money and he holds the purse strings, so he must put his fears and memories aside and go visit a place he has not stepped foot in for years. So as Cam and Jules, who seems excited at the prospect of seeing the infamous house, ascend on Ashby, he feels the hatred coming off his relatives, Nellie, his cousins Ben and Libby. The only ones left with the McTavish name. And they have an agenda and it’s not good!

Through a series of letters Ruby has written, we begin to see what dark family secrets have been hidden for years. How Ruby kept them all at bay and how she was able to keep secrets from them never to be found. But who were the letters meant for?

And as the jealousy and greed of those still alive begin to become apparent, Cam decides he needs to walk away again from this dysfunctional, evil group of relations. But Jules isn’t so sure. You see she has her own secrets. 

Can evil run in a family? Is it genetic? The Heiress will not disappoint and will keep you guessing until the end. Which of these materialistic, self-absorbed, egotistical relatives will finally try to burn the McTavish name down? The answer will shock you!

Thank you #NetGalley #St.Martin’sPress #RachelHawkins #TheHeiress for the advanced copy.

A fast moving mystery with rich family history in a North Carolina mountain town. There were too many twists to count.

See full review on The Atlanta-Journal Constitution:

Ruby “Kill-more” McTavish is a North Carolina lumber heiress who was famously kidnapped as a child in 1943. She was returned months later and went on to grow up and bury four husbands before her own death, bequeathing her estate to her adopted son, who is forced to battle their entitled relatives for Ruby’s multi-million-dollar riches. So begins the intricate setup for Alabama author Rachel Hawkins’ latest domestic thriller “The Heiress,” a compulsively readable dive into the ugly ways people manipulate and mistreat each other to maintain power...

https://www.ajc.com/things-to-do/the-heiress-a-modern-day-thriller-with-parallels-to-wuthering-heights/R2LV43QOLVGOTB6RPC7OT55524/

I freaking loved this book! I literally could not put it down and ended up reading it in one night. I loved all the family drama and was wondering the whole time if Jules and Cams marriage was going to remain intact.

Apparently I will read and love anything Rachel Hawkins will write!! I loved this story. The family was so toxic and I was completely addicted. I loved how you could trust no one and everyone was lying about something