Rachel Hawkins is an auto-read for me, so I was very excited when I got the chance to read the new twisty gothic thriller she’d been teasing for months.

This book involves Jules and Camden, a married couple (each harboring their own secrets) returning to Camden’s ancestral home to deal with the estate in the aftermath of his mother’s death. Camden’s other relatives are scheming to steal the mansion from him by uncovering secrets about the family lineage, while letters from Ruby (his mother) serve to let us know what really happened in the past. After lots of twists and turns, we find out the truth in the end.

I absolutely loved this book. I am a sucker for a good gothic tale, and Ashby House definitely delivered. Jules and Camden were not deeply drawn characters, but more character development wasn’t really necessary to advance the story. I guessed one of the twists early on, but the end did leave me surprised, quite a feat with a thriller. I adored the rural mountain North Carolina setting. As someone who lived in a small town near Asheville for years, the setting was realistic. The pace was compelling and kept the action moving. All in all, a very fun read.

What a fun ride! This is hands down my new favourite Rachel Hawkins. There are so many parts of this domestic thriller that are juicy and unexpected, and it kept me fully engaged abs entertained. Who doesn't love a story about powerful families, ancestral homes, questionable bloodlines and unexplained deaths?

Who says you can't go home again? While the plot isn't novel- rich boy running away from his family and has to return to face a death of a loved one and his inheritance- Hawkins makes it fresh with complex and compelling characters. Chapters intertwined with past diary entries/letters were especially fun. And the twist halfway through the book was excellently played!

Dead matriarch Ruby's letters were a deviant delight and I would read a whole book on this unpredictable black widow. There are layers of Gothic style too which makes it a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 read for me.

Great twists that I did not predict. If you loved The Villa you will love this! Really quick, engaging read. Good way to kick off reading for 2024!
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

One of the many things I enjoy about a Rachel Hawkins book is her ability to jump back and forth between characters so seamlessly and The Heiress is no exception. From meeting Jules and Camden, a happily married young couple, you're immediately drawn to their simple yet normal life. Until you find out Camden's adopted mother Ruby has passed and left him a substantial inheritance. Being forced to go back home and deal with is family who is not very pleased to be dealing him, you learn Camden has some secrets he'd like to stay locked away. Once he's back home we learn more about Ruby and her own secrets she's willing to share, just not with whom you may expect.

I really enjoyed this book and can't wait for the next one from Rachel!

I love Rachel Hawkins! This is my third by her and they do not disappoint. This one was a little harder for me to get into, but once it got rolling, it was hard to put down.

THE HEIRESS - RACHEL HAWKINS

4⭐

PLOT
Ruby Mctavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore a victim of famous kidnapping as a child, widow 4 times and richest woman in North Carolina with an envious house Ashby House.
After her death leaves everything to her adoptive son Camden but he doesn't want to do anything with it or her money.
10yrs later Camden and his wife Jules are forced to visit Ashby House and Ruby's past slowly unfolds truth about her kidnapping, reasons behind death of her husband and even Camdens adoption!

MY THOUGHTS -
This is a fast paced addictive family drama full of secrets. The alternate POV and timeline made it even more engrossing.
I loved how Ruby told her story via letters and slowly the suspense unfolds.
Perfect Suspense mystery to begin 2024!
Thank you Netgalley and publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I was consumed from the beginning. Just the right amount of tension and mystery causes you to turn each page eagerly awaiting what happens next. POV’s added to the excitement. Great job on Hawkins' part. Exceeded my expectations.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for my copy of The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins. I’m a huge fan of the author’s books and The Heiress is now my favorite. It’s an engrossing gothic page-turner with twists. You’ll love it.

This is a thriller about the wealthiest woman in North Carolina, her heir, and the cutthroat battle for her estate. This book, with its twists and turns, is an addictive read. The story is full of sub-mysteries that fit together like pieces in a puzzle. It is told through each of the main characters, Camden (the adopted son), Jules (his wife), and Ruby (the heiress). Expect the unexpected in this murder mystery.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an engrossing and entertaining book.

This book was so good! There’s just something about a book with rich mysterious women that scratches an itch for me. I loved Ruby and her unapologetic behavior. She was honestly the only character in the entire book that I actually trusted. All of the other characters were extremely unreliable and not super likable, really. My least favorite part of the book was my lack of connection to the other characters. I didn’t care for Camden or Jules and I didn’t feel super invested in their story. I found myself reading just to discover more about Ruby.

Thank you for NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the digital ARC in exchange for my review.

I really enjoyed this book! I did see some twists coming, but there were other twists I didn't see and I loved all the reveals throughout the book. It gave me a lot of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier vibes. I loved the three POVs. I split the book half reading half listening and really enjoyed both formats. This was my second Rachel Hawkins book and it won't be my last!

3.5 ⭐️’s
The Heiress is filled with some nasty characters all vying for the family fortune. When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s North Carolina’s richest woman. Being kidnapped as a child as well as burying four husbands, she’s also quite notorious. Ashby house is the family estate nestled in the Blue Ridge mountains in the small town of Tavistock. A town ruled by the McTavish family. Upon her death everything was willed to her adopted son, Cam. A son who wants nothing to do with the McTavish family and couldn’t wait to leave. It’s been ten years since Ruby’s death when Cam is summoned back to the estate. A place he never wants to see again, but his wife, Jules, has other plans. As family secrets come to life, Cam and Jules soon realize that an inheritance, no matter how large, isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and that some family bonds are quite difficult to break. This was a duel read listen and while some of the voices I enjoyed, Ruby’s took a bit to get used to, but fit her quite perfectly! Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an ARC and ALC of this book.

What a great book to kick off 2024! I’ve read everything from Ms. Hawkins, and this one is definitely my favorite so far.

The Heiress is fast paced, character driven with multiple POVs, and all set in a mansion in the Blue Ridge mountains with perhaps the most toxic family imaginable living inside its walls.

Rachel Hawkins has now become an auto-buy author for me. So much fun, I finished this in one sitting.

Thanks to the author, NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for an advanced digital copy.

Cam and Jules are a young couple who are just getting by. But Cam has a secret—he is the heir to a grand house and vast fortune back in North Carolina. Unfortunately his family hates him. He and Jules go back home in hope of clearing up the family business. There are lots of mysteries and twists in the plot. Also a lot of the characters are not who the seem to be. This was a very quick, enjoyable read.

The heiress is probably Rachel Hawkins best since her debut. At the center of the story is the Ashby House and the complicated and twisted legacy of the mistress of the house, Ruby Mctavish. Ruby was kidnapped as a baby and was miraculously found and reconciled with her family unharmed and became the most famous in their North Carolina town afterwards. When Ruby dies, her only son Cam returns to Ashby House with his fiancé Jules to battle his family for his legacy and the estate. What transpires from there are twisted family secrets Ruby reveals through a serious of posthumous letters, revealing her past and the past of the house haunted by its many secrets. Told through multiple points of view, jumps between past and present and various newspaper articles, readers will find themselves enthralled in this page turning Southern Gothic thriller about heritage and legacy. I loved the southern gothic setting and thought Hawkins did a particularly good job at invoking those elements of the genre into this thriller. Recommended for all fans of twisted thrillers.

Thanks to the publisher for providing the arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Rachel Hawkins, and St. Martin's Press for an e-arc of The Heiress!

3.5 out of 5 stars.

I feel like I can always count on Rachel Hawkins for a quick thriller to refresh my reading palette between books in a series or to get me out of a reading funk. The Heiress was no different! This was a fast moving novel that had action from the get go.

Things I loved:

The letters: since Ruby had passed away by the time this book is set, it was nice to get her POV. I also found the fact that the letters were focused on her husbands and their deaths amusing. The deaths of the husbands didn’t seem to have a lot to do with why Camden was at the house, but it was interesting to see none-the-less.

The Twists: I felt like the twists kept coming throughout the book and especially at the end. Just when I thought we had everything tied up, another twist would come to throw me for a loop. It was almost too much, but I felt like it all worked well with the plot.

The house: I love a book where the house becomes a character. While I would have liked to see more descriptions of why the house was so creepy, this particular element of a book always ropes me in.

Things I didn’t love:

The relationship among the McTavishes: I know there was a lot of animosity because Camden was adopted and inherited the house and a lot of money, but we didn’t see a lot of behind the scenes action to let us visualize the true hatred there. WHY did Camden not want anything to do with his relatives? Could they really all not stand each other? They seemed to get a long just fine while he was at the house fixing things. And if he truly wanted nothing to do with the house, he could have just signed over the deed upon his inheritance. That part didn’t make a ton of sense to me.

The pacing: There was A LOT happening in this book. So much so that it seemed like there wasn’t enough time spent explaining certain plot points. They were simply stated and the reader had to accept it and move on with little to no elaboration. I felt like certain elements were unnecessary to moving the plot forward and could have been left out of the book, which would have created opportunities to elaborate further on the elements that DID move the plot forward. Everyone loves a good side story, but when there are too many, it can take away from the plot and I feel like that happened here.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy of “The Heiress” by Rachel Hawkins. “The Heiress” is the first novel I've read by Ms. Hawkins, and I must admit that I was thoroughly impressed. The novel has three main characters: Ruby McTavish Callahan, Woodward Miller Kenmore, a wealthy woman who had a mysterious and colorful past; her adopted son, Camden, an English teacher who is reluctant to return home; and his wife, Jules. The story is told in the alternating voices of these three (3) characters. Ruby's chapters were in epistolatory form. What happened to Ruby's four husbands? Why did she adopt Camden?

“The Heiress,” a suspenseful saga, tells the story of Camden's return to the Ashby House after the death of his adopted mother, Ruby. Camden left North Carolina 10 years ago but returned to handle Ruby's affairs. My favorite character, Ruby, was kidnapped during her childhood but eventually returned to the family. Was the returned child the authentic Ruby or a changeling? Did Ruby's mother, father, and sister, Nelle, believe the returned child was the authentic Ruby or an imposter? The McTavishes are wealthy, have secrets galore, and love one thing: money. All of the characters in “The Heiress” are unforgettable. Ms. Hawkins does an excellent job of fleshing out characters and gradually providing background information on each. You will find yourself thinking about several of the characters after you've read the story. The novel is atmospheric, and I felt like a detective trying to piece together the clues in this engaging mystery. Are Ruby, Camden, and Jules innocent, manipulative, or evil? Is blood thicker than water? Why would Nelle and her adult grandchildren not leave Ashby House? Is returning for an inheritance worth it? The Heiress has a publication date of January 9, 2024, and I recommend you add this book to your reading list for 2024.

This was so good and so dark! Adopted son Camden of North Carolina heiress Ruby McTavish (who has a the nickname Mrs. kill-more after all 4 of her husbands die suspiciously) heads to Western North Carolina with his wife Jules to deal with her estate. Camden and Jules have to also interact with Ruby’s entitled and terrible family members. Will Cam and Jules take over their historic home or will they uncover so much that it breaks them?

I really enjoyed this. It alternates between Cam, Jules and letters written by Ruby. Ruby’s accounts reminded me of (a very dark and twisted) Evelyn Hugo.

It was a bit slow at times in present day of Jules and Camden’s trek to NC, Ruby’s chapters were all very enthralling. At 60% in, I couldn’t put it down. Up until then, it was more of a slow burn.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

This may be my favorite Rachel Hawkins. What a way to combine atmospheric tension, wild characters (a few of them were so intense they bordered on caricatures), and important flashbacks to the 40s through the 80s through different mediums like letters and newspapers.

Camden and Jules are married, and when Camden is finally called back to his ancestral home where his inheritance sits, the secrets of the past absolutely explode in a mess of truths and lies. The more Jules uncovers, the more she realizes how dysfunctional this family is. And even though Cam has known the dysfunction, he doesn't even know the entire truth of it. I devoured this one!

4.5 stars. Rich people having all their secrets exposed. Say no more.
This book follows a couple, Cam and Jules. Cam is the adopted son of a famous heiress, Ruby. When ruby was a child she was kidnapped then later returned to the family. When Ruby dies she leaves the family fortune to Cam, leaving her sister and her child/grandchildren very upset. However Cam decides to move and not touch the money. In present day Cam is forced to return home where all the families secrets are exposed.
This is definitely my favorite book by Rachel. I loved how the story had several layers. Including 2 POVs, newspaper articles and letters. And how they all fit so well together. It was fast paced and exciting. My only complaint is I hate when characters break the fourth wall and talk directly to the reader.