Kate Horan's The Inheritance is an impressive debut that hooked me from the start and has left me eagerly anticipating her next book. This Aussie author has crafted a compelling story that perfectly balances family drama, secrets, and suspense.

Isobel Ashworth has lived a life of privilege and wealth as the only daughter in a successful and powerful family. Recently engaged, she believes it’s time to prove to her father that she deserves serious consideration in the family company’s succession plan. But when he sends her to the small town of Hartwell to oversee a controversial development project, cracks begin to form in her perfect life. Meanwhile, journalist Meg Hunter arrives in Hartwell chasing a big story. However, her mission takes a personal turn when her mother, who has dementia, reveals cryptic details about her mysterious past—details that may link her to the town.

Fellow author Cassie Hammer’s endorsement on the cover says, “…if you love Sally Hepworth’s novels, you’ll love this,” and I couldn’t agree more. The Inheritance delivers the perfect blend of family secrets, power dynamics, and the lingering impact of past mysteries. The pages seemed to turn themselves as the story gained momentum, culminating in a clever and satisfying ending.

This was an entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable read, and I highly recommend checking it out.
Thank you to Netgalley and HQ Fiction for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

For me, this started a little slow: I was getting impatient waiting for the link between the Meg and Isobel storylines. However, the second half was brilliant! Everything started to come together and I thought it was going one way and then there was a massive couple of twists that kept me enthralled.

Isobel Ashworth is the youngest child of Malcom and Heather and she has two older brothers. Her family are rich and her dad is a property developer, and she lives in an apartment in Sydney and with her fiancé Hugh Thorburn a lawyer. Isobel can’t believe it when she’s sent to Hartwell, one of the oldest towns in New South Wales and where her father’s company is renovating the old goal and it’s running behind schedule. Issy has no idea the locals are not happy about the way the historical building is being developed and they think it should have been a museum.

Meg Hunter is a free-lance journalist, she needs to find a good story and to save her career. Meg’s mother has dementia and recently she’s mentioned the town of Hartwell and someone called Tina? Meg has no idea who her mum is talking about, she’s an only child and her mother told her years ago she has no relatives and she’s never heard of Hartwell. Meg arrives in town, the cheapest place to stay is the pub and it doesn’t take long for her to notice two things, the locals hate the Ashworth family and are very reluctant to talk about them and she wonders why?

The Ashworth’s celebrate Christmas in style and of course it's catered for at their property called Kilmore and it’s not far from the country town, when they gather around the tree to give out the presents and Isobel and her brothers Spencer and Felix are given DNA testing kits by an anonymous person and their parents think it's a prank and a very tacky one.

By this stage Isobel has met Meg and she’s starting to question why she was sent to Hartwell, did her dad have an ulterior motive and she decides to take the test and she has no idea Meg has also taken one.

I received a copy of The Inheritance by Kate Horan from Harlequin Australia and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I can’t believe this is the author’s debut novel, I was hooked by the end of the first chapter and I have always found stories based on DNA testing interesting and this one didn’t disappoint. A narrative about a wealthy and powerful family, entitlement and succession, greed and corruption, secrets and lies, shocks and cover ups and Isobel and Meg’s quest to discover the truth and it gets dangerous.

I highly recommend The Inheritance, the story is full of lots of twists and turns and most I didn’t see coming.

An absolute ripper of a debut.
I was instantly drawn into this family's web of deceit. Issy and Meg's voices were written with such distinction, each with their own story to tell. It came together beautifully.

What a stunning debut, it had me right from the beginning.
Meg Hunter is struggling to pay the bills since she was retrenched from the newspaper and working as a freelance journalist is not cutting it. She is also dealing with her mother who is in care suffering from dementia.
Isobel Ashworth, heiress to a multimillion family company, feels she is not taken seriously by her father and brother and now she is feeling slightly blindsided by becoming the finance to Hugh Thornton as they have only been going out a few months.
Suddenly for different reasons the town of Hartwell looms in both women’s orbit. Issy has been ordered by her father to go up and oversee the flagging construction of The Hartwell Enertainment Precinct. Meg because her mother, who has always had an evasive past keeps mentioning the town and Meg wants to know how it features in her Mothers life. It has also come onto her radar the Ashworth involvement in the town may not be above board as it seems. And with the help of a former work colleague, she sets out to investigate.
Really enjoyed this, I thought the characters were well fleshed out and I could sense the good and bad in each. Loved how it all intertwined, kept me guessing how each fitted in, I sort of did guess some of the things but not all and certainly did not take away any enjoyment.
Sped through this effectively in two days which lately is not something. Great entertainment for the holiday period.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.

This Christmas, give the gift of family.

The book follows the story of both Isobel and Meg.

Isobel Ashworth has been sent by her wealthy and property developer father to Hartwell. A small town outside of Sydney. When she arrives she is thrown in the deep end - the community isn't happy with this new development and starts to make her life a living hell.

Meg Hunter is a freelance journalist and needs a good story to save her career. When Meg is visiting her Mum with dementia she starts talking about Hartwell and a name she hasn't heard of before. She gets intrigued and finds somewhere to stay in Hartwell. As she follows the story she is hit with corruption and uncovers the truth about her Mum's past.

This book was very well written and I recommend reading it if you enjoy corruption, cheating, blackmail and DNA tests. What I enjoyed: The side characters, family dynamics, The messages from the DNA sleuths Facebook group. I loved how everything came together in the end.

Thank you Harlequin Australia and Netgalley for the gifted copy for my honest book review.