Member Reviews

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 and it’s released on the 1st of January 2025 and I suggest buying a copy with your Christmas money.

Was this review helpful?

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.

Was this review helpful?