**Disclaimer: I received a copy of The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this opportunity.
The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins is an adult mystery novel. It deals with complicated family situations and family legacy, and lots and lots of money. I rated it five stars on Goodreads. It was published on January 9th, 2024.
Here’s the summary from Goodreads:
When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge mountains. In the aftermath of her death, that estate—along with a nine-figure fortune and the complicated legacy of being a McTavish—pass to her adopted son, Camden.
But to everyone’s surprise, Cam wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.
Ten years later, Camden is a McTavish in name only, but a summons in the wake of his uncle’s death brings him and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but coming home reminds Cam why he was so quick to leave in the first place.
Jules, however, has other ideas, and the more she learns about Cam’s estranged family—and the twisted secrets they keep—the more determined she is for her husband to claim everything Ruby once intended for him to have.
But Ruby’s plans were always more complicated than they appeared. As Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will—and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.
Rachel Hawkins has become one of my favourite writers. I loved all of her YA books I read, and I have loved even more her divergence into writing adult books. I have also reviewed The Wife Upstairs, Reckless Girls, and The Villa. I feel like her thrillers have only gotten better as she writes them, and while The Villa is my favourite, The Heiress is probably my second favourite.
I liked that we got dual perspectives of both Camden and Jules in this book. It was interesting to see the secrets that each of them were hiding and to learn more and more as we saw it through their eyes. That was incredibly fun. However, I also liked that she included lots of news articles and things that helped to develop the story from an outsider’s perspective. What did the public know? Turns out not too much. The cherry on top of it all was the letters written by Ruby McTavish. It was very fun to hear the real story about what happened.
I loved how well-plotted this story was. You could tell that the author put a lot of thought into the story, and that she was doing her best to keep us guessing about what exactly what going to happen next. I don’t think that there was a single twist that I predicted; I was strictly along for the ride and I had an excellent time with it. She does a really good job at writing characters that are unlikable but likable.
I liked the family dynamics at work in this novel. They were complex and it wasn’t really clear who liked who and if anyone trusted anyone else in the family. It had interesting themes about how money can be a corrupting factor in people’s lives, and I really liked the way that was shown.
Overall, I highly recommend this book.
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