The Heiress

• Author: Rachel Hawkins
• Genre: Mystery/Suspense
• Publication Date: January 9, 2024
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

CONTENT WARNING: alcoholism, death of a parent, parental abandonment, kidnapping, murder, blood, domestic violence, violence, suicide

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.

This is my fourth Rachel Hawkins book, and I was lucky enough to have been able to buddy read this with the incredible Leslie @ Books Are the New Black. We had a great time buddy reading this one, and predicting what was going to happen next.

The first thing I noticed was that the book had typical chapters, but there was other material between the chapters. It piqued my interest, especially when I noticed that between the Jules and Cam POV chapters are snippets from newspapers and magazines, as well as letters that were written by Ruby herself, telling her own story. It was fascinating, keeping my attention focused equally on all parts of the story.

It’s easy to fall in love with Camden. He’s just a genuinely good dude, through and through, despite what he was exposed to. He consistently views Ashby House as toxic, and he isn’t wrong. Yet somehow, he escaped without it poisoning him. More about his upbringing is revealed as we read. 

Jules, on the other hand, comes across as his opposite in so many ways. Where Cam is quiet and reserved, Jules is ebullient and outspoken, not afraid to say exactly what she’s thinking. Her outlook on life is dramatically different from Cam’s and we learn why as we keep reading, but I don’t want to give anything away. She leans more towards the morally gray side, personality-wise, but she’s still likable.

Ruby comes across as a sweet and charming, if a little risqué, old lady, through her letters. At least, she did at first. My opinion of Ruby changed a few times over the course of the book, especially as circumstances changed in her life. She was another morally gray character, making statements like:

“Promises are like piecrust, made to be broken.”

It was difficult to like the other characters in the book. While we get to know them superficially, there honestly isn’t too much more to them. We all know people like that, and it isn’t a shortcoming of the author, since all of the other characters are so detailed and thoroughly created. What it really comes down to is that the McTavish family seems to be vapid and horrible. It does allow the author to throw in a little shoutout to The Villa with:

“The unassuming heiress is wearing jeans with a vintage T-shirt showcasing the cover of Lara Larchmont’s Aestas album…”

Overall, this was a fantastic story, and the perfect buddy read. Hawkins keeps things slow at first, but gradually drops little twists that has the reader wondering what is actually going on. And every time I thought I had something figured out, another twist got thrown into the works and I realized I didn’t know what was going on at all. But I started to put things together little by little, and there was one plot twist that I saw coming, but a big one that I didn’t see coming at all, even if my buddy predicted it and didn’t tell me. As usual, a Hawkins book is always a safe bet for an exciting and interesting read.

People who have sat around with me while I’m reading, especially when there’s a surprising reveal, a shocking plot twist, or an unexpected event often look up in alarm when I gasp audibly. The gasp factor is directly related to the number of times I audibly gasp during a reading, and there isn’t an upper limit.

Gasp Factor: 11

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