Book Review for The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

 The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

Publication:  January 9, 2024 by St. Martin's Press

Genre:  Mystery Thriller

Taken 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.

 

My Thoughts:  Rachel Hawkins is an author that I know of.  I have read her books before and was excited to jump right in to see what kind of mystery thriller was in my hands.   Ashby House is the perfect setting.  I love the grandeur of the house.  It had a haunting feeling and I do believe that Ruby had never left.   The characters were unique.   They were all spoiled and rotten to each other.  I could tell that they all had secrets and could not wait to see how they would come out. 

 The Heiress is not my favorite Rachel Hawkins book.   There were parts that seemed a little flat as I read it.  I wanted more suspense, more of the not knowing, and more mystery.  While there was a lot of unknown in the story, the telling of the unknown did not have the feel that I expect from a Rachel Hawkins book.  

 The Heiress is an easy book to read.  The story moved along quick enough and my attention was kept.  I will recommend my family drama readers pick up a copy and check it out.  I will be very interested to see how it reads for others.  

Thank you St. Martin's Press for a copy of the book via NetGalley

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Meet Rachel Hawkins (Taken from her website):  Rachel Hawkins was born in Virginia and raised in Alabama. This means she uses words like "y'all" and "fixin'" a lot, and considers anything under 60 degrees to be borderline Arctic. Before deciding to write books about kissing and fire (and sometimes kissing while on fire), Rachel taught high school English for 3 years, and is still capable of teaching you The Canterbury Tales if you're into that kind of thing.

She is married to a geologist, which means that they have incredibly strange dinner conversations ("So today at work, I wrote a chapter where killer fog, like, ATE PEOPLE." "Huh. Well, I was chased by an angry reindeer while trying to map parts of Norway." "Um...okay.")

Rachel also has a little boy whose main hobbies are playing video games, running around in circles, and plotting his Future Intergalactic Take-Over.

When not writing books, Rachel enjoys reading, travelling, and knitting (very terribly.)