The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
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.
For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #25: Includes a red herring)
The Reason
This book caught my attention last year but I didn’t get around to reading it. I saw that the author has a new book coming out this year, so I thought I should probably read this one first.
The Quotes
“I hope you never have to watch the one person you love most in the world, the person who loves you just as fiercely in return, lose that love, day by day, bit by bit, a steady draining away until there’s nothing left. Until they’re just a person who sleeps inches from you at night, and eats meals across a table from you, and reads books at your side, even smiles at you or laughs with you, but whose heart has shut you out forever.”
“There should be some kind of warning when your life is about to change forever.”
“The truth isn’t some finite thing, it’s what we all choose to believe.”
“I had just turned forty, an interesting point in a woman’s life, the age at which she finally begins to feel like she might have finally become the person she was meant to be.”
The Narrator(s)
Dan Bittner. Eliza Foss. John Pirhalla. Patti Murin. They all did a very good job. The storytelling felt seamless and very natural. I loved it.
My Thoughts
The story itself was pretty good, but I think what I loved most about it was the storytelling style. I love the way things were revealed, the way the twists were doled out, the way we are able to guess at some things and be surprised at others. The funny thing is I’m usually a character-driven reader, but I don’t think I like any of the characters in the story very much at all. However, I did find them all very interesting, and I love hating some of them. I was very much invested in each of their individual stories as well as their interlocking stories, and even though I found Cam boring and Jules suspicious, I was still rooting for them somehow. I enjoyed this story very much and I’m definitely looking forward to other books by the author.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Sometimes characters just being interesting is enough! I latch on to characters more than anything too, but definitely feel like there are some books where I didn’t like them much as people, but I still wanted to know what happened to them.