The Book:
The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
Published January 9, 2024 by St. Martin’s Press
Date read: January 3, 2024
The Characters:
Cam and his wife Jules
Ruby
Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon
This page contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this site.
The Plot (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.
How did The Heiress end?
The Reveal:
Ruby was Dora Darnell. No surprise here, the author pretty much told us early on in the story. She also had indeed murdered all her husbands. Cam says he murdered Ruby, but really he just didn’t do anything to save her after she OD’d.
If you’ve already read my review, you know I lost interest in this book pretty quickly and wasn’t entirely paying attention to all the reveals. I believe the real Ruby went missing and her rich father asked a poor man if he could buy his daughter from him, because she looked a little bit like the original Ruby.
Jules, the MC, was Ruby’s great-niece. The letters in the book are addressed to Jules, not Cam. Jules had tried to blackmail Ruby, but they ended up becoming friends. Ruby was happy that her actual relation was marrying Cam and inheriting the mansion. Cam did know that Ruby was Dora and that Jules was Dora’s great-niece.
The real Ruby was kidnapped by her nanny. The nanny raised her as Lydia Hollingsworth.
The Ending:
Jules set fire to the mansion and Ben and Libby died. I believe Nelle had been suffocated by Ben earlier in the book, but I can’t remember. Jules and Cam ended up together, and Cam was happy to claim his inheritance with Ben, Libby and Nelle out of the picture.
I hope these The Heiress spoilers were helpful.
The Review:
I usually enjoy Rachel Hawkins’ books, but this one just didn’t grab my attention. I think it may have been because I just finished another very similar book that was more interesting to me. I guessed both twists pretty early on, and zoned out through a lot of the complicated family tree explanations. Not a bad book by any means, I just wasn’t in the mood. Since I already knew what happened, I wasn’t too interested in how any of the reveals played out. My favorite part was Ruby’s letters, though. I enjoyed hearing what happened between her and her many husbands!
Follow me on Bloglovin’!
1 Comment