Rachel Hawkins: The Heiress

Rachel Hawkins, shows that the most complicated relationship you have is one with your Family:

The McTavish family name has always had money and power in the small town in North Carolina, and when the heiress Ruby dies and leaves the fortune and Ashby House to her adopted son Camden, everyone is shocked that he wants nothing to do with it. Camden flees and becomes a teacher and wants to forget everything that is associated to the McTavish Name and Ashby House. But as much as Camden wants to forget his relatives and house keep calling, and he wife Jules finally convinces him that it is finally time to go home and confront everything. Everyone has their secrets and all of them seem to buried in Ashby house, it's whether they are buried deep enough to keep them safe that matters.

This is a good domestic suspense book as it is all about family and all the complications that families have. This is especially true when the family has money and influence, and the feeling like they are being left out with the money. This is really seen when Jules and Cam return to the house and the ugliness and pettiness that comes out of Cam's cousins and great Aunt is just appalling. I do not think that there is one nice things said to them while they are there, everything is extremely petty, snide or cruel. You can understand why Camden left and never wanted to return.

There are so many lies secrets, double crosses that you don’t know which voice to trust in this book, as you can tell that they are all holding on to a few secrets along the way. There is quite a bit of family meddling that goes on in both timelines and sometimes that meddling is between people that you did not think that it would occur between.

This was a quick and interesting read once you get into it, but I will say that I found the very beginning a bit slow. It wasn’t until we got the first few chapters from Ruby's POV that I really found myself invested in the book. I found that Ruby's POV was the most interesting one, but not the only one with twists. I was able to figure out Jules' twist but only some of Camden's. Really, I think that if Hawkins did Camden's character a disservice, he could have been interesting and I wish that Hawkins would have had more to him. I do find it interesting that although he wanted nothing to do with Ashby House and the money, yet he never actually got rid of either. Maybe it was just a small act to keep going what Ruby wanted, but it is never really explained why he did decide to still hold on to it.

I enjoyed the letter format that Hawkins used for Ruby's part and it just makes sense overall in the context of the book as it allows for 2 timelines of events but have them interact in a seamless way. I also liked that Jules breaks the fourth wall throughout the book, makes it feel like she is talking directly to you as the reader.

This was a good book and once I was able to get into the story I did enjoy it. If you enjoy a book that has a lot of family meddling and secrets, then you will enjoy this one. Another good book from Hawkins and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

Enjoy!!!!

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