The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

 

This was great, kind of a cross between Knives Out and THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO. There's three narrators: Ruby, the infamous patriarch of the McTavish fortune, who survived four unlucky husbands, and kidnapped as a child; Camden, her heir by means of adoption, hated by all of the by-blood McTavishes; and Jules, Camden's wife, a calm and ruthless woman who is determined to see to it that her husband gets everything that he deserves.

I could not put this down and was utterly obsessed with it. When I wasn't reading this book, I was thinking about it, and wondering what would happen next. It's similar to the stories that I like to write, and even references a folktale I've used in one of my own works because it's such a sinister favorite (The Scorpion and the Frog! It's so good), which felt like kismet. I feel like one of the biggest compliments that you can give another author is saying that you wish that you'd written the story-- except that's not true, because with the historical elements, mixed media format, and three distinct and vicious voices of the narrator, I could not have done this book justice the way she did.

I've read and loved THE WIFE UPSTAIRS, because it was a Jane Eyre retelling (another one of my favorite books), but this one was even better. There's more of a romance angle, which I loved, and Camden was hot. It had the same doomed family legacy vibes as Roanoke Girls and Fall of the House of Usher, so if that's your vibe, you'll eat this up. I hope they make it into a Netflix series.

5 out of 5 stars