4⭐
Genre ~ mystery
Setting ~ Colorado, North Carolina
Publication date ~ January 9, 2024
Est page Count ~ 281 (p+ 17 chapters + letters +e)
Audio length ~ 8 hours 20 minutes
Narrators ~ Dan Bittner, Eliza Foss, John Pirhalla, Patti Murin
POV ~ multiple 1st
Featuring ~ family drama, greed, domestic abuse, secrets, revenge, slow burn
My review:
Cam wants nothing to do with his inheritance or the infamous Ashby House. His wife, Jules, convinces him to visit the estate after another death in the family 10 years later.
Ruby tells us her life story ~ the good, the bad and the ugly ~ through letters. These were my favorite parts of the book.
A juicy plot where secrets are plenty and family drama is high. It was a bit of a slow burn, but it kept me engaged and entertained and had a few nice zingers.
Side note ~ I don’t know if I noticed this more because I listened to it with my daughter, but holy moly there is an abundance of swearing. F bombing to the max.
I was fortunate enough to have both a kindle and an audio copy, both were equally enjoyable.
Narration notes:
Yay for 4! They all did a lovely job. I don’t have any complaints.
*Thanks to the author, St Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the ARC and audio copy. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review*
Add to your never ending TBR ~ goodreads
I’d love to hear your thoughts if you’ve read it.
Book blurb:
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.
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