Novels No. 37 (LL355)

 

Rachel Hawkins. The Heiress. 2023. Large Print. Thorndike Press/Gale, 2024.

Whoa, a guy who turns his back on a multi-million dollar inheritance? Camden McTavish was an orphan adopted, later in life, by the prominent heiress Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodword Miller Kenmore—to the disapproval (nay, active contempt) of her sister Nelle McTavish and family. Ruby as a three-year-old had been kidnapped for eight months until her father's persistent search reclaimed her. Cam's young life was mostly miserable in the confines of Ashby House, thanks to his bullying relatives, especially after Ruby died, having left her entire estate to him. Finally he left, to live a comparatively modest teacher's existence far away with his loving partner Jules. For ten years Camden ignored occasional family pleas to settle Ruby's complicated estate that allowed Nelle to remain living in Ashby House. Nelle's family is far from poor themselves, but the sad deterioration of the once grand mansion is Camden's legal responsibility. 

Finally, Cam lets cousin Ben persuade him to "come home" for a visit to, among other things, inspect the desperately needed house repairs and take charge of sorting Ruby's far flung assets. Although Ben has mellowed somewhat to interact with Cam, Ben's mother Nelle and sister Libby are as snidely rude as ever. Jules is ecstatic to visit iconic Ashby House, not understanding Cam's deep reluctance to be there, determined to convince him this is their rightful home. Three narrators—Camden, Jules, and Ruby herself from the grave, via secret letters she'd written—gradually reveal links to shocking events of the past. Four marriages later, Ruby contemplates her mistakes and her dark side.

The leading characters are introspective, mostly likeable; the bad guys are never at a loss for flinging vindictive insults or accusations. Sometimes it's hard to tell which side some are on. An entitled family wielding power, reaping unconsidered, wild consequences. A book difficult to put down!

Camden

▪ A multimillionaire plucking me out of poverty, installing me in her palatial home, making me heir to her fortune? (91)

▪ If she knew — if she understood — the real reason why I left, then she would see that it was impossible for us to stay. That there was no Christmas at Ashby House in our future, and that was for the best. (215)

▪ "I own this house, Nelle," I remind her. "Which means that it's Jules's house, too." (217)

▪ The McTavishes hadn't tried to hide their belief that I wasn't one of them. (219)

▪ If I had any doubt that I was completely fucked, Ben opening the 1959 Dom put that to rest. (264)

Jules

▪ The first time I saw pictures of the house online, I'd damn near swooned. The gray stone made the house look elemental somehow, like it had carved itself out of the rock of the mountains around it. (57)

▪ We're so close now, and soon, everything I've done will be worth it. And I will tell him. (64)

▪ The place could be amazing. The place could be ours. (97)

▪ Nelle sniffs. "Well, I'm Eleanor, Nelle for short, but you may call me Mrs. McTavish." (151)

▪ "I know things with you and Ruby were complicated," I say, my voice low and gentle, like I'm talking to a wounded animal. That's what he reminds me of right now, jittery and tense, his eyes haunted. (321)

Ruby

▪ "I'll book the honeymoon now," he said, teasing, and oh, how that thrilled me. (79)

▪ I'd been terrorized for weeks at that point, scared past the point of endurance that night, and I can forgive myself for reacting. (141)

▪ "Aunt Ruby was a Girl Boss before we knew what that was," she tells me. "People forget that it wasn't just her dad's money, or her husbands'. She was super smart." (229)

▪ Had something happened to me in those eight months, something that had turned me into this woman without a heart? (274)

▪ And Daddy. My beloved father, ruthless in business and now, I knew, in everything. (305)

Gail Anderson-Dargatz. The Almost Wife. HarperCollins, 2021.

This was a fast grab between TPL orders, and as soon as I started it, I was rewarded with a flood of TPL books almost all at once. Kira lives with, and is engaged to, wealthy Aaron; she's had their baby Evie, and she's exactly where she wants to be. Aaron was widowed from his first marriage, with a thirteen-year-old daughter, Olive. Now Olive is living with dad and Kira, while Aaron is divorcing his second wife, Madison, who is furiously suing for custody of Olive, her step-daughter. Got all that? ☺

Madison becomes a scary stalker, so Aaron sends Kira with Olive and the baby to Kira's old family cottage on Manitoulin Island. There would be no story if Madison didn't show up there too, intent on kidnapping. Olive suffers between two warring parents, badmouthing each other. Kira—the loving, new-baby mother and sympathetic step-mother—also happens to be a marriage-wrecker and an unfaithful partner, roles she doesn't want to examine closely. Her childhood friend and lover, Nathan, lives on Manitoulin where they resume their liaison every summer ... Aaron or no Aaron. The author is presenting a gritty study of parental alienation even when it's upended to a scarier confrontation. How realistically does Kira project her own childhood damage and guilt onto Olive's situation? Can old fears and dreadful family actions be replaced by a new family? Is someone going to die?

Kira narrates throughout. "Fetch" ‒ a term unfamiliar to me as a noun ‒ is employed to great effect during the hunt in the forest for runaway Olive. It's raw emotions with children as hostages, love gone mad. Superbly written but heart-rending if you have any experience with emotional abandonment.

Bits

▪ We were both orphaned, in our way, forced to live with emotionally stunted parents who weren't capable of real love. (23)

▪ "We are a family. In every way that matters, you are already my wife." (40)

▪ I wouldn't let him lose Olive the way my father had lost me. (45)

▪ She was no longer stalking us alone. (62)

▪ "Why would Olive run off on you like that? Why would she run to Madison?" (70)

▪ "Did you really expect me to wait around while you had someone else's baby?" (95)

▪ "Does Aaron know?" Nathan asked. "What happened in this forest? Did you tell him?" (102)

▪ He'd told this stranger about my father's hunt camp? What had he told her exactly? (131)

▪ She was just a kid, and an anxious one at that. We had to find her. We simply had to find her. (135)

▪ She didn't look just tired, she appeared consumed, like the victims of wildfires who had seen not only their homes, but their communities reduced to ashes in the flames. (167-8)

▪ And then, more firmly, pointing a finger at Madison, "No. You're the one who tried to turn Olive against her father." (174)

▪ "Eventually, of course, the veneer wears thin and he can't hide his true self anymore." (180)