Not bad. Not brilliant.

The Heiress (2024) by Rachel Hawkins.

I did enjoy the audio book using different readers for different characters.

Ruby is an entertaining monster.

I related most to Jules — trying to make the best of this weird family.

AND the big plot twist revealed at the end was well done.

AND there are other plot twists — all surprising.

… Maybe this is an excellent book, after all. 😀

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.

But in the aftermath of her death, her adopted son, Camden, 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, his uncle’s death pulls Cam and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but the legacy of Ruby is inescapable.

And 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.

Demon Copperhead is a 2022 novel by Barbara Kingsolver, a co-recipient of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Fantastic.

I went back to read her first novel ➙ The Bean Trees (1988)

Fantastic, as well.

A white trash 18-year-old sets out to leave backwoods, Kentucky, and travel west, and finds herself in Oklahoma near Cherokee territory.

As she stops in the town, an Indian woman suddenly approaches, deposits a small child, and leaves without explanation.

Not knowing what else to do, Taylor decides to care for the child.

The two travel to Tucson, Arizona, where she meets Lou Ann, a woman with a young son. Lou Ann had been married; her husband abandoned her and their child.

The novel traces the experiences of Taylor and the child, … named Turtle.

The Bean Trees is a coming-of-age novel.

Barbara Kingsolver uses a nonstandard perspective to share the characters’ adventures and the world they live in. The use of nonwhite mythology, anti-western sentiment, and not using the typical form of male adventure, allowed the author to explore the world where women were powerful and had a voice.

The novel shares negative traumatic experiences of the characters and people they meet, like Native Americans and Guatemalan refugees. …

It’s often assigned in High School classes though I’d not heard of this modern classic.

I downloaded the sequel … good, but not nearly as good IMHO.

Pigs in Heaven

I t continues the story of Taylor Greer and Turtle, her adopted Cherokee daughter.

It highlights the strong relationships between mothers and daughters, with special attention given to the customs, history, and living situation of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. 

I can see why the author wrote this book. No doubt MANY wanted to know what happened to Taylor and her daughter.

In fact, the final resolution of the second book is satisfying.

BUT getting there I found too slow and tedious.

I did enjoy Turtle getting on Oprah !

Taylor’s Mom, Alice, is the character with the most important role.

Author Kyla Stone specializes in apocalyptic and dystopian fiction.

I’d call this series Young Adult — but with plenty of violence. Very little sex.

Any students of literature would find the writing laughable. Simplistic. Good v Evil.

Cliche.

BUT they are never boring.

Here’s my review of the first 3 books in series.

The final battle for Fall Creek looms. Not everyone will make it out alive.

With enemies closing in on every side, the survivors of Fall Creek find themselves facing impossible odds. Do they flee for their lives? Or, do they defend their town and risk losing it all? Some things are worth fighting for, even dying for. This may be their last stand. 

When the country goes dark, ordinary people find themselves facing the end of the world as they know it. With society collapsing before their eyes, they’ll have to risk everything to protect their home and the people they love.

Good marketing. You can probably get the first 3.5 books in the series as audio in your library — but must buy the rest, or listen FREE online on Kyla’s YouTube channel.

Tell No One is a 2001 thriller novel by American writer Harlan Coben.

David and Elizabeth Beck, both 25 years old and married for less than a year, are celebrating the anniversary of their first kiss at a secluded lake when Elizabeth is abducted and later murdered.

Although the killer is found and prosecuted, David never gets over the tragic incident.

On the eighth anniversary of Elizabeth’s death, two long-dead bodies are unearthed at the same lake where the kidnapping occurred.

In addition, David receives a shocking email from an unidentified source that mentions a phrase only David and Elizabeth should know.

Tell No One was adapted for a French film in 2007, well received both critically and commercially.

The It Girl (2022) would seem to be yet another psychological thriller.

But it’s better than most.

A respectable murder mystery that will keep you guessing.

It is too long. Too slow.

And the protagonist is constantly annoying. I regret spending so many hours with that woman.

April Clarke-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.

Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term.

By the end of the year, April was dead.

Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison.

Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent.

As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide…including a murder.