Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by kathywadolowski
The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Rachel Hawkins why do you tease me like this?!
I am CONSISTENTLY taken in by the intriguing-sounding blurbs on the back of her books, and then also pretty consistently disappointed once I've actually read them. :/
"The Heiress" was SO damn boring. It took absolutely forever for the real "action" of the book to get started, and it just seemed to drag on and on with no progress being made. Ruby's letters interspersed with the current-day plot did not help, because they were also extremely boring while adding absolutely nothing to the story. Like, it didn't matter at all to the story whether she killed all her husbands, so why did we have to learn every intricate detail about each relationship?? Murdery Evelyn Hugo this is not.
It was also way way too predictable! You're primed to expect a few ~twists~ with the knowledge you get on the back of the book, so I thought surely the reality must be more complex... but oddly no, you know basically everything and much of it is exactly what you think? There were a few good and actually surprising twists in the end involving Jules, but these moments just did not make up for the absolute slog that was the rest of the book.
To top it off is another consistent complaint I have about Rachel Hawkins books—the characters were all supremely unlikable, and so I found myself not rooting for or wanting to hear from anyone in the multi-POV style. I might have kind of liked Cam but then again not too much.
Yawn. Skip it.
I am CONSISTENTLY taken in by the intriguing-sounding blurbs on the back of her books, and then also pretty consistently disappointed once I've actually read them. :/
"The Heiress" was SO damn boring. It took absolutely forever for the real "action" of the book to get started, and it just seemed to drag on and on with no progress being made. Ruby's letters interspersed with the current-day plot did not help, because they were also extremely boring while adding absolutely nothing to the story. Like, it didn't matter at all to the story whether she killed all her husbands, so why did we have to learn every intricate detail about each relationship?? Murdery Evelyn Hugo this is not.
It was also way way too predictable! You're primed to expect a few ~twists~ with the knowledge you get on the back of the book, so I thought surely the reality must be more complex... but oddly no, you know basically everything and much of it is exactly what you think? There were a few good and actually surprising twists in the end involving Jules, but these moments just did not make up for the absolute slog that was the rest of the book.
To top it off is another consistent complaint I have about Rachel Hawkins books—the characters were all supremely unlikable, and so I found myself not rooting for or wanting to hear from anyone in the multi-POV style. I might have kind of liked Cam but then again not too much.
Yawn. Skip it.