The Heir

Ravenscar #2

by Barbara Taylor Bradford

At the age of thirty-three, Edward Deravenel, having survived harrowing years of betrayal, threats from ruthless enemies, countless lovers, and a war that ravaged his country, is finally king of his company. It’s 1918, an influenza pandemic is sweeping the country, and Edward has a family and a business to protect. He must thread his way between his loyal brother, Richard, and his treacherous middle brother, George, an alcoholic bent on self-destruction . . . but not before he tries to ruin Edward and his good name. Meanwhile, the wrath of his ever-jealous wife, Elizabeth, is reaching a boiling point as suspicions about Edward’s relationships with other women arise.

Politics of inheritance are intense, and different family factions vie for honor over the years. An heir is needed to keep the Deravenel name alive, but tragedy and death remain obstacles at every turn. The choices include a loyal caretaker, a jealous rumormonger, a charming young woman, a sickly boy, and the scion of the family Edward ousted from power years before.

Barbara Taylor Bradford triumphs once again with a novel about passion, treachery, marriage, and family, and the compromises we’re forced to make for power and love.

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction, Historical, Audiobook, Drama, Womens Fiction

467 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Barbara Taylor Bradford was a British-American best-selling novelist. Her debut novel, A Woman of Substance, was published in 1979 and sold over 30 million copies worldwide. She wrote 40 novels, all bestsellers in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Reviews

[Miranda · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Heir, what an interesting read to say the least. Was a good read, just not quite what I expected. I feel as if the author used too much foreshadowing, and in a dramatic way too nearly at the end of every chapter there seemed to be a foreshadowing of something is about to go terribly wrong again for the Deravenel family. Maybe that’s what also kept me hooked, I felt I had to keep reading on to see what would happen. All the death and tragedy sure kept the story interesting and flowing but at a certain point it just became too much. I felt so much of the first half of the book was spent building up characters just for them to wiped out of the story half way through. If the Deravenel family was cursed with bad luck, it was because they brought it among themselves. Clearly no one could ever compare to the great Edward Deravenel, and after he was wipped out of the story I feel as if the story died with him. His brother Richard took over the company, was made out to be quite the good man in the first half when Edward was still alive but after his death his brother magically became a villain and died in the most tragic way of them all possibly. Eventually Edward’s daughter Bess brought up a Heir for the company, the story has seemed to skimp over a lot of Bess and jumped right into her sons life when he was old enough to run the company. Good ole Harry Turner, so at this point it’s not purely Deravenels running the company now it is also the Turners which Bess married into. Let me just say I could not stand Harry Turner, he was made out to be an awful kind of man only concerned about a male Heir being brought up all the way to the end. Like I said no one could even come close to comparing to Edward Deravenel and the story seemed to have died out along with him half way through.

[Heather Spence · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a very long, drawn out book. There was a whole lot of talk, and a lot of plans to do something-but nothing ever happens. When something does happen, it's over in a blink of an eye. You don't even realize most of it has happened until months or even years later! It's like, oh by the way, his wife died. What!? Almost all of the main characters die all at early ages. You never find out why, or who took the children, who killed Richard...anything! For so many pages, I think some questions should be answered. The book is all about the heir but, there's no ending. It's just oh yay, he finally had his heir...Big deal.
And why was the mention of Henry Turner always so ominous? As if he were a threat but not really. So when he becomes head of Derevanel's, everyone is happy about it because he has Derevanel blood! So what was so scary about that? What did he get from it besides power and money? Nothing. Big deal.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't read the review unless you have already read the book or don't mind being "spoiled."


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I love Bradford, and "A Woman of Substance" and its early follow-ups remain some of my favorite books ever.

Yet... with "The Heir" Bradford takes what could have been a 2-3 additional books and condenses plots in ridiculous fashion, killing off characters left and right, and one we don't even know is dead until a mention, "...had died six years before."

Bradford always reads well, but this could have been such a much better book. I don't know whether she was rushed by deadline, tired, or lazy (I hope not the latter), but I was disappointed.

Simply put, it lacked the substance I've grown to expect from her.

[Takia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Horrible rambling, not true to plot of previous book, and jumping from storyline to the other without concluding that plot.

[Shweta Dabgar · Rating 4 out of 5]

First half was good but the second half was a combination of princes in the tower and Henry VIII story , a 90s take on historical incidents

[Janet R. Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story but could have had a better ending.

[Carol Fellenz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A family with money and power. A mistress on the side.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was at the library over the weekend, waiting while my kids took their fill of browsing, checking out the new, post remodel amenities. I grabbed a book called The Heir off a nearby table to pass the time. Within the first two chapters, I knew that the dialogue was stilted and awkward. I knew the characters were poorly developed. I also knew that the author was attempting to create a modern day version of the story of Henry VIII with an enormous prologue. I was amused and thought I'd ride the doomed train for a while. The book was abysmally boring and stilted. The author had so many characters going, she couldn't keep track of them, nor did she know her history well enough to make a viable attempt at her story. She also felt like she had to constantly explain things that should have been obvious from context and dialogue. Another hilarious issue was her habit of killing off supporting characters, but not mentioning it until later. For example: "When his wife died two years ago..." or "their son had died of appendicitis a year to the day after the death of his brother." (By the way, the character whose brother died was not the one who died of appendicitis, that was his uncle, which leads us to the grammatical issues, but that's for another day) leaving the reader stymied as to what happened to the thread that was begun regarding the dead character. Also, I really got a kick out of the foreshadowing. I can't tell you how many times a chapter would end with an obvious construct like "she was to regret deeply later that she hadn't been more forceful with her objections." Or, "Trouble was coming that would change their lives forever..." Then 150 pages on, nothing had happened. Thankfully the book ended with the death of Anne and the advent of Jane. Mercifully, we didn't have to endure all 8 potential wives. The book had something like 375 pages detailing the "history" leading up to Henry and then we dealt with him, minus the gout, in about 80 pages. The end.

[Lindsay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Quite possibly one of the worst books I've ever read. I use the term "read" loosely, as I could not, under penalty of death, bring myself to finish this crap-fest. This book tries to follow the DeRavenel dynasty through three generations, which goes more briskly than expected because the DeRavenels are killed off at a pace that far outstrips actual 1920-1940 life expectancy. We're talking more corpses than the Killing Fields, and I didn't give a damn about one of them.

The patriarch is praised every paragraph for some fine viture he possesses - unless it's ill-done irony, I can't imagine why this praise is poured on in the face of his rampant whoring, drinking, snooping, and passive-aggressive dealings with his siblings. Christ, I was so ready for that tool to die I could have offed him myself. This was a theme of the book: all men are above reproach, and all women are bitchy, conniving sluts.

And if I had a penny for every time a male character reiterated the absolute traffic-stopping imperative of begetting a male heir, I'd have gotten back the money I didn't spend on this book, which is the least Barbara Taylor Bradford could do.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a very long story about the Dravenals (I don't think I spelled it right)family. How they became rich and they have to have a male heir to continue on the family business. Well, the father changed history saying if his two sons cannot claim the business the eldest daughter will. Something happends to the two sons and she had to marry a man that she doesn't know. Well, her son needs an heir, but there is no son only daughters. He's really worried about giving the business to a daughter. Which I don't understand why. The way he treats his daughters is very unfather like. He doesn't care about them.
It kept me interested and wanting to know what happends in the next generation.

[Jen Peters · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is so long and drawn out and keeps trying to put you on the edge of your seat by alluding to great disasters and deaths ahead, but when those finally come they are glossed over and talked about as in the past. Main characters are set up, then "upon mian character #2's death 17 years ago....". Really, you can't set up their death and explain it and how it affects the other characters? They go from alive on one page to 17 years dead on the next. No mystery to this book other than how someone can get through the whole thing and feel they didn't waste hours and hours of their life.

[Simone · Rating 1 out of 5]

AWFUL!!! three quarters of the book is all about some looming disaster, then bing bang boom it happens, and then its 50 years later and nothing is resolved!

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book of this series was a good read, and it was entertaining for sure.

Edward is the king of his company and he seems to be dealing with all in his life modestly well. Then tragedy seems to afflict him and there are giant changes everywhere he looks whether to his marriage, siblings, company, etc...

I was reading this book, and then about 200 pages in it hit me. This series is a parallel to King Edward IV reign in 1464. And his wife Elizabeth Woodville. Everything is pretty much the same down to the names, well first names. Even how they die. So, if you know any British history from that time period or know about the War of Roses, then you know how and when all will happen even though this time frame is in the 1900's. Once I figured that out, I kinda knew what would happen so I wasn't surprised in the least at the ending. Obviously the third book will be about Elizabeth running the company (aka queen Elizabeth the 1st) and how she has hints of romance. I do wish there was a bigger story on Henry & Elizabeth. There isn't much about their connection and then we jump ahead to Henry (Henry VIII) and his affair with Anne and then marriage to her at the end.

I love this time period, so I will read the third book but I do wish some things were different. Unless that was what she was going for. ?

[Ilene Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is about the Deravenal dynasty and starts in 1918 where Edward Deravenal runs the family's worldwide trading company along with his brothers George and Richard. George continually conspires to undermine Edward, while Richard is loyal. All of the brothers are obsessed with having an heir, preferably a male son. The book describes the varied and complicated relationships these men have with family members, friends and acquaintances, including the important roles of their mistresses. The story continues to 1975 and covers the lives of their descendants. The book is epic in nature and is a page turner, but for me has a puzzling end.

[Bethany · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those books that serves as a good pallet cleanser or to fill the time and you never read again. I rather enjoyed the first two thirds but the last chunk seemed quite rushed and sloppily thrown together. Much of the deaths and time changes were done abruptly and threw me off; I had to go back to see if I had missed something...I didn't. Sadly, it seems like more time was taken on place setting, fashion, and food rather than character development. My review may make it seem like I hated this book, which I didn't. I actually really like the premise of telling Tudor history this way; I just think it could have been so much better

[Jacque · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book. It covers from 1918 to 1974 covered in 4 parts of the book. Not every occurrence gets explained or explained in detail.
There were many suggestions for murder, blackmail, etc. George's death at the vineyard, Edward's 1st marriage, Richards murder - who killed him & why.
It gives you incite to the different generations of Deravenal and their lives and ambitions.

I almost DNF over the first few chapters but perservered and got immersed into their lives.
I want to read it a 2nd time and I think I'll enderstand it a bit better.

[Michelle Hammond · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well written book splashed with a good bit of historical reference.You could almost believe the characters were real not fictional. i wish i'd read the first book having purchased this not realising it was part 2 of 3. I will be hoping to find parts 1 & 3. I read A Woman Of Substance back in my early teens but found further attempts to read Barbara difficult. This book was easy & I couldn't put it down.

[Arlene Welch · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've never read such a book with so many deaths, a lot of them very convienient for the characters to continue their too perfect lives!
This is a rambling story of wealthy families and businesses that make perfect deals and lots of money. Storylines are dropped unfinished by jumping ahead in time or they might be mentioned in a line stating they had died. No explanations.
I kept reading hoping something might redeem the book, alas this was not to be.

[Pat Raab · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for storyline, but a frustratingly disappointing ending.
Unexplained, unresolved deaths, disappearances, and probably multiple murders.
Unexpected to skip almost 50 years forward with just a few lines about the fate of numerous individuals about whom a lot more could have been said - and the sole person left standing is a contemptible individual with a one-track mind.

[Pat Jorgenson Waterchilde · Rating 3 out of 5]

A soap opera in print. The story was alright and I always enjoy the author's twists and turns but there wasn't alot of substance and it moved very quickly throughout the characters lives. Entertaining is the only word I would use.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first, I thought it dull then I realized it is a clever redo of the story of War of the Roses. Instead of family infighting for the throne of England, this is for the control of a huge global company. Even the characters have the same first names and similar last names.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy Barbara Taylor Bradford books and this was no exception and I intend to finish the trilogy. The book was a little slow reading and left a few mysteries to be solved. Or maybe not. On to the next book.

[Linda Yelton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sequel to The Ravenscar Dynasty. I enjoyed the first book and half of this one. Then, it was a whirlwind of other characters that didn’t get enough insight into each character to both grab the reader or care about the character. One more in the series to read and I hope it is better than this one.

[Mary Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the plot of this book, however there were so many characters in the first few chapters, I had to really work at keeping track of them.

[Crystal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful, awful book. So very boring. I just could not finish it. Which says a lot!

[Daureen Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't realize this was a series. It was good but the many years passed from chapter to chapter.

[Karley · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a horrible book. And to think this is the second book in a set of three? I don't know why my mother gave it to me to read, it dissolves into the history of the Tudors. Name for name. AWFUL

[Alice Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jumps in time

Good book except I did not like the big jumps in time. Also, I did not like explanations not given for some events like the boy’s disappearance.

[Hannnah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I dnf’d simple because I think perhaps the books was different to what I thought and the speed wasn’t for me. But it was well written.

[C L Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read but tries to cover alot of stories and timelines