Interesting premise for JoAnn Ross's entry into women's fiction entitled The Inheritance. Conflict photographer, Jackson Swann, orchestrates bringing together his daughters from three different relationships upon his death.Β Tess, a child star turned YA actor, Charlotte, an aspiring designer who focused on her lawyer husband with political aspirations, and Natalie, a Parisian photographer.Β
I enjoyed the first part of the book as the characters developed including Madeleine, Jacksonβs mother, and Gideon, the winemaker for the family winery. Once the characters were established and living in Oregon, the romances involving two of the sisters went from a slow simmer to full-on serious with a sudden, unsatisfying bang.
THE INHERITANCE tried to do too much with flashbacks to the meeting of Madeleine and her husband during WWII. Even though the flashbacks were interesting, the relationships in the present day were rushed without the intensity they needed.Β A great start that fizzled out.
With a dramatic wartime love story woven through, JoAnn Ross's brilliant new novel is a gorgeous generational saga about the rivalry, history and loyalty that bond sisters together
When conflict photographer Jackson Swann dies, he leaves behind a conflict of his own making when his three daughters, each born to a different mother, discover that they’re now responsible for the family’s Oregon vineyard—and for a family they didn’t ask for.
After a successful career as a child TV star, Tess is, for the first time, suffering from a serious identity crisis, and grieving for the absent father she’s resented all her life.
Charlotte, brought up to be a proper Southern wife, gave up her own career to support her husband's political ambitions. On the worst day of her life, she discovers her beloved father has died, she has two sisters she never knew about and her husband has fallen in love with another woman.
Natalie, daughter of Jack’s longtime mistress, has always known about her half sisters, and has dreaded the day when Tess and Charlotte find out she’s the daughter their father kept.
As the sisters reluctantly gather at the vineyard, they’re soon enchanted by the Swann family matriarch and namesake of Maison de Madeleine wines, whose stories of bravery in WWII France and love for a wounded American soldier will reveal the family legacy they've each inherited and change the course of all their lives.
© 2003-2026