Terms of Inheritance

Author: Michelle Upton 

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers 

Genre: General Fiction, Modern Romance 

Year of release: 2022

Release Date: 30 /11/22

Rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Synopsis 

Four sisters. A vast fortune. And a mother who thinks she knows best …

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

A funny, moving, brilliantly observed story about letting go of the past.

When multi-millionaire Jacki Turner is forced to take stock of her life, she sets her daughters a challenge – to inherit her vast fortune, each must fulfil a task that she believes will push them to become better versions of themselves.

Rose, an exhausted mother of three, must write and publish a children’s picture book. Exercise-hater Mel must run the Gold Coast marathon. Isla, the eldest, must figure out who she is beyond her wealth and status, while commitment-phobic Jess must stay in a relationship for longer than three months. 

For each, Jacki’s terms seem an impossible task, bringing painful wounds to the surface and straining tenuous relationships. But when the sisters are faced with an unexpected turn of events, they must learn how to move forward and forgive, or risk losing it all.

Review 

 The time has come for Jacki Turner to make plans; Rose, Mel, Jess, and Isla, Jacki’s adult daughters are about to inherit their mother’s multi-million-dollar fortune due to the success of her chain of Casino’s and Hotels; but there’s one catch, each Turner daughter must successfully complete a task Jacki believes will help her daughters to become better versions of themselves.

 Should the four women not successfully complete their tasks the inheritance will be gifted to the charity Aussie Animal Rescue but given their individual relationships with their mother gaining the fortune might just be easier said than done. 

I had seen the bright bold cover and just knew I had to uncover the story within at once, I am so glad I did because this novel will stay with me forever. 

 Author Michelle Upton has crafted three-dimensional characters, and each of the sibling’s personalities develop as the novel progresses the four siblings and the individual journey each woman must take really touched this reader Terms of Inheritance wastes no time in sharing its tale.  The plot maintains the fast pace from start to finish.  

Thanks to the complex mother-daughter relationships Michelle Upton has highlighted within the novel I found it made for a well-rounded novel with moments of light, the bond between the sisters was laugh-out-loud funny and touching and it helped during the novel’s periods of darkness, this made for an interesting read, one that has stayed with this reviewer long after the book was closed. 

There are some predictable moments here, but they don’t take away from the book as it felt rather nice finding them given some of the heavier periods.  

If I had to describe Terms of Inheritance, I would say it’s a moving story that will have you appreciating life and its little victories, hence my four-star rating. 

I read this book at the beginning of the year noticing how it pulled at my heartstrings back in January now in mid-March I still find myself thinking about it with much the same feelings, which always manages to put a smile on my face. Michelle Upton’s debut novel already has me eagerly awaiting the writer’s next book of which I am certain there will be many more to come.

 I highly recommend Terms of Inheritance to a mature audience, readers of the General Fiction, and Modern Romance genres won’t be disappointed to add this book to their bookshelf.