Set at a villa in Italy, across a few timelines, The Villa is a slow-burn story highlighting some female relationships that stand the test of time and the true power of a secret. Rachel Hawkins is always good for a fun read, but I enjoyed the departure to something more gothic and dark for this one. The modern timeline was the tale of two best friends who feel disconnected and each needs some time away. They start to dig into the sordid history of the villa, which was the site of some murdery action in the 70s. From the ashes of the deaths came a very spooky horror novel and a bestselling album every feminist has in their music collection.

I liked the interlocking stories and the switch between timelines. For me, this book struggled with the same thing that every book with two timelines struggles with -- one timeline was more interesting than the other. I think this is probably an issue that is nearly impossible to avoid. All in all, this book was fun and interesting and I enjoyed it. Was it groundbreaking? Not really, but it was a fun read and I liked it. It would make a wonderful beach read.

The narration on this one was fabulous. The voice acting really helped to tell the story, and I loved that it was easy to tell the difference between all of the many female voices in this story. The musical interludes between sections were enjoyable as well.

“Houses remember.”
This theme gets interwoven from the past to the present in The Villa by Rachel Hawkins. I so enjoyed the moody setting of Villa Aestas (previously Villa Rosato).in Orvieto, Italy. Why the change in name? Why, due to notorious murder of rockstar Pierce Sheldon in 1974. The how, why, and whodunnit of the murder is juxtaposed through alternate timelines, Mari in the past and Emily in the present day. I raced through this book, so eager to get to the bottom of Pierce’s murder and understand what was truly going on with present day guest Emily uncomfortable relationship with her self-help guru bestie Chess. I adored the atmosphere, the mystery, and the troubled characters, not to mention the ending that had me guessing as well as finally understanding how, “Houses Remember.”

Big thank you to St. Martins Press and the author for the audio copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own!
Thank gosh for audio books! I recently started a new job and audiobooks have been saving me as far as keeping up with my reading and reviews!
This is a duel time line, women empowerment, mystery thriller. This was very much a "good for her" sort of book. And the women's empowerment was a nice element to see in a book.
However, even as someone who doesn't read many thrillers, I unfortunately found this very predictable and therefore a little disappointing. I did appreciate the play on the readers predictions though. It does keep you guessing and going back and forth a little!
I didn't really like the way our main characters treated each other as two people who are suppose to be "best friends." I would have loved to see a good female/ female friendship represented here. I think this book would have been the perfect opportunity for that. That in my opinion was a missed opportunity...
Other than that I don't really know what to say? This wasn't a fantastic book nor was it a terrible book. Just one of those where you have nothing neither necessarily good nor bad to say about it. It was just kind of meh. 🤷🏼‍♀️
The narrator for the audiobook was fantastic though!

This audiobook was wonderfully performed, the writing was enjoyable, but this plot fell a little flat for me. I loved the Villa setting and this book gave me a bit of Daisy & the Six vibes, but in the end, I gave it 4 stars. I’d still recommend it for atmosphere but for plot and reveals, not so much.

Review of The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

I was super excited to get approved for this title and it did not disappoint. I remain a huge fan of this author and she is an auto buy for me. My favorite things about this one was the setting (an Italian Villa!) and the dual timelines. I couldn’t figure out where it was all going but throughly enjoyed the ride.

Quick synopsis: Emily is excited when her long time friend Chess invites her to spend several weeks in an Italian villa. It’s a little bit vacation and a little but work as they are both authors on a deadline. The Villa was the site of a brutal death decades before when some musicians lived there. Emily finds herself intrigued by this and the story unravels in both timelines

Special thanks to MacMillan Audio and Netgalley for the digital version of this book.

I loved this book sooo much I got an ARC and also in Audio. I don't know which one I loved more. I'm stumped. I got the ARC first, then in audio and tried to listen as I went through the pages, but it didn't work for me.

So I wound up listening first on audio, than reading it because I wanted to savor it. I don't want to say, but it ruined the next 2 books for me that weren't up to par.

Highly recommended in either version.

This book was 5/5 and do was the Audiobook. Hawkins pulls you in and keeps you guessing the entire time! The audio really brings the thrills alive in this one. A must listen!!!

The Villa gives us a great gothic atmosphere that really had me dreaming of an Italian vacation. Rachel Hawkins always provides a great escape in a good “popcorn” thriller! We are first introduced to Emily and Chess who are best friends that have lost their connection over the past few years. Chess sets up a summer trip to a villa in Italy for the two of them to reconnect and work on their respective new books. As they are there Emily finds herself digging into the past of Villa Aestas where they are staying. We are then split into timelines of discovering the tragic past of the Villa and how uncovering this impacts the present. I found parts of these split timelines a bit disjointed and I was overwhelming always more drawn to the past timeline. I constantly found myself wanting to get back to that timeline and slowly would get more annoyed by Emily and the decisions she was making.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC of The Villa

At once haunting and addictive, The Villa will leave readers spellbound and positively stunned.

Lauded as one part murder house, one part Fleetwood Mac, loosely inspired by the Manson Murders and the infamous summer Percy and Mary Shelley spent with Lord Byron. Enough said!

Alternating between 1974 and present-day, The Villa by Rachel Hawkins explores the toxic relationships, betrayals, and secrets that reside within the walls of the popular vacation home Villa Aestas in Orvieto, Italy.

Life-long friends Emily and Chess decide to spend the summer in a beautiful villa in Orvieto to reconnect. As the weeks pass, they realize there is a dark side to their relationship. Emily, who is trying to complete her novel while going through a terrible divorce, becomes intrigued by the history of the villa where they’re staying which just so happens to be where musician Pierce Sheldon was brutally murdered back in 1974. As she digs into the events of that fateful summer, Emily discovers there is much more to the story. As Emily uncovers the truth, she also deals with brewing jealousy and betrayal as Chess decides she isn’t going to let Emily get all the credit for solving the mystery surrounding Pierce Sheldon’s death. As Emily and Chess’ relationship starts to fail, we learn it’s not only the villa that holds secrets.

As the novel jumps back in time to 1974, we are introduced to famous rock star Noel Gordon and all the people he has invited to the Villa for a summer of musical creativity. Pierce Sheldon, Johnnie the dealer, Mari Godwick, and her stepsister Lara tag along as they hope to gain some glory by spending time with Noel but what they end up getting isn’t anything they could have prepared themselves for. The turmoil they endure throughout the summer results in Mari’s best-selling novel, Lara’s award-winning album, Pierce’s tragic death, and many hidden secrets.

The novel starts strong with an excerpt from Lilith Rising, the novel Mari Godwick wrote the summer she stayed at the villa in 1974. The line “houses hold onto the bad with the good just as people do” personifies the villa giving it the ability to feel and keep secrets just as humans do while at the same time foreshadowing ominous events to come. This intro sparked my interest but unfortunately, as I got into chapter one and met Emily and Chess, my interest in the story began to wane.

For a while, I enjoyed the 1974 storyline but as Emily began to piece things together, I started gaining more interest in the present-day plot. Unfortunately, I did not care for any of the characters. I found them all quite annoying and overly dramatic which made it hard to get through the book at times. The big secret between Emily and Chess was very predictable so I wasn’t at all surprised when it all came to light later on in the story. Honestly, there wasn’t much of a twist at all anywhere in the story when what I was truly hoping for was that “a-ha” moment.

I did like that the dual timelines did not always alternate chapter for chapter; the 1974 timeline was mainly presented throughout the story as more of a flashback as Emily read through Mari Godwick’s novel and diary which gave the story a nice natural flow. It was also interesting that both timelines were parallels to each other with the villa at the heart of it; even though many years had passed, history at the villa was doomed to repeat itself. Also, Julia Whelan’s narration is always a joy to listen to and the other narrators in the novel also performed well.

Overall, this novel, while somewhat enjoyable, did not hook me and did not spark any emotion in me. However, I did find the ending quite interesting which will allow for a sequel if the author chooses. I would be interested to see in which direction the author would take it.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC to read and review.

As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.

Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album––and ends in Pierce’s brutal murder.

As Emily digs into the villa’s complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce’s murder wasn’t just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred––and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind.

Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge––and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends.

Inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, and the infamous summer Percy and Mary Shelley spent with Lord Byron at a Lake Geneva castle––the birthplace of Frankenstein––The Villa welcomes you into its deadly legacy.

I can't decide who I hate more Chess or the Husband. I enjoyed the dual timeline and getting to know Emily and her own self discovery. I loved the descriptions of this beautiful Villa by Mari, she makes me want to rent a house in the countryside. If you like a good mystery, check out The Villa.

3.5 - I enjoyed this thriller. It didn’t really thrill me tho, but I loved the 1970s part of meri and the villa in the 70s if I could of had a book of just that I would loved it, the chess and Emily part I was honestly just wishing it to be over so I could get back to Meris part or if it told me more about meri part. I thought the writing wasn’t bad, but I really think what lost me was Emily’s part. I would still recommend this to people who enjoy thrillers and i would still read what Rachel writes next!

This was a middle-of-the-road read for me! I enjoyed the story but it felt similar to many other books that have been published in the last few years. I'll still recommend it to patrons who enjoy this genre though!

Rachel Hawkins has done it again for me. She’s blown me out of the water. I started with her Jane Eyre retelling The Wife Upstairs and I thought I knew where her novelist arc was going to go next. I was wrong.

The Villa is a story within a story within a story. One narrative exists in the past and the other in the present with them both at the same setting. There are a number of instances where these narratives could have blended together and become indistinguishable but that never happened. Rachel Hawkins created two distinctly different literary voices that I think I could have separated without any identifying factors. It was that good.

I think The Villa is showing that Rachel Hawkins has found her distinct voice. I was a huge fan of The Wife Upstairs because I love retellings and I think she was able to tailor it to create a new reading experience. This one used explicit literary references to create an entirely new world all her own. When I picked up on references to Mary Shelley and that fateful trip that birthed Frankenstein, it felt like I was part of an inside joke. It felt like Mary Shelley was there showing us what happened next. It was an incredibly cool experience that is unlike anything else I’ve read.

And the narrators. They were incredible. Julia Whelan, Kimberly M. Wetherell, and Shiromi Arserio were a great team.

I’m so excited to see what Rachel Hawkins is going to write next.

**Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Like Rachel Hawkins, "Reckless Girls", this book just didn't really do it for me. It was entertaining enough, but also very predictable to me (this may just be a "me" problem, as I read a lot of crime fiction). The characters felt a little too cliched for my liking and I was a disappointed that the setting, a villa in Italy, never really came to life. All in all, not a bad book by any means, but one that I suspect will not linger very long in my memory either.

I found the book to be a little slow. I enjoyed the dual timeline but didn't think the random addition of the podcast was needed. I did have a little trouble keeping the characters and their relationships straight. I also thought that the book took too many plot twists from other popular books. Overall I enjoyed it but wasn't blown away.

#NetGalley ARC
This one sucked me in and I didn’t want to stop reading. This is not usually my preferred style, but I really liked it!

A story that flashes between the 1970s and present day, The Villa delves into the dark events that occurred in an Italian villa in both time periods. Hawkins explores the depths and limits of friendship that are challenged by love, greed, and power. A multicast narration served this novel well, with different narrators for the past and present, and also for the "informational" bits that helped to tie the story together. The plot moved along well, but I was a little underwhelmed by the ending. If you enjoy this genre, its worth the read/listen. Overall rating is 3.5 stars/5. Thank you @netgalley and @macmillianaudio for an audio galley of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Villa is a fun, easy, compelling romp that will keep you entertained and then surprise you with startling twists. If you're looking for an enjoyable thriller that celebrates the importance of female friendships despite jealousy and competition, this one's for you.

The plot of the novel is a delightfully complicated envelope in an envelope, with the modern-day characters-- bff writer friends staying in an Italian villa for a summer -- looking back on stepsisters, a writer and songwriter, who stayed in the villa in the 1970s -- one of whom is writing a novel of her own about yet another character staying in that same villa. The best part is that this sounds confusing but is actually easy to follow because Rachel Hawkins knows how to juggle.

The narration of the audiobook is a whole production with three actors reading the different parts. (Perhaps this helped with keeping the different stories easily separated.) I am grateful to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an advance copy of the audiobook and to St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC of the ebook. (I preferred the audiobook for this one.) Enjoy!