To be fair, I read this book a few months before finally writing this review so some of my memories of the book are blurry. I do remember really enjoying this book and mix between the present and past. I am a big Rachel Hawkins fan so I will always support her books.

Houses remember.
That is how The Villa opens. Once you read about Villa Aestas, you’ll have no doubts!

Emily and Chess’s lifelong friendship is feeling the strain of their stressful and diverging lives. Fresh from a divorce, Emily jumps at the chance for an Italian getaway with her friend. Six weeks in the a high-end villa, with nothing to do but sip wine, write the next book in her series, and spend quality time with her best friend is exactly what Emily needs. Even the villa’s notorious history doesn’t dissuade them.

In 1974, Villa Aestas—formerly known as Villa Rosato—was the sight of a gruesome murder. Two of the surviving members of that event, sisters, went on to write one of the most epic horror novels and write and perform a beloved album.

At the Villa, Emily finds herself more and more intrigued by the murder and searches the house for clues. But as she gets closer to the mystery, the strain between Emily and Chess grows more intense and before the summer is over, another murder may take place.

The Villa is told in alternating POV, going from Emily’s experience and that of Mari, one of the sisters from the 1970’s.

Throughout the book are sections of Lilith Rising, the horror novel inspired by that early murder, quotes from biographies about the event, and lyrics from the album that came about after that murderous summer.

The Villa is definitely a slow-building thriller. It’s dark, and the intensity of the relationships slowly grab hold of you as you read until you can actually feel the tension between the characters.
The characters aren’t necessarily sympathetic, but I could definitely appreciate why they made decisions they did and how they ended up in the relationships they were in. Let’s face it, life is messy and Hawkins didn’t try to create perfect characters. They are real, they’re raw, they’re driven by impulse, and they are most definitely their own worst enemies…well, except in a few instances!

The Villa is a very engaging read, very dark and ominous, and although it may be controversial…I loved the ending!

The Villa will be available 1/23/23.

*I received a copy of The Villa from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Emily and Chess are childhood friends spending the summer at an Italian Villa that (by the way) was also the scene of a murder almost 50 years ago. Emily is a struggling writer whose life is falling apart while Chess has found massive success. Emily becomes fascinated by the story behind the murder and begins writing again, while secrets of Emily and Chess's friendship is revealed.
I LOVED this book. I also loved Reckless Girls by Hawkins and just like that book I was could not put this one down. The story alternates between Emily's viewpoint and Mari's, who was staying at the Villa when the murders happened. There is enough mystery and suspense to keep you guessing without too much gore. The dynamics of toxic friendships are well explored. Look for this book in January 2023!
Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book

I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I honestly don't know what to write for this review. I did not love this book and felt like it was lacking something. This was my first time reading a book by Rachel Hawkins and some of her other books seemed interesting too but I might but rethinking that now.

Both timelines were very slow moving and it felt like nothing truly happened until the very end. What happens at the end wasn't even thrilling to me.

I've seen in other reviews that the author was inspired by the Manson murders for this novel and if that's something that you are interested in then look elsewhere. This book does not evoke that at all.

While a slow start for me, I quickly got into the Villa. With alternating timelines but similar tragedies, there were parts of this novel that kept me guessing. Every time I thought I knew what was happening I was quickly mistaken. This book will keep you guessing.

As Emily struggles with health and marital issues, she accepts an invitation from her best friend, Chess to spend the summer at a villa near Orvieto, Italy. Both women are writers and hope to spend the summer making progress on their next books. Emily soon becomes intrigued with the villa’s dark history as the site of a brutal murder 50 years ago involving a handful of musicians and and Mari, the girlfriend of one of the musicians who later becomes the famous writer of a horror novel. The story is told in two timelines with Emily narrating the current events and Mari revealing what happened 50 years before.
Wow, wow, wow! What a great thriller! The two timelines were done perfectly with the intrigue in both stories like magic drawing the reader in. I loved the aspect of Emily (and myself as the reader) not knowing if Chess could be trusted and going further and further down that rabbit hole. And Mari’s story was equally intriguing with the whole 1970s rock musician lifestyle/free love theme complicating relationships that leads to a mysterious murder. The way the author brings both stories together was genius - so well written and creative! The surprises and twists were also perfect! It seems like some recent thrillers I have read are over the top with twists but this book had just the right amount of these surprises. I loved it - best Rachel Hawkins book yet!
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader copy! Can’t wait for Rachel Hawkin’s next masterpiece!

5 stars / This review will be posted on goodreads.com today.


Rachel Hawkins writes some amazing books. I don’t think I’ve ever been disappointed. The Villa is no different.

Emily McCrae Sheridan is going through a rough patch. She’s got the 10th book in her cozy mystery series due at the editor. Her husband left her, because he hadn’t bargained for what he got. And she’s finally appearing to be out of a stretch of a mysterious illness that no doctors could diagnose.

Meanwhile Emily’s lifelong bestie Chess has everything going her way. A self-help guru, she’s written multiple bestsellers and everyone wants a piece of her. So when Chess invites Emily to spend the summer at a villa in Italy, there’s not much to consider. A change of scenery could be good for Emily, and she hasn’t really ever been able to say no to Chess anyway.

But this isn’t just any villa. It’s the former Villa Rosato, now known as Villa Aestas. Back in the 70s it was considered cursed. A semi-famous rockstar was murdered there. His young mistress wrote her groundbreaking novel there. And the mistress’s sister wrote an album that has gone down in music history being compared to Carly Simon and Carole King.

Once there, Emily gets wrapped up in the mystery of what really happened the summer of 1974. It is going to be inspirational for her writing and her future.

Somewhat suspenseful and a lot of angsty women make this book one to remember. I truly did enjoy every page. Emily’s and Chess’s summer at the villa interspersed with the writings of Mari from her time there in the 1970s. It’s a great tale of women, love, power, success, and marriage. Absolutely recommend this one.

I was so excited to get my hands on this book because I’ve actually been to and loved Orvieto, Italy. The cover drew me in and my past experience with this author’s writing led me to believe I’d enjoy this one, too.

While the focus on professional jealousy and friendship between Chess Chandler and Emily Sheridan kept me engaged initially, my disappointment at Villa Aestas not being given a starring role, my dislike of the secondary plot and the language used, overwhelmed my interest.

Perhaps if I’d known more about the allusions to Frankenstein, I might have been more engaged. Unfortunately, (1) I don’t know anything about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (2) I don’t engage well with stories within stories and (3) I take a hard pass on stories with sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll! With the opening line “Houses remember,” I was hoping the Villa wasn’t just a location but more a character in the story. It had the potential to be a great mystery or a gothic tale; unfortunately, it was more a story about friendship, wrapped up with feminism and presented with a huge bow to cover the lacklustre ending.

Please keep in mind that this is merely my disappointment at the book not being what I expected, not the quality of the author’s writing. There are many gushing reviews and I’m definitely an outlier. It was a good reminder for me to keep my expectations in check. Regardless, it won’t keep me from trying Hawkins’ next book!

I was gifted this copy by St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

This author is growing on me, she writes nice and easy thrillers. Nothing too shocking, nothing too scandalous. Just easy binge-able thrillers.

The Villa has more of that same readability: I got hooked onto the present day story pretty quickly. The book within a book aspect had this one switching back-and-forth from present time to past time, giving whole chapters of a book written at the Villa in the 1970s. Sometimes when authors do that, I favor one timeline over the other. That ended up being the case with this one, the present day chapters were much more entertaining to me. I definitely appreciate how the things that happened in the past affected what was happening in the present, but I didn’t really enjoy reading the past chapters.

However, I really did like the final twists at the end and love the women supporting women aspect! The Goodreads blurb for this one says it’s based on the band Fleetwood Mac and the Manson killings, so I’m going to have to do some research into that because I don’t know much about it.

I received a free copy from the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for this Arc!!!

I am freaking out! This was incredible!!!! If you haven't read a Rachel Hawkins book yet then this is the one! This is the one to read because it absolutely hooked me and had me on edge from start to finish. Not only that but the story itself was so creative and unique, just mind blown 🤯 Soooo good!

There is Emily, the main character. Author of a series of cozy mysteries but going through a harrowing divorce (her ex-husband is horrible). She goes to Italy and Villa Aestas to spend the summer there with her best friend, Chess. But is Chess really a friend?

And, the mystery of this Villa is intense. Emily starts digging up all these secrets about a real tragedy that happened in the 70's. I got to see another story unfold and how it affects Emily and Chess.

But what is the real ending? There is so much manipulation and greed from all the characters, past and present, that the true outcome becomes fuzzy.

This is the best thriller I've read in a long time and I highly recommend it!

Out January 3, 2023!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

4 solid stars from me. I've only read The Wife Upstairs and The Ex Hex by this author. I enjoyed both but this book was a notch above.

I loved the Gothic 70s vibe of Mari's charcater and what she and her stepsister, Lara, lives were like from such a young age.

The present characters Em and Jess were fun as well although I kept going back and forth on what was going to happen between them. I liked the ending leaving the readers with a mysterious wondering of what really happened on July 29, 1974 and then again on July 29, 2023.

Emily and Chess were best friends growing up. Now in their 30's the find things not as easy as they once were. A bit of jealousy and envy, combined with them both in the publishing industry creates a vibe not meant for harmony! They agree to go on a writing holiday together in Italy with the hopes to smooth the wrinkles in their relationship and take in the sights. They find the villa they are staying in has a history of its own - the summer of 1974 when sex, drugs, rock & roll and murder all happened in this same spot. The story kept me interested for sure to find out how things all ended. No disappointment there!

I absolutely loved this book, it may be my favorite of Rachel Hawkins yet! I thought the premise was clever, the uncovering of the real story of the "murder house" Italian villa and the exploration of the experiences of present day writers Emily and Chess with the two women who spent the summer of 1974 in the same villa. This book is part psychological thriller, part feminist manifesto, part exploration of the arts and what it takes to create, and what the cost of that art can be. It was smart, quick, and interesting. As always, the voice of Julia Whelan is warm honey to my ears.

3.5/5 stars rounded up to 4 for this review

This book is “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,” and I could see some of this inspo reflected in the story.

The Villa is a thriller that incorporates two timelines and builds a mystery surrounding complex friendships. It has a story within a story, which I thought was fun.

It begins when two childhood friends, both authors, reconnect to go on a writing retreat to Italy. They stay at a beautiful Villa with a dark past that can’t stay buried, and eventually secrets between the women come to light.

I always love how current and witty Rachel Hawkins writing is, and the tension between the friend groups was interesting to read.

However, the end felt anticlimactic and there seemed to be plot hole issues, as if the ending was rushed to wrap it all up and it finished a bit flat for me. That won’t stop me from picking up her future reads, though. Fans of authors like Ruth Ware and Sally Hepworth will enjoy this one.

If you like stories about frenemies and slowly unraveling mysteries, then give it a read.

While I enjoyed Rachel Hawkins’ previous books, I feel with The Villa she’s finally reached the potential her previous books hinted at. The Villa was a fantastic gothic-suspense novel that grabbed my attention from the first line and left me thinking about it after the final page.

I love books about authors and the Villa has several. In the present timeline, Emily and her best friend Chess retreat to Villa Aestas for a change of scenery and to write their next books. Emily becomes fascinated by the brutal murder that occurred at the villa in 1974 and the work of gothic horror that seemed to be inspired by those events. The story toggles nicely between Emily’s story in the present and 1974 where Mari tells the story of the summer she spends at the villa with a rock star, musician, and her ill fated rock star wannabe boyfriend. Both Emily and Mari’s time at the villa unlocks something in them professionally and personally as they set out to reclaim their own narratives.

The Villa is Hawkins’ best work to date and fans of her previous work or gothic suspense should not miss this one!

As someone who is both equally obsessed with Rock ‘n Roll biographies/lifestyles (real and dramatized) and Lord Byron’s crazy parties that led (in part) to Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein, I thought, this is it…this book was made for me.

I was entranced from the get go. The characters are compelling and just unlikeable enough to keep you on your toes but not to the point you don’t care what happens to them. (Minus a certain scumbag ex-husband.) The mix between the story set in the 70s folds nicely into the current narrative without feeling out of place or confusing, which some others sometimes have trouble doing when intertwining multiple storylines/timelines.

Sometimes I was more emotionally invested in what was going on in the past simply because one major component was missing from the current story for me and that was a spooky factor that I thought would be more involved with the Villa. I wasn’t necessarily looking for ghosts or a ghost story, but at least more of an ominous feeling as the “truth” of the past was unfolding.

Overall, though, this was a fantastic read in my opinion. I, personally, wouldn’t trust Chess as far as I could throw her but hey, we all have unconventional, mildly toxic friendships.

Another one bites the dust...

What a let down.

What is going on with my book choices this month?

I had such high hopes for The Villa because I just love her writing and every other book I've read by this author. However, I really just didn't enjoy this one. I honestly don't think I enjoyed anything about it. No that's a lie, I really enjoyed the POV of Mari but my god I hated Chess and Emily. What a toxic friendship, and the ending really just put a cherry on top for this friendship. Toxic, toxic, toxic. If anything, the ending just made me even more mad. One part was ok and I was like yup kinda full circle but it was OK but the rest of it just made me want to yell.

What a story! This is a book that envelops you in the experience. I think it is best to go in not knowing much more than the book blurb. What I will say is that the dual storylines didn’t immediately connect and seemed a bit disjointed at first. But have patience, dear reader.

For the record, I am a huge fan of this author. I enjoy her writing style and I love her creativity. This book is in a higher stratosphere of creativity. Not only are there two timelines woven together but there are excerpts from novels and songs written by characters in the book as well as other created podcasts, interviews, and media. These are all threaded throughout to reveal more of the story because all of the characters in both timelines are deliciously messy and complicated, if not downright suspicious. None come across as reliable and toxic relationships abound.

I am also a fan of 1970’s rock ‘n roll scene fiction. This was executed splendidly. And the setting in the Italian villa was so excellent that I felt I was there. The contemporary timeline also felt natural and worked well.

Here’s the thing, the characters are messy and the situations are messy. The ending is probably going to leave you thinking. It is closure but it is not as neat and tidy as perhaps would be comforting, and that is why I love it.

My one disappointment was that I was expecting more of a gothic suspense vibe based on the publisher’s description. I didn’t find this book completely delivered that for me, although the ‘houses remember’ line is chilling and perfection.

I recommend this book to all my fellow readers who are interested in taking a darkly delicious visit to an Italian villa known as the murder house. My thanks to St. Martin’s Press for the review copy in exchange for my honest review.

Honestly, this was forgettable and a bit predictable once we finally built to what the plot actually was. My least favorite of Hawkins to date.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

4.25

•Childhood friends
•Writers
•Italian villa/murder house
•Dual pov/timelines
•Murder Mystery

Thoughts:
This was my first Rachel Hawkins book, and it didn’t disappoint. I was invested and intrigued right from the beginning. I loved getting two different stories within this book from Mari and Emily’s POV. I loved the murder mystery aspect, trying to figure out what happened in the villa back in the 70s. I also, found both storylines to be so heartbreaking. I didn’t expect either of those plot twists at the end either. My only complaint is I could’ve done without the last chapter (the double plot twist).