The Villa by Rachel Hawkins was a slow burn for me. I’m a pretty quick reader when I’m fully invested in a story but I had a difficult time immersing into this one. There wasn’t a Big Bang twist like I expected going into this. It was more of a drama with some murder dropped in type feel. I also felt a bit disappointed by the lack of eerie that this Villa was suppose to give off. However, I DO feel this story was unique in it’s own way. I love the concept of the women realizing their talents, even if it came at a cost.

I liked this book more than I liked Reckless Girls, so I would round up to 3.5 stars. I really do feel this book was different than others I have read but I can’t put my finger on how it could have been better. Maybe these weren’t the vibes the author was going for, but a bit more of a creepy, mysterious atmosphere involving the Villa would have elevated this book for me.

Pros: The cover of this book and the title caught my attention—a book set at an Italian villa (with a bit of murder mixed in) sounded like lots of fun! I’ve also enjoyed some of the author’s other books.

Cons: This book was fine. It did not stand out as anything new or exciting. Like so many other books in this genre, it’s told in two timelines and the main character is a writer.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this book.

I could not put this book down! I was very intrigued by both stories and kept guessing — and most of my guesses were very wrong. I highly Recommend this book!

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins
#sixtysecondbookof2022 #arc

This quickly became my favorite book from Hawkins. I haven’t read her romances, just her recent thrillers, and those are an auto read for me now.

Houses remember.

This is quite literally several stories in one. We get the story of two best friends visiting Italy, a group of artists also on a trip, and a young girl who falls in love with a priest. That last story is referenced as a famous horror novel and I would love to read it, if it actually existed, but we only get small passages from it.

The main story is the two best friends. One of them is the absolute worst and I disliked her immediately, but the story is pretty engaging, especially since it’s cut with chapters of the artist group of 1974, which is a not subtle homage to the Mary Shelley trip to Italy with her husband Percy and Lord Byron, you know, the trip that gave us what eventually became Frankenstein? I’ve become sort of obsessed with Shelley so I’m up for anything that references her.

It’s all very cut and dried until you realize that it’s not, and I really loved it. The story was propulsive and I could not stop reading. Except for the first two chapters, I read it in one sitting. I do wish for a tiny bit more detail about how a decision the best friends make at the end was enacted but I loved the subtle digs the book made about true crime podcasters. I listen to those podcasts and I thought it was quite funny.

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the advance copy. (Pub date 1/3/23)

#thevilla #bookswithinbooks #housesremember

Houses remember.
How much of Mari’s Lilith Rising was based in fact? No one will ever know. Or will they?
Readers can draw their own parrallels to compare the past residents of the Villa to Chess and Em.
What’s holding them back from success?

The book was alright. I like the author and have read previous books written by her. This one was kind of anticlimactic. The husband being killed and being tied forever to chess seemed cliche and predictable. The book was slow moving for me and took me awhile to read because I got bored. I did finish it and would rate it 2/5

Thank you so much for the ARC net galley. I wanted to like this book so badly considering the author, but it just fell flat for me. I was annoyed by the MC, and all the twists made me roll my eyes.

Oh man while this book was short, the story packed a punch and it was really good. So this is a definitely a great gothic suspense with the narrative flipping from modern day 2 best friends and authors Chess and Emily reuniting for a summer in Italy at Villa Aestas formally Villa Rosata to help Emily forgot about her divorce and in 1974 with famous musician Noel Gordon, Pierce Sheldon and Step-Sisters Mari and Lara who are there to try to help Noel regain his creative spark. During the summer Mari ends up writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composes a platinum album and the summer ends with Pierces brutal murder. The murder is chalked up to sex, drugs and rock & Roll gone wrong but Emily starts digging into the history of the murders and the Villa. While reading Maris novel she starts realizing that she wrote it about the house and starts looking for her diary since everyone that was there in 1974 are all dead now so she only has Maris account if she can find it. Meanwhile Emily and Chess are not getting along and secrets start coming out that threaten their friendship and the twist at the end I didn’t see coming. This was a really great book, a fast read and it definitely didn’t end how I thought it would. I really enjoyed all the twists in Maris narrative, how toxic her relationship with Pierce and Lara was and how she ended up. All in all, another great book by Rachel Hawkins and can’t wait to read the next one.
Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book in e-book form. All opinions in this review are my own.

This is another home run by this fabulous writer! Told in alternating timelines it moves slowly yet perfectly as the horror builds. I’m going to think twice before I embark on another girls trip after reading this. The depiction of Italy in a gothic-horror way was unsettling and a bit scary but this is a true mystery with an incredible ending. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced readers copy for review.

Wow- I really enjoyed this! Told between dual timelines i was fascinated by what was happening with both Mari and Em! The plot twist were great and took me back to when I enjoyed the wife upstairs. Every time I thought I knew what was going to happen Rachel Hawkins said psych! I would definitely recommend this one! Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This was a slower read than other books by this author. It goes back and forth between current time and the 1970s. The book covers two stories both happening at the same villa. The wrap up was a little quick and seemed to come out of nowhere. 3 out of 5 stars.

What I enjoyed most about this book is that Hawkins has written completely unlikeable characters that have someone garnered my sympathy. This book is full of characters who deeply hurt one another for deeply selfish reasons, and yet, you are rooting for the women in the end.

Makes you really think about what the true "right" path in life is.

Author Rachel Hawkins drew me into this story right away & I love that! Emily & Chess decide to rekindle their decades old childhood friendship with a summer trip to Italy. Emily's life is in a turbulent place & Chess has somehow turned herself into a famous self-help guru. They will decide if they still have anything in common .
Villa Aestas comes complete with food, local wines, amazing views and a swimming pool and even better Chess is paying the bill. Emily ends up delving into to infamous history of the villa. It was the site of a murder involving a group of friends including a rock & roll icon and two sisters in 1974.
Great book to take along on a spring break getaway or to cuddle up with on a cold weekend.

Thanks to NetGalley,Rachel Hawkins & St Martin's Press for the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review

Rachel Hawkins has a gift for creating a beautiful story that engages readers and keeps them on their toes! The Villa, her latest novel follows Emily, a fiction writer and her bff, a non-fiction mega star to Italy where they share a home for the summer. Emily is mid-divorce, filled with writer's block and disappointed about the way her life is going. Meanwhile, Chess seems to be basking in total success. Emily is captivated by the history of their Italian villa, which is filled with mysterious secrets from several decades ago.
The Villa tells the story of the present day and 1974, when five talented artists (in instrument and written words) came to stay together for an extended holiday. When one is violently murdered, the Villa Aestas becomes the house that remembers. Emily’s own writing is fueled by the secrets she discovers and how her own life seems to be mirroring that of the women that previously stayed in the home.
To be fair, I’m not one that loves the idea of a gothic thriller, but The Villa was a spectacular success. I enjoyed the mysterious aspects, the cast of characters and the duel storylines. Author Rachel Hawkins' writing sucked me in from the very beginning. I will absolutely be recommending The Villa for fans across many genres and it’s a thriller that should not be missed in January 2023!

A sincere thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Villa is such a mesmerizing book. I really enjoyed both the story from the past and the new story. I thought it was well thought out, loved the way we got a little bit of both stories each chapter. And I thought all of the twists were so well placed! I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read more from Rachel!

Lifelong besties Emily and Chess are spending the summer in Orvieto, Italy at the gorgeous Villa Aestas. Emily hopes the girls’ trip will give her a chance to reconnect with Chess and jumpstart her stalled writing career. The villa was the scene of a gruesome murder in 1974, and as Emily gets drawn into investigating what really happened, she’s inspired to write about it. But the more Emily discovers, the more it strains her relationship with Chess.

Hawkins uses some of my favorite tropes – dual timelines, multiple narrators, story-within-a-story – to craft this gothic suspense novel. We have Emily’s perspective in present day and Mari’s in the 1970s, plus excerpts from the main character in Mari’s novel, Lilith Rising. The writing is atmospheric and the three storylines are woven together seamlessly, with the past and present timelines cleverly paralleling each other. Although I found some of the plot points predictable, this slow burn suspense is spooky, tense, and engaging.

Fans of Hawkins know she is famous for using literary inspiration – for example, The Wife Upstairs is a modern retelling of Jane Eyre. In The Villa, the 1974 plot of is heavily inspired by the summer that Mary and Percy Shelly spent at Villa Diodati with Lord Byron and Mary’s stepsister Claire Clairmont. The way Hawkins’s fictional characters’ relationships and even their names are reflective of real-life events is ingenious.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me an advance copy of this book.

The only other book by this author I've read is Reckless Girls and I did not like that book. This book started out really strong with a premise that I found intriguing. I definitely enjoyed Mari's story over Emily's. I didn't fully believe the full story ended up being revealed between Emily and Chess. I loved the feminism tones of the second half, but the "Houses remember" opening really fell flat by the end.

The Villa follows childhood friends Emily and Chess as they embark on a trip to the high-end vacation spot Villa Aestas. As Emily begins to dig into the history of this villa, and its famous past occupants, truths about her life and her friendship with Chess start coming to light.
When I saw the blurb mentioned this was inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, and the famous summer Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, I was very intrigued by this one. The novel is short and easy to fly through. I found myself enjoying the past timeline more than the current, as the current timeline did take a little bit of time to grow on me. I found Emily and Chess to be likably unlikeable and the story of their somewhat jealous and contentious relationship very interesting to follow. The mystery of what happened and is happening in both timelines kept me interested from start to finish and I really enjoyed the way it was written and how both POV's were balanced. I can't wait to see what else Rachel Hawkins comes out with in the future!
Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Rachel Hawkins for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars, rounding up. This is a short, captivating thriller set in Orvieto, Italy. Our main characters are Emily and Chess, childhood best friends who have grown into successful authors of very different genres. Emily is having trouble writing after a lengthy illness and separation from her cheating husband, so she and Chess head to a beautiful Italian villa to spend the summer writing and catching up with one another. The thing is, there was a murder in the villa some 40 years before, and houses, after all, remember.

I flew through this book, as I expected to. I would by no means describe it as "gothic" though, so look elsewhere if that's what you're looking for. There are bits from Emily's perspective as well as Mari's, one of the girls at the villa in the 1970s for the murder. I did not find the shifts in perspective confusing, as they are distinctly marked and it's obvious what is happening when. The main twist was not what I expected at all, so in that sense it was successful. Did it blow my mind? No. Was it original? Yes, I think so. Some of the smaller twists were easy to predict, though.

Overall, this was a great fast-paced read that held my interest and felt unique. Thank you to Rachel Hawkins, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

“Houses remember”
The history of the villa still reflects and resonates in the beautiful villa. Old friends meet up again to take a girls’ trip to the villa, Villa Aestas in Orvieto.
One of the girls, Emily, is a writer suffering from writer’s block. She discovers a hidden page from a book Lillith Rising and believes the story really happened in this villa. She begins to dig into the history of the Villa, and secrets are revealed. Emily and Chess begin to clash and this strangely mirrors the past.

The book is inspired by the real life events of a summer weekend when Lord Byron, Percy and Mary Shelly spent time together. It was also inspired by Fleetwood Mac and the Manson family murders.

I really enjoyed this dramatic thriller. I loved the comparison of past and present.