I received this book as an ARC and this is my review. Wow! I loved this book! It has more twists and turns than a roller coaster! The characters are all flawed - and totally unforgettable. Rachel Hawkins continues her writing of good people doing things and bad people actually doing good things. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy a great psychological thriller with non-stop action and. a HUGE creep factor!

Short synopsis: Childhood best friend Emily and Chess go on a summer trip to The Villa Aestas in Italy. The same home where in 1974 a tragedy took the life of up and coming musician Pierce Sheldon. Emily is determined to find what really happened in 1974.

My thoughts: I had no idea what to expect with this one other than i loved the cover and knew it was about a Villa. This is a fun one to go into somewhat blind, but I got a little confused at the very beginning on the flashbacks, diary entries and fictional published pieces. Once i got a handle on it the plot moved very quickly.

I did enjoy the current timeline somewhat more than the 1974 timelines. I was more anxious to see what happened with Emily and Chess, but loved the separate stories and how they both tied together at the end.

There were a couple things i called early, but definite plot twists I never saw coming. This was such a fun one for October, in love books about houses with history, and this one delivered! Don’t forget… “Houses Remember”

Read if you love:
* Multiple timelines
* Story within a story
* Books about authors
* Houses with secrets
* “True crime”
* Italian Villas

Thank you so much @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the advanced copy of this book. Publication date is set for Jan 3, 2023 so be sure to add it to your New Years reading list!

I always enjoy Rachel Hawkins' thrillers—they're my particular brand of literary catnip. Her THE WOMAN UPSTAIRS was a fun contemporary retelling of JANE EYRE; RECKLESS GIRLS paid homage to AND THEN THERE WERE NONE with a last act feminist twist. As for THE VILLA, it's a really clever pageturner inspired by the famed summer of 1816 at the Villa Diodati, only updating it into 1970s Orvieto with rock stars and writers. If you're at all familiar with the saga of Mary Shelley, Byron, Clare Clairmont et al, you'll have a blast picking out all the references.

This is my second Rachel Hawkins book and I really enjoyed the first “The Wife Upstairs”. Many thanks to Netgally and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Villa started out so very well for me. Women and friendship, summer in a villa in Italy, newly single Emily having time away from everything to regroup and get her life back on track.

Also the tale of Mari and her sister Lara and their rock star friends and lovers staying the the same villa in the ‘70s. Rocker boyfriends drugging and drifting while Mari and Lara get in touch with their talent and creativity.

It all sounds so fascinating and yet it just didn’t work well for me. Didn’t hold
my attention as it shifted between stories and the ending fell flat. However, I’m glad I read it and see that many others really loved it.

Thank you St Martin's for the copy of Rachel Hawkins' The Villa on NetGalley. I really appreciated that idea around women's creativity and being not just muses but being creators themselves, I found that theme really added depth and hooked me in to this layered, very atmospheric story. The theme of Lara and Mari being somewhat overlooked by their male partners was well done... while the men (fell apart?), the women were writing and creating, a kind of gothic like coming of age story in a way.

This is going to be a perfect get you out of the winter blahs book, I read it on two flights this past week and it was just what I wanted as I barely noticed take off and landing because I was so caught up in the story. I admit I found the backstory with Lara and Mari to be more engaging than the present day story with Emily and Chess but I felt that the melding of the two plots came together really well and offered some interesting themes on female/sister relationships. Themes on secrets, fame, and trust and identity/art and creativity were well executed in both timelines and I think book clubs could really have some great chats about the underlying themes and relationships in this story.

mildly spoilery comments:
I would actually love to go back to Emily and Chess again, see what next steps really do unfold for them... The end left me wanting more in a good way. I wanted to quibble with one part of their story, 1-2 points felt rushed given how slowly the Mari/Lara story played out (in a good way, slow burn) but I also felt that was leaving the door open for a really interesting follow up, lean into their story and secrets, and secrets they don't know about, and see what happens.

✨Ｂｏｏｋ Ｒｅｖｉｅｗ✨

The Villa 📚 by @ladyhawkins

🕷🕷🕷🕷
.
.
.
This was my first Rachel Hawkins book (I have some of her others sitting in my #tbrpile) and I'm definitely looking forward to reading her others! I enjoyed how she alternated between two story lines and I enjoyed the characters in each. Add in a good plot twist at the end...I'd definitely recommend! 👻
.
.
.
(Thank you to @stmartinspress for this #arc!)
.
.
.
#bookstack #booklovers #thrillers #spookyszn #alwaysreading #readersofinstagram #bookreview #instareads #goodreads #bookworm #bookaddict #readersofig #bookreviewer #bookaddict #bookstagram #fallreads #netgalley

I have loved Rachel Hawkins other thrillers but this one was a bit of a disappointment. I think there was not enough plot and not enough of a connection between the two timelines. I've seen it described as a slow burn and it was definitely that but the ending wasn't exciting enough to make up for it. I will say it was still very readable, I read it in two sittings. This one was not for me but I will still definitely read her next one!

This book was great ! Love reading books by this author and was very excited to read this one. I love that the story is about two best friends trying to figure what happened in the past and I also like that the book does go back to 70s.

Emily and her best friend Chess travel to Italy for the summer. They stay in a house known for a tragedy. As the summer wraps up they find out more about this tragedy and in turn about themselves. I did not particularly enjoy this book. It took me forever to read (mostly because I read some other books in between). It was a very slow read. I did not enjoy the back forth parallel stories of Emily and Mari. That made it hard to follow. I definitely wouldn’t call this book a thriller. There was nothing really exciting or mysterious about it. I just don’t think this book was my cup of tea.

Wow! I just finished reading this book and was shocked by the ending, but in a good way. I didn't see the twists coming, but I am glad it ended the way it did. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.

There are both likable and unlikable characters, and I found myself disliking Chess and Matt the most.

I don't have any complaints about The Villa and can't wait to see what Rachel Hawkins writes next.

This book is about two authors who go to a villa in Italy to write and renew their friendship. The villa they are visiting happens to be the same one where a murder happened in the 1970s. While there, our main character Emily digs deeper into what happened and discovers that it might not be what it seems.

I'm a bit disappointed with this one.

I'm not sure why, but it felt like it took ages for me to care about the plot and characters (even thought this was a very short book). In the first half, I cared more about the story from the 70s, and in the second half, I cared more about the story in the present.

I also feel like I just wasn't shocked by any of the plot twists, and some of the justifications for them felt a bit silly.

I'm still hopeful that I will enjoy this author's future works, as I really liked her two previous thrillers.

This was not my favorite book by this author. I was interested enough to keep reading, but I found all of the characters unlikeable. I had a hard time connecting with them and their choices. My favorite character was probably Mari, and I liked her twist at the end of the story. I wish we'd gotten more info on Emily's mysterious illness. It felt unresolved to me.

Thanks to Netgalley for the book to review.

felt a bit rushed to me???
story plot, character development, the setting in the villa was great like really good but I felt like I was missing a bit depth to the whole book like craving for more and felt unfinished and rushed type

3.5 stars
Available 1/3/2023.
Thank You to St. Martin's Press for the ARC thru NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review! This was a good read but really only liked Emily in this book. This is not my fave book by this author but I will read her next book!

A gruesome, retro rock-&-roll mystery set against a sunny, idyllic Italian backdrop. The narrative switches back and forth between the 1970s and modern day from a few different perspectives, so these parallel stories can be confusing and not make much sense initially, but I did get the hang of it after a while and eventually figured out what was going on. The story takes us on a journey through mixed media (reminiscent of Taylor Jenkins Reid) to get to the bottom of what truly happened on that night, exploring the various problematic relationships between different characters across timelines.

Personally I wasn't drawn to any particular characters - Chess was annoying throughout as an overly 'perfect' character, so it was hard to fully empathise with Emily's attachment to her as a friend. Also as a British person, some of the small details from Mari's timeline when in the UK weren't believable from a native's perspective - though I'm sure non-British readers wouldn't even notice, and I appreciate that it must be challenging to write characters from another country and culture with 100% accuracy.

I did enjoy the theming of this mystery, perfect for reading coming up to Halloween, and finished it fairly quickly after being compelled to find out how it would end. However I didn't particularly love the characters and wondered if I'd have enjoyed it more if it ended differently. This is the first Rachel Hawkins book I've read and I'd definitely pick up another to check out after hearing such good things about her previous books.

Thank you so much to Rachel Hawkins and St. Martin’s Press for my copy of The Villa. This book was about Emily and Chess, childhood best friends that have grown apart. They are both writers, and when Chess suggests a writing trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance. Their homebase, Villa Aestas, is a beautiful holiday rental with a checkered past. A former rock star, Noel, brought a group of friends there in the 1970’s that ended in a death. This sets in motion a chain of events that leads to the two girls who were there with him, Mari and Lara, becoming artists. Mari wrote one of the most famous horror novels of the time and Lara composed a platinum album, all sparked by a brutal murder. As Emily learns about the villa’s past, she also begins to learn there is more to the story than meets the eye. She thinks there may be clues to the past hidden in the house, and she will stop at nothing to find them.

Thoughts: This book was a fun story inspired by the Manson murders and the summer Percy and Mary Shelley spent at the Lake Geneva castle writing Frankenstein. I liked both the story of Emily in the present and Mari in the past. It was fun how the two stories were tied together and the way the different forms of art brought out so much passion.

The 70s lifestyle of Noel, Pierce, Johnny, Mari, and Lara was fun to read about and a great setting in the villa. I loved the idea of the writing retreat as well, and liked the character of Emily. I didn’t love Chess and really did not like the way the story ended. It wasn’t satisfying at all, and instead of showing women empowerment, it made Emily look sad and like she was giving up. Regardless, the story was a lot of fun and Hawkin’s writing was descriptive and entertaining. 3.5 stars!

I thought this book was really well done and was completely different than Rachel Hawkin's other book!

Things I loved:
1. The two main characters are best friends and authors. I loved the storyline of them spending the summer in a villa to write.
2. The other storyline was the murder that happened at the villa they were staying at in the 70s.
3. The final twist was interesting and nothing I could have guessed.

I wish some parts would have gone deeper/more detail. The end felt rushed to me.

Solid thriller, the pages turned and turned and I haven't been able to read a full novel for about three months now! (Been reading horror anthologies.) Rachel Hawkins is an easy sell -- her previous titles have earned her a wide audience -- and this one won't disappoint. The two tales intertwined (present day and 70s) were both compelling, and the Italian setting is a lot of fun too. I will highly recommend this one to any thrill-seeker!

This book kept me glued until the end. The ending wasn’t what I had hoped for though! I would love to know what happens to Chess and Emily’s friendship in the future!

“Houses Remember.”

In a chilling tale by Rachel Hawkins, The Villa tells the story of Villa Rosato – now Villa Aestas – in Orvieto, Italy. In 1974, Noel, Lara, Pierce, Mari and Johnnie stay for the summer and after one is murdered, all of their lives forever change.

Fast forward to the present day, best friends and authors Emily and Chess rent the Villa for the summer, and while they are hoping they will get to spend more time together and get more writing done, there is an unmistakable tension leading to a sinister outcome.

This is a story in a story following musical artists and literary powerhouses detailing how the setting around you can influence your mind set and your behaviors. “[G]iven the villa’s own legacy of both horror and beauty, I thought I could tie those two ideas together somehow, really dig into the idea of how artists are inspired and influenced.”

Hawkins’ strong writing techniques allow her to switch effortlessly between time periods and narrators to create this slow-burn thrill ride which simultaneously pulls you in to the climax of both stories at the end. Mari’s writing and the creation of Lilith Rising – her novel written after leaving the Villa in 1974, is superb. Emily’s story starts slow, but interest in her and the clue’s left at the villa pick up from feeling almost sorry for her to knowing she is in control of her own decisions. I was equally invested in both stories and found they intertwined perfectly.

My gripes on this novel would be the very long chapters – I wish they were broken up more or had more chapter breaks. Also, I found the relationship between Emily and Chess a little straining/hard to believe why they were still friends – further binding themselves in the future. Plus, I wish the house was more of a character, like the title suggests, than just a setting where maybe bad things happen.

This book starts slowly but give it time . . . it gets there and delivers. I was intrigued and loved the influences that obviously shaped this novel. I give it 3.8 stars rounded to 4 and would recommend it to my friends!

Thank you to NetGalley for this fantastic ARC; all opinions are my own!

“The house that changed the course of her life, all of their lives, forever.”