Overall I enjoyed this book. There was back and forth between two time periods and a lot of characters to keep track of and a twist of an ending.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for the eARC for an honest review.

This is the perfect spooky season read. It was told in dual POVs between different time periods. It was easily to follow, I know some people are turned off by that. There were a lot of twists and turns but despite being able to guess some it was an enjoyable read. Definitely recommend!

Book: The Villa
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Pub Date: January 3, 2023

I can’t believe I couldn’t finish this book! But I couldn’t! It got so many good reviews but the more I read the more bored I got. Too many narratives to follow and I completely lost my way when it went back to 1974. Just not the book for me at all.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this sneak peak! Publication date is January 3, 2023

This book drew me in from the beginning. It goes back to the past (1974-1980ish) to Mari and the present to Emily. There is some thriller-crime along with friendships and sisterhood. I found the story interesting all the way through, especially towards the end. If you’re a fan of thriller-crime books, this is a good one.

I absolutely loved this! It has the perfect slightly creepy atmosphere throughout the book and I love that it just keeps getting darker.

Chess and Emily are best friends. Now in their 30s Chess is a bestselling self help guru and Emily is a cozy mystery author who's going through a divorce. Out of the blue Emily receives an invitation from Chess to spend the summer with her at an Italian villa. It turns out this villa was the scene of a gruesome murder in the 1970s involving a rockstar and two young women who will go on to become famous for the work they create during their time at the villa. In the 70s Mari and her stepsister, Lara, go to the villa with Mari's lover to spend the summer with a rockstar and his friend.

This is told in a dual timeline that flips between the present and the group that's at the villa in 1970s before the murder happens. I am such a sucker for a dual timeline and this one was great. I loved that there was so much background and the two stories were perfectly woven together. The past bleeds into the present in the book and things get creepier as Emily discovers more about the house and learns secrets about her friendship with Chess. The setting was just right and I enjoyed the descriptions of the Italian town the novel is set in. All the characters were entertaining and I was completely pulled in to the story of the cursed villa. I don't want to give too much away but this was a great thriller and my favourite book by Rachel Hawkins (aka Erin Sterling) so far!!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Overall, I am giving this 3 out of 5 stars. It was good but not amazing if that makes sense. I enjoyed the dual timelines and stories of The Villa but at some points it was confusing as to what was happening and when or if it was real or in their writings….which I guess was the point but I don’t know if it came across to the reader the way the author intended.

The Villa was a fantastic dark and twisty read. I was drawn in from the second I picked it up. It was so well written and the plot twists kept me guessing the whole time which is always great, I cant recommend this enough!

Compulsive read - this is a book you won't be able to put down. Loved the weaving of two stories of past and present.

Rachel Hawkins fans will be excited to read her latest novel. Set in an Italian villa, the story unwinds from a present day perspective with some every similarities to a rock n roll murder that occurred in the same villa back in the 1970s.

I enjoyed the switch between time and narrative perspectives but struggled with Emily the main character who was utterly unlikable for me.
I received this NetGalley advanced book copy for free in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley & St Martins Press for allowing me to provide this review.

DNF@42%. I don't think this is necessarily a bad book, I am just not interested in continuing. Not much has happened to this point. It has all been stage setting, I guess. I find I have no interest in picking it up when I put it down.

A fantastic slow burn gothic style thriller with a unique story line. In many ways it reminded me of the thriller version of Daisy Jones & the Six. The Mary Shelley influence gave the book its own unique voice though. I read this book in an entire day while on the beach and regret nothing. (Spooky books and the beach needs to be a new trend. Just saying.) The ending came full circle and made me wonder what the MC will do to escape the web she trapped herself in.

This book is great if you like duel timelines, slow building intensity, books based on rock n' roll history, the life of Mary Shelley.

The Villa is a novel that has two main POVs each in their own respective timelines. An experience in an Italian villa in the summer of 1974 changes the lives of Mari and the group of musicians she's staying with. This summer excursion left one dead and the lives of the others forever changed.
In the present, Emily, a struggling author finds herself in the same villa with her toxic best friend many years later with a book written by Mari. What happens next will leave you speechless as the past and present collide and Emily finds that her life won't ever be the same.

I honestly couldn't put this book down!
Normally I struggle with multiple timelines but not with this story! I was drawn into the plot of both timelines and found myself dying to figure out how the two were connected. The convergence of the two timelines was one of the most unique that I've ever read.

The decisions that Mari and Emily made were enough to annoy me at times but not enough to negatively impact my opinion of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for sending me an e-copy to review! The opinions of the Villa are all my own works.

The Villa is perfect for crime and thriller fans who like a story that is meta—a book about a book about a diary about a crime, this story is complex and layered. Set in the picturesque Italian village of Orvieto, The Villa is all about a summer that mysteriously ended in tragedy over 40 years ago. As Emily joins her friend Chess at this villa in modern days, she finds herself swept up in the intrigue from all those years ago. Paralleling that intrigue is one of a modern context—what are Chess’ true motives? Why has Emily been feeling sick? What can she learn from the women in that Villa all those years ago about how to face her current divorce?

TW/CW: Murder, infidelity, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, statutory rape, death of a child

REVIEW: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

The Villa is the story of Emily and Chess, best friends from childhood whose lives have taken very different paths. They decide to spend a summer together at an Italian villa that was the scene of a bloody murder in the 70’s. The book goes back and forth between Emily and Chess’s vacation and the circumstances leading to the murder almost fifty years before.

I enjoyed this book! It was a fast read and it kept my attention. I also really liked the way it started bright and happy and then little by little darkened until the ending which I really didn’t see coming until just a few pages before! I don’t think that this book was quite as engaging and exciting as Reckless Girls, but it was still a really good book and a lot of fun. I recommend this book to fans of Rachel Hawkins and to fans of atmospheric thrillers!

How can you ever be sure you know someone?

Emily Sheridan doesn’t know where to start after her picture perfect life turns upside down. Her best friend, Chess Chandler, seems to come back into her life when she needs her most.

When Chess whisks her away to a summer in Italy, Emily feels as this is just what she needs. While Emily uncovers the story of Mari and Lara, two sisters who previously stayed in the house in 1974, she also uncovers her own truth and learns what she’s capable of.

In the end, you never know who you can trust or what the actual truth is, but you can bet someone’s willing to kill for it.


This was truly a 2-for-1 book! Reading Emily’s story and how it parallels Mari’s gives you two sides of the coin. While some parts were a little predictable, the story itself still kept me turning pages until the end!

Best friends Emily and Chess are spending the summer at an Italian villa to write their respective next novels - but this isn’t just any villa, it’s the site of an infamous tragedy in the 1970s. We are introduced to stepsisters Mari and Lara and learn what went down during the 1974 tragedy alongside the story of Emily and Chess in present day, who are navigating a dicey friendship and diving deeply into the villas history.

This book reminded me a lot of Verity by Colleen Hoover, given the back-and-forth between historical and present day context, and the confusion about what is real (although in this book, the ending is more definitive).

The book is a pretty quick read and I found it decently propulsive. I was a little disappointed by the ending - felt almost like a more exciting ending got snuffed out - but liked this well enough. Solid 3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was fantastic! I loved the back and forth and seeing the story from both time periods. Chess and Emma were both wonderfully flawed characters and I really liked how they came together at the end to take care of a mutual “problem”. The whole Noel/Pierce/Johnnie/Lara/Mari storyline was actually kind of sad and I felt bad for both girls and Noel, especially after finding out what happens with them years later. Overall I would definitely recommend this book as it was very well written and a great story!

Thank you to net galley for the advanced copy. I am usually a big fan of Rachel Hawkins but this title fell short for me. This was not as much a thriller as previous novels. The story is is told from a past and present fashion, with the past the more intriguing of the two. A house remembers is the running theme throughout the telling of both stories. Both stories present strong female relationships in a beautiful setting with a creepy plot. Definitely a slow burning story. I would however recommend the title as a Hawkins fan.

I really enjoyed the villa and the two connecting stories. it’s set in orvieto, italy and follows two POV’s - one in 1974 and one in present day. a terrible murder happened at the house in 1974, which inspired a book and album, and emily and chess become fascinated by what happened and try to find out the truth, while also dealing with their own problems.

this book had such a strong start and i was immediately hooked by it. i really loved the dynamic between emily and chess and learning more about their past and friendship. i also thought mari’s POV in 1974 was interesting, but it was a bit slower in my opinion. parts of the story were predictable, but that didn’t lessen my enjoyment. the ending was a little strange and not exactly was i was expecting, but it fits the story and makes sense!

overall, this is a great mystery thriller and it combines a creepy and interesting plot with complex female friendships and a beautiful setting. i’m giving this one 4 stars and recommend it!

You can't go wrong with the setting of an Italian Villa when it comes to catching readers, but making it a "murder-house" as well is a surefire way to start a book with intrigue.

The Villa was an interesting read with characters that pull you in.
Both the story in the present and the story that took place in the past in the villa were fully developed and equally engaging.