The Villa was my first novel written By Rachel Hawkins. This book begins with friends Chess and Em reconnecting after some time apart. Both are now successful authors who are in a rut with their writing. Chess (who has seen more success and fame from her writing) has decided to treat Em and her to a vacation at a renowned villa in the Italian country side. This villa is know by many for the brutal murder that happened there several decades ago. Em becomes inspired by this gothic and charming villa and deep dives into the murder that happened there some time ago. She finds haunting and chilling truths not only about the murder from the past but also about her “best friend” Chess. Houses never forget.

Overall, this book was ok. I found it quite predictable and I wasn’t really invested in either timeline. I liked how it flipped between past and present and they had very similar themes that almost ran parallel. I found I knew exactly what was going to happen and I was disappointed when it all proved true. I liked Hawkin’s ability to story tell and I am interested in giving Hawkins another try but this one missed the mark for me. Overall this one gets 3 stars from me- it was readable but I wasn’t as invested in the story as I like to be.

Thank you to Rachel Hawkins, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this advanced copy. This one comes out in January and if you enjoy a light gothic novel, a historical murder or a drama- you’ll probably enjoy this one!

The Villa is a suspenseful mystery that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat. I can always count on Rachel Hawkins for an enjoyable thriller when I need one, that will keep me guessing.

The Villa was definitely a book I could not put down. It was very engaging to read the story of Emily and Chess. The past and present story line was a page turner. I couldn't stop reading because I wanted to know what was going to happen next.

Not my favorite by Ms, Hawkins, but still a suspenseful mystery. The dual timelines were easy to follow and the characters easy to invest in. Enjoyed their friendship and relationships. Slow for me but with twisty turns and a good ending.

Past and present intertwine in this slow burning thriller by Rachel Hawkins.

According to the Publisher, some of this story is inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson Murders, and the infamous summer of Percy and Mary Shelley who spent one summer with Lord Byron at a lake Geneva castle, the birthplace of Frankenstein.

So I was anticipating a gothic tragedy, an atmospheric story and an exciting and gruesome murder case. Nope, I didn’t get any of that. The story did not convey anything gothic or scary or gruesome. The characters were one dimensional and boring.


Emily who writes boring cozy mysteries. Then, we have Chess, a self help wonder writer and social media sensation. So, Chess, invites Emily to spend time with her in Italy, at Villa Aestas. Emily is hoping the trip will inspire her, all the while still being concerned with the dark and turbulent past of the house. Keep in mind that Emily and Chess used to be BF’s, but as usual, life got in the way and they fell out. This trip, is supposed to rekindle that friendship as well. As the two research the goings on from the past and the events that took place in the 70’s, consequences come about. As the friends write their respective books, deep seated competition and rivalry comes to light.

The story is told from two POV’s.

Emily, who does not have any redeeming qualities. I found her obtuse.

Mari, who was slightly better, because of what happened to her, one is inclined to have a bit of sympathy for her. However, for me, it was short lived.

I did not find the Villa to be a real part of the story. I would of excepted the Villa to lend itself to creepiness and a sense of foreboding. I feel as though it should of had a larger part of the story if the publisher is comparing it and plugging it to the likes of Shelley at Byron’s castle. The Villa was where it all happened, and came together, not in any sense contributing to the events in and of themselves,

Rachel Hawkins writes stellar thrillers; “The Wife Upstairs”, “Reckless Girls” (one of my all time favorite books) So I was looking forward so much to reading this, and to receive an eARC was such a gift for me, I’m almost hesitant to say, this book just didn’t it for me. I loss interest soon, or I should say, my total engrossment was never there for this one. It lacked suspense and her usual edge of your seat, can’t stop reading tensions. I will say, I stayed with it, because it’s Rachel Hawkins, and though the twists were nothing earth shattering, the ending was pretty good, not as edgy as her others, but it closed it up nicely.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC. All opinions are my own, I give them freely and honestly.













or rejuvenate or become better

Houses Remember

Current day: Modern self-help guru Chess Chandler and Cozy Mystery writer Emily have are best friends before Chess's fame. Into adulthood their relationship becomes strained but after their lunch meeting up Chess asks Em to go with her to Italy for the summer to stay in the infamous Villa Aestas. She seizes the chance to hopefully get back at her ex and out of her writing block.

The Past: Mari is also a writer, and her musician boyfriend Pierce and her sister Lara are staying at the villa with a famous rockstar and friend for the summer. As time goes on things become tense between them all and end in a tragedy blamed on "sex, drugs and rock & roll" but things aren't always as they seem, and will Emily be the one to reveal what happened that night?

The parallels between the past, the modern-day, and the book Mari writes are beautifully written and have you guessing up until the end. What will you believe? Is the villain of this story truly punished?

Rachel Hawkins has done it again! There are only a few books that have me continuously reliving the ending and this one I got invested in. Mari's storyline was my favorite and strongest of the two that kept me turning pages. What kept me from giving five stars is the present-day timeline that has me despising Chess from the first description and her "Powered Path" toxic explanation that I don't fully believe was making Emily sick. This ending did feel a bit rushed and a lot crammed in that I think Em deserved a better resolution.

Rating: 4.5 ⭐'s

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for this ARC gifted through NetGalley! Get your hands on this book on January 3, 2023!

This was my first Rachel Hawkins read and when I tell you she SERVED. She SERVED. I was totally pulled in by Emily's story. Reading through the book I thought I knew what really happened during that summer at the Villa Aestas but with all the twists at the end I was completely wrong.

I really enjoyed this one and can't wait to pick up another book by Rachel. Definitely a little suspenseful and the story line just keeps pulling at you to find out what really happened. I got through this book in one day and would recommend it to any thrill seeking readers !

A creepy mystery set in to different times at the same gorgeous Italian villa in Orvieto. In the 1970s famous rocker Noel Gordon invites some other musicians and their girlfriends to spend time with him in hopes of regenerating his failing career. When one of them ends of dead, the villa gains notoriety. Fast forward to present day when two friends meet at the villa and strange tension between them arises, when they try to unravel the murder from the 1970s.

1974 Villa Rosato, A summer of love, sex, rock n' roll. Mari and her sister Lara vacation in Orvieto Italy where Mari hopes to finfish writing her novel and her boyfriend Pierce write his music. A sun filled summer for this group of friends that ends with a horrific murder. Present day Writers Emily and Chess find themselves back at the Villa now known as Villa Aestas in search of more info on the murder of '74. Emily finds written manuscripts hidden by Mari and uncovers the truth about the night of the Murder. This was such a great read! entertaining, light, twisty and creepy undertone. some heartfelt moments shared through Mari and her life as well as Emily whom also shares her experience with loss of love and a broken heart. I didn't feel this was much of a gothic horror as read in the description but it was creepy enough to keep me hooked. 4stars!

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

I just can not get into this book. Maybe it's not for me but there is just too much going on and not enough to grab my attention to continue reading. I wanted to give up at 20% but made it to 50% and did not finish. I was excited about this book because I loved The Wife Upstairs by Hawkins. The description of this book grabbed my attention because I love travel and a good mystery. I am also divorced like the protagonist who was recently separated from her husband. I found that I just did not care about the rock stars who had stayed in the villa. Did not finish. Not for me.

Houses remember.

Estranged childhood best friends Emily and Chess decide to spend the summer in Italy on a girl's trip working on their new books. The Villa Aestes, now a beautiful vacation spot, was the site of a famous, and gruesome, murder in 1974 that eventually lead to the publication of one of the greatest horror novels of all time.

As their summer continues and tensions rise between Chess and Emily, Emily digs into the past of the Villa, and begins to suspect there is more to the story of what happened in 1974.

It takes a lot for a thriller to impress me, and while this is more of a slow-burn suspense novel, this one really worked for me.
I love dual timeline stories, and the way that Hawkins wove the two stories together was impressive and really added to the suspense. As soon as you thought you knew what was happening in one story, it would switch to the other.
At first, I found Chess and Emily's dynamic to be annoying, but as the book went on, I found myself just as invested in their story as I was in Mari's story. The book had just enough twists to keep me on the edge of my seat, without being so much that I couldn't figure out any of what was happening.

Overall, and excellent slow-burn suspense novel with an interesting dual-timeline story.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of The Villa.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I will start off with how I appreciate Hawkins making females the focus of her novels, whether that be as the hero or villain. In The Villa we get to know a handful of female character and honestly, I didn’t care for Emily and Chess. That storyline bored me and was predictable and I wanted less. The only good part of that storyline was when they murdered Matt. Chess was annoying the entire time and as Emily even says at the end, she’s not free. She’s stuck there with Chess forever. Also the nickname Chess just really bothers me for some reason. Was her character based off Rachel Hollis? I’m pretty sure she was and since Rachel Hollis is awful, probably led me to hate Chess even more. Now Mari and Lara?! I needed more. I loved how Hawkins wrote how they succeeded and became artists while the men were just in the background. I loved that their art lent to the little scavenger hunt for Emily to find the papers. I enjoyed the part where Noel tells Mari to sever ties so she can thrive as he sees so much potential in her and knows that others are holding her back from it. The only part I semi didn’t like is when she tells the ‘truth’ at the end. I liked the version where she actually killed Pierce herself and not Jhonnie. But Hawkins writes ‘It feels right, then, to break this story up into fragments. Read the first, and it’s sad, but there are moments of light, of joy, even if the reader senses the clouds rolling in. Read the second, and now, the story twists. Heroine is villain, villain is victim, and that colors everything that comes before in a new light. And yet that first bit still stands on its own, another kind of story, another universe of might-have-beens. That’s good, Mari thinks. That’s how stories should work.’ So I get why you write the two versions but I prefer the one where Mari is the villain, yet the hero of her own story. I also enjoyed the way Hawkins wrote the sisterhood aspect of the relationships between Mari and Lara and Emily and Chess. Although I HATE the whole sleeping with your bff’s/sibling’s man. We don’t need it. It doesn’t add to anything when writing these female characters. Overall a fast paced read, I read it all in an afternoon. Thank you again to NetGalley for the ARC of The Villa!!

Houses remember.

This is the kind of concept that deserves a whole novel, and Rachel Hawkins certainly did it justice. I don’t typically read (or watch) anything in the suspense genre, and honestly, I was kinda nervous about this one. But the slow-burn was perfect. The characters were deliciously flawed. The setting was gorgeous. The plot twists were so satisfying. As a whole, I didn’t love it, but I really liked it.

It was a novel within a novel within a novel, brilliantly put together. But it was the frame story that I struggled with. The Emily-Chess dynamic was interesting at best, but mostly just a lot of drama. Without the other parts of the story, I wouldn’t have stayed hooked. But altogether, it works undeniably well.

It’s the final entry from Mari that endears me to this story the most. Otherwise, it would have left me unsatisfied. The study of the human condition trapped within this novel had to have that final piece—had to drive us to consider ourselves. And that…I love.

It drives me to question, as I have many times, why we tell stories. And how we attach pieces of our souls to them as we release them, whether that be to others or to obscurity.

I’m not sure that I’ll be reading more books like this in terms of genre, but I’ll long remember the way this story has made me think. What a gift.

The Villa is a slow burn thriller for sure. It took me awhile to get into it. I was half way through before I really connected and drawn to the story. I really enjoyed the Chess and Em story as a stand alone story of BFFs trying to reconnect. That part of the story reminder me of a Lifetime movie. The second story of Mari, Lara and the guys intertwined was good but sometimes confusing to follow. It took way to long to get to the twisty thriller bits of their story. I needed the Villa to be creepier and more twisted.



I received an early copy from @NetGalley to read for an honest review.

3.5 Stars
I received an advanced digital copy of The Villa thanks to NetGalley, excited to get my hands on Rachel Hawkins’ next thriller! Rachel creates complex characters thrown into questionable situations, and in The Villa she gives us a complicated best friends storyline with a lot of twists. There were many threads to the plot, and while most of them made sense in the end, some felt very forced. I really enjoyed the core plot, as it was quite unique but overall the book needed some refinement to avoid falling into cliche tropes and taking too many twists too far. Luckily, the story was interesting and suspenseful and kept my attention throughout. I think Rachel Hawkins fans will enjoy this as I did overall, and still be planning a trip to the Italian countryside, even after everything that happened there!

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I love Paula Hawkins and this book did not disappoint. Emily and her friend Jessica, now Chess, an influencer and self-help guru, decide to vacation in Italy after Emily’s husband Matt leaves her. It turns out that The Villa in Italy is the scene of a murder from 1974. Mari and her sister Lara were there with Noel Gordon, a rock god, Pierce, Mari’s married boyfriend and Noel’s dealer/hanger on, Johnnie. Mari becomes famous for a novel that she wrote in the house and Lara for an album that she wrote there. Emily and Chess have their own issues. It’s a novel within a novel, which a lot of authors are doing now. Hawkins does a good job of it. Friendship triumphs over all.

I did enjoy the plot of this book but I was disappointed in the lack of true thrill. I felt that the pacing was off and I was hoping for more twists and suspense.I also didn’t find the past timeline added much to the story and found it hard to get through those parts. The concept of this book definitely intrigued me but it didn’t end up delivering the way I was hoping.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for giving me the opportunity to review this eARC.

Absolutely intriguing. I read it in one night. The characters are well fleshed out and the story moves seamlessly from one time period to another. A masterpiece.

" HOUSES REMEMBER " Thus book had me on edge I thought I had it figured out with Mari & Pierce I was wrong. I thought I had it right between Emily & Chess again I was wrong! I love when I'm wrong in book, this was truly suspenseful and thrilling with 3 yes I said 3 TWISTS this book was as easily 5 stars for me!! I've loved Rachel
Hawkins work since I've read reckless girls! She does not disappoint!!! Thank you to netgalley for sending me this tit!e!! Check out The Villa January 3 2023!!

Emily is an author of a cozy mystery series however her creative juices seem to have all but dried up. Maybe it's the messy divorce to her jerk of a soon-to-be-ex-husband and his demand for a cut of the money for any and all future books that has her stalling. Why should he get a cut of the money on books she wrote AFTER they divorced?

Then she receives a call from her best friend since childhood, Chess. Chess is a motivation guru who's self help books have sold millions worldwide and she makes an offer that Emily can't refuse. Spend the summer with her in Villa Aestas in Orieto, Italy. Here they can hunker down together drinking fine wine, eating delectable dishes, soaking up the Italian sunshine and hopefully writing up a storm. That's the plan anyways.

Once they arrive it appears Emily still isn't ready to put her fingers to the keyboard for book 10 in her Petal Bloom series. Emily is much more interested in the history of Villa Aestas and the murder of an up-and-coming musician that happened there in the '70's when the villa went by Villa Rosato or better yet, The Murder House.

We have the current storyline following Emily and Chess and we alternate that with Mari, girlfriend to the murdered Pierce, and what happened at the villa in the '70's when five twenty-somethings, creatives and artists, high on drugs, alcohol, and sex spend far too much time together under the guise of friendship.

This was a bit of a slow burner for me but still highly enjoyable. I found both the present and past storylines intriguing in there own way. I liked both Emily and Mari - two young woman that while they appear to be weak in some respects are actually much stronger than anyone could have predicted. The ending is where this one really shined for me though, I loved it. 4 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my complimentary copy.