Another fun, quick thriller from Rachel Hawkins. I'm normally skeptical of dual-timelines, but she made them come full circle, and I enjoyed reading about each character. It did lull a bit in the middle, but I loved the atmosphere and setting.

The Villa is a complex story of Mari and Lara, woven into Emily and Chess's. The stories run almost parallel and bring you through Em and Chess's friendship while telling the tale of what took place with Mari and Lara so many years prior at the Villa.

This book was well composed and had many twists and turns told mainly from Em and Mari's viewpoints. Altering between 1974, when Mari stayed at the Villa and current day, and current day, when Em found herself vacationing in Italy at the Villa to focus on her writing.

The first 60% of the book is definitely a slow burn. I loved the horror theme - the stories the house holds, the book Mari eventually published inspired by her time at the Villa and how it all comes together at the end. I found myself more intrigued and invested in Mari's POV and feel like her story was well developed. I can't put my finger on it but I felt at times the Chemistry between Em and Chess was lacking and bits of it rushed.

In the final stretch I couldn't put the book down, the ending was perfect. While some things were predictable, I think they were all tied up in a unique way that provided a deeper meaning to the story. Giving this book 3 stars - I enjoyed it, had good creepy vibes, and well developed plot.

Thanks to NetGalley and St.Martin's press for providing a digital reviewer copy for my honest opinion.

Full review closer to publication date!

I'd like to thank the publisher, St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a good one! I enjoyed the different timelines and the twists and turns. The character development was great. The mystery to it all and then the twisty ending was enjoyable and I couldn’t put this book down. I will be recommending this book to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and St.Martin’s Press for an ARC of The Villa! Publication date is January 3, 2023.

It’s 4.5 stars for me. This book was intriguing and kept me glued to the pages for its entirety. The dual timelines were excellent and as an avid thriller reader the final twist was one I did not see coming. I will say that what kept this from being a 5 star for me was a big event in the third act of the novel - it didn’t sit right with me and while I don’t like pitting women against women it was a hard sell for me to pivot from that for two of our characters. More than her other works I’ve read Hawkins does an excellent job of fleshing out our female characters and making me love or hate them accordingly. I expected the mystery of the house to be more suspenseful and I’m not entirely sure I’d call this a true thriller but that’s what I enjoyed most, a mixing of genres that kept me interested and always engrossed in our characters and what would happen next.

So! Good!
The story was a bit hard to follow at points, but overall it was a great plot with twists, turns, and great narrative style. The two women and the dual narrative style was absolutely brilliant and I fell in love with the narrator, even if she was unreliable. Overall, very good writing and a great story.
Goodreads review to come!

This book has two timelines that take place in the same villa. The two timelines eventually intertwine and it was interesting to follow along.

Ultimately for me, I was left feeling underwhelmed. I felt like most of the book was pretty standard and predictable. Toward the end there was too much going on and the ending was just confusing.

I thought that this book was a little disorganized and all over the place. There are two storylines - one in the present day of Emily and her friend Chess who go to a villa in Italy over a summer where a murder had taken place years ago. The other story is of Mari and her sister Lara back in the 70's who were there at the villa at the time of the murder. I kind of felt like both stories were incomplete and unrealistic. I kept wanting to yell at all of the female protagonists because they all seemed clueless about everything. I don't know - I just thought that the story was going to come together at the end and for me, it really didn't.

I enjoy this author's previous work and was thrilled to receive this new release for 2023 for review. Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for the opportunity.

The Villa captures the reader right away with duel timelines. One set in 1974 and the other in present time. Add in a gorgeous Villa in Italy and two old friends reconnecting together through a mystery and its a fun interesting read. The scenery is very atmospheric and enjoyable. Being swept away to italy is always a enjoyable read.
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I was really excited to read this book from the synopsis and especially the setting. A creepy murder house in Italy? Sign me up!
I was intrigued from the beginning, but I did find the first 50% or so pretty slow. Not much was happening but there was enough mystery to keep me going. The second half, however, really picked up and I had a hard time putting it down!

I enjoyed Mari’s storyline from the start and found her to be an interesting and sympathetic character. It took me a while to get into Emily’s story, and she annoyed me at times. I enjoyed when the two storylines start coming together, and I became really invested in both.
I liked the ending a lot, excluding the final chapter which felt like an odd step back. I wish that part had been left out.

Overall I enjoyed this thriller and recommend it, I’m glad I stuck it out through the slower beginning!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Listen, this is my third Rachel Hawkins book and I wasn't too crazy about the other two. I will say this is my favorite one out of all of them and her book covers still hook me in. It does follow suit where I really liked a part of the story and felt like the other part felt flat.

Was it perfect? No. Was it pretty predictable? Yes. Did I still enjoy it? YES.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the Chess and Emily's story plot, but I loved Mari's and the mystery of what happened during that summer in a beautiful Italian villa. It's more than the usual story of sex, drugs, and rock & roll and that was probably my favorite aspect. I can totally see the various inspirations sprinkled throughout the book and that was fun to see.

The ending of Mari's story will probably live rent-free in my mind for quite a bit and I'm curious to hear your thoughts on that.

Got an eArc on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is my fifth book by Rachel Hawkins/Erin Sterling let me just say, my favorite thing about her books is that they are so incredibly readable. The books are always fast paced, the plot is incredibly fast moving and you just don’t want to put the book down. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen in this book until really late into the book, but I did not mind because I was so invested in the characters and their stories both in current day and in the 1970s.

It could have been very difficult for Hawkins to be able to give us compelling characters in both time periods considering that there were so many in the 1970s and their relationship dynamics were messy, complicated, and overlapped with one another quite a bit. I appreciated how complicated and complex the characters and their relationships were. I thought it was incredibly realistic and compelling that chess and Emily were both best friends and Frenemies, I think had they just been best friends who had fallen out of touch the story would not have made as much sense or even had been as realistic.

The only problem I really had with the book might have just been because of the format of an arc and it in the published book it might not be an issue. However, I found that sometimes when there was a time jump or when we moved from listening to the point of view of one of our characters to a newspaper article or a book excerpt, or even the podcast transcript I was a little confused and it took me a second to really understand what was going on, but that might’ve just been a formatting thing with this copy being an advanced readers copy and might not be an issue whatsoever within the book.

Lastly, and this might just be me being a little selfish, I wish we found out more about what happened in Italy at the very end with Chess and Emily. I understand why it would be open ended and left up to the interpretation of the readers, especially when we end with Mari’s Story, but I wish I knew what really happened.

I think people will really enjoy this book when it comes out in January. It is the perfect setting to give a little escapism from winter, but has mystery elements that everyone enjoys when it’s cold outside.

I liked Rachel Hawkins' take on Jane Eyre from a few years ago, but I really enjoyed this history/present day, life imitating art imitating life storyline.

Villa is three dimensional, smart, claustrophobic, women empowerment story with a creepy and engaging plot.

Two stepsisters in 1974 changed The Villa forever! Mari created her gothic novel: Lilith Rising and Lara created her most popular album, Aestas at the same eccentric place while something tragic unfolds. The place is a gorgeous, homey villa located in Orvieto: a small town in Italy.

Its name was changed to Aestas after Lara’s album. But this place is not known by inspirational sources for newbie artists, it is known as a murder house. Mari and Lara came to the Villa accompanied by Mari’s musician boyfriend Pierce to be guests of famous rock star Noel Gordon. During their stay, things became tense and somebody was murdered, and another was sent to prison.

The Villa is the only place that really knows what happened behind closed doors. From toxic relationships, lies, the pain of creativity and loss, numbness of drugs! “Houses remember.”

Now two best friends since their childhood came here for the whole summer at the villa to write their next novels and to take a break from the real world. Emily and Chess were inseparable friends till Emily marries Matt. Emily became popular with her YA cozy mysteries and Chess moved to the big city, becoming a self-help guru with her bestselling nonfictions.

Things didn’t go well for Emily in her picture-perfect life. She is dealing with an overwhelming divorce case: her husband Matt demands royalties from her novels because he thinks she couldn’t write them without his support! She struggled with an unknown sickness for a long time that made her dizzy and dysfunctional, causing Matt to cheat and leave her.

As soon as they arrive, Emily gets affected by the eerie energy of the villa, which pushes her to learn more about the villa’s history but her investigation will reveal more ugly secrets about her own life.

I loved the idea of the villa and its history. Emily searching for the truth and all the dirty secrets she uncovers I didn’t like how both two stories unfolded. I loved having all these glimpses into the past and how much history a villa can really hold. The setting and plot line was great but the ending could have been so much better.

Rachel Hawkins writes the best kinds of thrillers. They're quick, easy, and entertaining! Great summertime vibes.

I could not put this book down!

Bouncing back and forth between two timelines, Emily is in the middle of a messy divorce from Matt, while getting over health issues and trying to write the next book in her series when her best friend (and famous self-help author), Chess, invites her to the infamous villa in Italy, to write together and get away from life’s demands.

While there, Emily stumbles upon the greatest horror novel of all time, written by Mari while also staying at The Villa, that Em cannot put down. The book may, or may not hold secrets of the murder that happened in that villa in the 1970s. It propels Emily to write a standalone as she deep dives into the world of Mari and the famous book she wrote, her step-sister Lara, famous rockstar Noel, current boyfriend and up-and-coming rockstar, Pierce, and the murder during that summer of sex, drugs, and rock & roll.

What I loved: two timelines! I love when two paths collide, and when the past influences the future. I loved Mari - a truly likable character, and I love the setting. Give me all things Italy!

What I didn’t love: Matt gave me hives. Hated him. Also, the relationship between Emily and Chess confused me at the end, still scratching my head as to how they were able to get past a main obstacle so quickly and easily. Also, and maybe the final copy the transitions will be smoother, but I did find the book a bit choppy. I was still able to follow though, so it wasn’t a huge deterrent.

Overall, I give this 4/5! I really enjoyed it!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the opportunity to read this book!

Another amazing read by Rachel Hawkins! I've read all of her books and The Villa is in my top 3. The cover is fantastic; sucks you in with the bright colors even if Ms Hawkins is a new author for some. She takes us back to the 1970s in this one in a picturesque Italian setting. Murder mystery and a dark past for this villa. LOVE!!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This is a story of friendship, family, and relationships. It explores what these things should look like by highlighting the toxicity of each character. It basically acts as a what not to do in a lot of places. This novel also has a story within the story, and neither stories are what they seem. It isn’t until the very end that the truth is revealed in its entirety, and that truth is still hard to come to grip with for the characters. I will say that the ending wasn’t what I was expecting, and was even frustrating at one point. Despite that, I still enjoyed my time reading this and will definitely pick up more novels from this author.

My expectations for this novel were met and surpassed! The author did a spectacular job with this one, it as a quick two day read for me! This is definitely one I will have to purchase in order to have a physical copy on my shelf!

This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Villa is a dual timeline story set in present and 1970’s Italy. This book had me flying through it for about 80%, but then something shifted. With a tag line of “Houses remember” I was expecting the setting to play a little bit of a larger role in the plot. Perhaps the ending was what let me down. I really enjoyed how the present day storyline ended with just a hint of foreboding however I just wanted something more sinister I suppose.

I still really enjoyed this book and would recommend to anyone looking for a quick and intriguing read!