The Villa is a story about friendship, betrayal, and murder. Then and now.

Em’s struggling as her life seems to be falling apart and her oldest friend Chess, a famous self-help guru in the vein of “girl, step into your power,” whisks her off to Italy for the summer.

They stay at a gorgeous villa which is also the site of a famous murder in the 70s. Both intend to spend the weeks writing, but it’s clear from the beginning there’s something much more sinister going on.

This book started out a little slow for me but it soon had me hooked. The way it unfolded was captivating, though I figured out nearly all the twists early on and the ending felt rushed, more like a summary.

At its core this is a book about friendship and betrayal. About seeing someone for exactly who they are and having to live with your choices.

I’ve been thinking a lot about friendship betrayals lately and the inexplicable choices people make that hurt the ones they love. Hawkins did such a perfect job exploring that.

I really enjoyed this book.

I enjoyed this a lot but don’t think I’d classify it entirely as a thriller. I enjoyed the two timelines in the various ways in which the story was told, but I was left a little bit disappointed with the final twist ending. The setting was great and I enjoyed the 70s vibes mixed in with the modern timeline, but I was left a bit confused by some of the explanations for certain elements of the story. I don’t really want to see more because it would be a spoiler but I just didn’t completely understand the reasoning for something main character went through. That’s still really big. But overall I thought this was an atmosphere, spooky story and it was a good dark summer read!

The first two-thirds of the book gripped me – I didn’t want to put in down and looked forward to picking it up again when I had to take a break. The writing flowed, and I liked the podcasts and letters sprinkled in - I'm a bit of a sucker for the multi-media thing. I liked the setting, and I particularly liked Mari’s story. Emily was a bit of whiny pushover, but I was still interested in what was happening and how the story would play out.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS>>

But…I really ended up being disappointed by the ending. It was really rushed and disappointing. Seriously,
Chess slept with Emily’s husband and yet Emily still partnered with Chess? It was predictable that something had happened between Chess and the husband, but the fact that Emily then went and partnered with Chess (who also tried to steal her intellectual property and was just overall mean?). And it was predictable that someone would die at the end in modern time to parallel with the historical story, but it didn’t really make sense that Emily’s husband would come to Villa to meet up with the women. I understand where the author was trying to go in the end, but I was looking for something more twisty/less predictable.
This book is billed as gothic, and as such, I expected the villa itself to play a bigger part in the story. I’m actually glad it was just a setting and not a character.

I did like this book better than the last one I read by Hawkins (Reckless Girls).

4 stars for the beginning (slower burn), 3 stars for the end (rushed and somewhat unsatisfying). Overall 3.5 stars.

I am a big fan of Rachel Hawkins' work as Erin Sterling and her Ex Hex series - naturally I wanted to read this one as well. With it's spooky, Halloween vibes and its setting of a villa in Italy with a dark past made it sound like it was going to be the ultimate thriller/mystery. Sadly, I was majorly let down with this one. Ultimately, this ended up being a 2.5-star read rounded up for me.

We got introduced to Emily and Mari as the MCs and the narrators of their stories. Emily is the current MC and Mari is the MC from the villa's past dark history. I honestly liked Mari's story better and could have read an entire book from her POV. Emily was whiney to me and I felt as if she was a boring MC. I was intrigued by how her story was going to play out but in the end, I was highly disappointed.

This book didn't read like a thriller or a mystery to me. It was more of a women's fiction novel that had a historical fiction aspect to it. Nothing intriguing started happening until about the 70% point of the book. The ending itself seemed rushed and I had more questions than answers. I probably wouldn't recommend this to anyone as it falls to the bottom of all my Hawkins/Sterling books. If you like drama mixed with some suspense, give it a go I guess.


SPOILERS BELOW DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT READ YET!!!!!





The main problem I had with this book was its predictability. Clearly, the past came back and replayed into the current story. I guessed this was going to happen and that someone was going to die. Am I mad it was her cheating husband who was trying to steal her money? No. I liked that aspect. But it was sooooo predictable.

Another issue I had was with Emily just going along with Chess after she literally found out she slept with her husband? WTF? Like there is no way I would go along and write a book and share profits with the woman who literally slept with my husband behind his back. This also was predictable to me with how much they mentioned Chess being close to Emily's husband.

Then there were the letters that Emily found that Mari left around. Verity was already written, we don't need a reprise of it with the letters being confusing and not knowing what really happened. At least that's the impression I got - but I could have missed the exclamation of what really happened because by the time I got to the end I was skimming and just wanted it to be over.

Overall, this turned out to be a boring narrative of women's fiction that could have gone in a million different directions and I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Will I read more Hawkins/Sterling books? Absolutely. But this one just missed the mark.


Big thanks to NetGalley, Rachel Hawkins and St. Martin's Press for sending me a complimentary copy in exchange for my honest options!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This book did not disappoint!! Such a good 'story within a story' - at first, I thought it was going to be hard to keep track of both but they each had their own mysteries that I was captivated to solve! The banter between best friends Chess and Emily was fun to read and the suspense surrounding the Villa in Orvieto, Italy kept the pages turning quickly.

When I first saw this book I had just finished another of Rachel Hawkins books. I read the blurb for “The Villa” and was intrigued. I had it in my mind that it would be more of a haunted story, but instead as I read I kept picturing the optical Illusions where there is a picture within a picture within a picture….
The story of Mari, Pierce, Lara, Noel, Johnnie, was just enough similar to Matt, Chess, and Emily at first anyway. It gives you a feeling that Chess and Matt are not to be trusted. Just as you feel about Noel, Pierce, Lara and Johnnie. There is that love triangle, that competition between all of these characters. This book was very well written, the switches between past and present was well done and not abrupt or confusing. I truly enjoyed this book, I was surprised by the plot twists, and I still don’t trust Chess.

Rachel Hawkins' books are always good to pick up. I was very excited that I got this ARC and it was a pretty good read. She's always great at incredibly eerie and creepy vibes.

3.5/5 ⭐

This is my favorite Rachel Hawkins book thus far. I loved the twists. I loved the meshing of the Mari-Lara-Pierce and Emily-Chess-Matt storylines. The last chapter was a brilliant wrap-up of both.

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for early access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was definitely wasn't what I was expecting, it was a bit less suspenseful than I anticipated. That being said, I still was intrigued for most of the story and there were parts that shocked me. In the beginning, I had a bit of trouble understanding the premise of the story, but by the end that wasn't an issue. It was definitely interesting and a different read but I enjoyed Reckless Girls by Hawkins a lot more!

Need a new author to follow? I am definitely going to read more of Ms. Hawkins books after diving into this one! Long time childhood friends on a trip to Italy and staying in a villa where murders took place years ago - count me in! The creep factor, Chess and Em's relationship, the secrets, the twists, the mystery of what happened in the Villa, the ex-husband, the story of Mari long ago paired with the current story of Chess and Em and their current lives - loved it all!

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to receive this ARC!

How could I say no to a thriller involving two best friends who are now distant but go off to a villa in Italy for a vacation? Cut to the villa, it is actually infamous for a gruesome murder decades ago involving some celebrities in fact. Chess and Emily have a few secrets and they are keeping them under wraps making each other suspicious of each other. There is another plot about the events in another timeline about the murder which is equally interesting. It would not be incorrect to say Villa by itself is one of the key characters in this one. There is a constant cat and mouse game between the two friends and the twists kept me hooked. So get ready to find out what really happened that this villa witnessed!!

I loved Rachel Hawkins’s debut novel and will read anything and everything that she publishes! This book, about childhood friends embarking on a reunion trip of sorts to Italy, with a sinister twist had me hooked from the beginning. The story flipped back and forth between Chess and Em, and another group of friends, who stayed at the same villa, but their trip lead to… murder. Dun dun dun!

Truth be told, I was more invested in the Chess/Em relationship than the chapters focusing on the past. I don’t know if it was the Kindle version layout, but the current, past POV and then news articles and interviews were (some) within the same chapter, that it felt choppy and wasn’t separate enough, so it read a little confusing and unfinished. Again, maybe it was the way the story was laid out on Kindle.

The ending left me infuriated, but kinda in a good way.

"Houses remember."

Those are the somber words that begin Mari Godrick's critically-acclaimed horror masterpiece "Lilith Rising," which, decades after it's publication, still echo in the present-day world of Emily and her celebrity best friend, Chess Chandler.

A wellness guru taking the world by storm, Chess brings Emily along on a summer escape to Villa Aestas in Orvieto--the very same villa where tragedy struck for Mari Godrick and her loved ones in 1974. As the summer pulses on, Emily--a writer herself--finds herself enthralled not only by the mysterious roots of "Lilith Rising," but by Mari's story as well.

If you couldn't tell by that brief synopsis, "The Villa" is a layered story. It's a book, within a book, within a book, and yet none of the plot lines felt developed enough to really hold my interest. The premise here was beyond promising; an Italian gothic setting, a past-revisited storyline, and the fuses of suspense lit in the first few chapters. However, the burn of this book was entirely too slow for me, and by the end I felt that it all had developed into hardly anything at all despite the buildup.

If you're new to Rachel Hawkins, you might find this story good or even great. For me, it's an easy least favorite of her recent books; simply a great idea with underwhelming execution.

This was the first Rachel Hawkins book I’ve read, and I am hooked. This was the perfect summer read with the ocean, boat living, and secluded island setting. So many twists that I wasn’t expecting and the relationships between characters and how they grow and change is sure to draw readers in like it did me.

A beautiful story of two friends going on a breathtaking Italian vacation, in a horror house, to only come out of it stronger than ever, and richer.

This is the first book I've read by Rachel Hawkins and I was instantly captivated by Emily and Mari's stories, though I definitely preferred the latter's. Ms. Hawkins did a wonderful job of creating a dreamy 70s vibe for Mari's story without cluttering it with obvious references. I really enjoyed the slow build up and there were several scenes that left me feeling tense and uneasy. Unfortunately, I wasn't fond of the ending. I loved where I thought Mari's story had ended but ultimately the story' true ending left me disappointed. I understood what the last chapter was attempting to do but having enjoyed Mari's story so much and not loving Emily's ending already, it fell flat for me.

On another note, the excerpts from Lilith Rising had me wishing it were real!

*I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

This book is extraordinary. A marriage of the decadence of the seventies, of Mary Shelley’s turbulent life, and female friendship.

I was captivated from the first line, drawn further in by the frame story element: story within a story within a story. And it was all so glamorous and lush, so layered and thrilling that I gobbled it up as fast as I could.

It’s so cleverly written; there are slivers of such agonizing destruction, of the way people become when they think they’re trapped, how desperation can drive people to extremes. How differently and yet similarly inspiration can strike people.

Rachel Hawkins is a master class at work, and she absolutely thrives with this book.

Brilliant stuff, will read anything this author produces because it is captivating.

Every bit of 5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC.

It is established almost right away that we’re going to have two different stories being told throughout the book with the Italian Villa being the first obvious common thread. In the present timeline there is Emily and Chess, and the past is Mari, Pierce and Lara. Adding to the narrative, there are various formats of “media” pieces. At first, it was a bit confusing with the time shifts and the media, but a pattern does form with most of the chapters beginning in the present, shifting to the past, and ending with media piece(s).

Thoughts on the present timeline: When we first meet Emily, it’s easy to feel sympathy for her and hope something good happens for her soon. Then we meet Chess. Chess, Emily’s “best friend” and Rachel Hollis-type self help author, is horrible. She’s the definition of a toxic friend. She’s selfish, manipulative, and fake. Without being outright spoiler-y, there’s a part of her character storyline that’s incredibly predictable, particularly if you’ve read almost thriller in recent years with a female main character and a best friend in the picture at all. Honestly at this point in the genre, it would be more of a twist to not go there. However, as much as I dislike her, it’s a testament to the writing that she elicits strong feelings while reading. After meeting her and seeing how Emily handles her, I wanted to shake Emily. She makes too many excuses for Chess and her toxic behavior, and rolls over too easily to her. It made me proud later on when she finally started to see Chess for what she was and stood her ground a bit more. Whether it’s enough in the end…that’s complicated and best answered on the pages.

Thoughts on the past timeline: What started out as a difficult storyline to get into ended up being the part I was most interested in reading. There’s a lot of drama and turmoil building up to murder and unreliable information being shared that left me wondering what was true, what was imagined, and what was kept secret between those characters who were there. Mari was a complex, intriguing character, as was her stepsister Lara. The dynamic with the two of them and Pierce was already complicated, and then throw in Noel and Johnnie and it’s a recipe for trouble. I would’ve liked spending more time with these characters of the past.

Overall, there were things I liked and thought were unique, but there were also things I didn’t like or have read more than once before. I did end up liking the media pieces mixed in to help tell different pieces of the story in both timelines. I’m not sure if the final copy will end up having those formatted in a way that makes them more distinct from the rest of the text, but it would help for clarity if so.

A creepy, immersive page-turner, strong from start to finish. I loved the dual storyline format. A good read!

4 stars. This book was so interesting. I really enjoyed the book within a book within a book and seeing the parallels/differences between what was real and what was fiction in the past storyline, as well as how it all ended up effecting the present day storyline. The Villa gives some similar vibes to One of the Girls with elements of Daisy Jones and Verity. The beginning was a slow build but it paid off in then end. The twists kept coming until the very end!