I was so excited to get an ARC copy of Rachel Hawkins "The Villa", thank you Net Galley for the opportunity.
This was my first Rachel Hawkins, but many of her books are on my TBR - and I will be moving them up after finishing The Villa.
Super engaging story, with Emily and Chess being relatable and empowering.
There is a slow burning sense of dread while you make your way through the story, you feel almost claustrophobic inside the villa.
I had a bit of trouble as an ADHD reader with the dual storylines, but I found keeping a small note pad nearby and making annotations really helped.

I’m a big fan of Rachel Hawkins, so I was excited to get an ARC of The Villa. An author goes on a trip to Italy with her best friend and stays in a house that holds many secrets from the past. She discovers journals from the 1970s that chronicle the events that happened in the Villa, and murder and mystery are rampant. It was an interesting plot, but overall I gave it 3/5 ⭐️‘S.

Here is not a book review but I STILL WANT TO KNOW.

Ok but… WHERE are the second set of Mari’s papers were hidden?

The Villa is dual storyline about a house in Italy, Villa Rosato, that has been home to sinister events. In 1974 a famous rockstar rents the Villa and brings with him a small entourage to spend the Summer with him. Meanwhile, present day two friends in their 30s head off to Italy to reconnect. Things take a turn in both instances and, well… you will have to read to find out!

I’m not always a fan of dual storylines because I am usually invested in one more than the other, but I found myself equally loving what was going on in both timelines!

If you love atmospheric, twisty and mysterious reads, this one is for you!

Many thanks to Rachel Hawkins, St. Martin’s Press, and Goodreads for a digital copy of this book. I read and reviewed this voluntarily and opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own. This book is available for purchase on January 23rd, 2023!

"The Villa" is a fun, original, twisted thriller, full of heartbreak, intrigue, and trust built and broken. The alternating timelines and perspectives combine to tell a story with no victors and plenty of wreckage. Well-written and fast paced, it is easy to get pulled into the world of this book and difficult to leave before the end.

Houses Remember. Wow! Past and present intertwine in this creepy mystery. It was a great read!

Emily and Chess were BFFs as teens but they drifted apart when they reached adulthood. Emily went on to marry Matt, but is now going through a messy divorce after he cheated on her.
Both girls are professional writers-Emily writing fiction and Chess is a self-help guru. When Chess offers Emily a trip to Italy to stay in a villa for the summer, she hopes it will be a chance to reconnect and to get her writing back on track.
It turns out the villa was the scene of a murder in the 70s, with a famous singer present. Step-sisters, Mari & Lara, end up producing a famous book and album after that fatal trip.
Emily starts looking into the events of that dreadful summer and begins writing again. As she gets closer to the truth, the past and present collide. Will the villa claim another victim? 

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Don’t you just love when you have a very thoughtful review written up… only to have it freeze without saving? The Villa review. Take 2!

“Houses remember.” This sentence bookends the story of an Italian Villa that is the centerpiece for this book. 2 lifelong girlfriends reconnect on a summer holiday at Villa Aestas, formerly known for a grisly murder that took place there in the 70’s.

What is to come is a retelling of the past in journals, magazine articles and newspaper clippings, and the future where one character digs more into the story of what actually happened.

I truly thought there would be some more suspense to either story and in the end both timelines fell a bit flat. Honestly what I wanted m more of was the Lilith Rising horror novel, written by one of the main characters from the “past” timeline.

A twisty, multi-layered and timelines thriller, I normally don’t enjoy a slow burn paced take but loved this book!

With themes of choices, friendship, deceit and romance, it’s hard to know who to trust which only makes this read so compelling. Loved it!

This was a winner for me! I flew through it, and never pumped the breaks. I was dying to know how it turned out, and was satisfied with the end (even if I would have liked a different resolution 😉 ) definitely worth adding to your TBR!

The Villa is the newest mystery/thriller by Rachel Hawkins. This book follows two different timelines. The present day timeline follows Emily, a down on her luck cozy mystery author who is recovering from a sickness and going through a divorce. With no inspiration to continue her mystery series, Emily decides to take up her friend’s offer to stay six weeks in a beautiful, Italian villa. Emily’s friend, Chess, is everything that Emily wishes she was. A famous self help author, Chess is Emily’s childhood best friend and even though they aren’t close anymore, Emily thinks this vacation will really help her reset.
The second timeline follows a rockstar and his friends in 1974 while they are staying at the same villa. After a hazy summer of sex and drugs and rock n roll, one member of the group is brutally murdered. Present day Emily learns about the murder and starts investigating it. Using a horror book written by one of the women who was present in the villa during the murder, Emily begins to uncover some secrets about the past.

What do you rate a book that was both a super quick, engaging read but also very underwhelming? I feel like this is a consistent issue I have with Rachel Hawkin’s thrillers. While they are very fast paced books, I feel like I’m never particularly satisfied with them when I am done. I guessed a lot of the direction this book was going in and I just wanted something more from it.

I did really enjoy how Hawkin’s was able to make a sunny Italian villa feel like a creepy, gothic building. There is also some discussion on female friendship that I thought was very poignant. I just wish the book would have leaned more into either of those aspects

What could be a more perfect set up for a thriller than being in Italy with your best friend in at a villa that is not only gorgeous, but also the location of a famous rockstar murder in the 70s? While at the Villa Emily, a writer finds herself reading a book called Lilith Rising and becomes intrigued with Mari, the author who was staying at the villa in 1974 when her boyfriend was murdered. Emily starts to research and discovers new details about what may have really happened that night. As she starts to incorporate this into a new novel she is writing to begins to feel some animosity from her best friend Chess as complications and secrets emerge. While the dual storylines kept me intrigued I enjoyed Mari’s story in the past a lot more than the present. The rockstar lifestyles were fun to read about and the character development was a lot better. I expected more from the Emily and Chess story, which felt underwhelming and predictable. I was disappointed in the ending. Overall I felt the book had a lot of potential, but it was just an ok read. 3.5 stars.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ahhh I love Rachel’s writing style. All her books are instant read for me. If you love thrillers, you won’t be disappointed. There are different POV and different times but it’s so well executed that you won’t feel lost in the story. It’s a fast paced thriller that you won’t be able to put it down. Also, I love the cover of this book so there’s 100% chance I’ll buy the hard copy when it comes out.

Rachel Hawkins book are an instant read for me everytime. She's best sunshiney goth writer of all time.
This one though- This one was better than the others. This exceeded expectations.
How do you reconcile betrayal by your own sister and the love of your life? How do you move forward when things fall apart?
This story follows two timelines and two heroines as they cope with their sisters/best friends and the men they love. There are many surprises in both of their stories.
It made me grateful that my best friend and I are not competing artists or anything like that. We are just boring people who work for the disabled or disadvantaged and we don't like men enough to try to steal them from one another. Or whatever.
Every woman I know should read this one. It is so good!

Slow beginning, wasn’t sure where the book was heading and never felt like it quite got there. Also didn’t have any twists I was hoping for. Good concept, nice setting, quick read that I still enjoyed

The spooky quote at the beginning of “The Villa” got me hooked. I didn’t want to put it down.
“Houses remember”
In 1974, a group of musicians rented the “Villa Aestas” in Orvieto Italy for the summer to work on their songs. Mari was a writer who wrote cozy mysteries. She was hoping that she would be inspired to write another one. There were arguments, drugs, sex, and a murder that summer. While Mari was there, she wrote “Lilith Rising" telling the story of their time at the villa and the murder that occurred. I loved the two-story lines. Mari in the past writing her book about what happened in the Villa in 1974. Emily in the present reading “Lilith Rising”, listening to the music from “Aestas” and getting inspired to write her own book about the mystery and murder that happened in the Villa. Some say the Villa is haunted and is there another murder by the end of summer.

Thank you NetGalley, St Martin’s Press, and Rachel Hawkins for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I have only read two others of the authors books. “ The wife upstairs” and “reckless girls”. This one is by far my favorite. There was different POV and from different times. It didn’t get confusing at all. I highly recommend this book if you like fast paced thrillers.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a Cody of the book for my honest opinion.

I rate this book 3.25 stars. The author does an excellent job reeling you in and making you care about one of the main narrators, Emily. This isn't a typical quick-paced thriller, but rather a slow-burn mystery/drama.

Emily has been going through it - she's been mysteriously sick, is currently in the process of divorce, and has a bad case of writer's block. Chess and Emily, best friends since childhood, decide to go on an Italian getaway to clear their heads and promote inspiration for their writing. Chess is a famous self-help, women's guru author, while Emily writes cozy mysteries about a gal named Petal Bloom. While in Italy, Emily discovers a gothic horror novel written by a former inhabitant of the Villa Chess and her are currently staying in. Moreover, she knows that the author of this novel, Mari, stayed at this same villa at a time a gruesome murder occurred. The story captivates Emily's attention and she is the most inspired to write in months. After making some connections between the fictional story of "Lillith Rising" and their vacation Villa, Emily is on the hunt to determine what REALLY happened in the summer of 1974. Could there be more to the story?

The Villa is narrated in two POVS - Emily's (present day) and Mari's (1974). It was hard to like Mari's storyline. I ended up being consistently frustrated by the men in her life and how she continued to stick around. She remained haunted throughout her entire life. Emily's storyline was a little more exciting and she was easier to like in some aspects. In other aspects, she ANNOYED me. Overall, I wish the story was darker and twistier. I had hoped for an element of surprise, but everything was too predictable. I really enjoyed the story's concept and development of the characters throughout, but it fell flat.


I received an advanced reader's copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Domestic drama mystery set in a beautiful villa in Italy, The Villa tells the story of two women, years apart that struggle with their talent, friendships, romances and life. Hawkins books are always relationship driven and this book set in current time and in 1974 ,explores the lives of two women writers, both visitors to the small Italian town of Orvieto on the invitation of a friend. In current times, Emily has lunch with her old friend Chess (actually Jessica). Emily is the writer of a cozy mystery series and is currently in divorce proceedings with her soon to be ex husband who also wants to sue her for a portion of her book royalties. Chess is the wildly popular author of several self-help books along the line of "Girl, do this" type content. Chess has always been the fun friend who has great ideas and energy but not loyalty or consistency. Chess suggests Emily join her for a writing holiday in the Villa which was the scene of a murder in the 1970's. Emily needs to get away and thinks this villa will give her a chance to finally finish book ten in her series.

In 1974 Mari who is nineteen is madly in love with Pierce a musician. Mari grew up with a stepsister named Lara and the three of them (Mari, Lara and Pierce) join popular musician Noel and his friend Johnnie at the villa for a vacation. The group is part of a freewheeling group of writers and musicians where sex, drugs and music come together in unexpected and changing directions. Mari is inspired to write a gothic horror novel, while Lara who has always been in love with Pierce, becomes a well known singer and songwriter. A death happens and we don't find out the true details until the very end of the book.

As Emily finds a copy of Mari's book "Lilith Rising" and finds some diary pages from Mari, she gets the idea of a very different kind of book than her usual cozies. Chess becomes jealous of the thought that Emily might have written a best seller and when Emily finds out Chess has been sleeping with her husband, the women struggle with their relationship and with thoughts of their future. I liked Emily but couldn't stand Chess who seemed self-serving and sneaky. I did enjoy the present timeline more than the past because it seemed more relatable. I did find it strange that in the 1974 timeline, both Pierce who was 22 and Noel who was 26 were supposed to have had previous lives where they were married and had children and it appeared that years past since they left those lives; yet they were still so young when they arrived at the villa.

There is some suspense and people die in both timelines but the story overall is about creativity and the relationships of the women who were the writers. I enjoy stories about writers and liked hearing about the creative processes of both Emily and Mari who both faced obstacles and betrayals in their quest to write their books.

This book is two separate stories that occur in the same villa. The first is set in the 1970s and the second in the present day. I found it hard to like and/or connect with the characters in the first story, though I liked the plot. The characters in the second story are easier to relate to, though I would've liked to have known more about their backstories. The author gives hints about tension, but I think it could have been more fully developed. The end of the second plot is quite abrupt and more detail would have added to the book's overall quality.

This book did take a while for me to get into, but when I did I enjoyed it. With that being said, I really did enjoy the dual POVs. This book takes you into 1974 and brings you back to the present day. The house truly does remember all. This book was a trip but so much of me wanted more. More of what, that I’m not too sure of. Just more.
Mmmm 3.5/ 4 stars from me.

Thank you to Net galley and the publisher for allowing me to read the ARC of this book. AND a huge thank you to the author for all her hard work she puts into her stories.