Houses remember. Childhood friends Chess and Emily vacation in an old home with dark history. Chess and Emily seem to be competing as writers of opposite genres using the vacation and the home as a muse. This book was a thoroughly enjoyable book that had a book inside a book feel to it.

This is the third Rachel Hawkins novel I've read (The Wife Upstairs, Reckless Girls) and I enjoyed that this book, like the other two I have read, also paid homage to great works of literature. This new novel bring in elements of the life of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley through the character of Mari, which is juxtaposed by the other main character, Emily, who is staying in the same villa in Italy today that Mari stayed in during the summer of 1974. Emily starts to dig into the events of that summer in 1974 that results in Mari writing a best selling horror novel after the murder of her lover, Piece Sheldon. The story jumps back and forth between Emily and Mari's stories, with twists and turns along the way. Another solid work from Rachel Hawkins.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

I am so glad that I am not alone with how I felt about this book. I was really worried I was in a reading slump. It wasn’t good. It just wasn’t. I was bored. I couldn’t connect it. The writing was beautiful, without a doubt, and the setting was both spooky and ethereal. But this lacked the punch Rachel Hawkins is so good at. It lacked the twists and turns, the big reveal, the adrenaline. I wanted more from this one, and it seems like a lot of readers did, too.

Poor Percy Shelley(strikethrough) Pierce Sheldon!

Rachel Hawkins’s The Villa unravels two mysteries from two generations in the idyllic Italian countryside.

In 1974, fading rocker Noel Gordon invites up-and-comer Pierce Sheldon—along with his teenage girl friend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara—to Villa Rosato for a summer of sex, drugs, and creative collaboration. Following along behind the group is Johnnie, a Noel devotee and drug dealer. Before the summer ends, Mari wrote her groundbreaking novel, Lilith Rising, Lara wrote her best-selling, sad mom favorite, folk record Aestas, and Pierce lay dead and bloody on the floor.

In the present, cozy-mystery writer Emily spends the summer with her once best friend Chess, an increasingly sinister Rachel Hollis-esque self-help guru. Both work on their respective writing amid growing tension and obsession as Emily becomes fixated on the villa’s history.

Hawkins creates engrossing characters, updating the Year Without Summer and the events at Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva that led to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Noel Gordon, as an updated Lord Byron, maintains the intrigue but is given a sympathetic depth and the acuteness of tragedy Mary Godwin, the novel’s Mari, faced in her young life adds complexity to what could easily have become a flattened caricature.

I enjoyed Hawkins’s update of a well-known story, mixing in the 1970s feuding rocker vibe from Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. The ending is, unfortunately, less steady than the rest of the novel. It feels rushed and drawn out at the same time, as though Hawkins struggled to choose between multiple different endings and in the end decided to smash them together in a way that is ultimately unsatisfying.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. It has a “slow-burn” pacing that may take some readers a while to really get into, but once you’re in it you’re in it. The Villa will be especially fun for readers familiar with the goings-ons of the Shelleys, Lord Byron, Polidori, and Mary Shelley’s stepsister Claire Clairmont in the summer of 1816.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the eARC!

Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. I absolutely loved it. I love Rachel Hawkins writing, it’s not a thriller but you can definitely feel like somethings up! I was engaged the whole time and loved the 70s musician/writer vibe. It was amazing book and I recommend!

⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Villa, Rachel Hawkins
January 3, 2023, St.Martin's Press

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the #ARC in exchange for the honest review.

The Villa is a book within a book, one of my favorite types of books. The book centers around a Villa in Italy where a rockstar was murdered years before. Friends, who both happen to be authors, Chess and Emily are having a girls vacation at the Villa. Emily finds clues to the truth of what happened all those years before hidden in a book, but with tensions rising with Chess, she wants to be the one to crack the case as well. Nothing is quite what meets the eye in this thrilling mystery filled with murder, sex and betrayal.

@ladyhawkins #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #mystery #thevillarachelhawkins #thevilla #rachelhawkins

Wow, what a book! Rachel Hawkins’ best so far! I loved how Mari’s and Emily’s stories were intertwined. The setting was perfect. I lost two good nights of sleep because I couldn’t put this book down. The only downside for me was Chess. I really couldn’t find any redeeming qualities for her and the ending made me hate her even more. I was truly hoping Emily would triumph in the same way Mari did.

I just finished reading the book "The Villa", by Rachel Hawkins. Thanks to St Martins Press and NetGalley for an advanced copy in return for an honest review. Rachel Hawkins is an excellent writer who has a very steady and well paced writing style. This book is what people call a slow-burn. No real big moments or reveals, but steady progress towards a resolution.
The story is two fold: surrounding an event that occured in an Italian Villa decades ago, which involved a murder and a mystery. Fast forward four decades, and two writer who are also best friends go to the same villa to finish their own books, and one of the writer stumbles upon the murder mystery and decides to delve further into it...while trying to finish the book she is currently writing.
There are many characters in this book which the author brings to life quite vividly. She does an excellent job of breathing personality and urgency into all the characters in the book. I enjoyed both parts of the book: the past and the present.
This story is definately worth reading because it is well written and has consistent action. Even though there are not big moments is has enough action and mystery to entertain the reader, whomever they are.
Happy Reading Everyone!

Oh I loved this book. It's an absolutely delicious and yet heartbreaking story of sisterhood and the ties that bond and break us. Following the dual plot lines, it's not as though you can't predict where it's going - I'll admit to guessing a few of the plot twists, but also being completely blindsided by some of the others (especially the final one). But, guessing it doesn't make a dent in how this book wraps you up in the warm heat of a summer night in Italy and then pushes you out into the cold when you least expect it.

Mari's novel, Lilith Rising, that we get small pieces of, sounds like a fascinating novel that merits her obsession as well as Emily's. The only fault in the book that irked me was the lack of definition of Chess' character in comparison to Mari, Emily, and Lara, who are each complicated and flawed but in ways that you can still empathize with them. I found that much harder to do with Chess, especially when couched with her self-aggrandizing and self-help guru conversations.

I love the subtle nod to Mary Shelley and the writing of Frankenstein that Rachel Hawkins is clearly influenced by. The entire '70s plot line is absolutely captivating, but going into the present is equally mysterious. I just loved it all.

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

4 ⭐️ Being a big fan of Rachel Hawkins I was super excited to receive an ARC of The Villa. This may have been my favorite of her thrillers yet! The atmosphere was wonderful, and I found myself connecting with Emily super quickly. The story within the story really helped to keep my attention as well.

So much happened so fast near the end that I can definitely see myself wanting to do a reread when the book officially releases to make sure I caught everything!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy of this book!

Now I can’t decide if this book or the Wife Upstairs in my favorite Rachel Hawkins?!

I’m a sucker for a 60’s/70’s historical fiction. Part of this book is set in that time period, swapping back and forth between past and present kept me entertained. The parallel mystery was interesting and I loved that the end left just a bit to the imagination.

Emily and Chess have been friends since they were young but have grown apart since then. Chess plans a 6 week to a beautiful villa in Italy where they can both work on the books they're writing. Emily needs a break from her life and needs inspiration to finish her book. She's recovering from a mysterious illness, mourning her divorce and facing financial troubles. The villa was a crime scene in the 1970's when a person died inside. In alternating chapters, Emily struggles to complete her book and then decides to write a new book based on the villa's history and Mari in the 1970's describes how she, her boyfriend and sister join a friend to stay at the villa. “Houses remember.”

Thank you netGalley for letting me review this book! I found it very entertaining and a page turner. This author is new to me and I plan to read more books by this author. The ending surprised me!!

In 1974 in Orvieto, Italy at Villa Rosato. a murder took place.
The Victim Pierce Sheldon- married but has a girlfriend
Mari Godwick- Pierce's girlfriend and wrote the famous Horror novel Lilith Rising, while staying at the Villa.
Lara Larchmont- singer and has written the album Aestas- about her stay at Aestas..
John Dorcherster-Johnnie who wants to become a musician
Noel- famous singer.

Present day
Chess- a self help novelist
Emily- who writes cozies and going through a divorce.

Chess invites Emily to Italy with her in hopes that both of them will be inspired to write and have some girlfriend time.
While staying at the villa (formally Rosato) Emily finds the book Lilith Rising and the book inspires her to write again not about her cozies but about the people who actually stayed there. She starts asking questions to people who were around that time. Most people say that the house is cursed and she is better off not knowing what Actually happened that night in 1974. A mystery that Emily plans to dig into.

#NetGalley #TheVilla

While overall this is a pretty subpar thriller, it still has some great aspects- good characters, storylines that intertwine in a interesting way, and a wonderful setting (who doesn’t love Italy?!). Overall I felt the story just wasn’t edited as I t was super repetitive, an impossibly slow burn, and I never became emotionally involved therefore didn’t care what happened. I wish the story had matched the beautiful cover of the book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

The Villa, by Rachel Hawkins, is a book that sucks you in and doesn't let go!

Told in alternate timelines, the novel tells the story of a Villa in Italy and the experiences that two sets of girls had there. The novel alludes to the intrigue and scandal of rock and roll, as well telling the story of a bond between friends and sisters.

I don't want to give anything away, but I thought the whole thing was extremely well written. I was interested in both timelines and felt the story really had a satisfying conclusion.

I'd recommend The Villa to fans of Daisy Jones and the Six.

2.5 stars
This book was very slow going at first and tool me a long time to get into. It did pick up some at the end but the conclusion wasn't satisfying. I found the twists to be predictable and I didn't particularly enjoy any of the characters.

In The Villa, Rachel Hawkins once again gives the readers a stunning, suspenseful, and thrilling novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I seriously couldn't put this book down and read it in one night.

The Villa follows the lives of two women in two different time periods who both stayed at the same villa in Orvieto, Italy. The main character, Emily, is on a journey to write her next novel after a rough breakup with her husband and after recovering from a debilitating unknown illness. Emily joins her childhood best friend, Chess, on a writers retreat to Orvieto, where they stay at Villa Aestas, a beautiful holiday home with a haunting history. 40 years prior, a horrific murder occurred at the villa, a murder where the details surrounding it are still unknown and shrouded in mystery. Emily becomes drawn into the life of Mari, a young woman who lived at the villa during the time of the murder. Throughout Emily's stay, she begins to discover that there is much more to the story than a murder, and as she get's closer to discovering the truth, she begins to realize that her best friend has more secrets than she originally realized, and that the villa may claim another victim before her trip ends.

This book sucked me in from the very beginning and had me second guessing myself the entire time. I loved the dual POV of the two women in two different times. This book had an incredible atmosphere and was very descriptive, making me feel like I was right there at the villa with Emily.

Highly recommend if you like mysteries, unreliable narrators, multiple timelines and POVs, and twisted secrets.

Please note I did receive a free ARC from the publisher in exchange for a honest review :)

Houses remember is such a fitting opening line that really threads together both stories in this book. This book was full of secrets and relationships that all had so much depth to them. I could picture this as a movie the whole time if was reading it. The jumps between timelines was easy to follow, too.

A beautiful Italian villa. A famous murder. Told in dual timelines, The Villa plunges readers into two strained summers, decades apart. One with the rocks stars and the drugs that led to a tragic death. The other with two best friends, neither being quite truthful.

This is probably my favorite Rachel Hawkins book yet. The Villa is a character unto itself. The pacing is good and I really was caught off guard (in a good way) by a couple of the end pieces. Like Hawkins’s other novels, there is a strong element of female empowerment in the story. However, unlike in some of her other works, I feel she did a good job of developing some of the male characters throughout to give the story more depth and believability, at least in the “historical” timeline.

Overall, this is a solid read that any fans of Hawkins’ work will be glad to read!

"What kind of person hate-reads their best friend’s books?"

Emily isn't exactly living her best life--freshly divorced, her ex sicking his lawyers on her money, deadlines slipping by without manuscripts, readers upset over plots, finances dwindling, and her mind and body ill. Her best friend since grade school, however, absolutely is--two bestsellers, an ever growing audience, money to burn, and that effortless positivity that seems to radiate off her. After meeting up for their annual lunch, Chess proposes a plan . . . They go on vacation. To Italy. To Villa Aestas. To a Murder house!

The story weaves the two tales--Emily and Chess with Marci and her friends back in 1974 when the murder took place. The past is intertwined with various sources that reported on, documented, or otherwise told of and shared the murder of Villa Aestas.

It's riveting, engaging, intriguing, and mysterious. Shocking twists and explosive secrets. And all along the story isn't what we're led to believe . . . I gobbled this up. And I recommend it to everyone. A phenomenal read that kept me up way past my bedtime.