Could not get Into this at all. I didn’t finish it—I ended up skipping around and also going to the end though.

I don’t feel that I can give a full review but I will say this sounded so so cool and I thought it would be right up my alley. I think it was just too slow-burn for me and it was a let down because I think the concept had so much potential.

I LOVED this book & stayed completely riveted the entire time. Thrillers are a dime a dozen these days, but truly well-thought-out, perfectly paced thrillers are much more rare, and this is definitely one of them!

*Thanks to NetGalley & St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed The Villa, since I wasn't particularly fond of the author's other books.

Overall, I enjoyed the setting and characters quite a bit. I also liked the idea of the plot with the house as a character and two forms of art from the past playing a role in the story, but I thought all of those pieces could've been WAY more developed.

The present day characters and their relationship was very developed and engaging, but the past storyline could've played a bigger role in the suspensefulness of the story. But overall, I enjoyed this one and didn't predict the ending!

3.5 stars.

I absolutely loved this story! I always enjoy Rachel Hawkins books because they have the underlinings of older stories that have been modernized and it's what hooked me from the beginning with The Wife Upstairs. I personally loved how the three stories came together and intertwined to give you the full picture of what was fully going on. I would recommend this to any mystery lovers and literary lovers.

I really enjoyed this one. I liked the shifting point of views and both story lines.

I found that the ending was a little clunky and probably needed a re-edit.

🍋 The Villa - Rachel Hawkins

4 ⭐️ - I liked this one! Rachel Hawkins has been a bit hit or miss for me. I loved The Wife Upstairs, but didn’t love Reckless Girls so I was interested to see where this one measured up. I’d say, somewhere in-between! I don’t feel this was a thriller, but a cozy, fast-paced mystery instead!

Emily and Chess have been inseparable besties from the time they were kids…until now. As adults their relationship has been strained. Chess is a successful self-help author and Emily, well, she seems to be falling apart. When Chess suggests a girls trip to a villa in Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect. Except, “The Villa” is home of the notorious rockstar, Noel Gordon’s death…

This story moved at a great pace. I love changing POVs and timelines and I think it was great to get the growth of both the past and present stories. I really enjoyed the connections between the past events at The Villa and the current events at The Villa (IYKYK). I thought some storylines could have been beefed up a tad and it was not as dark as I was anticipating. A mystery it is, a thriller it is not. If you’re looking for a cozy, closed door mystery or a book about a book, this one’s for you!

I really enjoyed this book! It was a quick read and just what I needed at the right time last month. Don’t you think a book works better for you if you find the right book that you are exactly in the mood for? I guess that means I’m a “mood reader”.

The Villa has a very interesting premise. There’s a current day timeline with best friends Emily and Chess (I’m a southern girl so this name only reminds me of pie ) and they decide to spend the summer in an Italian villa. The house itself has a complicated history because of a murder that occurred in the summer of 1974 when a rock and roll band was staying there. Emily is a writer of cozy mysteries so of course she starts investigating that fateful 1974 summer. There is a lot of sex, drugs and rock and roll in this storyline and one particularly uncomfortable scene, but it was presented in a “closed door” way, which I appreciate. I don’t wanna read all the details of that stuff.

The book goes back and forth between Emily and Chess’s story and the young musicians from the 70’s, loosely based on Fleetwood Mac. There is also a nod to the infamous summer when Mary Shelley and her husband Percy stayed at a Lake Geneva castle known as the birthplace of Frankenstein. I didn’t know anything about her but I found Mary Shelley’s life really interesting when I went down the rabbit hole of researching her.

Anyway, that sounds like a lot for one book, and it was… but Rachel Hawkins made it work! And can we talk about this cover?! It’s gorgeous!

Oh, one more thing. I recommend this in print or e-book. There were a lot of book excerpts, song lyrics, emails, podcast excerpts and magazine articles that are easier to identify in print because of different fonts/italics and such. I would have been confused by these if I had been listening to it. Just my 2 cents.

I've tried so hard with this book, but it just isn't for me. Normally I'm a huge fan of dual timelines, but it isn't working for me in this one. Unfortunately this is a DNF for me after trying multiple times to read it. I still really enjoy Rachel Hawkins' writing and I'm looking forward to her next book!

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins. Thank you to the publisher for the egalley of this novel prior to publication. I have read several novels by Rachel Hawkins and she doesn’t disappoint. I had heard mixed reviews of this book but was pleasantly surprised. The book reads quickly and I really enjoyed the 2 different timelines/story lines. This is full of twists – some which I expected but some I didn’t. Highly recommended to thriller lovers! Looking forward to Hawkins next book!

This book was an enjoyable mix of murder mystery and friendship dynamics. The writing style really built up suspense and tension which provided shocking twists and turns!

Well this cements it. Rachel Hawkins is an auto-buy author for me who can do no wrong.

"Houses remember.
Now the line makes even more sense to her, now she knows how to use it.
Not a love story at all.
Or yes, a love story , but there's horror inside of it. There's death and loss, blood and sweat. Just as there is in every love story, after all."

Now that's the kind of love story I want to read.

Two best, but somewhat estranged, friends vacation in a secluded gothic mansion in Italy. A secluded gothic mansion that was the scene of a famous murder in the 70s. On friend, Chess, is a lifestyle guru who has made her money through self help books and a carefully curated Instagram feed. The other friend, Emily, is a cozy mystery writer, who is going through a divorce, trying to overcome a mysterious illness that no one can diagnose and is momentarily stalled out in her writing career. Chess insists that the time in Italy will be great. She and Emily will be both work on their respective books and reunite and make amazing memories. And she's right--to an extent.

Then we have another pov from Mari in the 70s. She, her boyfriend Pierce and her stepsister are spending the summer in the same Italian villa with a famous rock star. We know this story ends in death, and MAri leads the reader through that fateful summer, while simultaneously telling how she was inspired to write on of the most famous feminist horror books ever--Lilith Rising.

I really, really enjoyed this book. At the beginning, I wasn't totally on board with Mari's pov--I found her a bit dry and I wasn't sure how she fit into the modern day narrative. But then I became super invested and actually fell in love with Mari's story. And the end of this book--chef's kiss. Hawkins is a superb storyteller and I will definitely be buying anything she writes.

I got so excited about getting this ARC because I love Rachel Hawkins. Her stories are incredible, and she does an amazing job constructing an enjoyable story with unique characters, and The Villa was not the exception.

Chess invites her oldest friend to stay at Villa Aestas in Italy after Emily's marriage seems to be in trouble. Now in their 30s, Emily and Chess are both authors with lives on their own, so they jump at the chance to spend a summer together. They have a complicated friendship, but they both seem eager to move pass their issues and reconnect as only old friends can do. As their days pass, Emily digs into the villa's history including the murder that took place in the property in 1974 and the two culturally important pieces of art that came from it. Back then, rock star Noel Gordon invites up-and-coming musician Pierce Sheldon to join him in his inspiration retreat. Pierce shows up with his girlfriend Mari and her stepsister Lara. As their summer unfolds, the decisions the group makes leads to the gruesome death of Pierce and the conception of two important pieces of art: a horror novel and a platinum album. As Emily looks for clues in the novel and album, she realizes that her and Chess' lives have parallels with the lives of Mary and Lara, and maybe her love-hate relationship with Chess will finally change for the better.

This novel was fantastic and a true masterpiece in connecting two stories that don't have much to do with each other but that are absolutely related in more ways than one. The story is told in two timelines, the present and the past. The present is mostly told from Emily's POV who is struggling with issues in her marriage. The summer trip with Chess gives her the excuse to not being around her husband and also to find inspiration for her new novel, which she has been unable to work on for months. Chess, on the other hand, is a successful author and motivational speaker who is also trying to find inspiration for her next book. I must say I did not like Chess from the beginning as she had mean-girl energy, so it was interesting to learn about her life and her friendship with Emily. The other POV comes from the 1970's musicians group. These chapters focus on what was happening during the weeks leading to Pierce's murder and how the choices that Lara and Mari made impacted their ending. Some of the details from the past come in the form of podcasts and news stories, so it was nice to see all of the assumptions made from people who have "investigated" the crime but failed to do what Emily does, which is looking into the horror novel and album to find clues to what actually happened.

Overall, I found this novel truly engaging. I love how Hawkins does such a great job building up a story within a a story. All of her characters have flaws and strengths which result in a great storytelling arc. I truly loved this one!

I liked but did not love this book. Once I got into it, I wanted to know what happened but I found the time changes to be a bit distracting.

The Villa was a great story that kept me guessing until the end. I enjoyed the twists and the multiple points of view as well as the setting which easily transported me out of the country. This book was much more enjoyable than Reckless Girls and right on par with the The Wife Upstairs.

This was a twisty tale that intertwines a couple different story lines. We are taken from the past to the present. The past murder to the present thriller. Emily and Chess have gone to Italy for the summer and Emily hopes to find inspiration to complete her newest cosy mystery. What she finds is the inspiration to go in a totally different direction. After all, with her ex-husband taking most of her residuals why should she continue to work on her series. With staying at the Villa Aestas there is so much to research about the former players and the murder that happened here. This was pretty much a predictable tale but it was a pleasure to read and listen to and since I had both versions that is how I devoured it.

Highly recommend reading this one! I really enjoyed Rachel Hawkin's last book, Reckless Girls, (not a huge fan of The Wife Upstairs). I think this tops the list for me. Her books get better and better and I'm excited to see what she writes next.

Thanks Netgalley! 4.5 stars.

This book features dual timelines, one in the present and one in the 1970s, that both take place in the same old Italian villa. A girls trip dissolves into chaos, a rockstar gets murdered, and an iconic horror novel connects the past and present. While the story kept me interested until the end, I thought it was a bit short and the writing seemed somewhat rushed. Still, I have read lots of great reviews, so if you are a thriller-lover you might really enjoy this one! Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy to review. It is out now!

The Villa is a breath of fresh, murdery air. This thriller, with its story-within-the-story and dual timelines, will keep you guessing right up to the final page. The ending was shocking and, shockingly perfect. Plus, who isn't interested in a historic, Italian villa?

Read if you:
loved Daisy Jones & the Six
are craving an Italian getaway
have ever been in a toxic friendship
enjoy ends that aren't quite neat

The Villa was an interesting read, definitely not what I expected. The idea of a house being an influence on people was not one that really worked for me. I found the scenes set in the past the more interesting of the two POVs but neither fully grasped my attention.

I really loved THE WIFE UPSTAIRS, but I was underwhelmed by RECKLESS GIRLS. Good news is, though, I was really impressed by THE VILLA! I loved the Gothic atmosphere and Italian setting, and I always devour stories about the complicated friendships between women. I enjoyed how the 1970s story was woven in — and the twist at the end genuinely shocked me.