A house remembers. That's what they say, right?
Emily and Chess were best friends growing up, but life drew them apart until Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy and Emily jumps at the opportunity. But, this home, this villa, has a morbid history. What happened all those years ago? What is happening now? Why is Chess acting the way she is? What is Emily uncovering? Will history repeat itself?
As with all the novels I've read from Rachel Hawkins, The Villa draws you in on many levels. Mystery, thriller, friendship, life stress, and more. All those things we love from life, and fear.
Rachel Hawkins paints a vivid picture of life at the villa and how stories are intertwined.
You won't regret picking this title up to read. Think of it as a trip to the Italian countryside, where anything can happen.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and the author for an advanced copy of The Villa!

Reviews being submitted to Amazon and B&N (awaiting approval), as well as to my bookstagram account this coming week.

In this page turning thriller we met Emily, a writer who is struggling after finding out her husband is cheating on her and a mysterious illness. Emily's childhood best friend Chess, a self help guru thought she was saving the day by inviting Emily to a villa in Italy for six weeks to get her our of her writing slump. The thing is, the villa is infamous in being the house in which an up and coming musician was murdered in the 1970s while staying with his lover, Mari, who went on to become a best selling horror writer, and her step-sister Lara, who created one of the best selling albums of all times following their stay in the villa.

Rachel Hawkins has delivered a fantastic read in The Villa. I love a dual time line story, and Hawkins' does a fantastic job working through each story line seamlessly. This book sucked me in from the first moment, with its face paced story telling through both plot lines, and the writing made me feel like I was in Italy with both parties. I feel like she described the friendship between Emily and Chess so perfectly; doesn't it seem like we all have those friends who teeter so close to being enemies? Loved that dynamic. I also loved the story of Mari and her life struggles; hers felt the most poignant and tragic, and I loved how that story line wrapped up. My only complaint is that I felt like the ending was almost too abrupt. I feel like there are some aspects we didn't get a lot of clarity on, namely Emily's illness which I felt could have been interesting to explore. That being said, I did very much enjoy this book and read it in almost one sitting. I will be recommending this to my friends!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

My third thriller by Rachel Hawkins!

Emily is invited by her childhood best friend Chess, to spend some time in Italy to write. While she’s excited to reconnect with her famous best friend, she also finds that the villa they are staying in has a dark past… A young musician was killed while staying there with a group of his friends in the 1970s. Going back and forth between the timelines of 1970 and present day, we learn what really happened at The Villa.

While I am a Rachel Hawkins fan this one wasn’t my favourite of hers! I was waiting for a bit more shock and awe and this one felt like a slow burn instead. Some people may prefer that so still a solid read, but I felt like there wasn’t much to hook onto!

I did find the heavy amount of toxic relationships interesting! Toxic friendships, sisterhoods, romantic relationships… they were everywhere and so I was hooked on all that drama.

I also always love a setting that almost feels like a character itself! The Villa was the real star of the show here (and not just cause it sounds gorgeous AF). It holds all the secrets and the mystery so it was my favourite part!!

I started out reading The Villa and honestly was not loving the dual timeline. I found myself not fully invested in the characters from 1974 and just wanting the current day story. But as the story progressed I got sucked in and enjoyed the ride! The twist at the end- DID NOT SEE THAT COMING! Highly recommend this thriller!

Title: The Villa
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Pub Date: Jan 3, 2022 OUT NOW!

This is the story of 2 storylines. One set in 1974 with Mari and her friends and another set in present day with Emily and Chess, but both storylines collide to make a suspenseful story.

Mari, her boyfriend, and her step sister join a renown musician in a Villa in Italy with a beautiful landscape and time to just get away and be creative. Mari, an author, has started writing a book that is inspired by the house they are staying in. When Mari's boyfriend, a guitar player, is killed, Mari is able to complete a well known story.

In present day, Chess is a self help author who has rented the villa for 6 weeks during the summer and invites her friend, Emily, to come with her. Emily is currently going through a divorce and could use the separation from her life in the states. She also becomes inspired by the villa and the story of the murder years ago. As an author, she finds her love for writing again. As Emily continues to feel a connection to Mari and her tribe. Once she reveals her secrets to Chess, more and more connections are made to the story of the past.

What I liked:
- I felt that the story lines ebbed and flowed well. Both storylines were able to have their moments of intrigue at different times.
- About 1/3 of the way through this book the story lines both picked up quickly.
- The ending did leave for a big surprise!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for this pre-released digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This gothic thriller novel was intriguing and exciting. The start was a bit slow for my taste, but it truly picked up. Hawkin's writing style is mesmerizing. This was my first book by her and I can't wait to dive into more!

Rachel Hawkins is at the top of my instant buy list. She could publish her grocery list at this point and I would say "thank you, may I have another?" Every book she writes keeps me on the edge of my seat and guessing until the very last page and The Villa is no different. I devoured this in one sitting.

I pride myself in guessing the twist, but Rachel knows how to throw me for a loop. I loved the back and forth between past and present. The premise of a "house that remembers" always draws me in. The atmosphere, the energy, the history, it is all incredibly fascinating and sets the tone. And I knew I would be in love with this from the blurb alone:

“Inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, and the infamous summer Percy and Mary Shelley spent with Lord Byron at a Lake Geneva castle––the birthplace of Frankenstein––The Villa welcomes you into its deadly legacy.…”

While The Villa didn't hit me as hard as her previous two works, this was a fast paced, quick and entertaining read that I could not put down.

The Plot: Told through two timelines, The Villa is told through the perspective of Mari, a 19-year-old soon-to-be author of feminist horror in the 1970s, and Emily, a cozy mystery writer in the present day. Mari and a group of other creatives spent the summer of 1974 in the villa - a summer that would end with Mari's genre-shaking gothic novel and her step-sister's debut album. The summer also ended, however, with the death of Mari's lover.

Decades later, Emily is spending the summer in the same villa with her childhood best friend, Chess, now a best-selling motivational author. Emily and Chess begin to uncover connections between Mari's time in the villa in the 1970s and theirs in the 2020s, resulting in a thriller full of travel, creation, and reflection on gender roles.

The Review: I really enjoyed this one!! It was an incredibly atmospheric thriller - I felt like I was reading about Fleetwood Mac spending a summer in Italy. I enjoyed the 1970s timeline more than the present-day one, and found it to be a really enjoyable read!

Thanks so much to Rachel Hawkins and St. Martin's Press for this ARC through NetGalley! The Villa is out now :)

Happy Pub Week to Rachel Hawkins! This gothic mystery that’s part Daisy Jones & the Six and part Rebecca features dual timelines, one set in present day, the other in early 70s.
In the modern story, two best friends head to Italy hoping that a month-long stay will cure their writers’ block. The relationship between the two women, both authors, is fraught with hidden tensions, some personal, some professional. Chess writes mega-successful female empowerment, Rachel Hollis-esque self-help books, and her influencer money has funded this trip. Emily writes cozy mysteries, and she’s more than a little burned out from her main character and her soon-to-be-ex-husband’s threats to take half of her royalties. When the girls learn that their villa was the site of a grisly murder, their muses are inspired in different ways.
The 1970s timeline tells the story of rock and roll singer Noel Gordon and various band members and friends who embark on an Italian retreat for inspiration and vibes. Allusions to Fleetwood Mac abound, if one of that band had ended up dead. Who dies and who commits the murder remain questions throughout, and the present-day authors both argue about who should write the true-crime certain bestseller.
Both stories are engaging, with subtle commentary on the 70s free love mantra and today’s influencer culture. The ending was a little unsatisfying. Both women make some unlikable and unbelievable choices that strain credulity in a way that depends too heavily on the book’s gothic foundations. But Hawkins writes fully fleshed out characters that inspire emotion and don’t run together as so many multiple-timeline characters can do. I’d recommend this for lovers of gothic sensibilities and suspenseful mysteries.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Rachel Hawkins and St Martin’s Press for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

This was so so good! I read the entire thing in two sittings and I just wanted to tell everyone to shush so I could finish it! I loved the main character and the secondary timeline was perfect. I couldn’t have asked for more and Hawkins will definitely remain an autobuy author for me!

Another fantastic book by Rachel Hawkins. I was drawn in from the very beginning. Both main characters have personalities that make you both love and hate them, so its more interesting to be absorbed into their interactions with one another.

The pace was great and the plot was so interesting.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and Rachel Hawkins!

I love Rachel Hawkins and was thrilled to receive this free ARC from NetGalley. I love the cover of the book with is vacationy, relaxing, vibes and the plot of 2 groups of people visiting the same house/villa in Italy on vacation, at different time frames, 1970's and current time.The house and the town sounds awesome. It also explores the arts, writing, playing, and signing music, and writing a book while throwing in some history. The differing points of view really make the book come alive. I found the 70's group and their story-line much more enjoyable then the current one about best friends Chess and Emily. That story-line was a bit dull. I dislike the ending. I'm not sure why that plot twist was added when the book already had a great ending.

This was a quick read that I enjoyed well enough. I liked the second half of the book much more than the first once the story started to pick up, and enjoyed Mari and the 70s crew plot line more than Chess and Emily's at the Villa. Unfortunately I thought the endings of both story lines we quite unbelievable, but I also liked the themes of female empowerment and friendship.

The Villa tells the story of best friends who are both writers that travel to Villa Aestas in the Italian country for a summer. It also follows the story of Mari and Lara from 1973 as they make a similar trip. When one of their trip mates dies at the Villa in 1974, they are all changed forever. How will their stories connect? What suspenseful drama will unfold this go round?

I really loved the gothic elements of this book. Rachel Hawkins nailed it perfectly. I loved how the story unfolded and was so angry and invested to what happened to Emily along the way. The themes of woman creativity when it comes to art were very prevalent and I loved the two timelines hammering that home, each one having their own problems and issues. The thing that let me down was the end. I really wanted more detail about both timelines endings instead of just saying what happened. I could imply it but with so much else laid out in the book, I wanted this to be laid out also. Overall, it was an engrossing and entertaining read and I really did have fun with it!

This book was inspired by the real life event of the weekend in the summer when Lord Byron, Percy and Mary Shelly spent time together. In addition it is also inspired by Fleetwood Mac and the Manson family murders.a story within a story with past and present storylines. I really enjoyed this thriller. I liked the glimpses of the past and how they seemed to mirror events in the present. I thought the inspirations for the book was really interesting.

The Villa was my second Rachel Hawkins book. The first being Reckless Girls. I have to say, she does an amazing job at writing characters you like and hate at the same time. In The Villa we meet Emily who is a 35 writer who has been dealing with illness, writers block and a nasty divorce from the man she thought she'd love forever. Emily has a lunch with her best friend, Chess, who has a "perfect" and successful life. Shortly after lunch they decide to visit Italy for the summer, The house they are staying in has it's own famous history that I found far more enticing than the modern day story personally.

This was a book that I was excited to find out the ending but also inwardly groaning at some of the characters. I enjoy when the characters are so complex!

FINALLY, a book I can get lost in - the plot moves along, the characters are interesting, the setting is beautiful and the twists and turns are great! This story really kept my interest after slogging through my last few books, feeling that I should enjoy and/or be enlightened by them, but ended up just wanting to get them over with.
I loved all the backstories on everyone and the two timelines worked well together.
I really felt for Em and Mari, they seemed like the same type of sensitive, intelligent person, but I couldn't help an eyeroll when reading about Chess - just the fact that she changed her name twice seemed so pretentious. The author is so on point, describing Chess as a self help guru!
Even the male characters are portrayed perfectly.
I loved how the ending tied in with both books written and timelines.
Highly recommended for a good, entertaining read!

I was so excited to be approved to read an ARC of this new suspense novel from Rachel Hawkins!

Right away it gave me Daisy Jones & The Six vibes which I loved. It was definitely a slow-burn suspense but I constantly had an ominous feeling. I really enjoyed the switching between past and present and the different points of view throughout the story. I felt the twists could’ve been way bigger and in the end I was disappointed in the lack of creepiness/thrill the writing made me feel.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for this e-ARC!

Wow! Totally engrossing novel of two intertwined stories and the consequences of actions and inactions. The atmospheric setting, a villa in Italy grabs you from the start. Both familiar in its homage to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and unique in its dual timeline perspective, The Villa will keep you engrossed to the last page as the poetic twists and turns continue to unfold to the very last page. Highly recommended for fans of gothic mysteries and the love/hate bonds of longtime friendship.

Another great Rachel Hawkins book finished! I found myself loving this one, despite it being a slower burn than The Wife Upstairs. But it was still amazing. The two timelines almost felt like you were reading two completely different books, until they came together in the end. Right now I'm just annoyed that I've now read every Rachel Hawkins book she has written, and I want more. I love when I can find go-to authors like her, where I always know I'm getting a great book.