Bestselling Author Rachel Hawkins returns following Reckless Girls with her latest, THE VILLA —a Gothic-inspired cozy mystery where the past and present collide when two friends spend a summer in an Italian villa with a tormented and haunting history.

PRESENT: Friends, Emily and Chess (best friends) since childhood, decide to rent an Italian villa for the summer. It is a luxury villa but is also famous for the scene of a murder in the 1970s. Chess recommends it and pays for the trip. She became famous for her self-help books and her IG posts.

Emily and Chess were BFFs until Emily married Matt. Emily writes cozy YA mysteries, and Chess moved to the big city and writes self-help books (non-fiction).

PAST: Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday luxury retreat; however, back in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato. It was rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. To reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. There was also Johnnie the dealer and plenty of sex, drugs, and rock n roll.

Things got out of hand. Some died. Someone was sent to prison. A young woman writer finds inspiration for her horror work, a husband, and a famous aristocrat who pulled them there. Also, some ghostly stories.

Emily digs into the complex history and thinks there might have been something more to the story. Did they leave clues of something more sinister? Emily is trying to get away from her husband (lots of drama with her impending divorce) and has an illness that is worse with stress and deadlines.

Chess always wants to write together. The trip was for six weeks so they could finish their novels. But can Emily trust Chess? A betrayal.

Will the villa claim yet another victim in the present?

Inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, the usage of podcasts, newspaper clippings, and the atmospheric past/setting added to the intrigue and some surprises, even though I was expecting something more sinister and shocking.

Atmospheric, an evil, wicked ending, and a cozy mystery with a Gothic flair and a "house that remembers."

AUDIOBOOK: I loved the front cover and thoroughly enjoyed the e-book and especially the audiobook, which was highly engaging and entertaining with narrators (love Julia Whelan) and the other two, Kimberly M. Wetherell and Shiromi Arserio, for a wide range of voices for the characters, both past, and present.

I also enjoyed her other two previous books. For fans of authors Lucy Foley, Carol Goodman, and Ruth Ware.

Thank you to #StMartinsPress #SMPInfluencers #Netgalley for a gifted ALC and ARC.

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Pub Date: Jan 3, 2023
My Rating: 4 Stars
Jan 2022 Must-Read Books

I liked this one a lot and really enjoyed the format of past and present. I was torn with both liking Ches and despising her. Satisfying ending!

I could not put this book down! It grabbed me from page 1, and I couldn't stop reading til I finished it, which is why it only took me 2 days to get through!

I really enjoyed the dual story-lines, and being able to get pieces of the past as well as the present. Although I do wish certain aspects were explored more and given a better explaination, such as Em's mysterious illness, and a certain "drowning", overall this was an incredibly atmospheric and fast paced read that kept me guessing about what really happened all those years ago til the very end.

This was another great inspired hit from Rachel Hawkins, and I really can't wait to see what she writes next!

Wow! This is, by far, my favorite Rachel Hawkins book (compared to The Wife Upstairs and Reckless Girls).

It has a darker, more gothic feel than those stories. It was highly immersive and enticing, and I loved the messy female friendships. I thought I knew where the story was going, but a surprise in the final act completely threw me off.

I also appreciate the cohesiveness of the floral motifs on the covers of these three releases!

If you are looking for something that has the same vibes as White Lotus definitely consider adding to your reading list!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

In the book, former childhood best friends turned authors, Emily and Chess rent an Italian villa to spend time together and to both work on their books. Emily is going through a divorce with her ex-husband and discovers secrets about her ex while in Italy. At the same time, a story is told about the villa’s complicated history and about others who have stayed there before. This was a great thriller, I seemed to end a little abruptly, but that’s my only complaint!

I loved the wife upstairs, but the last two books from this author were just disappointing. She needs to stick to her rom coms under her pen name because they are amazing. These are just ugh.

Rachel Hawkins always has a way of keeping me on my toes! I loved The Wife Upstairs and had a lot of fun with The Villa, I am always intrigued by Cults and this was giving me White Lotus vibes! Thanks to the publisher for this review copy.

This ended up being a mediocre thriller. I loved the sex, love, and drugs vibes of the past timeline. However the ending was lame in my opinion. I didn't appreciate how the author backtracked.

I have mixed feelings on this one, I didnt LOVE it, but didnt' hate it, it was just " Okay" Could have been a bit faster paced with more twists, I had to make myself finish. 2.5 stars

I have mixed emotions about this one. I felt like it was all over the place. I liked the different storylines but it felt confusing at times. It was jumping from one story to the next too fast. There were a lot of characters too so that just made it more confusing. I just couldn’t get into this one. It was very different from her other books.

Set in dual perspective and dual timeline, both surrounding their own trials and tribulations. a story within a story, similar character plots, but in different happenstances. We read along as the story unfurls slowly, each page giving more detail, more insight. Some storyline is predictable, but that seems intentional. Some of the storyline twists, but not in a jarring way that leaves you shocked to your core…it’s more the kind that makes you sit back and go, “who would thought"

I loved the settings and the alternating timelines. The story was so compelling and I just did not want to put it down. I loved Emily and Mari as the main characters, and suspected everybody. There was one part of the storyline that I didn’t love, and I guessed what was happening. Overall, loved it! Looking forward to reading this author again.

The Villa is a story within a story told in the two different timelines when they occurred.

Current day, Emily, a mystery writer undergoing a nasty divorce from her husband Matt, is invited to spend 6 weeks in Italy with her childhood BFF Chess, now a famous author and motivational speaker. It's been awhile since the two have gotten together. At times, they seem able to pick up the natural rhythm and laugh together as they once did, but overall, each sees the growing differences that now lie between them.

The "WOW factor" villa that Chess has reserved for their stay is an infamous "Murder House". In 1974, a group of 5 friends (well-known or soon to be well-known) stayed there, partying hard. Present were two men who were famous musicians/rock stars; two sisters, one who would go on to write an album that becomes one of the best of all time, the other a dark best-selling book; and another man, the fifth wheel. There has always been much talk and interest about what really happened that summer, which ended in the murder of one of the group. A murder which captured the attention of the world.

Emily and then Chess become caught up in the house and what happened there. As they become more familiar with the events of that long ago summer, they find that their relationship with each other is affected. Could it really be the house, as locals say?

A slow-burner, this is an ok read, but I was hoping for more. The characters never really resonated with me, though truly this might have been influenced by my timing of the read.

My thanks to St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read and ARC via NetGalley. The novel is to be published 1/3/23. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

Full review and recipe match: https://bakingthroughbookclub.com/2022/12/14/che-macello/

We all have that one friend that we love to hate. Maybe she is too perfect. Maybe she seems to have it all. Maybe she is living out your dreams and getting rich off of them while your own life seems to be spiraling down the drain.

That is exactly what is happening to Emily. She’s in the midst of divorcing her husband of seven years, trying to recover from severe health problems, living with her parents, and struggling to reinvigorate her career as a writer. Emily has had moderate success writing cozy mysteries and is trying to get the next book in her somewhat-popular Petal Bloom series to her publisher. However, life does not seem to be going her way. She meets her lifelong best friend for lunch one day and can’t help feeling a little disgusted.
“Somewhere around the time she started calling herself, ‘Chess,’ I realized I might actually hate my best friend.”
The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

Girl, can’t say I blame you. Chess “fell into” a job writing an advice column and became the queen of the self-help section. Before Emily knew it, Chess was giving TedTalks and appearing on Oprah. After their lunch, Chess calls Emily and invites her to come with her to Italy for the summer. Chess is trying to finish her next book, and she knows Emily is struggling with writer’s block. So, she thinks that they can both spend the summer writing and drinking wine.

It sounds too good to be true. When the women pull up to Villa Aestas, the scenery is breathtaking. However, this particular villa holds a dark secret: It was the site of a brutal murder back in the 1970s. Chess doesn’t want Emily to talk about the murder, but Emily can’t help but research. She finds that the murder occurred while a group of friends occupied the villa in the summer of 1974. Throughout the book, narration switches between Emily in the present day and Mari in the past.

Before we go any further, we should probably introduce the 1974 cast. Mari, a writer, became famous for her horror novel Lilith Rising shortly after that summer. She traveled to the villa with her married boyfriend, Pierce. Pierce is a rising guitarist that got linked up with international rockstar Neil. Neil is responsible for bringing all parties involved to the villa. Accompanying Neil is his drug runner, Johnnie, who is later arrested for the murder. Finally, Mari’s stepsister, Laura, tags along on the trip. She is largely unwanted and ignored by the rest of the group. After the murder, Laura goes on to become a famous musician in her own right, releasing a sad, soulful album entitled Aestas, from which the villa is renamed.

Now back to the present day. The more Emily researches the murder, the more entrenched she becomes in its mystery. Putting her cozy mysteries aside, she decides to write a true crime book about the case. As she is trying to unravel what happened, she begins uncovering clues from around the house. However, Chess begins asking pointed questions, and something is telling Emily that she needs to hide her new writing endeavor. She’s not sure why she feels so suspicious of Chess. Secrets have a way of coming out, though.
The Villa is a fun, easy read that transports people into the publishing world more than it does the Italian countryside. I wish that the setting played a larger role in the book. Instead, it felt like the characters holed themselves up in a hotel for the majority of the story. This book could literally be set anywhere and it would barely affect the outcome.

While the mystery surrounding the murder was fun to read, it didn’t exactly blaze any trails. If you enjoy reading thrillers, the plot will probably feel familiar. However, familiar isn’t always bad– it was still an entertaining story. What I REALLY wanted to read was Lilith Rising, though– the fictional book that Mari wrote while staying at Villa Aestas. It was painted as a terrifying horror, and I found myself longing to read IT instead of the book I had in my hands.

Overall, this is a great book to read while you’re on a plane or trying to check out for a few hours. It has a few twists and turns to keep your interest, but it doesn’t have much that sets it apart from other books in the thriller genre.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Can a house retain memories of violence in its very walls?

Cozy mystery writer Emily Sheridan is asked by her best friend, the self-help guru Chess Chandler, to spend the summer with her at a fabulous villa in Orvieto, Italy. Emily is recovering from the breakup of her marriage that followed on the heels of a serious illness and so she jumps at the chance for a change of scene. She soon learns that Villa Aestas has a violent past: a murder committed in 1974 during a summer of sex, drugs and rock-and-roll that ended in one man dead. It's curious that the two women who were only there to be muses for the men and their music became wildly successful in their own right after that tragic summer--Mari Godwick, for her novel of gothic horror; and Lara Larchmont, her step-sister, for her heart-wrenching album.

Emily, who has been plagued by writer's block, finds herself fascinated by this dark tale and begins to write a new book based on Mari's story, reading her novel, Lilith Rising, over and over to find clues. Might there be something more she can unearth in the villa itself? Some clues to the real story left behind?

The Villa then is told in two timelines--the present and the past--and both are equally intriguing and toxic. Once the reader thinks they've learned the whole story, there are yet more twists to both the present and the past. Personally, I gobbled up every page of this suspenseful mystery, caring so much for both Emily and Mari and booing and hissing at the villains.

I received an arc of this new mystery from the author and publisher via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this novel. I encourage you to check this one out! Really, excellent read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this ARC.

This books ending took a different turn than I expected but still enjoyable. A story within a story, we have present day as well as 1974 where a gruesome murder happened. Between the two stories are each a bond of two women and just how far they will go to get what they want and overall protect what they want in the end.

When given the chance to read The Villa early, I was ALL about it. I've read Reckless Girls by this author and absolutely loved it so couldn't wait to dive into this one. Overall though...I was a tad disappointed.

I love this author's writing so this was a quick and easy read. However, I had a hard time with the present timeline and the utterly toxic friendship of Em & Chess. I couldn't stand either of them, but maybe the author meant for it to be that way? 🤷‍♀️

I did love Mari and Lara and really enjoyed that thread of the story. I had a feeling there was more truth to the murder than Em had uncovered so the ending was not surprising. It is, however, darkly twisted once the truth is revealed and the chains of Em & Chess' friendship have been locked into place.

While I didn't love this one, I didn't hate it either. It reads more like a mystery than a thriller, and I was hoping for a lot more. I would still say fans of this author and genre should give it a read and see where you land at the end.

I sincerely appreciate St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

Fantastic book that I couldn’t put down!

What to expect:
*Dual timelines-past & present
*Italian setting

Final thoughts: I was captivated by this book and really liked the dual timelines and dark exploration of friendships. I did enjoy the parts from the 70s more than the current day story lines & the ending was not what I expected. Overall I enjoyed it.