The plot of The Villa had be very intrigued but ultimately this one just fell flat for me. I think it held a lot of promise; loved the dual timelines, the setting, and that the house itself was a bit of a character in the story, but didn't love how disjointed it felt at times and the characters of the present timeline annoyed the crap out of me.

A quick read that I won't really remember much of in the coming weeks.

I had previously enjoyed other Rachel Hawkins books, but this one was a bit boring. The writing felt rushed.

THE VILLA by Rachel Hawkins

Two best friends, two writers, one murder mansion, one summer under the hot Italian sun, and a whole host of secrets and mysteries that will be uncovered slowly over the course of 288 pages, bit by bit by bit.

This book contains the POV of our main character Emily, but also flashbacks from Mary, the infamous teen author of one of literature's most famous pieces of feminist gothic horror, LILLITH RISING, which was written in the 70s following a gruesome murder that took place in one rockstar's Italian villa.

This was like Daisy Jones meets your favorite gothic mystery, and the vibes were definitely there. I preferred the current timeline POV over the flashbacks, but that's my personal taste. I didn't love the ending or the justifications for some things that happen in the end, but you be the judge!! I will give it to Miss Hawkins, things take a WILD turn.

The best book I read in 2022. This book was unlike many of the ‘typical thrillers’ out there, with such a unique story line. The book was well written, unique and really loved it! Highly recommend! Thank you for the advanced copy.

Chess and Emily are childhood friends whose relationship strained as adults. Chess is a self help guru, while Emily is a mystery writer, struggling to write her next book in her cozy series. So when Chess offers to bring Emily along to an Italian Villa in Umbria in hopes that it will kick start her book, Emily says yes. But when she get's there she finds out the Villa was once the spot of a murder of a celebrity murder. As Emily digs into the villa’s complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce’s murder wasn’t just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred––and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind. Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge––and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends.

This was my first book by this author. I found it really enjoyable. It was a nice balance of mystery without being too explicit or graphic. The central Italian region was such a fun backdrop and the villa itself seemed like such a fun trip. I loved the dual stories that unveiled perfect pieces as the story went on. I sympathized with Emily and her health struggles, while Chess was perfectly written as this kind of obnoxious self help guru with a bit more motive. I will definitely be going back to read the rest of Rachel Hawkins backlist! Thanks to the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review! This book releases 1/3

The Villa was a great mix of an atmospheric suspense and problematic friendship thriller. I liked this one more than Rachel Hawkins last novel: Reckless Girls because the ending was more satisfying. It is similar though in the dysfunctional friendships between women. This one kept my interest and I liked it, didn't love it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I enjoyed Rachel Hawkins first couple of adult books, especially "The Wife Upstairs," but I felt the pacing of "The Villa" was far too slow for my enjoyment. Also, the whole alternating timeline plot device is really getting worn out with so many books, especially in the suspense/thriller genre using it so frequently.

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

My rating:
3.5/5
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Emily is a writer, who just went through a life change and is struggling to come up with inspiration for her next novel. When her best friend, Chess, invited her to decide to spend 6 weeks in Italy, Emily agrees and stumbles upon a story that she can finally write about.

Emily becomes obsessed with the Villa that they are staying at and it’s history, known as a Murder House. From there, she discovers what happened at this villa while trying to avoid her own personal issues going on in her life.

This story was really good and had potential, but I was definitely bored at times and very confusing. The book jumped from story to story without any warning and I had to figure out what was going on after a couple sentiences. If it wasn’t so jumbled, I think it would have had a better flow and overall would have been a better story.

I absolutely loved the end of the book and it was tied up nicely. I think there were many parallels to the story that happened in the 70’s and Emily’s life, so that was interesting to me!

Overall I would suggest reading, but because of the weird format and slow burn aspect, I couldn’t give it a 4 star rating.

Thank you netgalley and St Martin’s press for the ARC! You can read this one when it is published on January 3rd, 2023!

Houses Remember.. Immediately had me curious. For me this was a slow burn but it didn’t necessary feel like a thriller more of a mystery maybe. I liked that It has the pov from past and now. Mari, her sister, and musicians in the 70’s and then Emmy and Chess now.. I found I was more invested in the story from the past and who was the murderer. I really enjoyed the true crime aspect of the story. I liked the way that Emmy was so interested in the what happened at The Villa and her need to write its story. That is the part that had me interested the things she discovers and how she writes it.

Thank you to St. Martins Press and Netgalley for my review copy.

I always love a great gothic suspense novel and what could be better than one set in an Italian villa?

Emily’s husband filed for divorce and she cannot seem to get her life and career back on track so when her childhood best friend and hugely successful writer, Chess. suggests they spend a summer together in an Italian villa where they can write and reconnect what could go wrong?

Oh, did I mention the mansion has a history that includes murder? This is one of the new book releases from January that I read and loved.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martins Press, and Macmillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of the latest thriller by Rachel Hawkins, wonderfully narrated by Julia Whelan; Kimberly M. Wetherell; Shiromi Arserio - 4 stars!

Emily and Chess were best friends when they were young but that friendship fell apart. Now in their 30s, Chess proposes a trip to Italy and Emily is anxious to reconnect and possibly break her writer's block. The villa is now an exclusive rental home but in the 1970s it was rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. Noel invites an upcoming musician, Pierce, his girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara, to join him. It was a notorious time - Mari writes a famous horror novel, Lara composes a platinum album, and Pierce is murdered. Emily is enthralled with the house's history - because houses remember - but her investigations bring up more trouble.

This was an intriguing story, told in dual timelines by various narrators, and was kind of a story in a story book. The villa added to the atmospheric tension, and was inspired by many real life groups and murders. There is a lot going on here but the multiple narrators really helped me keep track of people and timelines. Another good suspense thriller by Rachel Hawkins!

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins follows two timelines: in the present day we are introduced to Emily a cozy mystery writer who has writers block finishing her 9th novel in her series while dealing with her ex who wants to steal all her earnings. Her best friend from childhood, who is a famous self help author, Chess randomly asks her to join her at Villa Aestas to get Emily out of her funk with beautiful scenery.

Emily writers block stops once she discovers the history of the villa and the murder that took place there in the 1970s. As Emily learns more about the people who lived in the house Chess becomes distant and competitive.

The second timeline as you might have guessed it takes place in the 1970s when the murder occurred. Mari and Lara are stepsisters following Mari's musical boyfriend Pierce as guests at the famous musician Noel's rented villa.

I found myself enjoying the present day storyline more than Mari's perspective but I loved The Villa just as much as Rachel Hawkins' other books and would recommend! Thank you St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy

I've read a couple other books of Hawkins (Reckless Girls and The Wife Upstairs), and I think this one might be my favourite. I was hooked from the beginning and became invested in the storyline.

Chess and Emily have been best friends since childhood. As they entered their adult years, busy schedules and work demands started to distance them. Chess plans a girls trip to Italy so the girls can reconnect. They vacation at Villa Aestas, which has a disturbing and complicated history. During their time on this vacation, the girls are determined to uncover truths about the Villa. But what they find within the walls, and what was left behind, is more than they bargained for. They also begin to reconnect and share secrets they've kept from one another over their adult years. Will the girls figure out what happened at the Villa during that fateful summer of 1974? Will they reconnect and return home closer than ever?

This novel is full of thrill and suspense. It's not as dark as I'd thought it be, but I almost liked it that way. It still kept me on the edge of my seat without the gory details found in other suspense books. Rachel does a great job moving between the past (1974) and present (the girls' vacation), and intertwining the times while telling the story of Mari in 1974, and Chess and Emily in today's world. If you're a fan of Hawkins' other books, you'll enjoy this one.

This one was just okay for me! With two storylines, I enjoyed one over another and then the end kind of unravelled.

This book sadly disappointed me. I have read and enjoyed books by Rachel Hawkins in the past and I was just expecting more than what this book gave me.

Firstly, this book was written with two timelines and right from the very beginning I was only interested in the one in the current time. The part of the book that involved the past and what had happened in this house before, didn't intrigue me.

While I did enjoy the part of the book in the present I was hoping for more tense moments and stress. I sadly didn't get any of that and didn't feel much as I read the story, which meant that I wasn't racing towards the end to find out what had happened.

The Villa follows two timelines (present and the 1970s) at a Villa in Italy. Emma, newly separated, in a writing slump, slowly healing from a mysterious illness, joins her life-long friend Chess for a summer at a villa in Italy. The villa is famous for being the home of a murder in the mid 1970s. Instead of writing their cozy mystery and self-help books, Emma and Chess each take on the 1970s murder writing their first true crime story. Emma finds letters penned by Mark, a survivor of the 1970s murder and learns the truth about the crime. She also learns that Chess had an affair with her abusive husband. Interwoven in this tale of two friends redefining their relationship is the story of the 1970s murder and snippets of the book Lilith Rising. Another murder in the house occurs and only the house will remember after all of the players are long gone. The characters and scenery draw the reader in’

The Villa is easily Hawkins best thriller! Two best friend and authors, , chess and Emily, take a retreat to a secluded villa in Italy to overcome writers block and for emily to put some distance between her soon to be ex-husband and herself. Upon arrival, they learn of an incident that occurred at the Villa between a group of writers and musicians, one of whom (Mari) will go on to become a famous horror author. The deeper Emily probes into the incident at the Villa in the 70s and find more and more pieces of information left behind in Mari’a famous novel., the more she realizes that she and chess are also caught in a parallel situation in present-day.

The pros-

Pacing-the novel is expertly paced and details are revealed just enough to keep the reader turning the pages.
Atmosphere- This may be the biggest win here as Hawkins evokes an atmosphere that is foreboding, gothic, and claustrophobic.
Characters- Emily, the protagonist, is sympathetic and likeable. Hawkins last novel, reckless girls, didn’t have many likeable characters so this having someone to root for in this one was a bonus.
Themes- Hawkins has a habit of using her craft to probe themes that at time that go deeper than the usual psychological/domestic suspense. This one covers the nature of art/creation, the line between truth/reality, and finding empowerment in being the driver of your own “story.”
Structure- There is a level of unreliable narration which adds another interesting element to the novel, one not found as commonly anymore in fiction. The plot moves and jumps like a Russian doll, opening up to contain another layer inside. There are also pieces of media randomly included (podcasts, interviews, experts of the functional novels included, etc) which enhances the realistic aspect of the past timeline and the impact it has on the Villa in the present.

Con-

My only con to it that kept it from being a 5-star read was most of the “twists” are predictable. I will admit the final one was good, but the other reveals throughout the book are expected. It also took a bit to orient to the book, but that early sense of disorientation may have been crucial to the tone invoked. Hardly a “con”, but just a general musing.

Overall, recommended for anyone looking to try Hawkins for the first time!

Arc provided by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rachel Hawkins has presented readers with the best suspense/thriller of the year with her new book The Villa. And, the cover of the book only illustrates the tale inside. When a trip to a beautiful villa in Italy, including a luxurious estate and amenities only the wealthy enjoy, turns deadly, decades later, two writers, in trying to discover the truth of what happened, only find that they share more with those who committed a monstrous act.

The book switches between two stories that revolve around the villa, one from the seventies in which two young women, Mari Godwick and her sister Lara, spend a summer there with her boyfriend Pierce. Rockstar Noel Gordon invites the group, bringing along John Dorchester, better known as "Johnnie", who stands alone from the talented group, his only claim to them, his ability to find drugs anywhere. In the future, success will come for the girls but, after their time together, one of the men will be dead, another in jail for the rest of his life and the other, forever changed. While what happened there that summer becomes known worldwide, the true story of what happened on that trip, has never been known.

Almost fifty years later, two female writers, Chess and Emily, decide to take a vacation to the same villa to escape, hoping to devote some time to their careers, which are beginning to waver. Both are tired of writing the same material they have turned out their entire careers, Chess, the popular, "seemingly perfect", self help guru and Emily, with nine books in her cozy mystery series. Emily's life has been far from the "coziness" she desired and Chess believes her friend to always have had, having been very ill for some time, further disappointing her husband with her unwillingness to have children, divorce proceedings have commenced.

When the women arrive at the villa, their surroundings begin to inspire curiousity as to what occured there in the summer of 1972. All that remains of the women who were there is the work they left as artists, Mara with the book she wrote while at the villa, and Lara, a folksy Fleetwood Mac type, with her popular album Aestas, songs inspired and written during that trip, too. However, with the truth still to be found Emily believes there are some clues there, at the villa. And, she is right, what she finds, amazing!

When Chess suggests the women write a book about what happened in 1972 together, having seen Emily has started on something great, things unfold between the women much like the betrayal of what happened all those years there before. And, while it might be the villa that implores it's residents to lash out in revenge, subconsciously had the women known more than they thought about one another, how they impact each other's lives and gone there to let all that unfolds give them a reason to place blame for their own actions there anywhere other than at their own feet? As that never becomes known the reader must make that judgment call themself, when they finish the book.

Having never read Hawkins in the past I was excited to win the book in a giveaway, not knowing what to expect. The minute I opened this book I was hooked and couldn't set it down. There were times I had to take a break, set the book down and walk away even when I wanted to read, the storyline (both) so intense, I had to put distance between myself and it, while my feelings settled! Very few books do this to me, the ones that do, are the authors I never forget and continue to read for the rest of my life. Definitely a must read for all and a book all readers this year can't miss!

Happy Reading
and
Thank you for the Giveaway win!

(3.75 stars) I started and finished The Villa, the newest from Rachel Hawkins, in one night. Told in a split timeline (1974 and present) and set in a picturesque Italian villa, the mystery grabbed my attention right away and held it to the very end. And I was convinced that this would end up one of highly rated reads…but then the potential for a strong finish just sort of unraveled by the final chapters. Sigh.

Back in 1974, a high-profile murder took place at this villa while a group of musicians and writers were staying there. An infamous album and a classic horror novel were created during that time. And now in the present, two “besties” arrive for the summer. One (Chess, a name that makes me cringe) is a picture-perfect famous self-help guru, and other (Emily) is a writer of serial mysteries who’s been battling writer’s block and health problems and going through a nasty divorce. The women are apparently best friends but have this tension between them - jealousy, mistrust to boot - that hints at a complicated history.

As Emily digs deeper into what happened in the “murder house” in 1974, she awakens her dormant creativity and starts writing.

Meanwhile, we learn about the 1974 occupants of the Villa - a rock and roll icon and a group of creative minds - through the eyes of 19-year-old Mari, who eventually pens the horror novel. Whew!

Hawkins’s writing is solid and approachable, but there are a few plot holes that bothered me (will not spoil), and again, the ending - especially for Emily and Chess - just felt rushed, forced, and more than a bit implausible. I wish we got more of the actual
villa, too - it’s pure background and could’ve played a more pivotal role.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes, definitely; I couldn’t put it down and stayed up late to finish. There were Daisy Jones-type vibes that I liked, and I liked the way Hawkins wrote the banter between Emily and Chess. But was I disappointed in the messy ending? Ohhhh God, yes.

Thanks to #netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Audiobook/Women's fiction/Mystery: This book is very much a "Verity-ish" book, which is a good thing. There was a lot of guessing on how it was going to end. You have to guess who's lying up to the very end. Without giving out any spoilers, I will say that I enjoyed the book so much that when I got to work, a big reveal was just about to happen and I knew I had to get out of my car. I enjoyed this book a lot more than Hawkings last thriller.
Two disclaimers: I got this book from Netgalley in lieu of an honest review. Also, I have met the author at a local book signing.
As an audiobook, the narrators did a great job. As a writers, the author did a suburb job getting the setting. Part of the book is back in the 70s. However, there wasn't enough smoking, legal or illegal. Every teen wanted to smoke back then. . The other is current day with modern technology and podcasts.
I definitely recommend this book.