The Villa was a really interesting read that had me hooked from the start. I really enjoy books where there's two main characters in different timelines and the chapters jump back and forth between their stories and how they are connected. I really liked that the author wrote a mild horror book about how people can truly just be monstrous. I also like the Italian villa setting but wish the author would have gone into more descriptions so that the readers had a better visual. What I really loved though was the twist at the end I never saw coming and how we shouldn't always assume things for what they are. It was a really interesting dynamic to go from 70's rock and roll drama and horror to present day writers dealing with their own drama and how the past leads them to discover horrible secrets and do terrible things. I think readers are really going to like The Villa with it's mild horror and violent vibes entwined with past and present drama and secrets and of course a twist.

I don't usually enjoy books that employ the flashbacks as a way to tell a story but this adds so much build up. I loved the way the female relationships were framed with love and competitiveness. It almost puts real housewives to shame. It's like if a Daisy Jones and the Six meets a darker, gothic thriller. It took a while to get to the point with characters that were not likeable and then it quickly turned into a nail biter. I loved the twisty story framing, who really knows what is the truth at the end and it made for two cruel summers that mirror each other. This is my favorite of the Rachel Hawkins book and finally all plot points meshed well and even though the characters weren't always likeable you still liked them.

This novel is the perfect combination for those that enjoy thrillers, historical fiction, and true crime. Growing up, Emily and Chess were the best of friends. As with most childhood friendships, adulthood tends to put a strain on those connections. Emily and Chess have a chance to reconnect at a villa in Italy where an infamous murder of a rock star took place in 1974. Emily begins delving into the history of the villa and uncovers secrets that may claim another victim. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced e-galley.

Once again, a book finds it's way to me at just the right time. I'm dealing with a death in my family and I've been able to lose myself in THE VILLA while grieving. Maybe that's not the healthiest way to handle things right now, but this book was a nice escape for a bit.

I don't know if many people know but Rachel Hawkins also wrote the Hex Hall young adult series. I SO WISH she'd continue that series, but she's made a big pivot into the mystery/thriller genre. She's written another popcorn thriller winner with the THE VILLA.

The story gives us a book within a book, a plot involving writer Emily and her bestie childhood friend Chess (who is a famous self-help guru) and a separate plot featuring five people who stayed in the villa in the 70s.

THE VILLA rotates timelines of those three subplots, one of which involves a murder at the villa.

I loved the characters in the novel who were aspiring writers and then successful authors. It was a nice behind-the-scenes look at writer's block. And, of course, the mystery of who died and whodunit is fascinating.

Rachel does a fine job of intersecting all three plots at the end. My only caveat is because of the three plots (including the book within a book) it was hard, at times, to figure out which timeline or plot was the focus of certain chapters. It took a while for me to get into the rhythm of it, but well worth it!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an e-copy of THE VILLA to review.

I rate THE VILLA four out of five stars.

Dare I say, Daisy Jones meets Verity in this thriller that mixes authors and manuscripts with a group of sex, drugs and rock and rollers in the 70’s?

This is a dual timeline POV that takes place in the same Italian Villa — one timeline in the 70’s and one current day. I was really drawn to the characters in both timelines, which captivated me right away and kept me turning the pages.

Themes I loved…
- complexity of female friendships
- big secrets
- questionable truths

I don’t want to give anything away so I’m just going to say I really loved the twistiness of the ending and how it all comes together. DM me if you’ve read it and want chat more.

This is my favorite Rachel Hawkins book to date, and I’m looking forward to whatever she comes up with next.

I received a advanced copy of the Villa for my honest review. Emily and Chess are life long friends. Both writers. Emily's life is pivoting on a different path and so Chess books a trip to Italy. ... but then Emily gets snippets of Chess she can't shake..... can she trust her?
Recommend!

Growing up Chess and Emily were best friends, but as the years progressed their friendship has waned. Emily has found herself stuck after her husband has left her and her next cozy mystery is way over due. When Chess storms into her life once again and suggests a summer to remember in a villa in Italy, Emily didn’t have to think very hard before making her decision. The villa ends up having a dark history and as Emily becomes more and more intrigued her cozy mystery suffers even more. As Emily digs deeper into the villas’s mysterious past, she decides to write about it, but Chess is interested too, will they be able to work together or will Chess take everything away from Emily. As the summer progresses things from their past come to light and, once again, the summer ends with a tragedy at the villa! Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an ARC and ALC of this book.

Read/Listen If You Like:
🏰 Houses with Sordid Histories
⏳Past and Present Timelines
🧐 Unreliable Narrators
🇮🇹 Italian Settings
✌🏻Dual POV

My Thoughts:
I have seen reviews of this one of there are a lot of characters and that it could get confusing, but for me, I was able to keep things straight with knowing one POV was past, and one was present and that made things so much easier to track.

I loved the weaving of truth and lies, reliability and unreliability, past and present, writing and music, all around a mystery surrounding the villa and it’s sordid past.

I loved both timelines and how they were weaved to perfection that kept me wanting more, the way the ending was done was so satisfying as well for those that are okay with a little sprinkle of mystery still lingering.

Just remember… there are two sides to every story…

Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and Netgalley for my ARC copies of this one!

I loved the duel timelines with Mari in the 1970s and Emily and Chess in the current day.
This book was full of twists , different points of view and unreliable narrators. It was a fast read and I couldn’t put it down!


Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: The Villa by Rachel Hawkins
Narrated by Julia Whelan, Kimberly M. Wetherell, Shiromi Arserio
Published by St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio, January 3, 2023

★★★★☆ (4.0 stars)
Positive!

"The Villa" (2022) is my second book by author Rachel Hawkins, following "The Wife Upstairs" (2021), her exquisite psychological thriller loosely based on Charlotte Brontë's beloved bildungsroman gothic romance "Jane Eyre" (1847), with Brontë's Jane, Rochester, Blanche and Bertha cast by Hawkins in a contemporary "Thornfield Estates" London setting.

(Rachel Hawkins is, of course, not to be confused with Paula Hawkins, writer of the 2015 bestseller "The Girl on The Train".)

(This review is both for the audiobook and eBook.)

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Audiobook narration: Tops!
Formidable cast of voice actors led by the mellow, soothing voice of Audie award-winning Julia Whelan, one of the most sought after female voices with credits to over 400 audiobooks, including her work on Gillian Flynn's thriller “Gone Girl” (2012), and Tara Westover's memoir "Educated" (2018).

Better as an audiobook.
The commendable performance of Whelan and colleagues vividly voice out visceral emotions and ethereal sentiments intrinsic to the essence of the novel which may not be as well-perceived in print by the reader.

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// "The Villa" (2022) by Rachel Hawkins //

Villa Aestas
Orvieto, Province of Terni,
Southwestern Umbria, Italy.
An hour's drive north of Rome.

In an upscale Italian villa, two tragedies decades apart are intertwined.

1974.
It is the height of the so-called "British Invasion". Think Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Who.

A British rock star, son of an Earl, invites a fellow rock musician to a villa in Italy for a respite. Perhaps to do a collaboration. They bring along their guitars, and their girlfriends. The latter so happen to be stepsisters. One, a budding writer; the other, a newbie guitarist.

The Muses become the Creators.
The parties' Italian sojourn unfortunately shudders to an abrupt end, with someone murdered. No new era of rock music is born. Instead, shortly after, the stepsisters both blossom. One, into a best-selling author; the other, an awarding-winning musician...

PRESENT DAY.
A successful top Instagram influencer, invites her long-lost friend to the same upscale villa in Umbria. Her friend is a published author struggling to complete her next contractual novel.

Theirs is a complex relationship, ebbing and waning with childhood year reminisces, distant affection, rivalry, and deep resentment. They find out presently that they have one common denominator:
A leeching ex-husband /paramour.

Through a manuscript hidden in one of the Villa's parlors, the "rock star" tragedy in 1974 come to light. With this new knowledge comes the potential for a historical fiction blockbuster.

The friends struggle to find the best path forward for their relationship - and to perhaps to develop a new one as professional collaborators.

But first, the women agree they'd need to surmount an obstacle.

They'd need to squash none other than the leech...

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// The House Remembers. //

I enjoyed reading this book, a well-constructed, dual-timeline psychological thriller with its share of dark humor, of moments that take your breath away, along with some which, at extended times, hover in a holding pattern.

Overall, fine literature packaged in a well-executed audiobook.

Review based on an advanced reading copy courtesy of St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley.

Thank you to the publisher for a Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Well this was highly enjoyable. After DNFing Hawkin's 2022 novel, I was hesitant to pick this one up. But I am super happy I did. I flew through this novel. Though I found the present day timeline to be a little more intriguing than the past timeline, I found myself wanting to know how the story ended for both.

This truly was well put together-- weaving all the plot lines neatly. My biggest "issue" was the "reveal" about Em. This fell a tad flat for me, but the web between her and Chess was well done.

“Houses Remember."

I found The Villa to be a smooth and easy read I would have loved to pick up during a summer holiday. It's a gothic thriller, not a slow burn, but not a fast paced suspense novel either, it lies just in between. Hawkins does an excellent job of building suspense throughout the novel, and I found myself turning pages quickly to find out what happens next.

The Villa flips between present day and the 70s- painting a twisty story of events at a picturesque, countryside Italian villa in both.

This is my first read from Rachel Hawkins, and when I was researching the book/author, I realized that she was from the same city I am, which was a fun surprise! I loved her writing and the twist at the end.

The Villa will be out January 3, 2023.

The villa takes you on a journey through the past and what happened the summer of 1974 when 5 people rented it out to work. There’s a lot of drinking and drugs going on when tragedy strikes and someone ends up dead. In the present day Chess and Em are staying in the Villa to work on their own books. Chess is a famous self help guru who has been best friends with Emily since they were young. Em is going through a nasty divorce with her greedy soon to be ex. She is supposed to be working on the next book in her series when she starts researching the tragedy determined to figure out what happened that summer and write about that.

When I first started reading I didn’t really like that is alternated between 1974 and the book Mari was writing then and the present day, but as you learn more information is hooks you in. There are a few twists that occur in this book. Thank you to Netgalley and St Martins Press for the ARC copy to read!

Source: DRC via NetGalley (St. Martin's Press) in exchange for an honest review
Pub. Date: January 3, 2023
Synopsis: Goodreads
Purchase Link: Amazon

Why did I choose to read this book?

I enjoyed Hawkins' The Wife Upstairs so when I saw The Villa pop up on NetGalley I decided to get another taste of her writing. Both books are based on classic novels and the history of their authors, but since I haven't read any of them before these novels are lovely introductions to older stories.

What is this book about?

This book is about two things: trust and the pattern of male artists stealing from or taking the credit for the work of female artists. Perhaps more broadly is the idea that all artists "steal" (are inspired by?) each other and the book asks when this is okay and when it isn't.

I think this book wanted to be a haunted house story, but it missed the landing and ended up being a murder mystery/scavenger hunt book instead. Both are good, but as I've said before it really ruins my enjoyment of a book when it's heavily marketed as one thing, and then turns out to be something else entirely (see Kiersten White's Hide). The book is amazing wrapped in a thin cling wrap of disappointment, which is unfortunate.

What is notable about the story?

This is going to sound weird but this book was pretty run of the mill for me. It actually reminded me a bit of the first Knives Out movie (which I LOVED) without the character development. This story kind of stays at one volume the entire time, it's fairly predictable, but like your favorite meal at your favorite restaurant, familiarity with the structure and elements doesn't make it bad it just makes it reliable.

Was anything not so great?

The very mainstream nature of this book is what made it not so great for me. This was the kind of book that I immediately forgot once I was done. I read the entire thing, then I moved on to the next book and didn't think about Chess or Emily or the vacation house again until I sat down to write this review. It's a little heartbreaking for me when this happens because I enjoyed it while I was in it, but I could have just not read it at all and ended up in the same place afterwards. In a life where I have limited energy and time for this amazing hobby, it's kind of a kick in the gut.

What's the verdict?

3 stars on Goodreads. It's a ham sandwich, it's a James Patterson, it's bread and butter. Try it if you want, it's okay.

Emily and Chess are childhood friends and successful writers. Emily has a more steady career with a backlist of cozy mysteries while Chess is a no holds barred non-fiction, self-help guru. Both are looking to get started on their next project but are a bit stalled. Emily is also going through a divorce so Chess suggests a trip to Italy. She books them into a famous villa which was the site of a notorious murder in the 1970's.

Generally I enjoy a story with two timelines. This one didn't really work for me. The two timelines just didn't vibe for me in any real way. The people were all super unlikable, which was true of Hawkins last novel as well but they grated on me a bit more here. There was a ton of cattiness and gaslighting which really distracted me from the murder mystery. I did like the atmosphere and the parts about the writing but any interactions between Emily and Chess was like nails on a chalkboard for me. It's a quick read though, would definitely be perfect for a beach or pool read to keep you entertained for a few hours but it's not going to wow you or stick with you in any way.

Thanks to St Martin's Press for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions above are my own.

All these opinions are my own. **
So many things about this book really drew me in. I loved both of the story lines and would get completely lost in the story while reading. I love stories like this where there is a slow burn, but I can feel the anticipation in the words. I kept reading because I was dying to know what happened that summer in Italy. Reading the words Mari wrote in her journal gave me Fleetwood Mac vibes and I love anything like that. I honestly wish the story could have been longer because I felt the ending was a little rushed... I wanted more. I have been a fan of Rachel's writing and her stories and this one was no exception. I look forward to a hard copy.

It was good! Nothing groundbreaking, but Rachel Hawkins certainly knows how to deliver a thrill. Really enjoyable, as can be expected!

I was excited to read this as I loved The Wife Upstairs by the author. I also love that she adds a gothic take in her books.

When it comes to thrillers or suspense novels, I tend to prefer dual pov narratives. What made this book so interesting and engaging was the dual perspectives taking place in the same villa, separated only by the 40 years between Mari’s visit and Emily’s. In addition, the book contains news articles and podcasts that give you yet another perspective on what is occurring and help to fill in some of the missing details.

I really liked this book, and am adding Rachel Hawkins to my list of "must-read" authors!

The Villa follows 2 storylines. Current day story follows that of bff's who have grown distant over time. Chess invites Emily to stay with her at the Villa in Italy, where a famous murder occurred in the 1970s. The women, both writers, begin to write a book about the incident. As the book progresses, Mari, the women involved in the 1970s murder story emerges. I found the book engrossing; however, the ending didn't work for me. I was expecting more. Despite the ending, a decent read

I was a huge fan of The Wife Upstairs, so I was really excited to start The Villa. It did not disappoint! Rachel Hawkins continues to impress.