Fun, twisty read. I enjoyed the setting and dual storyline. I think this would make a really cool movie.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: Jan. 3, 2023
Childhood friends Emily and Chess plan an impromptu trip to Orveito, Italy, to reconnect after years apart. Villa Aestas is the beautiful estate that awaits them, and with its sprawling grounds and quaint accommodations, the women know that they will be inspired- Emily, to write the newest novel in her romance series and Chess, to decide where to take her self-help empire next. But Emily is quickly enthralled by the decades-old murder that happened at Aestas, the tragic death of a young musician, killed by an apparent rival and soon, her idea of an idyllic vacation takes a grisly turn. The more Emily investigates the murder, the more she begins to recognize the tension developing between her and Chess, and before either of them know it, it’s too late to turn back.
Rachel Hawkins is no stranger to suspenseful fiction. Her previous novels, including “The Wife Upstairs” and “Reckless Girls” have been some of my favourites by the author, so of course I was excited to get the chance to read “The Villa”.
Emily narrates the modern day version of the story, where the friendship between her and Chess is explored, but during Emily’s investigation into the murders, she discovers a novel, notes and journal entries from Mari, who was residing in the house in 1974, and Mari tells us her version of events as well through these methods. The two time frames are easily marked and identifiable, making the flow easy to follow, but the characters are very similar, and if you aren’t paying close attention, you can get lost in the shuffle. Emily and Chess are both young women and writers, escaping to Aestas for rest, relaxation, bonding and a chance to hopefully do some creating. In 1974, Pierce, Noel, Lara and Mari also retreat to Aestas (although it isn’t called that then), for the same reasons (Pierce, Noel and Lara for musical inspiration). The only differences is that in 1974, sex, drugs and rock and roll are at the forefront, which leads to a grisly murder. In present day, a friendship struggling to stay afloat in a hectic world defines the plot. Authors, musicians or performers all, they seek out solace and receive something very different in return.
I loved the descriptive settings of both the villa and its surrounding city. Hawkins brings Orveito, Italy to life and I was quickly immersed in the sunny deliciousness of Villa Aestas. The women’s relationship is fraught with complications, but it is relatable and honest. Although this novel has twists and turns, I was able to deduce each one, which always steals a little bit from my enjoyment of the plot.
Hawkins’ creativity and style runs wild through the pages of “The Villa”, and fans of the author will definitely enjoy her new immersive and exotic murder mystery.

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this from NetGalley.
Told in dual timelines, one that takes place in 1974 and tells the story of 5 artists (musicians and writers) who rent an Italian villa for the summer, only to end with murder. The second timeline is present day with best friends Emily and Chess are both writers who rent this same villa to and get some inspiration.

I really enjoyed this one! It wasn’t as fast paced as I usually like for thrillers but this was more on the suspenseful historical fiction side, so I was glad to read a bit slower paced story. However I’m a bit iffy about the ending, maybe the twist is actually not a twist but really is a twist idea isn’t my thing ? But overall enjoyed this one ! Great east read and I loved the touch of “behind the scenes” of writing a novel aspect we got from the main character.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the gifted ARC of The Villa! This book has been my radar since announced and is set to be one of the best hits of 2023.

This story follows two story lines from different time periods that unfold simultaneously for the reader in a beautiful villa in Italy. There are two perspectives: Mary, a young aspiring author and her group of musicians and artists on a summer trip to the villa in the 1970s, and childhood best friends, now authors, Chess and Emily. Chess and Emily take a girl's trip to the villa and tensions build between them as they unravel that story of the famous murder that took place in the 70s.

I adored this book. First, it is a book about books, so as a bibliophile I loved reading from an author's perspective. I love reading about the thought process that goes into writing both books and songs. This was a truly fascinating and unique style of book that I devoured in two days. It was like Daisy Jones and Verity had a beautiful baby in Italy. I highly recommend this book to top your 2023 TBR!

Young love, sisters, betrayal, best friends, and stories told that aren’t 100% true. That’s what I loved most about this book. It all happened in an Italian villa, a murder that is, but there’s many secrets that are never told. The book bounces back and forth between timeframes of two different stories but there’s a common occurrence at this villa. If you’re like me and love a good book that is hard to put down I highly suggest reading this!

A digital ARC of this book was provided to me by NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. The opinions are my own and freely given.

This book is told in two timelines - 1974 & present day. There is a smattering of song lyrics, podcast transcripts and newspaper articles throughout, that help to tell the story.

1974 -
Mari Godwick
Lara Larchmont
Pierce Sheldon
Noel Gordon
Jonnie Dorchester

Present Day -
Chess Chandler
Emily McCrae

Childhood best friends Chess and Emily travel to Italy to stay at a villa for 6 weeks. Chess is a self-help guru and Emily is a cozy mystery writer. They both go there to write their next books and reconnect with each other. Throughout their stay, Emily becomes obsessed with learning about Mari, reading Mari's best-selling book and finding out what she can about the murder. She then decides to write a book about these people from 1974, the murder and about her own life.

Mari, Lara and Pierce travel to the same villa in 1974 to meet with Noel Gordon who is a world-famous rock and roll artist. Mari to write a book and Pierce and Noel to write songs. Noel's friend Johnnie is there. This part of the story leads up the murder that took place.

Overall, I like this book ok. I found it a little hard to follow when the revelation of how the murder took place comes about. I wasn't sure that I trusted Chess throughout the whole book. She also makes a revelation to Emily. Emily doesn't feel 100% invested in their friendship and I can see how Emily wants to distance herself from Chess but finds it hard to do since they have been friends for so many years.

My review is live on the following sites:
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/2040431649
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4816418167
https://www.instagram.com/kuhlreads/
https://www.librarything.com/topic/338257#n7993685
https://app.thestorygraph.com/user_reviews/kuhlreads


Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Rachel Hawkins.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC and audiobook.


Description from NetGalley:
As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.

Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt 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. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album––and ends in Pierce’s brutal 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.

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.

I have read Reckless Girls by the same author, and I think I like this author. Reckless Girls was a 4 star for me and so is this latest book. We have a dual timeline going with both lines not being as strong on their own. I did enjoy how the two lines intermingled. I also fell for a few of the twists and reveals. Overall, it’s a very strong thriller.

Overall: 4/5

Rachel Hawkins is becoming one of my favorite authors. My first book I read of hers was The Wife Upstairs which I listened to through my Libby app and then I picked Reckless Girls as one of my Book of the Month choices for last year. Her stories just keep popping up to me and I keep enjoying them, so I couldn't wait to get started on The Villa.

This is a hard book to review without spoiling so I'm going to just share some miscellaneous thoughts. It's a fun story that is told through two points of view. Our first character is Mari. It's the Summer of 1973 and she's come to stay at Villa Rosado with her partner, her stepsister, and two friends. The house is full of tension because it seems like barely any of the characters like each other. As we learn more about Mari and her group we learn two things:

1. Some of the members of the group are going to use their time responsibly, to work on their art, music, and writing.
2. Not everyone is going to survive the Summer.

Fun, huh? And in present day we are introduced to Emily and Chess, two best friends who are staying at the very same villa in Orvieto. They know about the horrendous events that went down at the villa but they don't think much about it. They have their own concerns to worry about. Both of them are writers and they each have a book on deadline.

I loved all the drama and mystery in this story. Because it's told through two different perspectives, the real horror of the villa unravels little by little. As a reader, I was on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this story. There were certain parts that just didn't strike me as realistic at all, but the characters were so interesting and their actions at times were definitely not what I expected. I'm really loving the way Rachel Hawkins writes mysteries and I was definitely expecting a twist after what happened in Reckless Girls, and The Villa did not disappoint.

On goodreads, this is how they recommend the book:

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.

Pretty spooky, huh? I highly recommend this book if you like mysteries. Rachel puts a lot of care into creating interesting characters (I just LOVED that Emily was a cozy mystery author) and creatiing interesting settings (So much talk of wine and cheese is good for my soul, tbh).

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for an eArc in exchange for my honest thoughts.

xo Marian

This review will be posted on www.mariankrick.com on January 3, 2023.

This book is more of a slow burn than a page turner. The book follows two timelines, that of Mari in the 1970’s and modern-day Emily. I’m not usually a fan of duo timelines, but it worked rather well in The Villa. Each narrative was easy to distinguish.
My biggest problem with the book was the ending. I do love a good twist, but I don’t like being misinformed. I felt a little cheated over the last, few pages.
All in all, I did enjoy this unusual story.
Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audio of this story in exchange for an honest review.
This is the second book by this author that I have read. While not overly impressed by the story and it was just an okay story it was an easy one to listen to and read in a day.
This story follows two timelines one in present day and one in set in the 70s. Both timelines follow women who are being manipulated by men and other people in their lives. The story contained so much gaslighting and the main characters were so weak I was eye rolling for most of the story. The plot was definitely predictable and I guessed the twist/ending about 30% in.
However, I did find how the two stories intertwined to be entertaining. Overall I think I would recommend this story if you are looking for an easy book to read.

I devoured this book. I read it in one day. I have read other books by Rachel Hawkins so I knew this would be good. However, I was not prepared. This book is like Daisy Jones and the Six meets The Girl on the Train. The story follows a writer who is invited to an Italian villa with her long time best friend, another author but one who is significantly more successful than she. The story then switches between a murder that occurred at the villa when a group of young artists and musicians stayed there, and present day. The story was so engaging, well-written, and quick paced that I could not stop myself and stayed up WAY too late reading this in order to finish it even faster. I would recommend this book if you need something that will take your mind off things, or just to escape to a beautiful Italian villa and someone else's drama and intrigue for a while.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of The Villa in exchange for an honest review.

Emily and Chess have been best friends forever but lately they have grown apart as their lives and careers have diverged. Chess is a wildly successful and famous self-help author while Emily is recovering from a recent crippling illness, is broke, getting divorced and behind on delivering her new cozy murder mystery novel to her publisher. When Chess invites Emily to join her in Italy for the summer where she is working on her new book, Emily cant resist. The Villa is spectacular but the biggest draw back is that it was the scene of a grisly celebrity murder in the 1970s and Emily becomes fascinated with the story. She begins to dig into the history and try to piece together what really happened as she unravels clues written by one of the survivors.

Rachel Hawkins returns with a new slow-burn mystery. It is told from the perspective of the two main characters; Emily set today and Mari from 1974. I really loved the setting for the novel and the idea that two stories can intertwine through a house. I think I enjoyed the story of Mari and her friend group more than the toxic relationship between Emily and Chess. The ending of the current storyline was forced and a bit over the top. I have enjoyed Hawkins previous work and look forward for more to come.

A slow moving story where not much happens until the end but then the ending didn't really work for me. I wanted more from the characters, more from the setting and more from the ending. I know that lots of readers have really enjoyed this one so it seems to work better for others, just ok for me.

THE VILLA had not only an intriguing dual timeline, but multiple points of view, which made the past and present weave together in a captivating way. In 1974, Mari, her boyfriend and stepsister go to stay in an Italian villa with a famous rock star and his friend/drug dealer (IYKYK, I guess this is still unclear at the end). They are all young and trying to pursue their creative passions. When one of them is murdered, their notoriety peaks and the villa becomes infamous. In the present day timeline, Emily is working through a tough time in her life, and when her childhood best friend, Chess, suggests staying at this villa in an attempt to regroup, she agrees. Their stay reveals a lot of secrets, some maybe not what you think.
I really enjoyed the setting of this book and the contrast of beauty - ugly (or maybe dark). The parallels between the characters of the past and present was interesting, and I was invested in finding out how everything would come together. As the story progressed, I had some theories about how this was going to play out, but there were still some twists I didn't expect.
Thank you St. Martin's Press for the digital ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is my third Rachel Hawkins book and I’m definitely loving her style. Overall, I gave this 4 stars because the drama within the relationships just got to be too much and takeaway from the plot. I was not expecting the ending and thoroughly enjoyed it!

I really liked The Wife Upstairs by this author so I was really excited to get a chance to read an early copy of The Villa. Wow, just wow! I loved Emily and Chess’ story as well as Mari and Lara ‘s. The author did an excellent job weaving these two stories together and the twist at the end was totally unexpected. I highly recommend this one!

Rating: DNF (35%)

Yikes, this is another book that just did not work for me from this author. I don’t know what it is but I couldn’t connect to this story and was having a hard time paying attention. I really tried to give this one a fair chance but I ultimately ended up DNFing it. I listened to the audiobook and thought the narrator was doing a good job but I still found myself zoning out due to the writing and pacing. The main character instantly annoyed me from the first chapter and I think that was the point? But either way, I couldn’t get past it. The pacing seemed to be going up and down. I don’t think this is a horrible book but it’s not a book I wanted to waste my time on. I know this author is very popular so I say give it a try if it sounds intriguing to you.

Thank you so much @macmillan.audio for the gifted copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

Read this if you like suspense with historical and muscial undertones

As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.

Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt 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. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album––and ends in Pierce’s brutal 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.

Out on January 3

The Villa is a thriller that takes place in Italy with dual timelines - switching between a Fleetwood Mac inspired group in the 70s, and a pair of lifelong friends in the present. The setting is very timely with the recent seasons of the White Lotus and From Scratch also being set in Italy. In fact, imagine this as White Lotus S2 meets Daisy Jones and the Six. Theres a book within a book (Lilith Rising) and I found myself wishing Lilith Rising and the album Aestas were real. I really enjoy this author's voice and writing, but do always feel like her thrillers leave something to be desired for me. I found the wrap up to the present storyline to be both unbelievable and not twisty enough, which is hard to explain without spoilers. I will definitely be reading this author in the future, but will probably be skipping her thrillers from now on.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

I really liked how well this book was done! I felt like the characters were well developed, the plot was interesting, it was believable, and the little twist at the end I wouldn't have guessed! I really like this author and her previous stuff has always been good! I did feel like I wanted more of a twist at the end, but it was something. Just not as dramatic I guess as I would have wished but that's my own preference. Overall a great one that I will recommend to all my friends!!