The characters are unlikable, and some of the relationships aren't fully fleshed out. However, the intertwining of two timelines is skillfully done. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone looking for a true thriller. It's much slower and there's not a lot of suspense. I'd recommend it to someone looking more for mystery. The ending is a bit muddled and unsatisfying in my opinion, but I can see how fans of the author's other titles would enjoy it.

The low ranking is not a reflection of the work itself, but rather speaks to the fact that I selected other books over this title.

I think this was my favorite Rachel Hawkins book so far! I loved the setting and the main character. But not so much the main supporting character (although I got her motivations at the end, I guess). Overall, enjoyed it much more than Reckless Girls!

Rachel Hawkins takes readers on a mysterious journey asking them to reconsider trust and friendship as Emily and Chess navigate the history behind an Italian villa. The book reads well and the narrative structure truly works for Hawkins’ content, and her twists and turns were not predictable like many one-off mystery entries.

Emily and Chess must figure out how to cross the bridge of their friendship as they both have battled through their 20s. Chess, a motivational writer who has pumped out successful self-help books, invites Emily to Villa Aestas for a girls trip of unusual proportions. The Villa played a role in music history, horror history, as well as being famed for a high-profile murder that took place all at the same time. Emily and Chess have much to work through as they both discover what comes next in their 30s hoping this friends trip does not end like the one that inspired the history behind the villa.

I enjoyed The Villa and felt that readers will really latch onto the dual plot lines. While readers are supposed to empathize with Emily, I often found myself expecting less of our protagonist. Chess was an interesting character— one of which I could see being a modern-day reflection of influencer society and the self-help spokesperson that seems to need help herself.

The storyline was engaging, and I didn’t see some of the twists coming. However, the ending wrapped things up much too quickly for my own taste. I felt like I have read this same ending before and wasn’t too thrilled with that feeling coming from mystery.

My Rating: 3 / 5 Stars

This was a fun quick read for me. Did I like the characters? Well, not so much, but Hawkins kept the story within a story moving right along and I was hooked. Plus, “ Houses Remember”. I’m always a sucker for a story set in a beautiful old house ( Trained by Nancy Drew 🤣).
Recommended for Hawkins fans.

The Villa carries about three storylines with in story. In modern day; Chess, also known as Jessica, is a highly successful author of self-help books. Her best friend from childhood is Emily and she has been invited to spend the summer with Chess at a beautiful Italian Villa, albeit one with a tragic history.
Emily has been dealing with health issues and then a split with her husband, He is harassing Emily to find out when her last book in series will be written because he, of course, feels entitled to some of her advance and money from the book.
The famous group was at this house in 1974, the main character was Noel Gordon a very famous rocker. He had invited step-sisters Mari and Lara along with Pierce, Mari's boyfriend. Noel and Pierre are both rockers who have plans to collaborate on music in London in the studio come January, They just don't seem to spend much time on their music. Emily gets really hooked on listening to podcasts and keeping up on the latest intel on the murder from 1974.

Female empowerment Seems to be a popular theme these days. The Villa does it right, kind of a slow reconning.
There was a lot of crossover between timelines; Emily has made the discovery of some letters written by Mari back in 1974 and she is working on book based on them. Chess wants a piece of the action

It took me a bit to get into this book, but I kept going because I was curious about what was going to happen. I was a bit let down by the ending as I feel a better resolution would have been if they found out that the letters weren't actually real events. There were just a lot of things in this book that I wish had played out differently for a more interesting story line, which is why I can only give it 3 stars.

I really enjoyed reading The Villa! I loved how it went back and forth from the events in 1974 that occurred within the villa to what was happening in present time in the same setting and how the characters of the past paralleled with the characters of the present. It has a decent twist, as well! I would definitely recommend giving this book a try.

I enjoyed The Villa by Rachel Hawkins tremendously it was a great journey through two different stories and time periods.

Two best friends from childhood who have both grown up to be authors travel to a villa in Italy for inspiration.
They find when they get their a mysterious murder that took place there at the villa in the 1970s that seemed to never seemed resolved. This seemed to intrigue them both to research it more.

If you loved Rachel Hawkins other books as well so I think you should love this as well.
I would to show my appreciation to St Martin's Press and Netgalley for giving me this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rachel Hawkins has done it again. She knows how to take you on a journey with so many twists and turns. There are two different stories happening at two different time periods that intertwine beautifully. This is a must read for any fan of suspense, highly recommend.

In 1974, rock and roll star Noel Gordon rents Villa Rosato and invites a few people along to write music and just hang out in Italy. Pierce is an up and coming musician who brings his girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister Lara. At the end of the trip, one has written a best selling horror book, one writes a platinum album and one is dead.

In 2023, Chess and Emily book a girls trip to the same villa, now named Villa Aestas, to write their books and just spend time together. Emily starts to look into the past murder at the Villa and secrets start to come to light. As a result, their friendship is changed forever.

It is a slow burn mystery that I thought was interesting in the beginning. It has gothic vibes with sex, drugs and rock and roll and complicated relationships. I love a dual timeline! This one lost me at the end though. I kind of feel this way about Rachel Hawkins books in general and enjoy her Erin Sterling books much more. If you are a fan of Rachel Hawkins, then I think you will enjoy this one:)

Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher for an eARC for review.

Highly enjoyed this Rachel Hawkins read.

Two lifetime best friends and authors visit a villa in Italy where a murder took place many years before. They become intrigued by the story of previous tenants and want to discover the truth about the house and its story.

I wanted to read this book because I loved The Wife Upstairs and liked Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins in the past. This one was unique. I appreciated the gothic murder storyline. I wanted to know the secrets of the Villa as well. I was intrigued by the author's friendship with each other, there differing life paths, and the fact that they have come together to create a new story. It was the perfect amount of mysterious.

Another in the all-too-common dual timeline stories being published these days. In the present, we have Emily, the author of a series of cozy mysteries, is a writing slump partially brought on by a mysterious illness and exacerbated by a contentious divorce with a greedy soon-to-be ex and her bestie Chess, a social media influencer and author/speaker of self-help non-fiction books that have propelled her to the top tier of authors. Chess proposes Emily join her for the summer in Italy at a luxurious Villa in Orvieto and Emily accepts.

While exploring the house (which is much less creepy than you’d expect in a book labelled a gothic horror tale), Emily discovers clues about the second timeline – 1974- and the summer when Mari, her step-sister Lara and her married lover/musician Pierce spent time at the same villa at the invitation of famous rock-and-roller Noel and his hanger-on drug dealer Johnnie. By the end of their stay, someone is killed and someone is jailed but the two women have let loose their creative juices: Mari has penned an infamous horror feminist novel and Lara has written an album of sad songs to stand alongside Carole King’s Tapestry.

I must admit that many of the actions of the two women in present day seemed implausible and downright selfish. I couldn’t imagine how this friendship had lasted, much less been such an important relationship to each of them. Emily was somewhat more relatable but even so, I found myself frustrated with her lack of agency and willingness to put up with so much from both her husband and her best friend. And as for the group of rock-and-rollers, this whole story-within-a-story brought home how subservient women often are to the men in their lives, stifling their own creativity and needs for the sake of love.

This narrative was all right but didn’t move me in any strong way. It may appeal to Hawkins’ fans but for me, it struck me as pedestrian.

My thanks for Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with the ARC of this novel.

Although they were inseparable growing up, Emily and Chess have begun to grow apart in their 30s.  Now Chess is a bestselling self-help author and influencer while Emily is going through a nasty divorce. They hope to reconnect on a girls' trip to a gorgeous Italian villa that was the setting of a celebrity murder and the inspiration for a bestselling horror novel and a platinum album. The further Emily tries to solve the long-ago murder, the more Chess becomes uncomfortable and their hidden secrets come spilling out.

Though the luxurious Italian setting was utterly perfect, The Villa didn't have the same unputdownable factor that made Reckless Girls a bestseller last year. The beginning is slow, going light on suspense and heavy on drama. Although I enjoyed the past timeline, the unlikeable characters made this an easy-to-read, yet forgettable mystery.

Rachel Hawkins does it again. Her novels are so clever, thought provoking, and engaging. I loved the jumping between time periods within the same Villa, with characters constantly guessing where they stand with one another!

This was absolutely my most favorite Rachel Hawkins book yet! Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Told in two timelines, this book was filled with twists and turns that kept me riveted from beginning to end.

Emily and Chess are best friends who have a slightly tenuous relationship with each other. Both are successful authors in their own right but their lives run on two different paths. Recently divorced and struggling to complete her next book, when Emily gets an opportunity from Chess to spend 6 weeks in a villa in Italy, she jumps at the chance to get away from her soon to be ex-husband and her writers block. The villa that they end up staying in also happens to be the site of a 1974 murder involving an international rock star and 4 other guests.

As Emily explores the house, we get the back story of the 1974 guests and what happened leading up to the murder. Emily's exploration inspires her to divert from the book she was writing and to focus on a non-fiction book. Unfortunately, what she doesn't see coming, is how much the story of the 1974 house guests is actually paralleling events in her own life.

Overall, I really enjoyed the simultaneous stories and the interwoven relationships among the characters in both timelines. The 1974 timeline, especially, gave me Daisy Jones feels. I felt Emily's unexplained sickness was unnecessary to the storyline but, on the whole, I thought this was a suspenseful thriller that kept me guessing until the end.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5118141154

"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."

Told from Emily's point of view in current day and flashing back to Mari's from 1974, this book was a wild ride. Both Emily and Mari came to Villa Aestas to work on their writing, and both end up writing something other than they originally intended. Emily finds herself obsessed with Mari's story and what truly happened in 1974, and the more she digs into the mystery, the stranger that Chess behaves. What is Chess up to? What happened that summer in 1974? Does a house remember?
This book was twisty and full of mystery. I was pulled into the story from page one and couldn't stop listening. While I don't think that the twists and turns were big surprises, they were interesting and fun to follow along. The book is super fast paced and the audiobook is well done. If you're looking for a book that will grab your attention from page one and take you on a twisty ride, this one is for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this ALC.
Schedule Release Date: January 3, 2023.

I had such high hopes for this book, having loved all of Rachel Hawkins's previous thriller books. The atmospheric setup of an old Italian villa was perfect, but something about the story line just fell flat. I liked the infusion of an old story into the book, so the timeline was dual POV, but maybe that was too much for the reader to stay invested in the suspense part. I feel like maybe the book was rushed to be published, and just didn't excite me like I wanted it to. Thank you for the review copy, regardless. I do appreciate the opportunity to read it early!

I'm usually a big fan of Rachel Hawkins, but this wasn't my favorite.. I knew exactly where the book was headed and the book was slow at the beginning. Chess was a completely toxic friend from the beginning and Em was very gullible to think that Chess was actually a good friend. It's obvious to the reader Chess's true character. I did like the back and forth between Mari's story and Em's. The story ended with everything tied up and I felt like the author did a good job of bringing everything to completion.

This was a really fun interpretation on the vacation/summer get-away trope. It's different and engaging and incredibly authentic. I really enjoyed the two different timelines, it put a-lot into perspective and of course, tied everything together. Just as well, i find it intriguing reading about writers, and so this storyline did peak my interest entirely. The murder mystery and haunted house aspect added with the crazy 1970s rock stars on drugs and so on was really interesting as well. One thing i will mention that i enjoyed less was that at times i felt like too much was going on. Too many narratives and too many great topics and subjects meshing when really, they shouldn't. Nonetheless i liked this!