3.75 rounded up to a 4. It took me a minute to figure out what was happening with all the swapping back & forth in time, plus there was a podcast in the middle that really had me wondering if I had accidentally swapped which app I was in since I was listening to the audiobook. However, this is probably my fault since I listen at 1.8 speed and chapter transitions are very quick at that speed.

Rachel Hawkins always has a great premise for her stories. This was a great twist on the vacation murder mystery.

Looking forward to reading many more of her books in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advance copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this novel, The Villa, by Rachel Hawkins and listened to it on audio. The narrators Julia Whelan; Kimberly M. Wetherell; and Shiromi Arserio are fantastic and kept the present day and the 70's completely clear.

Publisher's Blurb: "As kids, Emily and Chess/Jessica 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."

This novel moves back and forth between current time and 1974. There is a full story within a story with completely different characters. I somewhat enjoyed the 1974 rock n roll themed story, but I found it to be very dark and overly dramatic as the side story. I much preferred the current day story of the 2 women besties Emily & Chess. They've been friends since childhood and both of them are successful authors. Chess, now a wellness guru and famous author, has hit it big with her self-help books and leases the high-end Villa Aestas in Orvieto, Italy, for 3 weeks. She invites Emily who she hasn't seen in some time to join her. Emily, depressed, newly divorced and suffering from the pain and anguish of her husband's nastiness and infidelity is, no wonder, suffering from writer's block. Drama is not held back in this novel!

There are continual twists and turns and surprises that keep it really interesting, and I had a hard timing putting it down on a rainy Sunday....so I didn't...and I finished it in one day. I'd like to thank NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this fun and interesting audio ARC. I hope you enjoy it too.

“She’s inevitable.”

Rachel Hawkins did it again 👏 I’ve been a huge fan since The Wife Upstairs and I think, thriller wise, The Villa became my new fave. It, just like Hawkins, if pure BRILLIANCE.

It really won’t be a surprise why I loved this so much - with it’s focus on Mari, a woman who took the horror world by storm with Lilith Rising, à la Mary Shelley, all the tie ins to Shelley’s own story, and the focus on women and the art they create.

The book was incredibly atmospheric and made me wish I was in Italy, enjoying limoncello and soaking in the inspiration Villa Aestas. I loved both timelines so much and watching how one influenced the other - from Mari going through her normal motions of what would become an infamous summer, to Emily becoming obsessed with Lilith Rising and uncovering what really happened that summer. There’s also another layer of similarity as each woman navigates a complicated relationship with the closest woman in their life.

This was my first time listening to a book narrated by Julia Whelan, and I get the hype guys! Her, Kimberly M. Wetherell, and Shiromi Arserio really brought this story to life.

I loved how everything tied up. It was equal parts satisfying and nefarious. The moment I finished, I wished I could read it again. For me, this book is the epitome of “no thoughts, just vibes”. If you love feminist thrillers, horror, complicated characters and relationships, you NEED this in your life.

If you need me, I’ll be figuring out how I can fit in a read of Frankenstein in soon 🤞

The Villa follows two best friends at different points in their life. Emily is a writer that has been dealing with writer's block when it comes to the series she is contracted to write, she is also dealing with a divorce, and recovering from health issues.

Emily’s best friend Chess is feeling like she is on top of the world. She is also a writer and has made a career in self-help books. She is much more famous than Emily.

The two girls go on a trip to a villa in Italy. The villa is home to a dark past. A murder took place in the villa. Emily uncovers some secrets from the murder and her writer's block dissipates as she writes a new book about the villa.

This book has an excellent idea but it failed to grab me for 80% of the book. Emily is an interesting and well-developed character and I liked learning about her past and where her marriage went wrong. As you learn more about her relationship with Chess I had a hard time understanding why Chess was a constant in Emily’s life.

Part of this book was told through Mary, Mary was in the house during the murder in the 70s. These parts of the story were often interesting and made me want more of the history of the villa rather than the Chess and Emily drama.

The third perspective this story is told through is from a true crime podcast. These were not done often and were really only valuable to the reader by a way of telling a major plot point at the end. Besides that, I did not enjoy these quick segments.

Overall I felt The Villa was mostly me waiting for something to happen. When that something finally does happen I did not find it interesting enough for me to be excited about recommending this book.

Reading Between the Wines book review #102/135 for 2022:
Rating: 3 🍷 🍷 🍷
Book 🎧: The Villa
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Genre: General Fiction (Adult) | Mystery & Thrillers
RELEASES on January 3, 2023!!!

Sipping thoughts: I really like Rachel Hawkins and really enjoyed The Wife Upstairs and Reckless Girls. The Villa did not match these books. It was definitely a slow burn and did not provide the thrills that the other two brought. It was a mystery but even with that there wasn’t much to ponder over. Because I really love Hawkins’ writing and what she has done in the past I am not too disappointed and that is what made me give it three stars. I think it will still be liked by a lot, but I guess I had higher hopes based off past books. I think you should read it and try it for yourself.

Cheers and thank you to @NetGalley and @MacmillanAudio for an advanced copy of @TheVilla.

#TheVilla #RachelHawkins #MacmillanAudio #NetGalley #advancedreadercopy #ARC #Kindle #Booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #nicoles_bookcellar #bookworm #bookdragon #booknerd #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookaholic #bookreview #bookreviewer #IHaveNoShelfControl #ReadingBetweenTheWines #fiction #thriller #suspense #mystery #MysteryAndThrillers #GeneralFictionAdult

Another fantastic suspense from Rachel Hawkins! I could not stop listening to this deeply atmospheric, gothic novel.

“Does one murder, a murder house make?”

Our setting is a, you guessed it, villa, where a grizzly murder once happened amongst a group of young bohemians including an author whose gothic tale is considered staple to the genre. Our modern timeline follows Emily, also a writer who finds herself having a holiday at the now infamous villa and realizing some dark truths about what actually happened there all those years ago, and maybe a little about what is happening in her own twisted life.

I loved the mixed in articles and news clips that tell us what the public perception of things are, along with the dual timeline. The audiobook was absolutely enthralling. I binged it in one day- absolutely loved it! 4 ⭐️

Thank you NetGalley & the publisher for this arc audiobook in exchange for my unbiased review!

This audiobook was fantastic! Julia Whelan is one of my favourite narrators. She consistently delivers an engaging performance that brings the characters to life. And in this instance, I was captivated by her narration of The Villa.

This story has a dual timeline. 1974 - Pierce, an up and coming musician, his young girlfriend Mari and Mari’s stepsister Lara are invited to vacation at the Villa Rosato in Italy with Noel, a famous bad boy rockstar. Also staying with them is Johnny, Noel’s drug dealer and musician wanna be. As the drama unfolds between these five people, Pierce ends up brutally murdered. Present day - Emily is invited by her best friend Chess to spend the summer at the same villa, now known as Villa Aestas, based on Lara’s hit album after the murder. Both women are writers. Chess has made it super big with her self-help books. Emily is a modest success with her cozy mysteries. Emily has been struggling this past year from a bitter divorce and unexplained health issues that have drained her physically. She is hopeful that a summer in Italy will help get her writing again. As the summer heats up, Emily plunges into Mari’s horror novel, based on the gruesome murder that took place in the 1970’s, and begins to focus her writing on what really happened . Secrets and deceptions between Chess and Emily also start to bubble to the surface. Is history repeating itself?

This book oozed with atmosphere and made my spine tingle. I love plots that involve old crimes in a house that impact present day and this one did not disappoint. Well executed mystery with a present day timeline that also had a healthy dose of suspense and a clever twist at the end. Both timelines were intriguing. My only reason for four rather than five stars was the 1970’s timeline resolution was a tad weak and left some loose ends. This was a superbly crafted psych thriller that I absolutely recommend.

Thank you to #macmillanaudio and #netgalley for an advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Rachel Hawkins is an auto buy author for me and was so excited to be approved for The Villa. Unfortunately it was just ok. I really liked the plot, but the execution fell short. I did really enjoy the dual timelines and the musical artist element. I just did not enjoy the ending. It's still a super fast paced read, and would recommend people to read it themselves.
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Julia Whelan is my favorite audiobook narrator and she made this book SO enjoyable to listen to!

Thank you Macmillan and NetGalley for this advance listeners copy.

I binged this all day! It was so good and captivating as I pulled out Christmas decor and decorated the house. I couldn’t stop listening with alternating storylines, with Julia Whelan as the reader and a wonderful storyline, this was the perfect combo. Highly recommend as a audiobook because it was just perfect and hard to pause.

Julia Whalen is a fantastic narrator. Her narration makes every book easy to listen to.

I enjoyed the story. I liked the dual timeline and the possibility of a cursed house. I also liked that the author that initially lived in the house was a horror writer. I felt that the suspense aspect of the story was lacking. I didn’t feel any edginess.

Thank you @netgalley for my ARC.

Any audiobook read by the great Julia Whelan is a good audiobook. But "The Villa" is a struggle when the other people in other time periods chime in. The flashbacks that eventually explain why the "murder house" in Italy truly is too good to be true as a summer retreat serve to interrupt the flow and distract from the main story. It feels gimmicky. I wouldn't recommend listening to this one, but maybe on the page it will satisfy fans of R. Hawkins' earlier books.

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

The Villa is a slow burning thriller story dealing with two time periods that end up meshing together. In 1974 three rock singers two writers and a 5th wheel come to Villa Aestas which a homicide takes place. Two best friends Emily and Chess who have known each other since being kids. They meet up at the Villa for Emily just recovering from illness and a divorce they meet to get their writing juices flowing again. This story alternates between timelines, Mari in the past and Emily in the present day.

I thought the creepiness of the house would of played more of a role in the story otherwise to me it just a villa a missed opportunity here for the house being part of the story more. It would have added to the story and I believe would have made the story better. Why talk about the Villa when the Villa isn't the story what happens in the Villa is.

The story was told through the eyes of Mari and Emily, the narrative alternates between the past in the 1970s and the present. I was bored with the narratives which made me not like the characters. I know the book was written within a story in a story that just did not work for me.

I know some people will love this book and for them I recommend it to them. I would like to read more from this author even though this one did not work for me. I felt some of the dialogue between characters became annoying. Just because I didn't like the book doesn't mean others shouldn't read this. This was a 2 star read for me. Narrated by Julia Whelan, Kimberly M. Wetherell and Shiromi Arserio they did a good job giving voice to the characters in the story.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan for a free audio copy of The Villa for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Chess and Emily, lifelong friends, travel to Italy for the summer. Both are writers. Emily writes cozy mysteries and Chess writes self help. Emily is coming off the end of a marriage. Chess arranges for them to stay in a villa where many years earlier a murder has taken place. The story is told in dual timelines. The first is Chess and Emily’s in present day and the second is a group of writers and musicians from the 1970s. This worked very well on audio. The narrators did an excellent job. Of the Rachel Hawkins books I have read/listened to, this was the best. I thank NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to listen to this audio ARC.

Emily and Chess are both famous, successful writers, & they’re best friends since childhood. it’s become a toxic friendship. Chess is newly rich, Emily is newly divorced, & they decide to rent a house together for the summer in Italy to write. the house is the site of a past murder. structure of book alternates between past murder & current plot. started out strong in the beginning. middle dragged a bit. twist & ending made it all worth it. despite taking place in an Italian summer, not much sense of place unfortunately. somewhere between 3 or 4 stars. content warnings for murder, pregnancy, & toxic relationship(s).

Holy cow, I loved this! The parallel/dual timelines. The added media for depth and exposition. Chess is a fucking psycho, and I had a friend like her that I got rid of in my 20s. Such a quick read, gonna be a perfect beach read. I was totally angry at parts. Ugh so good

I loved this book and I couldn’t put it down! I listened to the audiobook and I highly recommend listening to the book vs reading it. It definitely added to the experience.

I’m not sure exactly what made this so enjoyable for me, but I loved the storyline, the dual timelines, the mystery, the setting and the character development. There were so many characters that I couldn’t tell if I loved them or hated them, but either way, I still wanted to keep reading about them.

I will definitely be reading her next book!

Thanks NetGalley and publisher for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

4+ stars

Wow, okay. This has been a fun read (and good distraction) while I’ve been at home sick for a couple days. I quite liked this book. I know I rated all three similarly, but while I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as The Wife Upstairs, I appreciated it more than Reckless Girls. I feel like the writer does a good job of creating intense relationships, whether they’re romantic or platonic, in her stories, and that’s a part of what pulls me in. The other part is a combination of the settings (I’ve said it before and will say it again- I’m a sucker for a good thriller set in a gothic building or on an isolated island) and the intriguing plots. This novel had twists and turns, some of which were pretty unexpected, including one that was thrown into the final pages, and I love that it kept me guessing. I tend to like books that switch between different characters’ perspectives but am generally less enthusiastic about ones that jump between time periods; in this case, though, it worked for me. I’m also a big fan of the cover design and art that has been used for the writer’s last three books; the colours and consistent styles are always part of what initially catches my attention. All in all, this one was a win for me. I can’t wait to see what she comes out with next!

The Villa is an interesting book with a not so mysterious mystery. I admit, I expected a story revolving around a haunted Villa in Italy with a tragic and horrific past. Well part of that is what I got but this is not a traditional haunted house story.
I enjoyed it, the parts from the 70s more than the current relationship between the 2 life-long friends. My only complaint, and that is more personal than any fault of Ms. Hawkins, is that the story started slowly and continued at that slow, onion peeling pace. I would have prefered more to happen in the time it took to read this.
But none the less, I do recommend this.

This one was a DNF for me. I will not be posting a review of it but thank you for sending I think people would like this one it just wasn't for me. Thank you again for the copy.

I enjoyed The Villa by Rachel Hawkins! This is my favorite of hers to date! With jaw-dropping twists, this novel threw curveballs left and right for the entire book! The story takes place during two different timelines – one is present day and the other is 1974, but both stories occur in the same Italian villa.

Emily and Chess are longtime friends and both of these women are authors in the present day timeline. Chess makes plans for the two to spend the "best part of the summer" in the Villa Aestas near Ovierto in Italy.

“Houses remember” is the current theme in this story and the individuals’ actions involving a past murder are brought forward to present day, so very gothic, and I loved it!

Another theme throughout the story is the line used by Pierce in the 1970s timeline, “she’s inevitable.” I loved this because the story’s ending will take you by surprise, but the actions of the women involved seem to be, truly, inevitable…”seem” being the operative word here.

I absolutely loved how Rachel Hawkins put this story together and I love that it centers around writers and writing. 4 solid stars out of 5!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for advance access to the e-book in exchange for my honest review.