Darcy and two of her friends, Jade and Vix, are invited to Darcy's grandmother's beautiful chateau in the Provence region of France, after a twenty years lapse in visits. They will also be joined by their friend Arrabelle, whose grandmother raised her in the chateau, where she worked as a housekeeper. Seraphine is a grand dame and the lady of the manor. She announces to the girls on their arrival that the next day she has something important to talk to them about., but the next morning they find her murdered. What was it Seraphine was going to tell them, and did it have anything to do with why she was killed? The police name them all as prime suspects, and the four friends are uncomfortable around each other as they try to determine who they can trust, or more importantly, who they shouldn't trust.

This book was a two part proposition for me. I read the first part, and although I was enjoying it, the story seemed to take it's time engaging me, and my interest was beginning to lag. But at the point of the book when the murder happened, I started listening to it on audio The audio version of the book was excellent, with a multi-cast for the different characters as told from their various points of view, which I really enjoyed. And at this point, the story went into overdrive. Not only did we have a murder, but we had betrayal, infidelity, war crimes, the list goes on! So at this point, keeping my interest was not a problem.

I ended up really enjoying the book, after its somewhat slow start for me. There was an unexpected twist at the end, as well. Overall I thought this was a good book, but I recommend listening to the audiobook, if you get the opportunity.

Thank you to the author, Jaclyn Goldis, Atria Books, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

If you’re looking for a psychological thriller that transports you to a beautiful French chateau in Provence that has some fairly dark secrets, look no further than The Chateau!

About the Book

Long-time friends Darcy, Jade, Vix, and Arabelle are reunited for a girls getaway in Darcy’s familial Chateau located in the French countryside. Darcy’s grandmother Seraphine has invited them to visit her at the Chateau nearly twenty years after they first visited her during their college studies abroad in Paris.

Their friendship has stood the test of time, but they are looking forward to their reunion and seeing Seraphine, who has a special connection with each of them, though Darcy is her granddaughter and Arabelle is the daughter of one of her staff and grew up at the Chateau.

Seraphine has also made it clear she has something to reveal to them. But before she is able, to she is stabbed to death. The four girls are reeling from the attach, and they are even more troubled when an anonymous social media account begins to contact them, claiming to know more and with photos of the women on their visit at the Chateau.

Worse, it soon becomes clear to both the police and the four women that someone at the Chateau must have committed the murder. That leaves quite a small suspect list, including the four women and a few staff members.

As suspicion grows, secrets the women have held from one another for decades begin to come to light and all of their friendships are called into question. Could one of them be behind the murder? And what exactly was Seraphine planning to reveal?

My Review

A true locked room mystery, the cast of characters present in the novel is relatively small. Every character has a secret that is revealed throughout the book. There is a surprising amount of deception going on here!

The audiobook helps a lot because it can be hard to keep the characters straight when there are so many rotating narrators across chapters, but this was a full cast recording and I was able to keep track of the changing narrators much more easily than I think I would have in physical book format.

The setting was well-done—I loved hearing about the Chateau and both Darcy and Arabelle’s memories from childhood there.

The number of secrets these characters are holding was shocking—and they were good secrets. Like juicy, jaw-dropping secrets. They get revealed throughout which adds to the twists and turns because people I thought would definitely not be responsible suddenly had a motive that absolutely made me suspect them.

One thing I’d warn readers about is that the characters get fairly unlikable towards about 30% through the book as we learn about their secrets, hidden jealousy, or ways they may not have been as supportive as they could. What I’ll say is to stick with it! For the most part they all come back around as we learn a lot more about them. By the end I found the book was full of people who were just dealing with the messy parts of growing up and how to include one another in the parts of their lives they may be scared to show others.

A twisty book with a great setting and a compelling mystery!

The cover got my attention, and French Chateau made me read it! I’ve read reviews that were all over the place, but that didn’t sway me any. I liked it. I found the characters a tad obnoxious and out of touch with reality, but I still enjoyed the book. It was a twisty who done it that kept my interest throughout.

This was overall enjoyable but too slow of pacing for the mood that I was in when I read it. I've seen reviews across the board for this one so I'd say if you're intrigued by it, give it a try! Thank you so much NetGalley and Atria Books for my review copy.

They had me at french chateau for this one! I was intrigued the whole time, but did get confused here and there. I would say it is a pretty mid-level thriller!

A strong weekend recommend! Twists, turns, and all sorts of secrets! A group of college friends reunite at an Avignon chateau for a twenty-year reunion and birthday celebration . . . the dream vacation turns deadly and you're left guessing until the end who the true killer is.

Thank you @netgally for the Advanced Reader Copy. Four longtime friends get an invitation from Darcy’s grandmother invites them to stay at her chateau in France, like they did on weekends during college when they studied abroad. She says she has something to tell them, but it is very mysterious. And then the grandmother is killed while they are all in the chateau. They all have secrets, and now are doubting each other-is one of them the murderer? And what was she going to tell them? I enjoyed this mystery and story of friendship and betrayal more than I thought I would. And the French countryside location definitely helped. #thechateau #jaclyngoldis #mystery #frenchchateau #murder #friendshipandbetrayal #bookstagram #booklover #reader #bookblog #lovetoread #fictionreader #bookreview #bookrecommendation #readersofinstagram #bookloversofinstagram #takeapagefrommybook #readallthebooks #booksbooksbooks #booksofinstagram #bookwormproblems #bookaholic #booknerd #whattoread #readingtime #bookaddict #ilovetoread #ilovebooks #needtoread #readallday #netgalley #advancedreadercopy

DNF- out of touch and obnoxious characters. I wanted to like this book but there wasn’t any POV shared that I cared for, rooted for, or wanted to hear the story of.

The cover alone was enough to intrigue me, and the pages inside matched the glorious gothic atmosphere. A wonderfully twisty who-done-it with complex characters and twisted motivations.

In the world of good-not-great thrillers, I think there are books with unique and intriguing premises that fall flat in execution and there are books with a more common theme that are written exceptionally well. In my opinion, THE CHATEAU falls into the second category. I loved the setting, I thought there was decent character development (especially for a thriller) and while a bit predictable, I was content with the ending. I don’t think this one will prove to be particularly memorable, but in a world where I find more and more authors throw rational thinking out the window in favor of shock value, I thought this was a solid read. Would recommend!

This one is a DNF for me. I tried really hard to get in to this one but i just couldn’t. The multiple POVs were really hard to follow and I just could not get invested in the storyline.

I am not a huge fan of thrillers, but I do love a little bit of complex cosy crime, so this sort of fit the bill, in a weird way, a closed-door murder that was and wasn't.

The four friends were not as close as they once were and this 'get to know you' or 're-know you' was well written, though the reasons for their distance (both physically and emotionally) were sometimes a little confusing.

I enjoyed the mystery behind everything, that it was tied up in the family history - not only of who they were but also what they had done - was cleverly written and gave every character a motive.

However, the characters themselves felt as though they met every single possible need for a reader: perfect mother, instagrammer/social media star, chef, mistress, lesbian, cancer patient, depressive, artist.

I honestly think that there was sometimes too much to take in (never thought I'd say that), and perhaps filtering out some of these characteristics would have given the story less complexity (which it needed) and made the characters more approachable and more real to the reader. They all had flaws, but these flaws were so extreme. We had infidelity, infertility, inheritance and so many secrets...

Overall, this wasn't quite what I expected, but I did think that the murder, motive and history were fascinating...

“I know what you did and you won’t get away with it”. I’m so torn about this book. As someone who generally loves a good suspenseful mystery, I was super intrigued by the title of this book, the amazing cover, and the description. But I personally felt as though it dragged a lot. I do think the author did their extensive research to ensure that this book is believable, I just feel as though the details became too much and held the story back. It wasn’t until at least halfway through the book that I finally felt as though something was happening. Overall, the end was fantastic and I would recommend it to those who are better with slower paced books, this just wasn’t for me.

If I could give a half star, I would give this 3 1/2 stars.

I enjoyed this book! I liked the varying points of view, and the French setting. There were several twists that I wasn't expecting that came up at the end of the novel, but leading up to that point it was relatively slow moving.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.💫/5

In a non-spoiler nutshell: money makes the world go round… jealousy is an ugly,wild trait…. is “blood thicker than water?” Family secrets, friend betrayals… Gossip Girl meets French history.

This one was hard to rate because I did enjoy it but I can see where it falters!

I find when there’s an excessive amount of detail, my mind starts to wonder off and I lose focus in what’s actually going on. The explanation of what the Chateau looked like and how it was decorated was soooooo detailed that it lost me (not to mention a lot of the decor name dropping and description terms went right over my head). I also felt there was a lot of detail that didn’t add to the storyline of the girls, but that I didn’t mind AS much.

Some of the story was so outrageous & wild, I was like “there’s no way,” but that’s part of what kept it rolling and made it more fun.

I saw a lot of the twists coming, but definitely not to the extent that they hit 😂. Some of the twists were revealed so nonchalantly that even if I wanted to GASP, the moment passed too quickly LOL.

What I did like a lot: the historical aspect of the story made it so intriguing. Bringing in parts of actual history and mixing it with fiction made the story feel more believable and made you route for certain characters.
It was also hella dramatic, & who doesn’t get sucked in by rich people drama?! I needed to know what the deal was & what the secrets were!

The Chateau follows Darcy and her three best friends as they head to her grandmother Seraphine’s Chateau for the first time in 10 years. Before Seraphine can disclose the reason for inviting everyone, she’s brutally murdered. In this lock room type mystery, we follow the women as they uncover more than just the secret of the murder.

I was so excited for this book. I was craving a French countryside locked door mystery. And while I enjoyed most of the book, I didn’t love it. There are at least 6 POVs, as each women gets their own voice, and it was hard to differentiate between them as they sounded similar. Each women have their own past and the continuous references to how they met grew repetitive. I think the plot just became to convoluted with so many voices and stories, add in the extra historical fiction element and I felt as if I was reading a few different books.

The story also seemed long, but at the same time the conclusion felt rushed. After the ‘culprit’ is revealed, everything just felt thrown together and I hated the second(?) to last chapter.

It’s an interesting read that held my attention but was not one I loved.

The Chateau is out now. Huge thank you to Atria Books for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof.books.

Great world building, really felt like I was transported to the French chateau. It had tons of interesting information and I won’t give it away it’s part of the fun of reading it! It was a great twist! I’d consider this more drama than Thriller but it’s a fine locked room mystery. The chateau and the vibe descriptiveness of it really saved it from being less than four stars. I felt like there was so much going on with the characters it was hard to keep straight. It could have been culled down and been much better.

The Chateau
Written by Jaclyn Goldis
Mystery | Murder | Friendship

Four friends are excited to spend their summer together at a chateau in France. This is nothing knew, they used to do this together years ago and visit the Lady of the Chateau, aka Seraphine. Seraphine has secrets that tests the bounds of friendship and after a wild evening, she winds up dead.

If you like stories told from alternating viewpoints, this is for you. The Chateau is told from a total seven point of views with Seraphine being the main character of the book. The book does start out slow, the mystery takes time to build, and it did take me a minute to get the storylines straight, but nonetheless, I ended up enjoying this one.

Thank you so much Atria Books and Netgalley for a free electronic copy of The Chateau written by Jaclyn Goldis, in exchange for a review. It was so cool to read a book by an author with ties to my home state of Michigan.

Published May 23rd, 2023

The Chateau was exactly what I expected it to be.. The house gave creepy vibes and the characters were full of drama. There were quite a few storylines to follow, as each character had their own reason for being at the house. The twists were shocking and some a bit far fetched for me. I don't know that I will ever reread this one, and honestly the only part of this book that stuck with me, was the one main twist. The rest is overall forgettable. I didn't really connect with one character, they are all so wrapped up in themselves. Would recommend to anyone who likes dramatic who-dun-it type books.

This was interesting but it wasn’t anything new.. I felt like I’d read this before. It was entertaining enough but was just okay for me.