This story is told in first person from multiple narrators primarily friends that have been invited back to one of the women’s family chateau in France at the behest of her grandmother, Seraphine. Darcy met Jade and Victoria/Vix during a semester when they studied abroad in Avignon and grew up in the chateau with Arabella, the housekeeper’s daughter who was practically a sister to her. Seraphine is murdered at the beginning of the book and the narrative works its way through each character and their complicated relationships with both Darcy and the deceased revealing secrets and betrayals, giving intriguing motivations to each of the women.

There were also a few chapters with the male character of Raph, the groundskeeper at the Chateau, and I found his observations of the women and their situations to be quite comical. At one point he referred the whole fiasco as something like a happy murder horror soap opera that someone he knew enjoyed on TV. At times I just wanted to tell Jade to have a cookie and as much as I related to Vix, it’s always amazing to me to hear about how other women’s feelings towards breast cancer can be so different and yet so similar. Also, why are men so stupid sometimes?

Ultimately, I enjoyed the ride and the journey to figuring out the machinations of the culprit even while shaking my head at times; however, I didn’t like the way the last page left things.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for a copy provided for an honest review.

Séraphine Demargelasse, the Lady of the Chateau in Provence, gathers her granddaughter Darcy and Darcy's three closest friends to reveal something important. The question is, will she get a chance?

This book started a bit slow for me and I even set it aside for a while, but about a third into it, the pace dramatically picked up. I loved that there was a great mix of family drama, a touch of historical fiction, a murder mystery and psychological thriller. Now looking back at this read, I would say that the slow burning drama was needed for character development. Multiple POVs added to the tension and suspense as everyone began suspecting each other. I really enjoyed how the author tied history to the present day, and how the descendants of characters from the past were affected by their predecessors' choices.

You will enjoy this book if you go into it with some patience and the right set of mind. It starts as a family drama and later accelerates into a fast-paced thriller. Enjoy the slow burn and you will get rewarded by the mind-blowing finale.

TL;DR: Some of you thriller fans out there are sleeping on Jaclyn Gladis’s THE CHATEAU, and it really shows. If you haven’t picked this one up yet, I highly recommend prioritizing one of my personal favorite beach reads of the summer, a girls trip to a French country estate that goes terribly wrong in all the best/worst ways possible. The book is part KNIVES OUT, part GUEST LIST, part THE CLUB, with an unexpected historical twist that I was pleasantly surprised by in the best way possible and a narrative device that elevates this book above others in the genre I’ve read recently. Thanks to my friends at @atriathrillers for the gifted copy!

I really enjoyed this book! I love whodunnits and this was perfect. I’m currently listening to the audiobook and I love it as well.

The Chateau by Jaclyn Goldie. This book was action packed. There were a lot of characters but the author did a good job of making the characters unique so you could keep the stories straight. I loved this entire book until the end. I didn’t like how it ended on a cliffhanger. Maybe there will be a sequel? Thanks Atria Book and NetGalley for the ARC.

OK, this turned out way juicier than I expected! 👀

I’ll be honest, it took me far longer than it should’ve to get all the characters straight in my brain …but after that happened (and the plot picked up), I couldn’t put this down!

I did guess a few of the “big” reveals but it had enough “families behaving badly” appeal that it didn’t really detract too much from my overall enjoyment 😜

If one could describe a thriller as aspirational, this would be it. The Provençal countryside peppered with orchards and vineyards, a luxurious mansion decorated with Impressionist paintings and a wealthy grandmother all added up to an improbable but dreamy setting for this thriller. I had to leave reason at the door because this story was over the top. The story alternates perspectives (with different narrators) and some characters (and narrators) were more believable than others. Some of the chapters were slow and repetitive which dissipated the tension. The central murder got lost in all the other drama. It had some highs but this thriller didn’t quite work for me.

Thrillers will forever hold a GREAT place in my heart, especially when they are done by someone who gave me all the feels of my favorite authors!

I would have never put this down and just read all the way through if it weren't for a tiny human needing me hah.

This was set in the French countryside, gorgeous right! Totally...UNLESS you are in the company of a murderer...do you know them? do they know you? Who killed _____?!

The drama that was in the secrets these ladies kept. Read it for the drama alone, you will want the tea! for sure.

Thank you to Jaclyn, NetGalley and Atrial books for this ARC!

I have picked this one up to read over a dozen times and 150 pages in, I still am not into this book. The Chateau by Jaclyn Goldie feels like forced tension for me. I have seen many positive reviews for this one, but the action is way too slow for me. I will try to pick this up again, but for now, I think I need to step away.

Darcy and her four friends from college, now aged 40, have been invited back to her grandmother's chateau in Provence, France. They loved visiting there when they were in college but Darcy's friends haven't been there since college. Curious about why they are invited for this visit but still very excited to return and see Seraphine again, they arrive and have a wonderful first night together. As Seraphine goes to bed that night, she tells them that all will be revealed the next day about why she summoned them all. Yet, a scream during the middle of the night, awakens them to find Seraphine with a knife in her heart.

Well, it must be one of these five women or one of the few who work there. So in Agatha Christie fashion, the mystery and some interesting history along the way, are uncovered. The story kept me interested, and turning the pages to find out who murdered Seraphine!

My thanks to Net Galley and Atria/ Emily Bestler Books for an advanced copy of this e-book.

This book has all the ingredients - the perfect storm - for a thriller.

A big house in a remote location? Check.
An old lady? Check.
Friends with a history? Check.
A dead person? Check.

I enjoyed the addition of modern technology - Instagram - in the mix of a classic thriller plot. The twists really took me by surprise, which is something I need in a thriller. Jaclyn Goldis did a good job building the mystery and giving each character a personality with enough secrets to make me suspicious.

I think anyone who enjoys thrillers set in spooky houses will enjoy this!

I was super excited for this book as it seemed like a thriller in a luxurious setting. However, there was so much backstory and drama that the thrilling elements were really overshadowed. The book this felt very long at the end and I lost some interest. 2 star rating for this one. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley.

It can be so easy to find a mystery that is filled with highly unlikable characters. It is much more difficult to find a thriller where you are actually invested in the lives of the characters and are rooting for a majority of them. The Chateau was a great find for that exact reason. It was easy to care about the stories of the women who went to the Chateau hoping to find pieces of their lives that they felt that they were missing. Each woman was fully fleshed out and was much more than the usual caricature of a woman that seems so typical in the genre. As easy as it was to care about their lives, it was just as easy to understand how their lives could have led them to take drastic action, leading to the main conflict in the story.

The atmosphere of the beauty within the Chateau was contrasted brilliantly with the tension and constant state of unease of everyone staying within the walls of the beautiful building. This contrast helped develop the mystery itself when the actual characters couldn’t carry the plot forward at a faster pace. There were several times when reading that I found myself so wrapped up in the atmosphere that I didn’t quite notice that nothing had actually happened to advance the plot in several chapters.

The sheer number of characters and points of view was surprisingly easy to keep up with as each woman had such a distinctive voice. The only flaw with the multiple POVs was that some of the information became repetitive without actually being informative. I would have loved to see fewer scenes between the characters with a slower change between each character. It was overwhelming at times to constantly be changing characters.

I read this book while on vacation and can absolutely vouch for the fact that this book is a perfect vacation read. Despite the incredibly deep topics (please make sure to check trigger warnings), it was easy to read a little at a time and still keep up with what was happening to everyone.

⅘ stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

I really enjoyed this book. It is a story of secrets and lies. A group of friends visit Grand-meres chateau in France because she said she has something important to discuss with them. The story is told from multiple perspectives and covers multiple generations. The story was very interesting but I felt a few of the characters said similar things each time we were on their chapter which became a bit repetitive. There were also a lot of characters and going back a generation or two made it a little difficult to keep of all of the names. However I really enjoyed this book and did not see the ending coming at all. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an enjoyable twisty mystery. The main characters are all interesting and yet, not quite trustworthy. There are lots of interesting twists until the surprising but satisfying conclusion. I enjoyed this thriller and will definitely be looking for other books by Jaclyn Goldis.

There are so many things to love about this. The setting might be my favorite. A group of women, all turning forty, are summoned to a chateau in Provence by one of their grandmothers. She feels it's time to tell all of the secrets, before she runs out of time. But there may be several people that do not want those secrets to be known for whatever reason. This is a pretty straightforward mystery. I have no idea whether I might have figured out the ending because I was so caught up with the characters (and the setting) that I sort of just went with the flow.

My mum is reading this rn and has been texting me asking when we're going to Provence. That doesn't normally happen when she's reading a mystery. You hardly ever notice the setting in a mystery novel, other than maybe vague outlines, certainly not to the extent of wanting to visit a place on vacation. I think this makes this particular novel quite special and I look forward to seeing what the author comes up with next.

I definitely recommend this, but especially to mystery lovers and anyone with a travel bug.

Love an atmospheric whodunnit, especially with a gorgeous chateau backdrop! It was a fun and quick read, and I found it super immersive.

Went into this only knowing the genre and was pleasantly surprised! I enjoyed how the chapters were different POVs and that each character had secrets the others didn't know about. This was a very well written thriller that had me guessing what was REALLY going on, and surprising me when it was another twist. Most of the characters felt flushed out but I didn't quite understand a lot of their motives behind what they did. Overall, I had a great time and would be interested in the thrillers/mysteries this author writes in the future!

The Chateau was a pretty decent popcorn thriller for me. It features four middle aged women with various secrets, a gorgeous French chateau setting, and a consistently mysterious tone as complications begin to arise.

The plot did kind of feel like an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink-wait-actually-include-the-kitchen-sink-too kind of plot. We have art thievery! Lesbian heartbreak! Holocaust history and antisemitism! Infertility struggles! Dead parents! Infidelity! Murder! Cancer! Illegitimate children! Gigantic inheritance! Instagram famous friends! It was a little overwhelming, and at times, character went on tangents that sort of took me out of the book.

We get multiple POVs, but their voices all sort of blended together. I’d sometimes forget whose perspective I was in. I would have liked a little more nuance to the different characters, besides just their careers and families.

But overall, I had fun reading this. I’m always happy when a thriller doesn’t rely on an unstable alcoholic woman imagining things (OR IS SHE??), since the genre has become saturated with those. While there was a lot going on, the book is unique and doesn’t blend together with other thrillers. And the setting especially was perfect - I loved the descriptions of the French countryside, and felt the author did a great job of bringing that to life.

Basically, this is a fun read if you need something a little popcorn-y to break up more intense reads. It had some good twists and I was entertained the entire time. I will more than likely pick up other books by this author in the future!

The first 50% of this was too slow of a burn for me, but in hindsight I know it was necessary to build the backstory for each character.
I loved the luxurious french setting, closed-door mystery, and exploring how female friendships can warp over time.
Thankfully the second half was great, very twisty and kept me on my toes!