Lisa Scottoline’s The Unraveling of Julia is a gothic-tinged psychological thriller that blends grief, identity, and destiny into a suspenseful journey across continents. After witnessing her husband’s brutal murder, Julia Pritzker spirals into guilt and paranoia, especially when her horoscope eerily aligns with the tragedy. A mysterious inheritance from a stranger in Tuscany sends her on a quest for answers, where she uncovers unsettling connections to a reclusive woman who may be her biological grandmother. As Julia navigates eerie coincidences, astrological obsessions, and shadowy threats, Lisa crafts a richly atmospheric tale that’s both emotionally resonant and chillingly suspenseful. With its lush Italian setting and haunting twists, this novel is a gripping exploration of fate, family, and the fragile line between reality and delusion. I cannot wait for readers to be able to get their hands on this one. Do not miss this one when it hits stores!

This book is very different from anything I have read from Lisa Scottoline and while it was categorized as a thriller I didn’t think it really was. There was a little bit of mystery with some thrills but this was mostly an emotional story about family and discovering who you are and what family is. This book was also heavily about grief which I didn’t quite realize. It was an interesting book, but it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. Julia and her husband were out one night when someone comes to mug her and when her husband defends her he is stabbed and killed. As she tries to put her life back together she gets a strange letter about an inheritance from someone she has never heard of and since she was adopted she wonders if this is a connection to her birth family. I listened to the audiobook and I thought the narrator did a good job. I gave this one 3.5 stars which I rounded up because I did like the excitement of the end (even if it wasn’t particularly twisty or hard to predict).

The Unraveling of Julia by Lisa Scottoline. It might have been little long but I enjoyed the shorter chapters and still gave it a good rating. Lisa Scottoline gives a storyline that grabbed me and I wanted to see how it ended.

This was a delightful read! Thank you Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC! The unraveling of Julia, literally, provided such a neat story! I am so grateful to have had a chance to read yet another Lisa Scottoline book! This will be a hit!

I thought this book was great. I've been a fan of Lisa Scottoline books for years so I was thrilled to get an early version of this book. It was not in the style of story telling that some readers may have become accustomed to. The story all makes sense if you read it to the end.

Julia had a strong premonition of danger immediately before a purse snatcher lunges out to attack her. Unfortunately, her dearly loved husband steps in and is stabbed to death. Julia is left reeling and becomes very much a believer in her horoscope. As she is buried in her mourning, she is contacted by a lawyer in Tuscany. Julia has inherited not only a villa in Tuscany, but very valuable property surrounding it. And a large sum of money comes with the inheritance. But she has no idea who the woman is who left her the inheritance.

While she is visiting her villa, she finds that the villa and property have been left to become very run down and overgrown. Additionally, she begins to see things that are can't be real. Is she seeing ghosts? Hallucinating? There are strange bits of information that she manages to dig up, along with the fact that nothing is left of the dead woman - it's all been burned.

But Julia wants to determine if her benefactor is her biological mother or grandmother. After all, who else might have left her such an estate? The more she digs, the more strange and frightening her situation becomes.

I have both the e-book and the audio. The narrator, is incredibly good. Her accents and voices allow the listener to identify each character.

Julia’s husband has just been tragically murdered when she is notified that she has inherited a villa in Italy. Once there, she is greeted by hostility and quickly realizes that not everything is as it seems and her life may be in danger.

Underlying throughout the story is the unsolved death of Julia’s husband. On top of that, Julia ha no idea why she is the heir. There are beautiful descriptions of the gothic setting, which enhance the air of mystery. This is a quick read with intensity and a European flavor.

This book takes you on a wild ride. You are cruising through Italy, my favorite place in the world. There are "good" characters and there are "bad" criminal characters. It centers around Julia Pritzker who is adopted and married to the love of her life Michael. One night while walking home from dinner a guy with a dark hoodie approaches like he is going to rob them but instead he stabs Michael and he dies. Julia is devastated. She feels like she knew something bad was going to happen just before the stabbing but she could not prevent it. After the stabbing, Julia is afraid to leave the house. For months she works from home and does all her shopping on line and has it delivered. Her friend, Courtney is very concerned for Julia. A letter arrives and Julia finds out she has inherited a substantial amount of money and a villa in Italy. Courtney convinces Julia to go to Italy and find out about the villa and maybe find her birth mother. So the whirlwind begins. Lisa Scottoline has incorporated astrology and the paranormal into this book. It gets a little wild but it is a page turner. There is romance, intrigue, crime and mystery. I am not a fan of the paranormal and I do think that this was a little overdone. Otherwise, this was a great read with twists and turns. I would definitely recommend. Just a warning, it is a different type of a Scottoline novel.
Thanks to #netgalley, #grandcentralpublishing and @lisascottoline for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Thank you Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the complimentary e-ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Julia is going through a rough time in her life - lost her adoptive parents, her husband was murdered and she is scared to leave her home. Suddenly she a letter that states that she inherited a villa in Tuscany.

This book had me hooked because I was wondering what is going on- what is paranormal and what it real. I think Lisa Scottoline did an amazing job with this book by combining the location (you can’t go wrong with Tuscany), paranormal events (makes you guess what’s real) and some conspiracy around her.

I am usually such a fan of this author's books but this one just didn't live up to my expectations. Maybe a little could be that my life is a hot mess but it seemed like more than that.

What I did love was the setting. Italy is such a beautiful country and I could picture it all. I was also drawn in with Julia's loss and struggling. I was curious as to why a stranger would leave her an estate in another country.

I am not a fan of paranormal, so that piece didn't go over with me and I thought there was a little much on the astrology front.

Overall I was underwhelmed and usually having the opportunity to switch to listening instead of reading helps keep me focused, but it didn't for this one. Maria Marquis did a good job voicing Julia's insecurities and inquisitiveness and sounded right for Julia, but she couldn't make up for my lack of connection.

Maybe I've grown to expect too much, but I just didn't connect with this one.

Julia Pritzker is not doing well. Like, “I think the moon might be trying to kill me” levels of not well. First her husband is stabbed to death in front of her (because we’re starting light!), and then she spirals so hard she starts blaming the stars. Which… would be a reach if her horoscope hadn’t literally warned her. Julia starts treating astrology like it’s both a prophecy and a restraining order, and honestly, I respect the commitment to the bit.

Then, plot twist with extra pesto, a letter shows up saying she’s inherited a Tuscan villa and vineyard from a woman she’s never heard of. Her name? Emilia Rossi. Her vibe? Paranoid reclusive ghost ancestor with a Renaissance cosplay kink. Julia, who was adopted, does the only logical thing: she packs her grief, trauma, and zodiac chart, and yeets herself across the Atlantic to find out if Emilia was her long-lost nonna or just a rich weirdo who watched too many telenovelas.

Italy is a whole experience. The villa’s falling apart like Julia’s mental health, the locals are shady as hell, and someone keeps breathing down her neck, maybe metaphorically, maybe not. Everyone keeps hinting that Emilia believed she was descended from Caterina Sforza, a real historical duchess-slash-boss witch, and wouldn’t you know it, Julia looks just like her. Add in visions, dreams, nightmares, and a few ghost-scratch wakeups, and we are officially in "Haunting-of-Hill-House"-but-make-it-Tuscany territory.

The first half of this book is mood heaven. We’re sipping wine, unlocking mysterious rooms, and Googling the lineage of Italian nobility like it’s gonna unlock a side quest. But then the pacing hits a wall. Instead of ramping up the tension, we’re detouring into endless astrology monologues and supernatural teases that don’t fully commit. Julia starts seeing things, hearing things, possibly being gaslit by the architecture. It’s fascinating but also… like, what genre are we in right now? Choose your fighter: gothic thriller, trauma memoir, haunted vineyard cozy, or all three at once?

Julia herself is chaotic-good. She’s messy, grieving, paranoid, and somehow still pulling off chic widow core in rural Italy. You root for her, even when she’s making bad decisions, especially when she’s making bad decisions. But the romance? Hmm. A year after Mike’s murder, which, by the way, she is very much not over, she’s making goo-goo eyes at a hot Italian librarian and everyone’s just... fine with that? It’s giving “Hallmark movie with unresolved trauma” and I needed more build-up and fewer soulful glances over espresso.

The mystery pays off. Mostly. We find out who killed Mike, how Emilia fits into the big family puzzle, and what the hell is going on with the villa. But the big finale is tied up with a neat little bow when honestly, I wanted something jagged and bloody and echoing in an ancient wine cellar. The end made sense. It just didn’t slap.

“The Unraveling of Julia” is gorgeously written chaos with big haunted-widow energy, layered mysteries, and vibes so strong you’ll Google flights to Florence mid-chapter. It’s weird, atmospheric, and addictive, but it wobbles under the weight of its own astrology obsession and ghost-lite detours. Still, I had fun. And that’s what counts when you’re unpacking intergenerational trauma in a haunted Italian mansion. 3.5 stars. Gorgeous, moody chaos with a horoscope hangover.

Whodunity Award: For Most Likely to Be Solved via Ghost Vision and Mild Gaslighting

Huge thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the early access to the ARC I devoured it like a haunted pasta course.

I usually steer away from this style of mystery, but the gothic details in the summary drew me in. Overall, it kept me intrigued enough to keep with the story to the end. Perfect for “new-age spiritualists.”

Kept me hooked till the end. I really liked the setting in Italy. I don't usually read paranormal books, but this was paranormal-lite so it was fine. I liked the romance and the search for her biological mother woven into the plot.

The Unraveling of Julia is a unique story. It in includes astrology, visions, a medium. When Julia was seeing visions, I found it hard to take the story seriously. Once the visions are explained, I enjoyed the story much more. The Tuscan setting was dreamy but some of the twists were unbelievable. Overall, I didn’t connect with Julia (perhaps because I don’t believe in visions?). Pretty satisfying ending that tied up all the mysteries.

This was the most predictable, unbelievable, and ridiculous thing I have read in years. Purportedly a psychological thriller, it is just a poorly conceived gothic novel (and I love gothic novels. This is an insult to gothic novels). I knew how large parts of this would play out less than 1/4 of the way in and even the finer details were absurd. Don’t even get me started on the italicized Aws, Args, and Ouches scattered throughout. I want those hours of my life back.

This book immediately had me thinking, "I need to read more Lisa Scottoline." While it's a little tragic, it has a deeply engaging mystery, it travels back and forth from Europe to the US, and has a little spiritual element to it as well. Such a gripping, well-rounded novel that had me completely hooked from start to finish!

SYNOPSIS
-Julia’s husband is murdered right in front of her during a mugging, and she’s barely keeping it together.
-Out of nowhere, she gets a letter saying she inherited a villa and vineyard in Tuscany from a stranger.
-She flies to Italy hoping for answers and maybe some kind of connection to her biological family.
-The woman who left her everything was obsessed with astrology and thought she was related to a Renaissance duchess.
-Julia starts seeing weird parallels between their lives… and things spiral from there.
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MY THOUGHTS
-The astrology stuff was way over the top. I’m fine with a little woo-woo, but this felt like a horoscope fever dream.
-The paranormal stuff also didn’t work for me.
-The pacing dragged. So much buildup, and not enough payoff.
-The writing felt super repetitive. She said the same things so many times it started to feel like filler.
-The plot got cheesy real fast. It leaned into drama in a way that felt kind of silly.
-The writing read more like YA.
-I didn’t care about any of the characters. Julia especially didn’t do it for me.
-This book tried to be a ghost story, a romance, and paranormal mystery all at once. It didn’t quite pull off any of them.
-I kept hoping it would click for me, but it never did. Just wasn’t my thing.
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TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️This one wasn’t for me. The astrology stuff was too much, the pacing dragged, and the story felt all over the place. I didn’t connect with the characters or the writing.
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THANKS: Thanks to Grand Central Publishing and Netgalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book will be published on July 15, 2025.

This was my first by this author and it was definitely something. I just feel like there were too many plots going on at the same time.

This was such a refreshing blend of mystery, suspense, and the supernatural—fast-paced, atmospheric, and entirely original.

After the tragic murder of her husband, Julia receives word that she’s inherited a villa in Italy from a total stranger. Hoping for a fresh start—and maybe some answers—she travels to Tuscany. But what she finds is far from peaceful: cryptic messages, astrological clues, and a web of secrets that seem to tie her to a woman who died centuries earlier.

The story combines hidden messages, family legacy, and emotional unraveling in a way that reminded me of National Treasure—but with ghosts, horoscopes, and a more personal, eerie tone. You’ll need to suspend some disbelief, but the payoff is worth it. It’s twisty, immersive, and totally entertaining.

Even the happy ending (which I don’t usually go for) felt satisfying and well-earned. 4.5 stars 🌟

This one is a psychological/gothic/paranormal blend set in the gorgeous Tuscan countryside. It follows Julia Pritzker, a young widow who travels to Italy after inheriting a mysterious property—and quickly finds herself caught in a web of secrets, suspicion, and eerie twists. As always, Scottoline keeps you guessing.

The premise really grabbed me, and I was especially pulled in by the mystery surrounding a few key characters. The moody setting—complete with a Tuscan villa and vineyard—added a lot to the atmosphere and made the story feel immersive. That said, some of the character interactions felt a bit stiff, and the dialogue didn’t always flow naturally. The paranormal elements were also a bit over the top for my taste at times.

Overall, it was a quick, entertaining summer read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the ARC.

A somewhat enjoyable story that couldn't seem to pick a direction or a genre to stay in. The reader is introduced to Julia who has had her share of tragedies throughout her life ... never knew her parents, lost her adoptive parents, husband was murdered in front of her, developed agoraphobia. Maybe finally her luck has changed when she receives an unexpected inheritance in Tuscany Italy. Overcoming her fears, she travels across the ocean to discover more than she planned for.

Her inheritance is a sadly dilapidated Tuscan villa, but with a gorgeous Ferrari, from a woman, Emilia Rossi, who believed she was a descendant of Italian Renaissance royalty. As she tried to discover more about her benefactor, she experiences some terrifying events that leaves her questioning her sanity. But as she navigates the Tuscan countryside with a handsome Italian librarian, she learns things about herself, her benefactor and her birth family that ends very nicely.

But the story couldn't stay on one path ... when Julia arrived at her Tuscan villa, it seemed that it was going to be a horror story. Then as she investigated more about Emilia, it seemed like it was going to be a family mystery. And then it switched gears to Julia being a psychic, which really stretched out there. Most of the experiences Julia had were predictable as to the outcome, with the exception of learning about how her husband's murder tied in.

I did really enjoy the descriptions of the villages in Tuscany. I especially enjoyed their experience at the Autodromo Dino Ferrari in Imola as I had just finished watching the 2025 F1 Italian Grand Prix.