After the sudden death of her mother at the age of 10, Julia Pritzker never recovers from that early loss. Not least because her father subsequently tells her that they should never have adopted Julia in the first place.

After she meets and marries Mike, Julia is happy for a while, until he is brutally killed in an apparently random act of street violence. After becoming nearly a recluse, the young widow develops a fascination with astrology.

The news of an unexpected inheritance from an unknown benefactor takes her to Italy, where things get even more complicated in this gothic tale of murder, mystery and obsession...

Scottoline delivers an entertaining tale, told in a different style and setting from the stories readers may be more used to from her. This gets 3.5 stars.

I recently picked up The Unraveling of Julia as an audiobook, drawn in by its promise of a sweeping gothic tale. And honestly, the initial setup really hooked me. Julia Pritzker's string of tragedies—losing her parents, then her husband murdered—is presented so effectively by the narrator. You really feel her mounting dread as she starts to believe her fate is written in the stars, not in her own hands. The narrator does a commendable job of portraying Julia's emotional fragility, pulling you right into her bewilderment as she heads to Tuscany to unravel the mystery of her unexpected inheritance.
However, as the story unfolded, I found myself getting a bit lost at times. The revelations about Emilia Rossi's eccentricities and Julia's uncanny resemblance to both Rossi and the historical Duchess Caterina Sforza, while intriguing on paper, felt a bit hard to fully grasp just through listening. Even with the narrator's consistent tone and clear delivery, I sometimes wished I could flip back a few pages (or rather, a few minutes!) to confirm details. The intricate web of astrological parallels and historical connections, which I think were meant to build suspense, occasionally felt more convoluted than chilling. And the "dangerous conspiracy"? It just never quite delivered the gripping tension I was hoping for. Plus, the quick introduction of a "handsome Florentine" felt a little too convenient, a point that even the otherwise solid narration couldn't make feel truly organic.
Ultimately, Julia's descent into a fragile mental state—the core of her "unraveling"—became a bit drawn out for me in audio. While the narrator did a great job conveying her distress and even used distinct vocalizations for different characters, the prolonged periods of Julia questioning her own sanity started to feel a bit repetitive. It made the listening experience less like a thrilling dive into madness and more like a somewhat prolonged state of confusion. So, while The Unraveling of Julia has a fantastic premise and a good narration, I felt it struggled to fully weave all its complex threads into a consistently immersive and engaging gothic listening experience.

I enjoyed the writing in this book. I didn’t really click with the story as much, more not my style. This feels
Different than her other novels. But good character study and depth.

Single narration, good job on Italian accents.

I was entertained by this, but calling it a psychological thriller is a stretch. A murder mystery with history and stunning Italian countrysides. The wrap up seemed too clean and without big enough motives.

Arg.

4 stars for The Unraveling of Julia. Loved the Tuscan setting, the mentions of food, the use of Italian language, etc. I was engaged throughout this book and the twists kept coming throughout. A lot of discussion of horoscopes and astrology, which felt excessive at a few points. That was my only qualm with this book.

I enjoyed the audiobook and the narrator was great!

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio. The Unraveling of Julia is available on July 15, 2025.

“The Unraveling of Julia” has a truly chilling opening involving the main character’s spouse’s cold blooded murder. Fast forward in time the case remains unsolved and as if that wasn’t enough mystery for the protagonist she receives a handsome inheritance from someone in Italy she’s never met. Could it be her long lost biological family ? She travels to find out and find even more questions along the way. The audiobook was excellent. The narrators did a wonderful job differentiating accents that added color to each character. The only no-go for me in this book is that there are supernatural elements. That was not apparent to me in the description and it’s just my personal preference for there not to be spooky elements at play. Thank you , Net Galley for the advance audiobook.

Julia Pritzker had suffered a lot of loss in the beginning of this book. First, she lost her adoptive parents, then her husband was murdered. She is grieving when she receives a letter informing her that Emilia Rossi has left her a Tuscan Villa in her will! She does not know Emilia Rossi but as she was adopted, she heads to Italy hoping to get some answers.

What she gets is more than she bargained for. Julia learns quite a bit about the woman who left her a villa and as she is coming to terms with everything she is learning, odd things begin to happen. Making things a little easier is meeting a handsome and charming man!

I listened to the audiobook and thought the narrator did a very good job of bringing this book to life. This book had several mysteries going on. Julia wants to know who killed her husband, who is behind the strange and odd things that are happening, and the truth about where she comes from.

From the description I thought I would enjoy this book much more than I did. There were some slow parts which I wanted to move along a bit faster. While I did enjoy this book, I didn't love it. The first part of the book was interesting and piqued my interest. The second half was okay, but I found that I wasn't enjoying it as much as I had the first half of the book. Even though I was getting answers and there were a few twists, this one fell flat at times. I found it a tad odd that Julia fell for another man while still wearing her wedding ring and grieving her husband. Does it happen. Yes, but her love interest seemed a little too good to be true....

This is one where you must suspend some disbelief and just go with the flow of it. At times this book takes a walk into OTT territory, but overall things do come together nicely. This book does have a supernatural element but it is small and worked nicely. This book touches on grief, astrology, and learning about your origins. I did enjoy how the mysteries unfolded and the resolution.

I was so thrilled to receive the audiobook of THE UNRAVELING OF JULIA by Lisa Scottoline, narrated by Maria Marquis to review!

I really enjoyed listening to Maria narrating this captivating story. Her voice and accents were excellent. The story is set in Tuscany, it involves an old villa with lots of secrets and a big inheritance. There also action and intrigues to keep the reader’s attention,

The story was engaging and at a good pace. It had interesting twists along the way and kept me awake at night for longer than I normally would.

Over all a great read that I will happily recommend!

Thank you NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for this ARC audiobook.

Finally! A psychological thriller for the Astro-girlies 🥹 Featuring an old Italian villa no less. The Unraveling of Julia was the wild ride I was promised (thanks @hachetteaudio for the gifted copy!) & it had me completely hooked from the very first chapter of the audiobook. This is my first time listening to narrator Maria Marquis and, wow, she’s amazing. She can do so many voices and accents, and she uses pacing variations so well to create her characters. Definitely a perfect summer listen for arm chair travel and a thrill. Bravissimo!

DNF. When I read the blurb for this I had assumed that astrology would have a minor impact on the story not be Julia's entire personality and be mentioned what felt like every 5 seconds. The amount of weight that Julia gave astrology had honestly just gotten really annoying and I couldn't continue. This was my first Lisa Scottoline book and while I DNF this one I would still try another. I did enjoy the narrator and even when she did a male voice her narrations were good!

I’ve had a hard audiobook week it seems with books not meeting expectations.
To be frank, several times I returned to the books description to see if I had the write book as it just wasn’t jiving.
The book over all is fine, it’s just not what was promised and I feel awful for saying that.

Maybe it was the narration? I’m not sure because Maria Marquis did a great job. She spoke at a swift pace for the 1x speed that fit the prose but I didn’t get a gothic nor “sweeping tale” quality from it at all. Instead it seems disjointed and whiny. (Not the narrator but the prose)

I liked the astrology tie in except it just wasn’t as effective as it should have been. Despite the narrators swift speaking pace the book seemed very slow and repetitive.
However, I did what to know what happens so it hooked me enough to forge on to the end.


I am thankful to have gotten a complimentary audio ALC from Hachette Audio through NetGalley to read which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

I felt like this should have been a book that I couldn’t get enough of, but sadly, it wasn’t for me. I found the characters fell flat, the dialogue was frustrating at times, and I couldn’t get into the story, so unfortunately a DNF.
I did enjoy the reader’s ability to make every character individual in the audio version of this book, however.
Thank you to Hatchette Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to the ALC of this book.

I was blessed to get an advance reader copy from NetGalley & Grand Central Publishing.
This book twisted in ways I was thinking it would. It was an easy read and definitely hooked me from the beginning.
The audio book narrator was also fantastic. The pacing was great and when accents needed to be portrayed, it was done perfectly.

This audio presentation of The Unraveling of Julia was fantastic. Maria Marquis did a great job narrating all of the characters. I especially loved all of her accents for the different characters. She brought the story to life.

The story was definitely intriguing. It was like a winding road that kept changing and pulled me along for the ride. I enjoyed meeting all of the characters and was very pleased with the ending.

NetGalley and Hachette Audio, thank you for this advanced copy of this audiobook.

THE UNRAVELING OF JULIA was a bit of a slough to get through. The writing felt simplistic verging on lazy, and you'd just expect a bit more from such a noted and recognizable author name. Almost as difficult to read as a Freida McFadden book. The plot felt like something I have read 100x before, and ultimately I didn't enjoy it.

The Unraveling of Julia, written by Lisa Scottoline and narrated by Maria Marquis, is a mystery that takes place both in the United States and in Italy. Julia, the main character is suffering after the unexpected death of her husband. She is having trouble connecting with those around her, and is spending more and more time alone in her home. When Julia gets a surprise phone call from an attorney in Italy who tells her that she has inherited money and a villa in Tuscany from a woman she has never heard of, Julia decides to take a leap of faith and check it out. But Julia has lots of questions, and wants to find out what happened to this woman, why she inherited the money, what is causing her to have such vivid "dreams," and could any of this have something to do with her birth family?
I have enjoyed books by this author in the past, and this one is no different! I loved the characters, the setting, the relationships, and the friendships shown. I also really enjoyed that this book had a bit more of a spooky factor than books I have read by this author in the past, and I feel like it was done in a way that helped the reader be open to the experiences the character was having.
I definitely recommend this book to any fans of this author, or those interested in a solid mystery! Thank you to NetGalley and to the author, publisher, and narrator of this book for an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

The description and cover of this book drew me in. But it wasn’t a book written for me.

Julia has lost her husband. She inherits a villa in Tuscany from someone anonymous. Throughout the book she’s mourning. But she meets a man who she has feelings for. And she’s still mourning. People are trying to kill her, and the same people may have been involved in her deceased husband’s death.

This book has too much astrology. I didn’t expect for there to be so much, and as someone who doesn’t follow that topic, it got old fast for me. The plot had such potential apart from the astrology. I wish it had focused more on the mystery.

Julia is constantly thinking of her deceased husband’s, but she never works through her feelings. She’s adding another man into her life without dealing with her mourning. Her character doesn’t grow at all.

I can’t say I’d recommend this book or wouldn’t. I will say it would be the kind of book I’d read if I was in a slump and had nothing else to read.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I originally was intrigued by the name because my name is also Julia 😄 and I was pleasantly surprised when Julia’s best friend in the book was named Courtney because that’s also one of my best friends names! I didn’t know what to expect going into this, I’m pretty unfamiliar with this genre and I didn’t know if I’d be too scared to finish it, lol! But it was very interesting to see how Julia explored her family history, her trauma, her intuition, and the crime elements of this story.

I read this book by audiobook and I thought it was well produced and I enjoyed the narrator. I thought she did a good job with the Italian pronunciation and portraying Julia’s range of emotions throughout the story!

Thank you to Netgalley and Hachette Audio for the arc and audiobook!!

This was a thriller that grabbed your hand and your heart squeezed and didn't let go until the end. I lpve a thriller that jot only has a good ploy and interesting characters but keeps me guessing and wondering not only what will happen next but how can this book continue to get better. This was in my opinion a genre bending book where it had aspects of thriller literary fiction horror and great dialpgue and comedy. I enjoyed every moment of this and all the mysteries and supernatural undertones I wasn't expecting at the beginning. I loved our main character and her love of astrology and her impending fear that she is somehow cursed by all that I'd happening around her. I loved her dynamic with her best friend as well as how she immediately took everything for what it was and didn't pretend things weren't happening to her. She was a bad ass who wanted justice and understanding to what was going on andnwasnt going to stop until she got it. I loved the setting of Tuscany the rolling hills beautiful homes and culture that was ever present. The writing was engaging full of character that jumped off the page and fantastic twists and turns. This was a great read and I highly recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the audio version of this book. I should have paid more attention to the word 'gothic' I have enjoyed Ms. Scottoline's books in the past. She is an attorney and writes thrilling courtroom scenes and lawyerly related things. This was completely different.
The narrator, Maria Marquis read in a way that was not pleasing to me. Her Julia was always in anxiety, always sounding slightly hysterical. The poor woman would have collapsed long before she did and certainly not been appealing to anyone.
That said, I'm sure it influenced my sense of the book.
I didn't enjoy it. Nothing made sense--meaning why would a woman stay somewhere where she was beseiged by nightmares, she was followed by strange people throughtout and her husband had been murdered lately. Not my type of woman to read about.