With Rachel Hawkins being one of my favorite authors I knew I would love this book before I even started it. I was so excited to be approved to read this!

This book gives you a dual timeline story and keeps you wanting more. The characters are amazing and I fell in love with Emmy and Mari. I was kept on my toes and just when I thought I had things figured out another twist would come. Rachel Hawkins definitely did it again with this one! I highly recommend reading this book if you love Gothic suspense with lots of twists!

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to review this book!

I'm a huge Rachel Hawkins fan. A book from her that takes place in Italy? Yes please!

The Villa wasn't my favorite. It was very good and kept me interested throughout, but I think there was a lot of opportunity that was not taken. The story takes place through two timelines, all at the same house. There's a young and rowdy crowd from the 1970s who go to escape life. The same can technically be said about the pair in the 2020s, though I think they use their time a bit more productively. There are layers of mystery, but nothing really felt satisfying.

I'm still definitely a Rachel Hawkins fan, and I can't wait to see what she writes next!

The Villa is a story of friends, drugs, sex, and music. It is also a story of researching a tale that is told about the place you are staying and figuring out the rest of the story. Emily plays the detective, she reads Mari’s book when she arrives at The Villa and decides to rewrite the story, tell the whole story. I really enjoyed watching her put together her version of the book, the mysteries she found, the clues she discovered all pulled together the 1974 timeline of The Villa.

The current timeline, the timeline of Emily’s visit to the Villa, was a tough story. Emily has gone to Italy with her “best friend” to escape her cheating husband. Both Emily and Chess are writing books and think the time away will help them write. I struggled with their relationship. Chess was a friend only when she wanted to be and Emily accepted this. Neither character was one that I was cheering for, I was not invested in their lives or friendships. The big twist in their friendship, not so surprising.

I wanted more twists and turns, more darkness within The Murder House, more mystery as to what was happening. I liked the 1974 timeline, Mari’s story, better. Overall, The Villa was a book that I did not want to put down because I did want to know what was happening but I at the end I was wanted more. I was not disappointed but I felt like the story could have been a little darker, more gothic.

3.5 stars. I had a hard time keeping up with the second timeline at first. Then I did not like the lack of consequences for Chess T the end. That made a huge difference for me.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book.

In the 1970s, Mari is living in an Italian villa with her rockstar boyfriend, another musician, their drug dealer, and her sister. Things are messy and intense and come to a head when one of them is found dead. In the present day, Emily is staying with her friend Chess in that same villa. While there, she uncovers secrets about this event, her friendship with Chess, and her marriage.

The book switches back and forth between these two storylines as everything starts coming together. It was an entertaining read, but a bit of a slow burn with an unsurprising ending.

Rachel Hawkins has a way of building a world and bringing you into it. She’s done it again…in Italy. I loved the tie in between stories and kept wanting to listen to the record. Love the twists and turns the story takes. The Villa is enjoyable from start to finish.

I really enjoyed reading this book. A classic slow burn but kept me wanting more. I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

What can possibly go wrong when two BFF's Emily and Chess go on a wonderful writing adventure in Italy? Throw in a beautiful villa that was the scene of a murder over thirty years ago. What happens next can really put you on the edge while you are reading this thriller by Rachel Hawkins.
Emily an almost divorced writer is invited by her best friend Chess to a Italy where Emily can decompress from her life of sickness and divorce while both she and Chess can get their creative juices flowing and write their next books. That is until Emily stumbles upon what really happened in this beautiful villa when Mari, her true love Preston, Noel and aging rock star and her stepsister Lara spent a wonderful summer of trying to regroup and also do some writing mostly writing of songs.
What I liked about this book is that it showed the villa at two different stages of its life. A time when drugs, alcohol and free love were given to all. Then jump over 30 years and the villa is used as an escape for a broken heart, betrayal and possibly a time of good fortune. My favorite was the time of Mari, her friends and step sister. I . A pictured myself in a beautiful villa in a beautiful city, with the element of surprise . A surprise that Mari and her friends did not see. The time period with Emily and Chess I felt dragged. Wasn't happy with the way Em's character evolved. She sometimes just gave in and took her punches, while her friend Chess I found to be sneaky, and not a true friend.
The story picked up speed when we where told the truth behind what happened the night of the murder , how Mari then saw herself and what her relationship with Lara turned out to truly be. When Emily begins to dive into the life of Mari, the books she wrote the music that Lara wrote and the truth about what really happens made me want to finish this book and I am happy I did. I loved how Ms. Hawkins wrote the story with the years intertwining and see how the characters of both similar and different. Loved how it ended though I was slightly confused I would recommend it to mu reader friends.
Thank you Ms. Hawkins, Net Galley and St Martins Press for the ARC. Haven't been approved for a book in a long time, glad I was for this one.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
Houses remember…

Read if you like:
- Italian setting
- gothic suspense
- rock stars
- vacation thrillers
- cheater revenge 😈

This book is from 2 different character perspectives, happening years apart. Emily’s best friend decides to scoop her away on an Italian vacation to take her mind off her pending divorce. Before they go Emily researches and finds out it’s a “murder house”… but it’ll be totally fine! 🤪 In comes Mari’s point of view; she’s the girlfriend of famous rockstar Pierce Sheldon in 1974 in London. I love the format of different perspectives/time periods because I love slowly getting the pieces to put together the puzzle.
I love that 3 of the characters are authors!! I love reading about books 🤓
The very opening paragraphs gripped me immediately! The book did almost lose me in the middle though, when it became kind of boring and nothing was really happening.
This was more of a cozy mystery than a thriller. I kept waiting for the twists and turns to happen, but the book just wrapped up neatly and exactly as you expected it would. The end really fell flat for me.
Thank you so much to Netgalley and St.Martin’s Press for my ARC in exchange for an honest review 💕

The best Rachel Hawkins book I have read so far! The inspiration for this book - the Manson Murders, Fleetwood Mac, and the situation surrounding Mary Shelley at the time she created Frankenstein - really intrigued me.

"Houses remember."

The dual timelines and connection between the characters' life circumstances decades apart in the same house gave me the eerie feeling of this quote's meaning.

While some of the twists were predictable, I still had a gut sinking feeling when they landed.

I do think that leaving off the last chapter from Mari would have given this book a more edgy and eerie ending that would have left me feeling spooked... but this rounded out her character too.

Overall, I really loved this book.

I received this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this!

If walls could talk...

A gorgeous villa in the Umbrian countryside has a dark history. A murder took place there in the 1970s which spawns an extremely successful album and novel created by two women who were there at the time of the murder. Decades later two successful authors stay at the villa for a writing retreat where secrets from the past and present collide in dangerous ways that is all too familiar for the villa.

This story explores the dark side of the feminine, inspired by the Lilith mythos. It's about taking back one's power through the stories one choose to tell. But what if that story is tainted and distorted? How liberating could that be? Vengeance and secrets can make a person do crazy things, almost as though they are living a fictional version of their life, separate but close enough that their memories and motivations blur into a summer haze where everything feels caught in a moment in time, like words on a page or lyrics in a song.

The Italian setting was the perfect atmosphere for this story and the use of articles, interviews, and podcasts was a clever and modern way of providing context while also providing a sense of realism. My criticism is that I didn't find the murderous aspects believable. I didn't feel the characters had enough motivation to go through with it. I also felt the modern storyline needed stronger links to the past for Emily and Chess because I didn't buy their obsession with the 1970s murder. I felt a little disconnected from these characters because their dark sides were not explored enough. Why was Mari so intent on finishing her book? Why was Emily obsessed with Mari? What was in it for Lara and Chess? I couldn't understand the characters motives and this weakened the suspense for me. If a house is going to be a character in a book, give it a nostalgic eerie vibe so that its ghosts from the past can possess the characters. I almost feel that this story didn't need a modern storyline because it wasn't as interesting or well developed as the 1970s plot.

The destructive power of creativity, the feminine rage, and the price of fame are explored in this mystery thriller that leaves many questions unanswered,

In 1974, Mari, her boyfriend Pierce, and her stepsister Lara, receive an invitation from the bona fide rock star Noel Gordon, to spend the summer at Villa Rosato, an Italian Villa. An invitation too good to pass up, the 4 creative “kids” and Noel’s drug dealer, Johnnie, settle in a for a relaxing summer getaway, in hopes of tapping into their creatives crafts, whether that be music or writing. But is all fair in love and war?

Present day Emily Sheridan receives a call from long time best friend, and now famous self-help author, Chess Chandler to embark on similar summer getaway to the same Italian Villa, now called Villa Aestas. Both writers, they too are hoping for a calm and relaxing 6 weeks at the villa to work on their writing. As beautiful and serene as the house is, it’s infamously known as a murder house. As the weeks go by, Emily is pulled to dig up the secrets of that July day in 1974 that led to the murder of Pierce Sheldon. She doesn’t have to go far to look, the house she’s in remembers what happened and clues are scattered throughout if she can find and solve them.

One of my favorite books is The Secret History, and this gave similar vibes, which was fun. The dual timelines worked well for me and I enjoyed the many parallels between the two stories that ultimately brought it full circle in the end. The mystery for me didn’t lie as much in who killed Pierce Sheldon as it did in present day Emily figuring out the clues to what happened back in 1974 and sourcing the “truth” vs. what had been published about the event. Overall, it was a fun read and my first by this author.

"Houses remember."

I was pulled into this book from the opening line. So much so, that I read it in one sitting.

Chess and Em have been best friends since childhood. Their lives took them in different directions but they always find their way back to one another.

Chess proposes that she and Em spend the summer in Italy; a chance to reconnect and focus on completing their respective books. Em, going through personal turmoil, accepts the invitation to stay at Villa Aestas...which happened to be the site of a violent crime in the 70's.

The book jumps from past to present, telling the story of two very different groups of friends who share many of the same secrets. The Villa brought them together, will history repeat itself?

Many thanks to Net Galley, St. Martin's Press, and the author for the ARC.

2.5 stars - this book felt rushed and not fully thought through. I was so excited by the premise of it! I even saved it to read during my vacation where I stayed in an Italian villa myself. But the setting in the book didn’t feel very Italian at all. There wasn’t enough character development. The twists weren’t anywhere near twisty enough to justify the build up to them. By the end, the most potentially interesting fact was the hiding place - which was never even fully revealed. I know this author can do better so I will look for her work again, but cannot in good faith recommend this particular book.

Rachel Hawkins does it again with another slow burn thriller.

I found the book to be a bit of a slow ramp up but extremely good once it got into it!

I was pretty far in before I started thinking Byron and Shelly - which was a nice unexpected surprise. Really nice twists and an ending that shocked me.

Holy slow burn suspense. "The Villa" follows two timelines with two completely different sets of characters-- one storyline set in the 70s revolving around a group of creatives staying in a shared villa. Think your classic sex, drugs, and rock and roll with an unexpected side of murder. The present storyline follows a set of best friend writers who escape to the same villa. While not the original plan, Emily is overcome with the urge to dive deeper into the villa's past & murder. Afterall, "houses remember."

It took me a good, long minute to get into this one, but then bam, I flew through it to the end. Each storyline flip-flopped between which was my favorite. Emily's was more exciting at first and Mari's in the end. Both left me feeling a bit "ugh" though. Like some people just don't deserve forgiving, especially so quickly. I have a love-hate relationship with the ending of this book. I loved the wrap up for Mari, but Emily and Chess, meh not so much. Overall, I this was a solid read and I will 100% be reading "The Wife Upstairs" sometime soon.

Pub Date: 1/3/23

I’ve read books by this author before and they’re always so complex and interesting. I look forward to reading another because this was everything I wanted and more.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Rachel Hawkins, and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC of this book!

A tragic murder took place at a villa in Orvieto, Italy in 1974. No one knows the true story of what happened. That is, until Chess Chandler decides to take her best friend Emily to that same Villa so they can get some writing done. Emily is a true crime enthusiast, and she’s very interested in the case from the beginning. Will Emily unravel the truth of what happened at Villa Aestas?

This book had me hooked from the start. I absolutely loved the premise, and I found it to be pretty fast-paced. My only real complaint for this book is that I had a hard time distinguishing between some parts. Rather than having the article/book/song name at the end of the quote, it would’ve been helpful to either put it at the top or put the quote on a completely separate page. Other than that, I really enjoyed this title and look forward to reading more Rachel Hawkins in the future!

I love Rachel Hawkins but I was not a fan of this book. I almost DNF but my friend told me it was good. I kept going. It definitely got better the last quarter of the book. I did like the ending and it did it justice. I’d recommend if you’ve read this author though. Just not for me.