Taking place between the 70s and present day, this book is really two mysteries packed into one. Throughly enjoyable, I found myself getting absorbed into each story separately. It is a mixture of Daisy Jones and the Six meets Manson murders and It Girl.

Emily and Chess were best friends growing up but haven’t seen much of eachother in their 30’s. Emily is going through a messy divorce and Chess is a celebrity self-help guru. Chess offers up a girl’s trip to Italy and Emily can’t resist. The home that they are staying at was once the scene of an infamous yet gruesome murder. The story fluctuates between present day Emily and Chess and the 1974 summer of murder. I really enjoyed the beginning of the book and was sort of hoping it was a haunted house story but eventually things started to go south for me. I have read Rachel Hawkins other books and have enjoyed and I didn’t not like this book but I had hoped to like it more. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of the book.

I was very into this book for the first 80 percent of it, but the ending fell completely flat for me. It's been a long time since I've been this disappointed with a conclusion. Hawkins was trying to make it twisty and surprising, but the characters' decisions at the end didn't make sense to me.

I was thoroughly excited to read Rachel Hawkins new book, as the plot sounded promising! And I was right! I enjoyed the setting in Italy, as well as the back and forth between past and present. The parallel storylines pulled me in and kept me guessing till the end!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

Another excellent Rachel Hawkins read. I plowed through this one in a day, it was that good...I am always up for a Hawkins novel and this one did not let me down. It was a cross between Daisy Jones and the Six and Single White Female... The dual plotlines merged effortlessly and I can't wait to read her next book. Run and get this now! My only problem with it is that I can't read it for the first time again.

SPOILERS BELOW:
In this book we find a recently separated writer and her wildly successful best friend taking off for the summer to Italy to reclaim themselves, their friendship, and their career deadlines. The house they have rented has a past of its own being the location of an infamous murder in the 70s.
Emily becomes obsessed with the historical aspect of this house and decides to write a book. She is portrayed as a mild and timid type character, while the friend, Chess, is a strong, wild, free spirit. Emily is some how so loyal to her. There is no mention of a shared trauma in the past that often binds characters like this. A simple normal childhood friendship. Yet Chess continually puts her down, steals her book, sleeps with her husband while they are still married, continues to have a relationship with him and somehow Emily still goes along with whatever she says? While I could MAYBE believe this part of the story, what was not believable was that this meek character who gets physically ill under stress, somehow then just kills her ex husband and is ok with it. The reader only knows about this killing because of a newspaper article so you don't even see any conflict or anything. It literally goes from he pulls up in a car to he's dead. And the two women go off with this book about the previous murder in the house and become wildly successful.

I was really excited about the premise, but the content didn’t live up to my expectations. It’s a dual timeline and I couldn’t get invested in past one at all. It got more interesting towards the very end but then it was so absurd. Overall, it was underwhelming for me.

Thank you NetGalley & St. Martin’s Press for sending this book for review consideration.

I was thrilled to read an advanced copy of this book, Rachel Hawkins is one of my favorite authors and I usually read her books in one sitting.

This one thrilled me even more! I am a big fan of books set in Italy and I adored the parallel stories of past and present.

I was hooked in from page one and was hungry to find out the truth of what happened that summer. I will be buying a physical copy at release for sure!

I was hoping this would be the first Rachel Hawkins novel that I really loved, but like The Wife Upstairs and Reckless Girls, this was three stars for me. The thrills in The Villa don't happen until the end of the book, and the entire time you're going back and forth between two storylines, one interesting and the other tedious. Reading about Emily and Chess was mostly fine, but the 1970s storyline was so dull with no likeable characters that I would dread the parts of the book where it would come up. But the gorgeous cover gets five stars. Thank you St. Martin's Press/Netgalley for the ARC!

Thanks St.Martin’s Press for the advance copy of this book. I liked the pace of it. It’s two women that have been friends for years. Chess is a famous self help guru and Emily is also an author, but recently divorced and sick. They take a 6 week trip to Italy and end up staying in a villa that had a celebrity murder in it. They decide to write their own tale about it.

Chess and Em have a very toxic relationship. It’s interesting to see how much they fight but still stay together. Chess has control of that relationship and I feel bad for Emily that she doesn’t see it. At the end, you realize the truth about the murder and maybe what these two did 40 years later wasn’t the best advice.

This book is fantastic! Oh ny gosh I loved the lore of the Villa mixed with the two time lines. Each character was perfection. Thank you for this early copy!

What a great and exciting read. The way Hawkins weaves the past and present seamlessly, a d gets us intrigued in both stories, and mysteries. It’s terrific and intend to tell everyone.

So, so, so good! This "double-story" entwines plots from the present and the past into an absolute masterpiece. I love Rachel Hawkins and this is without a doubt her best yet!

The dual timeline and storyline was interesting. Especially since I was way more invested in Mari’s storyline and then by the end switched to enjoying Emily more.

I will say the villa was a bit of a let down. It wasn’t nearly as gothic or creepy as it should have been according to the lead up.

To be honest, I was a bit bored as it’s a VERY slow burn and I found both main characters a bit annoying the entire read.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publishing team in exchange for my honest review.

Rachel Hawkins did it again! An incredibly unique dual tale, one with secrets, sex drugs and rock & roll.

Set 50 years apart, best friends who are like sisters and sisters who try to be best friends but have a man in between, have many similarities.

All set in an old Villa in Italy. In an over saturated thriller genre, Hawkins manages again to find a unique angle.

Thanks for the ARC!

I’m unintentionally on a roll with reading fiction that has some multimedia components to it, with novel excerpts/ podcasts/ emails interspersed into this haunted house/ true crime novel by one of my favorite thriller authors, Rachel Hawkins. This is my third read in a row featuring this kind of style alongside characters that are writers/ artists themselves. I loved how “bookception” this felt with multiple layers of “books within the book”: Both Mari’s “Lilith rising” excerpts as well as Emily’s conceptual take on it. It takes a lot of talent to build that many layers!

I also love how Emily and Chess’s friendship that is rife with competitiveness and rivalry mirrored Mari and Lara’s, the same story that they both get drawn to, the same villa they reside in, and the same tensions present. The threads and echoes between the past and present keep intertwining throughout, and I loved how the ending made me want to go back and re read with a new lens.

“Heroine is villain, villain is victim, and that colors everything that comes before in a new light”.

Thanks to NetGalley for this advanced access to Hawkins latest!

I adore Rachel Hawkins books and writing style. Her previous works have been some of my favorites and this one started off just as strong. Although I enjoyed the story and the different past and present timelines, the ending just didn’t work for me. However, I still highly recommend it to anyone looking a page turning gripping little thriller.

Rachel Hawkins’ The Villa is one of my most-anticipated books for next year so I was thrilled to get an early look at it. After flying through it in two sittings, I can safely say it’s my favorite of her mystery novels.

I would describe The Villa as Daisy Jones meets Home Before Dark. It has lots of 70s vibes thanks to flashbacks to the crime that was committed at the titular villa, and also has select passages from fictional podcasts and novels mentioned throughout the story.

It’s clear that Hawkins was inspired by people and events throughout history (the Manson Murders and Mary Shelley come to mind), and she blends these elements together exceptionally well, making clear allusions, but also taking creative liberties to build out the world she has created.

The ending admittedly threw me off a bit. I was confused by some parts and wanted more from others, but the conclusion didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book. If you like true crime, books about books, and haunted houses, I’d highly recommend adding this to your TBR ahead of its publication in January.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC!

It was good, but not exceptional. It jumped around quite a bit and didn’t hold or grab my attention. The premise is great and I’ve loved her other books. This one is a miss unless you are a deeply devoted fan.

Wow I loved this story. I thought the time hopping was perfectly done - and it kept me guessing as to what happened next.

I enjoyed the concept of the two friends of today experiencing something similar to years prior. I was not expecting the ending 💀

This story was so creatively written though - whenever books reference fictional books or music in detail, that takes an art and Rachel Hawkins delivers again!