I loved the setting of this- a villa in the Italian countryside. The cover is stunning and I also liked the dual timeline story- it has the present and also diary entries about the past of the “murder house.” As a true crime lover, I was really interested in learning more about the sordid history of the villa. I also really liked the theme of female friendship/competition.

I did feel like the author perhaps was trying to do a little too much and that some of the final twists/reveals might not have been necessary, and I also felt like some plot points needed more details. These didn’t take away much from my enjoyment though.

Overall, I enjoyed this one! It’s a perfect read if you want a dreamy Italian setting. I also really like fiction books with characters that are writing a book/are authors.

⚠️: infidelity, suicide, murder, child death, drug abuse, adult/minor relationship

Rachel Hawkins' new book is a combination of two stories. In the present day, Chess, a popular self-help author, and Emily, a cozy mystery author struggling to finish her next book, travel to an Italian villa for the summer to work on their books. At that same villa in the 1970s, a notorious murder happened, and we follow that summer from the perspective of one of the two women who found untold success from the works they created after that summer.

I liked this book more than Hawkins' previous books. She does a good job of balancing the two timelines and emphasizing the complex relationship between the central women in each timeline. The book also has transcripts and articles between the chapters that I found very enjoyable. The book was a quick read, and I was surprised at how quickly I got through it. The ending was well-done, if not that surprising. Hawkins wrote an easy to read thriller about relationships and authorship that you will enjoy if you have enjoyed her past works.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

What I liked:

Quick read
Quick chapter
Easy writing
The storyline of Emily & Chess
Dual Periods flipping back And forth
The mystery of how both are connected
Tuscany 😍 made me feel like I was trAvelling

What I didn’t like

(Spoilers in part)
The gaslighting by Chess over what happened with Emily’s husband
The competition that I hate within friends but makes for a lot of thrillers (this isn’t a dislike. More a 🫤 I liked it and disliked it)
The storyline of Mari & Pierce

3.5 stars because I did enjoy it. Totally binged it but parts did feel a little 🫤. But I think I would recommend to certain readers.

Doesn’t matter because I’ll still buy what she writes even if I didn’t love this one. She’s a total author buy, thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy in return for an honest review

There are two things that Rachel Hawkins does best: 1) makes her characters as unlikable as possible lol, and 2) she creates fast paced stories that are easy to get through. Are they the best thriller books I’ve ever read? No, but the entertainment factor, particularly in this one, is amazing.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t going to read this one because I hadn’t thought her last two books were all that special. However, this one has something different.

Two friends go to Villa Aestas to work on their respective writings, it mirrors two sisters who go to the then Villa Rosato. The 70s storyline was more interesting to me because it dealt with music, horror, and murder. But the present day storyline with Chess and Emily was EVERYTHING at the end. I love how their experiences mirrored that of Mari and Lara.

The VERY ending didn’t work for me and I felt that the Villa itself wasn’t much of a spooky presence and those are the only reasons why this isn’t receiving 5 stars. Otherwise, I think the mystery was exciting to unravel and the unlikability of the characters kept you on the edge of your seat.

This book comes out January 3, 2023 so keep an eye out for this summery read this winter! Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the ARC of The Villa! 🍋

The Villa had will have you captivated from the first chapter. It's rare that I"m equally interested in both sides of a dual timeline, but these characters pull you in and make you care about their lives and choices. Just enough suspense and a hint of creepiness made this one a winner for me.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was a little slow at times with long chapters but I love that it was inspired by a real life event. There’s complex female relationship and a creepy house. It’s told from multiple POVs and dual timelines. I enjoyed the snippets of podcasts/ news articles. It was more of a lighter read and not as creepy as I was anticipating. I loved the unexpected ending.
It’s Daisy Jones and the Six meets Verity.

3.5 stars

Struggling with her unexpected divorce and her writer's block for the next installment in her cozy mystery series, Emily is hesitant to reconnect with her childhood best friend, the social media advice guru Chess Chandler. But when Chess invites her on a girl's trip to a gorgeous villa in Italy, she can't say no - possibly because it was the site of a gruesome murder amongst a group of rock stars in the 70s. The longer she stays, the more things between her and Chess become tense; the more she learns about the women who stayed there during the murders, the more she can't help but write...

This was such a fun multi-perspective mystery/thriller. Half of the time, we're following Emily as she's dealing with the pressures of her own life while on a trip with her friend, and the other half of the time, we're following the narrative of one of the women who was at the villa at the time of the murders: Mari, who wrote one of the most iconic horrors of all time before all but disappearing. The thing is, that novel describes a girl murdering her whole family, which some people took as a hint at what really happened at the villa. It was so cool to see these two interwoven narratives, and I thought the pacing was balanced well between the stories. I was so engrossed in Emily's playing detective with Mari's story that I couldn't put this down. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, even if there wasn't as unexpected of a payoff as I was hoping. The flipping between stories and the ending that ran out of steam reminded me of another engrossing thriller I enjoyed, Plain Bad Heroines. I just wish that this had done something crazier at the end to really seal the deal.

Overall, if you enjoyed Plain Bad Heroines or this author's previous thriller titles, I think you'll be in for a good time with this one.

Unfortunately, I felt that this book was underwhelming. I loved a few things about this book, namely the setting, interesting characters, lovely era, but I didn't feel that it lived up to its thriller genre. I was invested in the beginning, but as the book drew on, I kept losing interest more and more. It lacked the twists and page turning events that I look for in a thriller. It wasn't a bad read, but as an avid thriller reader, it didn't live up to my expectations. This was my first book by Rachel Hawkins, and it will likely be my last.

Thanks to Netgalley and MacMillan for this ebook ARC.

Rachel Hawkins has a way with making old stories new again. In The Villa, she does that in the book, retelling an old story with a new voice as authors Emily and Chess. I found myself anticipating where the story would go, and being surprised by small curve balls (and then a BIG one). It was a lovely, suspenseful story of friendship, family, and the lengths we go to protect ourselves.

As bookstagrammers, we are always on the lookout for our next great suspense novel, so I am putting The Villa by Rachel Hawkins on your radar!!

Houses Remember... Inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, and the infamous summer Percy and Mary Shelley spent with Lord Byron at a Lake Geneva castle–the birthplace of Frankenstein–The Villa brings you gothic suspense, set at an Italian villa with a dark history (!!)

Reasons to read this book:
+ Fast-paced
+ Dual timelines
+ Set in Italy
+ Daisy Jones rockstar vibes
+ Umm, have you seen the cover?!

The novel jumps between Em, a present day writer, and Mari, a writer in the 70s, as they spend time at the same Italian Villa. I don't want to give much away but the dual stories were incredibly captivating, Mari's being my favourite. Both timelines mirrored complex relationships- especially complex female relationships- and the way Em and Mari were tied together was done in a very smart way. I kind of guessed part of the ending but nowhere near all of it so the twists did make for a delicious surprise.

Thank you NetGalley and St Martins Press for eARC in exchange for my honest review. Keep this one on your radar for Jan 2023!!

I have read all of this author's work. Thanks to NetGalley, I had an ARC of this book. My honest review is that this book is different from her others, so maybe it did not live up to what I expected. Two forever friends and the twenty years of history were the backdrop. This was not my favorite work of the author, but it did tell a story and revealed lots of things that led up to the ending.

My goal book! My goal was to read 40 books this year & I’ve already hit it. I’ve read so many great books so far this year (and a few not-so-great, but we don’t focus on that!)📚

The Villa is my second Rachel Hawkins book and it didn’t disappoint! I loved the twists that came in The Wife Upstairs and The Villa gave me the same thrill.

Emily & Chess are childhood best friends who grew up to be writers. Chess writes books like Rachel Hollis while Emily writes more to the tune of VC Andrews. The summer after Emily separates from her husband, Chess plans a trip for them to a beautiful Italian villa so they can both focus on writing their next books. This Italian villa isn’t just beautiful, it’s also where a famous murder took place in the 70s. The Villa tells the story of Emily & Chess alongside the story of Mira, Lara, and the others involved in the murder. I loved the way the two stories intertwined.

The Villa comes out in January 2023! Thank you to @netgalley & @stmartinspress for this ARC 🎉

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance digital copy of this book. I enjoyed this slow-burn, twisty tale that takes places in two different (but not so different) time periods. How far will friends go to protect the ones they love? Who can truly be trusted? And how would you rewrite your life differently? Rachel Hawkins writes yet another book that leaves you guessing and wondering all of these things!

Incredible storyline. I crushed this book in a day, it simply could not put it down. I’ve never read a book like this… it was just SO good!

Rachel Hawkins' THE VILLA is her most tantalizing suspense novel yet. Interweaving the past and present, set in a spot every summer-reader will long to visit, and peopled with wonderfully crafted characters, this is a don't-stop-reading-until-the-final-word novel.

Many thanks to St Martins and to Netgalley for the opportunity of an early read.

Wow! This book! It is my favorite Rachel Hawkins book yet.

Would you stay at a Villa tucked away in a quaint town of Italy if a murder took place there in the 1970s? That is what Chess and her best friend Em do in order to make progress on books that they are each writing. Chess is a self help author who has risen to fame over the past few years. Em is a cozy mystery writer who is having a very hard time writing her next novel in the midst of a nasty divorce. While staying in the villa, Emily gets caught up in the details of the murder that happened in the villa in 1974. She vows to learn the truth about what really happened and discovers clues throughout the summer.

In between the story of Chess and Emily, we learn about the five young artists that stay in the villa during the summer of 1974. I was caught up in Mari's timeline. These artists definitely gave me Fleetwood Mac vibes.

Throughout both timelines there are twists and turns that you don't see coming and find yourself at the end of the book going...NO WAY.

I highly recommend this book!

My favorite thing about this book was definitely the mysterious, kind of gothic vibe! I was immediately taken in and got through this one very quickly. However, the ending was not my favorite - it just got a little too crazy for me, and I ended up disliking all the modern day characters. Overall, it was still an enjoyable read and I'm a fan of Rachel Hawkins. I've learned to accept that I'll probably never agree with how her books end, but I always enjoy the first 90% of her books, so that definitely counts for something!

If you're looking for an easy-to-read murder mystery with plenty of drama and crazy twists, this is a great pick for you! If you're a little pickier about your thriller/mystery books, then you may want to pass.

This is by far my favorite Rachel Hawkins book! The setting, the characters, the multiple POVs & timelines all made for a really interesting gothic suspense story. The story mostly takes place at a Villa in Orvieto, Italy- where two friends Emily & Chess stay for several weeks at a beautiful villa that was once the site of a brutal murder back in 1974. Emily and Chess’s stay is full of twists and turns, while the author is also giving you insight to the history behind the murder.

This was an enjoyable read, I couldn’t put it down! Highly recommend if you enjoy reading about friend drama & relationships, murder, mystery, and a dash of rock and roll. This comes out 1-3-23, be sure to add it to your TBR! Thanks to Net Galley for the review!

I enjoyed the depth of the characters and the suspense of the story as it developed. It had me intrigued until the last minute! Highly recommend!

I love everything Rachel Hawkins does, and this was no exception. A fantastic thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat. I already can’t wait to read her next book!!