I was thrilled to be to able to check out The Villa by the pool this month. Knowing how much I enjoyed Reckless Girls for a fun summer read, this one was a sure bet and did not disappoint! Love the theme I’m seeing with her covers, too!

Two best friends vacay to Italy, where do I sign up? Rachel Hawkins does a great job creating a story that immediately pulls me in. Love the history and mystery of The Villa. I didn’t find the story to be to heavy in suspense or darkness but enough to keep you turning the pages.

Still this is a fun, fast-enough-paced read, interesting characters and easily digestible!
Great escape for the weekend. I’ve heard varying opinions on the ending…. I like to guess the twists that are coming and love when my twisty mind seems to align with the writer! That fell short a couple times in this novel, where I just hadn’t figured out and was a little disappointed by the outcome. Not quite a solid 4 star but I’d say closer to 4 than 3 for sure.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advance copy!

“Per usual, Rachel Hawkins had me hooked immediately. Loved this Italian, mystery, murder, thriller that kept me turning pages! To top it off, I surprisingly enjoyed this ending… but will you?”

-Posted to Instagram and Goodreads

I was a fan of this author's previous two thrillers, so this was a highly anticipated title for me. The concept immediately sucked me in with shades of Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, and the summer in which Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. I loved the characters, and the mystery was intriguing enough to pull me through.

Both parts interesting and creepy, this book kept my attention till the very end! Loved the writing style. I have several Rachael Hawkins books but this is my first I’ve read.
Love, murder, 70’s rock-and-roll, lies, betrayal. What’s not to love?

Thank you to Net Galley for the chance to read this book before release.

Emily and Chess are childhood friends, reconnecting for a trip to Orvieto, Italy. Villa Rosato plays a huge part in the story, with dueling timelines set in 1974 and present day. The House quite a history that becomes unraveled throughout the book.

The Villa is actually about a book within a book...within a book. It was slightly confusing and hard to keep track of everyone in my head for awhile honestly. I found it easy to get distracted while reading until about halfway through when everything started clicking into place. I did end up enjoying the ending, but I think some parts dragged for me. Having read The Wife Upstairs and Reckless Girls, I will gladly pick up her next one as well!

4.5 stars, rounded down.
Wow. This book needs to marinate for a bit before you can give it a proper review, but I feel that's the way it always is with Rachel Hawkin's endings: they're so unconventional, they leave you blinking, speechless. I think my issue with the ending (like plenty of Hawkin's before), is that it's so uncommon, realistic and doesn't give you closure. Both points of view left me reeling, but in different ways.
I was actually really thrown aback with the ending for one of the points of view (Mari's). I DID NOT see it coming! However, for the present day Emily and Chess, I completely did, even if I didn't necessary agree with the entire ending.
I didn't necessarily understand why the setting was in Italy, when there were barely any Italian vibes or scenery involved. For about 90% of the book, the characters were just inside the house, talking or writing. It really could have been anywhere in the world.
It had elements of Evelyn Hugo and Verity. I loved the pace of it. Sometime I felt as if we didn't need both perspectives, but I enjoyed how similar they were.

I really enjoyed this book! It was well-paced and moved between two stories at different times set in the same Italian villa. There were multiple twists/actions that I wasn't expected. Overall, I recommend and it makes for a great summer read.

Thank you to Rachel Hawkins, St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the ARC copy of The Villa.

3.5 stars rounded up - I enjoyed this book! It was a quick read, that jumps from past to present, and is told from two perspectives- Emily in the present and Mari in the past. This is one of those books where I found myself more invested in one perspective. I liked Emily’s more, as I found Mari’s perspective a bit confusing, especially at first.

This was overall an engaging read. I liked the setting, and the idea of two sets of friends living in a murder house. However, I did find the end disappointing. Without spoiling, the main ending for Emily and Chess was extremely disappointing. I didn’t like the “friends” over anything theme, and I think more was needed to fully flesh out what they did.

For fans of Rachel Hawkins, I think readers will enjoy this one, but if you are just starting out with Hawkin’s books, I liked Recklass Girls the best.

The Villa will release in early January 2023, so make sure you keep an eye out for it then!

✨Book Review✨
The Villa by Racheal Hawkins
3/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

First thank you to @netgalley for an ARC copy of this title for an honest review.

Oh guys, idk. I had high hopes for this one. This book has potential definitely. I was hooked in the beginning, I was ready I really was… for the horror and thrill to be like ‘What?! 🙈 but it was just an okay read for me.

Idk if it’s because I’ve read so many thrillers that now I feel it’s really hard for me to read one and be absolutely shook… but

I just wasn’t blown away at the twist. The mystery to the history of said ‘Villa’ is what had me coming back to it. Set in Italy in the 70’s with drugs, sex, alcohol, and musicians I was intrigued. I was ready for a thrill ride. And I love a book within a book aspect. Gives more depth.

But the main story just had me feeling a bit underwhelmed and I found I couldn’t connect with Emily of Chess. The two main leads. Their friendship is full of jealousy, competition and betrayal that in the end it didn’t feel genuine.

I would still recommend this read to all my bookish friends because we all have different likes, and even though this read wasn’t exactly a favorite. Rachel Hawkins is still an author I would look for when searching for a new book.

So check this book out if you’d like. Coming out in early 2023!

The upcoming novel, The Villa, by Rachel Hawkins, is a dual-timeline story, with both stories involving frenemies creating art in the same gorgeous villa, but decades apart. There are thriller elements, as the villa is the scene of horrible tragedy, as well as questions about which kind of creative work women are allowed and encouraged to do. Despite so many elements I like, I was ultimately underwhelmed with The Villa, and then I was disappointed by being disappointed since I really enjoyed the author’s last two books.

So, The Villa. In the 70s, Mari Godwin and her partner, Percy Shelley, I mean, Pierce Sheldon, come to stay at the gorgeous Italian villa with a crew of sex-and-drugs creatives, where she writes the iconic horror Frankenstein, I mean, Lilith Rising. At the same time, her stepsister (Lara Larchmont instead of Claire Claremont) writes a beautiful album, both of which become wildly successful, but the tragedy that happens in the villa shadows everything they created that summer. This awful tragedy hangs over the villa for years to come, too, but personally I didn’t really care about the death, because the men in this storyline are all such unrelenting jerks.

Years later, cozy mystery writer Emily and self-help author Chess rent that villa for a writing retreat and a friendship catchup. The Villa raised interesting ideas about women’s creative work and marketing that work (sexy lady writes an album, pretty lady writes self-help, etc.), it was thoughtful and I think I wanted to explore that further. There was also some suspense, as Emily investigates Mari’s timeline and what really happened in the Villa then. There’s also another tragedy in this Villa in Emily and Chess’ time, but, again, I didn’t really care about this death, because, again, unrelenting jerk.

I wasn’t really a fan of the Chess-and-Emily storyline. This was less suspenseful wondering if someone might have a dark, personal agenda, and more rolling my eyes waiting for a character to notice all the evil things happening around them, all the time. Ugh.

For me, the Mary Shelley theme was a really tantalizing hook, I was intrigued by drugged-up 70s Byron and the weird stepsister relationship, but it never really went anywhere. Since it was never addressed and never unfolded into anything more than replicated names and plotpoints, it felt like instead of a unique backstory or a retro plot, our character was just Mary Shelley in 1974, for reasons I never really understood. And that was disappointing to me, too.

The Villa was a solid read! This was my first book by Rachel Hawkins (aside from the Ex Hex, which I really enjoyed) and plan on picking up more from her. This book I believe is advertised as a thriller, but to me it read more like a mystery. It lacks in suspense or truly crazy twists. The plot is set in dual timeline- one being present day, with Emily and Chess vacationing at the villa in Italy, and then back to 1974 where it follows Mari, Pierce, Lara, Noel, and Johnnie. They were a group of famous and soon-to-be famous people, who found themselves all a part of a murder in that same villa.

What worked for me in this book was the story following Mari and the others. I felt like that story was interesting and found myself trying to read through the present day parts just to get back to it. I thought Hawkins writing was also excellent. Easy to follow and read.

What didn’t work for me was the Chess/Emily relationship and ending. Trying to avoid giving spoilers, I felt like the ending was a little unbelievable, or at least too clean if that makes sense. I felt like their part of the story could have almost have been left out completely and I still would have enjoyed the book.

All in all, I enjoyed the book and I would like to say a big thank you to St Martin’s Press and Netgalley for my ARC. Can’t wait until pub day!

This story has two separate story lines. Mari's story is from 1973 and Emily's story is set in present day. Seems all our main characters are writers, both past and present.

Emily is having trouble in her marriage as well as her writing career. Her best friend Chess, also a writer, invites her on a 6 week vacation staying at an Italian villa. It is mainly set in Italy and the villa sounds amazing. The setting and genre were my initial attractions to the book.

I found there were too many plots going on, back and forth between Mari and Emily's time period. The toxic relationship development was not surprising between the friends so after a while I became distracted. I would not describe this book as a thriller at all. It was a mystery but a predictable outcome.

Previously I enjoyed The Wife Upstairs and so I would read more by this author.

Publication date January 3, 2023 by St. Martin's Press Genre: General Fiction Adult, Mystery and Thrillers.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced reader's copy of this book. I was not compensated for the review, all opinions are mine.

This was AMAZING. Seriously, the complexity of this storyline somehow worked together perfectly (which is hard to do between parallel stories across completely different time periods) and it was SO GOOD. This is my second time reading this author, and she's a FORCE on the scene. I think this book will be a huge hit next year and thanks for the advance copy!

Thank you for an ARC of one of my most anticipated thrillers on 2023. Rachel Hawkins can do no wrong for me and I flew through “The Wife Upstairs” and “Reckless Girls”. This one was no different. I love the setting and cover of this novel. The story alternates between past and present and kept me turning the pages to find out where the story went next. I would have liked separate chapters for past vs present but the author did a great job intertwining the stories Of the women of the novel. I did not guess the twists/revelations (which is rare for me these days) and felt very satisfied with the ending! Can’t wait for future novels from an auto-buy author.

I really enjoyed the modern “Jane Eyre” tale in Rachel Hawkins’ previous book, “The Wife Upstairs” and was excited to receive this ARC for review from St Martin’s Press and Netgalley.
Best friends Emily and Chess are spending the summer writing together in Italy at the Villa Aestas in Italy, the site of a brutal murder for previous visitors in 1974. The parallel situations in the Villa weave back and forth over the course of the book until we finally discover what happens at the end of both timelines.
I was riveted by this book right from the start. I thought it was going to be a solid 5 stars but the ambiguities at the end really didn’t work for me. I’m hoping that there’s still time in the editing/publishing cycle to tweak the endings a bit to make them flow better with the overall vibe.

**Disclaimer: I received a free advanced readers copy of The Villa by Rachel Hawkins through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this opportunity.

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins is an adult mystery thriller.  It covers two timelines: one where a struggling writing travels to Italy with her childhood best friend, and another where some young troubled people spend a summer in the same villa in Italy but it ends in tragedy.  It is set to be published on January 3rd, 2023.  I rated it 5 stars on Goodreads.


Here's the summary from Goodreads:

From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins comes a deliciously wicked gothic suspense, set at an Italian villa with a dark history, for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware.
As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.
Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album––and ends in Pierce’s brutal murder.
As Emily digs into the villa’s complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce’s murder wasn’t just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred––and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind.
Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge––and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends.
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 welcomes you into its deadly legacy.

I really love Rachel Hawkins' thrillers, but I think this one was my favourite thus far!  It had a lot of elements to it, but all of those elements were things that really worked for me and I found myself incredibly immersed in the world.  I especially liked the dual timelines and getting snippets of the present and the past.

I found Emily a really compelling character, and I really felt for her as she struggled with her divorce and her writer's block.  She had some interesting background to her, and I liked that she was an author.  I found her dynamic with Chess really interesting, and problematic but that was clearly the point.  Rachel Hawkins handled it with a delicate hand that was just so well done.  

When it came to the 1974 storyline, I was really intrigued by what was going to happen.  The start of the book really built up to this tragedy that happened and it makes you really want to know what is going to happen.  I appreciated the multimedia included with snippets of articles about it.  It really added to my sense of suspense.  Mari was a really interesting character, and although I didn't know a lot about Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, I still had fun drawing the parallels between them.  

I love stories about celebrities so that was a fun aspect of both the present and past storyline.  They really encompassed two different aspects of celebrity and it was really fascinating.  It was a very interesting juxtaposition.

The tension increased quite well as the story progressed and I really had no idea where things were going to go.  However, I really enjoyed the journey.

Overall, I highly recommend this book. and suggest that you get yourself a copy when it publishes in January.

I didn’t feel the suspense of this book. In general , I think Hawkins writes more in the style of “how will this end” versus packing in twists and this was no exception. I won’t lie, I was a little disappointed at how the majority of the novel played out. It felt like much more of a general fiction than a thriller to me. That said, the ending wasn’t something I saw coming, which was a Hawkins’ thriller first for me!

This book was amazing. I loved the dual plots and how they intersected. The characters were well developed and realistic, as were the relationships. The setting of the villa and the town in Italy were great.

Pub Date January 2023 - I was excited to receive an ARC of The Villa and planned to wait until fall to read and review. However, I opened the doc to see how it started and was hooked! I loved the gothic element in this new suspense by Hawkins and found it to be spooky which led to page turning but not too scary. I also enjoyed the smart writing. My experience was the author intended on the reader guessing certain plot points instead of coming up with a big twists. The suspense of the story was the build up to the resolve. HOW is this story going to end? I also felt there were SO MANY possibilities for the ending. This book would make a great bookclub selection with fun discussions of the ending and alternate endings. Some people will like and some will hate. The structure is dual timeline (1974 and present day) with well developed characters some likable and some not which also lead to in-depth discussions. This book is the third I’ve read by Hawkins and my favorite by far. Big thanks to St Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and Rachel Hawkins for the early and excellent read. I will also post this review on the Modern Mrs Darcy bookclub site and in several Facebook reading groups closer to release date.

I’m still reeling from this book…like, I need to go read it all again. 😧 It’s like Verity (with the writing vibes) + Daisy Jones & The Six (with the music vibes) had a baby and birthed this fabulous dark gothic novel. I loved the weaving of past and present timelines + different POVs..both of whom are authors in the book. I was very much invested in both timelines once I figured out the narrative.

The beginning is a bit slow burn (though still very intriguing), but once I got about 45% in I didn’t stop until I finished the entire thing. There are secrets, tested loyalties, murder mystery..all set at a dark Italian Villa. 🫣 I love a spooky setting! I still have a few questions and/or thoughts regarding the ending, so I’ll just be over here playing this one over and over in my head.