Love. Love. Love. This book helped me out of a reading slump. Read it in one setting. Perfect thriller.

The Villa was a fun, creepy book with a story in a story almost in another story. The author did a great job of making you root for some characters and root against others. I wish there were a part two so I can find out how what happens next!

This has been by far my most favorite Rachel Hawkins book!

From the very beginning, I was hooked. This story is about two best friends who rent a Villa with a shady past. While their own stories unravel, they are simultaneously uncovering the events the Villa has protected for decades. The author is exceptional at moving the reader through multiple timelines seamlessly. This book is literally a story within a story about a story and so on. Believe me, the potential for confusion was high but this book is flawlessly executed.

I found a majority of the characters complex and fascinating. Sometimes books with multiple timelines tend to bore me in one or the other and I find myself dreading when past/present come around. The storyline itself was so good, I couldn’t wait to get to the next chapter. If you love Rachel Hawkins or want a fun summer read, put this on your To Be Read now!

I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book coming January 2023!

The Villa is a story about friendship, betrayal, and murder. Then and now.

Em’s struggling as her life seems to be falling apart and her oldest friend Chess, a famous self-help guru in the vein of “girl, step into your power,” whisks her off to Italy for the summer.

They stay at a gorgeous villa which is also the site of a famous murder in the 70s. Both intend to spend the weeks writing, but it’s clear from the beginning there’s something much more sinister going on.

This book started out a little slow for me but it soon had me hooked. The way it unfolded was captivating, though I figured out nearly all the twists early on and the ending felt rushed, more like a summary.

At its core this is a book about friendship and betrayal. About seeing someone for exactly who they are and having to live with your choices.

I’ve been thinking a lot about friendship betrayals lately and the inexplicable choices people make that hurt the ones they love. Hawkins did such a perfect job exploring that.

I really enjoyed this book!

Phenomenal read. Gets you hooked from the very beginning and has you on the edge of your seat waiting for the next twist. BFF’s vacationing together in Italy and discovering all of their secrets while getting glimpses of the past and a murder that happened there one July in 1974. Rachel Hawkins is quickly becoming an author I want to read more from!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you NetGalley, Rachel Hawkins and St. Martin’s Press and hearing my honest review. Looking forward to reading more with you
#partner

The plot is set in both present day, and 1974, in Orvieto Italy. It follows the story of two best friends taking a summer trip to stay The Villa Aestas, , to rekindle their relationship and hopefully let Emily get into the right headspace to finish book 10 in her cozy mystery series, and for Chess to get some work done for her new up an coming self help book. But when Emily finds out that a murder occurred in the exact Villa they are staying in back in 1974, she wants to find out more about that! This is where the dual timeline comes in, in 1974, rockstar Noel Gordon rents the then known Villa Rosato for himself , up an coming artist Pierce Sheldon, Sheldon’s gf Mari, her sister Lara, and Groupie/drug dealer Johnnie. Events unfold that summer. When one of them end up dead.
Emily feels a connection to the house, and when she reads Maris famous horror novel, Lilith Rising, she feels a connection to Mari, but she also believes there are more truths within that novel about the events that unfolded that summer and tragic night. She spends her Days uncovering things left behind, and reading in between the lines of Mari’s book, and Lara’s song verses of her popular album , Aestas. Many secrets are revealed through all of this, not just secrets of Maris and the Villas in 1974z
Spectacular, gripping, and twisty! I couldn’t put it down, this was one of the rare two day reads for me! I’ve just started dipping my toes in psychological thrillers, and this one did not disappoint! The author did such an amazing job at intertwining the past and present time! I especially loved the snippets of books, song verses, podcast dialogues, and margarine articles that were played throughout the book!

The Villa is set on a beautiful estate in Orvieto, Italy.

Dual time lines follow Mari and Emily who have both been to Villa Rosato and experienced it’s ability to keep secrets.

Vacationing with her best friend, Emily explores The Villas history at first as a distraction from the rollercoaster that is her life, only to become obsessed with the truth behind the murder that took place in 1974.

This novel is full of secrets, old and new.

It’s a fast-paced read that keeps you guessing, with interesting characters, and an amazing setting!

What an exciting read. First, the setting. A beautiful villa in Italy. Pool and pond. Medieval type city to explore. In 1974, a murder occurs. Young talented people with secrets. Betrayal runs among them. Two of them produce their greatest works as a result. Move ahead to present day. Chess and Emily have been friends forever, but their lives took different paths. Both are successful writers, but different types. Chess is all glamour and fame. Emily is series novels. Emily is married, but that is ending. We learn one has betrayed the other. One finds the journal pages that expose the truth to what happened in 1974. What was the truth?
Thanks to Macmillan and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this

I really enjoyed this book. It was the first Rachel Hawkins I've ever read, and I'm not usually one for thrillers. I liked that this almost didn't feel like a thriller, but it was fast-paced and twisty and kept me hooked until the end. Right from the start, I was grabbed by the characters and I thought she incorporated the dual narratives seamlessly.

This book kept me guessing until the end! I was caught up in the story if friends & the sisters & they circumstances they found themselves in.

You are led to believe their struggles mirror each other until the very end when you find they are in a trap of their own making.

Although I appreciated and thought the plot good, and the characters of both timeline compelling, the fact I couldn’t find anything redeemable or likable about them diminished the book significantly in my eyes. I

Rachel Hawkins is always a must read for me so I was thrilled to receive an e-ARC of her newest one from NetGalley and the publisher!

I read this in ONE day. I loved the setting, the characters, and how it all wrapped up! This was a super fun read.

Thanks so much NetGalley and St Martin's Press.

Emily and Chess were inseparable as kids. Now in their 30s, they haven't been able to catch up because of life. Chess suggests that they escape to a villa in Italy, and Emily agrees. The villa has a complex history, including a death that resulted in a novel. Emily thinks there's more to the story, so she investigates. She feels the tension grow between her and Chess and she reveals what really happened.

This book had a lot going on. I wasn't sure how much I liked the style of it, and it didn't feel like a thriller to me. It felt very long, and I kind of figured out where this was going based on negative feelings towards one of the characters. However, the writing is pretty good and I kept going. I would read this author again even though this wasn't a favorite!

Stories inside stories hiding secrets within secrets - betrayal, love, jealousy, obsession - the past and present meeting. Ultimately the bonds of enduring friendship and how it twists and turns over time.

This was an interesting book right from the start. The book moves back and forth from the current time to what happened in 1974 at the Villa. While normally I am not a huge fan of the back and forth, it doesn't do it so often that you get frustrated. The book moves at just the right pace. The only part of the book that I did not like was how passive Emma was to "Chess". Chess was not a good friend to Emma and did a lot of things that I found unforgivable. Yet, she simply tells Emma that she did it all for her and Emma forgives her. If it wasn't for that particular piece at the end of the story, I would have given this book 5 stars. I also feel that the whole story line about Emma being sick was left empty and rushed to just come up with a reason. Then ending was absolutely the best part, when you get a flash back to 1980 and Mari went back to the villa to write the true story and hide the pages. I didn't see that coming at all and had a jaw dropping moment. Great read by Rachel Hawkins again and I will look forward to the next book that comes out from her. This is a great read and I think everyone will enjoy it!

4.25 stars!!! A summer in Italy with your best friend!!!! A murder mystery plot in an Italian Villa??!!! Past and present day storylines!?? Count me in!

I realllyyy enjoyed this one. It started off strong and never let up. The three-dimensional plot of the story was unique and kept me on my toes the entire time.

Thank you to NetGalley and SMP for this ARC!

The Villa is a story of two times that are twisted together with one commonality… a house. Emily finds herself at a crossroads in her life. On the verge of divorce, recovering from an unknown illness and a writer with writers block. She’s given the opportunity to spend the summer in Italy with her childhood best friend in a villa! When she arrives she discovers it’s also the location of a terrible murder in the 1970’s. Emily begins to dive down into what transpired at the villa in the past, but is everything and everyone who they seem to be? This was a fun, twisted story. A few ends were left loose though which always bothers me but otherwise a good read!

Atmospheric and gripping. There are dual story lines set in the same house, decades apart. I don’t always enjoy this narrative style, because I tend to get caught up in one story and want to skip through the other. The was not the case in The Villa! The only thing that would make this book better is if Aestras could have been the real and playing while I read.

Let me be (not the first or last) person to say The Villa is FAR BETTER than Reckless Girls.

Nestled on the outskirts of a traditional Italian town, Villa Rosato/Aestas, has a lot to remember. Namely, it serves as the location where both the lives of Pierce and Matt were lost (who honestly, no one will miss very much). The stories of Emily and Mari are seamlessly intertwined in the dual narrated story of how such tragedies came to be, and how the events held within the Villa’s walls came to shape the rest of their lives as newly freed women from their narcissistic partners.

I’m still marinading on my opinion of Chess, but without her, so much of what is uncovered would never come to pass. I found the concept of her and Emily’s co-authored book being the actual book I was reading to be a really cool spin on the storyline.

All in all, I give this book four stars and look forward to more to come from Rachel Hawkins!

Wow! I can’t believe what I just read! This was dual storylines and I loved them both sooooo much! This is my favourite book by this author hands down! Man, what I wouldn’t do to actually read Lilith Rising. I wish it were a real book. Thanks to NetGalley, St Martins Press, and the author for this arc copy.

I will be buying this book for sure to re read for many years to come!
Great atmospheric thriller.
Loved that ending.