I just reviewed The Villa by Rachel Hawkins. #NetGalley

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be published January 3, 2023.

I enjoyed the plot line with Emily and Chess, childhood friends who have both become authors and who spend 6 weeks together one summer in an Italian Villa.

But I was completely bored by the back-story of the murder that happened at that same Villa decades earlier.

The plot did pick up at the end when history repeats itself and there is another murder at The Villa. It wasn’t the page-turner I was hoping for.

4.25⭐️

Houses remember...

The Villa tells the story of two best friends in present day and two stepsisters in 1974 as they spend one summer in the same Italian villa, Villa Aestas. This was a twisty psychological thriller that kept me on my toes the whole way through.

Emily and Chess are childhood best friends who have drifted apart in adulthood, but after a really tough year, Emily jumps at the chance to spend the summer in Italy at Villa Aestas with Chess. She's hopeful that this is the fresh start she needs and that her and Chess can revitalize their friendship. At the same time back in 1974, Mari and Lara are lured to Villa Aestas by rockstar Noel Gordon, along with Mari's boyfriend Pierce. Both sets of woman are irrevocably changed by what happens during their summers in Italy and their time in this house... and that's all I say about that!

I'll admit that I had a hard time getting into the story, but I was hooked by about the 40% mark and then I couldn't put it down. I did guess a couple of the plot points, but then Rachel Hawkins went and threw in twists on top of twists that I definitely didn't see coming! This was my first book by this author and I'm definitely planning on reading more of her backlist.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Villa is Rachel Hawkins's newest grip-lit offering.

Em and Chess are definitely bffs... but is that best friends forever or best frenemies forever? Chess's writing career has really taken off. Em's seems stalled, just like her marriage. Chess invites Em to spend the summer with her in an Italian villa as a way for them to reconnect, with each other and with their writing. However, the villa has a history. It was once the temporary home of Mari Godwick, the author of an acclaimed classic horror novel. It was also the scene of an infamous murder. As the summer goes on, Em can't tell what is more twisted -- Mari's book, the decades-old murder, or her friendship with Chess.

The Villa is a fun, fast-paced read, but not necessarily one I will remember for years to come. Filled with twists, it will keep you turning the pages.

NetGalley provided me with an advanced copy of The Villa in exchange for my honest opinion.

Emmy’s life wasn’t going great. With an impending divorce and her ex threatening to extract royalties from her popular book series, she was more than happy to jump at a summer in Italy with her childhood best friend at a private villa. Dubbed the murder house; a tragic night in the 1970’s left one person with a famous book, another with an infamous album, and yet another dead. As Em begins finding out more about that fateful night, she begins writing their story in fury, falling deeper down the rabbit hole as she goes. Even to the anger of her friend Chess who is already a famous author when she refuses to let her co-author her new book.
This story twists A LOT. Jumping between Em’s story in present and Mari in the 70’s. On top of these stories there’s all Em’s research towards that night; so there’s podcasts, newspaper and magazine articles, book excerpts. The book became overwhelming at moments and hopefully the transitions play out in the physical book better than my phone. The story itself is solid with one final twist at the end.

I already knew this book would be good. Rachel Hawkins writes amazing books! I would give this more than 5 stars if that was an option. This novel was dark but not too dark. It was suspenseful and thrilling. I was reeled in by the first few pages! You do not want to miss this one!

The Villa blends a past murder with present events in a suspenseful tale of love, friendship and loss. Emily and Chess, lifelong friends and writers spend the summer in a villa located in Orvieto, Italy where a murder had happened in the 1970s. Houses remember. Emily discovers a notebook written by Mari who had been present the summer of the murders. She and Chess decide to write a novel of their own. Two stories are told, Mari's and Emily's culminating in another murder.

Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!

I loved Hawkins last book, I was worried this one may not meet my expectations, but I was wrong! This was a great read with twists as you would expect. This time we follow Emily and Chess, childhood friends, both who end up becoming successful writers. Yet one, Chess has become very famous, while the other Emily has battled health issues, her husband left her and is now trying to go after her money. Chess and Emily decide to go to Italy for the summer to escape their troubles and to focus on writing. The villa they are staying out is a well know location due to its history of murder and musicians. We experience flashbacks from the murder and previous guests all while Emily questions Chess's motive. I thought I had it all figured out, but things change at the very end. I highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC to review!
Rating (on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being excellent)
Quality of writing: 4
Pace: 3
Plot development: 3
Characters: 3
Enjoyability: 3
Ease of Reading: 3

Overall rating: 3 out of 5

Houses remember. Great opening line. And we took off! Rachel Hawkins is now on auto-buy with this one. Really liked her previous two books, but this one is like, WOW!! I could not put it down at all, except for work. This is an author who gets consistently better, I think, with each book. Besties Emily and Chess are staying in an Italian Villa where a famous sex, drugs and rock and roll murder happened years before. I really enjoyed the characters of Emily, Chess, Mari, Lara, Pierce, Johnnie and Noel, but it was all the extras that really got me! Those were the book excerpts, articles, songs and podcasts revealing snippets from the past and what really happened way back when. Excellent job on the atmosphere also. I really felt transported to a beautiful Italian villa in Orvieto. I did wish for a little different spin on the ending but loved how it all wrapped up. Can't wait for more from this author!

Thank you to #NetGalley, Rachel Hawkins and #StMartinsPress for this ARC! All my opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC, release date Jan 2023. A unique & interesting multi layered book, not just sex, drugs & rock n roll. The first few chapters were a bit of a slog for me, but then I was hooked. It is not a haunted house story, but much deeper where people might behave differently and do things they would not normally do while they are staying there. The dual timelines were interesting as you could see the correlations taking shape. Both timelines dealt with fame, artistic talent, jealousy, love, loyalty and trust issues. There is a subtle twist, that I still wonder about. So far, the best I’ve ever read from Rachel Hawkins!

Rachel Hawkins is an auto-buy author for me, I usually LOVE her books and I liked this one a lot, aside from the ending (which felt rushed to me).

Two friends stay at an Italian villa for the summer. One is a writer of cozy mysteries, the other is a lifestyle expert (think Gwyneth). The villa is famous for a murder that happened back in the 70’s when a group of musicians stayed there during the summer. This book is one of those that are written like a book within a book, but more than that, it’s a story about women surviving crappy things that men to do them and how friendships sometimes are the real loves of our life.

“What if the house holds the bad memories inside with the good? What does that mean for whoever lives there?”

Emily’s life has suddenly started collapsing. Her career as a cozy mystery author has stalled, she is having unexplainable health issues, and her husband, Matt, has left her after seven happy years of marriage. Alternatively, Emily’s lifelong best friend, Chess, has a thriving career writing self-help books and being a social media influencer. While Emily is floundering, Chess extends an invitation for the two of them to spend the summer together in Italy at the luxurious Villa Aestas. Emily sees this as an opportunity to get her life back on track and complete the next book in her Petal Bloom series. When she arrives, she is quickly swept up in the mystery of a murder that occurred in the villa during 1974. Determined to learn more about the villa’s dark past, Emily begins digging and finds surprises that she could have never seen coming. As tensions at the villa increase between Emily and Chess, Emily must decide what concessions she is willing to make and if their friendship is worth continuing.

In 1974, rockstar Noel Gordon and his “friend” Johnnie are staying at Villa Rosato (name later changed to Aestas) for the summer. Noel is hoping to spend his summer creating new and inspired music. Noel also invites his current flame, Lara to spend the summer and allows her to bring two guests with her to the villa – Mari, Lara’s stepsister and Pierce, Mari’s boyfriend. Pierce is also a musician who is hoping to jumpstart his career by spending the summer working with Noel. While the men seem to be able to get no work done at the villa, Mari and Lara are busy working on creative projects that will soon become massive successes. For Mari, she writes Lilith Rising, a massively successful horror novel. Lara writes a famous album, Aestas, which goes platinum. While spending the summer in such close quarters, hostilities begin to form between almost everyone in the house which culminate in Pierce’s murder but who is responsible for his death?

The story is told from the point of view of Emily (present) and Mari (past). It also contains passages from Lilith Rising, Aestas lyrics, and excerpts from true crime podcasts / articles which I found to be a very fun way to fill in the backstory. I struggled with Mari’s point of view a little to start but that changed very quickly and I soon found myself having a hard time putting this book down. I felt like both characters were so relatable and I was rooting for them the entire time. My one gripe of the book is Chess! I hated her so much at times and can’t believe that Emily could put up with her crap! It was a pleasure to read this book and Rachel Hawkins will definitely remain on my always read list :) Plus, how cute is this book’s cover!?

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book! I read it in one afternoon, I had to know what happened!
Chess and Emily are besties, or are they? They decide to take a summer vacay to the Italian countryside to write and get their friendship back on track. They are staying in a Villa that has quite the past.
The story is told in several points of view and different time frames, but it is easy to follow. Atmospheric and dark, but with light touches as well.
Highly recommend! 4.5/5 stars

Rachel Hawkins is quickly becoming a must read author for me. I am a sucker for multiple points of view as well as multiple timelines.

I loved the way she wove in the past as well as parts of books, songs and podcasts to explain the story of the murder in the 1970s and how it wove in to the present day friends, Emily and Chess, who are staying at the Villa.

The house remembers….

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I’m not a huge fan of thrillers, but something about the premise of this book really drew me in. It grabbed me from the start - when I wasn’t reading this book, I was thinking about how much I was looking forward to picking it up again and trying to guess how it would end. It is SO good.

I was the slightest bit less interested in the 70s portions of the book until about 65% of the way through, but both storylines were interesting. I read this as an ARC/unedited text document via Kindle, so I don’t think some of the formatting came through like it should have - namely the excerpts from “other sources.” That being said I really loved when books add in those bits from — such as the ‘podcast’ and ‘book excerpts’ included here. It very vaguely reminds me of Courtney Summers’ “Sadie” which is written as a podcast.. not sure why, but that type of added commentary from outsiders really does it for me.

One of the “twists” near the end felt fairly obvious/easily guessed to me, but otherwise I had no idea where this would end up and I was so pleased with the ending for Mari’s plot line specifically.

Two best friends that are both writers go on a summer long trip to a beautiful villa in Italy, what could go wrong? Well, it just so happens this same villa was the location of a well known murder almost 50 years earlier. Even knowing this, Emily and Chess go in hopes to spend a summer in the sun. This book follows the journey of these two best friends as well as telling the story of Mari and Lara, the two step sisters that spent a summer in the same villa in 1974. Pepper in some articles from the 70s, lyrics from Lara’s famous album (written that summer at the villa) and inserts from Mari's now famous horror novel Lilith Rising, and you have a recipe for a mysterious story. Emily is feeling down on her luck after a nasty divorce from her husband Matt and a long spell of being sick so she decides that a trip away from North Carolina is what she needs to help her write her next book. Her childhood best friend has the perfect solution when she springs the trip on Emily. While in Italy, Emily can't help but get pulled into the mystery of the murder at the villa in 1974.

Like Rachel Hawkins' other two books, Reckless Girls and The Woman Upstairs, she does an incredible job of painting this interesting tale in two parallels. One we have a "summer of love" that starts with good friends, sex, drugs and then ends in a horrible murder. However, it brings the success of an author and songwriter. On the other side, she writes about two best friends that clearly have some animosity towards one another. Chess is a very successful self help writer that lives a perfect life and her best friend, Emily is a down and out author that is not happy with how her book series is going. What will happen when they spend a whole summer together? The Villa tells all and so much more, because houses remember.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, like Rachel's others I found it was very well written and had a resolute ending. I couldn't help, but feel the hurt of the characters by the end. Anyone who loves murder and the 70's era should read this book!

Unfortunately, this book did not work for me. It felt like something that was hurriedly thrown together. The story was not all that interesting and quite confusing/convoluted, and I did not find any of the characters likable. If the book was not short, I would have probably DNFed it.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

(4.5 stars)
Thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the ARC! Rachel Hawkins has become a must buy author for me since “The Wife Upstairs” and this did not disappoint! I will also say, as I know most were disappointed with “Reckless Girls” that this is much better (though I did give that one 4 stars)! In true Hawkin’s fashion, so many characters in this are truly unlikable. I think that’s one of the things I enjoy the most about her books. The truly despicable characters where you are rooting for someone who is also awful. The villa in the Italian countryside made for such a dreamy setting-I’m a sucker for books set in Italy! The use of 2 timelines with 2 storylines worked really well and kept me captivated! My one complaint would be that there were some things left up in the air, but I think that was done intentionally so the reader can form their own conclusions. This book is out January 3, 2023 and I would definitely recommend it!

I just want to say how much I can’t stand Rachel Hollis.

I know this isn’t what the book is about but I’ve got it off my chest.

Two best friends, one a writer of cozy mysteries going through a divorce, another a “girl boss” writing self help books. They take a trip to an Italian Villa, interweaves is a story from the 70s. Mari and her want to be rock and roll lover spent the summer at the same villa with her step sister and her on and off rockstar boyfriend. We see Mari’s writing interspersed. All three stories take sinister twists and friendship that keep you guessing what or who a villain is.

Loved this.