Rachel Hawkins' books just get better and better!

The Villa is a tale of two stories, alternating between 1970’’s and 2020’s.
Writers/best friends since childhood Emily and Chess vacation in the Villa to write and reconnect. 50 years previously, another group of friends stayed at the villa to a terrible end. Emily stumbles upon that story, along with hidden clues from inside the Villa and tries to solve that mystery!


The two stories are both compelling, with interesting characters and an amazing setting and Hawkins intertwines them perfectly.

Thank you Netgally for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't sure I was going to like this book, based on my taste in style and settings for books, but I was wrong. The book goes back and forth between past and present which took me a little while to get into, but it was excellent. The twist was surprising as I thought I had figured out the story already.

I loved this book! This novel had alternating storylines - between main character Emily (present time) and Mari (1970s). Both storylines take place in a beautiful villa in Italy. In the present storyline, Emily escapes the nightmare of her life to try and write another book. However, she goes to the villa with her BFF - who might not actually be who she says she is. In the past, Mari attends the villa with a group of 70s rockers and artists...... and only 3 of them make it out alive.

This book was so intriguing and kept me guessing the entire time! I really loved both storylines and the connection between them in the end.

My only complaint was a few things at the end.... it was so jam packed and I had to re-read some parts to understand what all happened.

Highly recommend this thriller!

This was so good! I love Rachel Hawkins' thrillers, but I think The Villa might be her best one yet. I loved the dual timelines interwoven with news articles, interviews, and passages from Mari's book, and I felt equally engaged with both of the timelines. Combining two timelines plus the story-within-a-story element is really tricky and I don't think I've ever seen it done so well. Several times I thought I knew where the story was going, or that I had guessed the plot twist, but I was always surprised. There was a lot more depth in The Villa than in Reckless Girls or even The Wife Upstairs, and I'm already super excited for her next thriller!

This thriller from Rachel Hawkins is told by shifting between two time periods and with alternating characters. Mari narrates the flashbacks to the 70s, when she is a struggling writer visiting a beautiful Italian villa with her stepsister Lara and musician boyfriend, along with two other friends. During the course of their ill-fated trip, Mari will write a famous best selling horror novel and Lara will compose a well known haunting musical album. In the present, Emily and her best friend (sometimes frenemy) Chess, decide to spend a summer at the very same Italian villa. Emily and Chess are both writers, and Emily is quickly drawn to Mari’s story and the history of the villa. There are many twists and turns as both suspenseful storylines unfold decades apart.

I’ve been a fan of Rachel Hawkins’s books, and this one is far and away my favorite. I loved the dual timelines, the broody female characters, and Emily and Mari’s connection through writing. The setting was perfect, not exactly gothic but creepy in its own way. There were several times that I thought I’d figured out the twists, only to be proven wrong later. The ending was incredible and blew me away in the best possible way. This is easily one of my favorite thrillers I’ve read this year! If you enjoy a twisty vacation thriller full of suspense, you’ve got to pick this one up.

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

As soon as you get this book in your hands, clear your schedule because you will not want to put it down! This is impeccably written with intrigue and suspense and captivating characters. The plot twists and turns and pulls you in with every page. Even after finishing the last page, the characters and plot linger with me, as amazing books tend to do. I'd give this book 10 stars if I could! You need to read it!

Hawkins' thrillers never disappoint, per usual.

Emily and Chess, childhood friends, reconnect in an Italian Villa that was famously known as a murder house after an incident in the 70s.

The story travels back and forth between the present with Emily and Chess, and Mari and Lara, sisters who were present during the incident at the villa, that then became famous in their own works thereafter.

I enjoyed Chess and Emily's story in the present, and found myself skimming through the Lara and Mari's story. Although, I thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns.

This is the third book from Rachel Hawkins that I’ve read and by far my favorite. The up in the air endings of both plot lines were still deeply satisfying even though also part cliff hanger. We all have friends like Chess we can relate to and the thought of Emily surpassing her in the end was satisfaction. There were some abrupt part you had to concede to be enjoy the plot (like Emily forgiving Chess) but overall this was very enjoyable. I had a hard time putting it down and wanted to see where both intertwining plots lead. Part thriller, part mystery and all good.

I have to be honest, I DNF'd The Wife Upstairs, gave a solid 3 stars to Reckless Girls, and now I've read The Villa in a short number of days. I love that Hawkins is writing more and more and you can see their talent growing with each new book. I didn't think I'd say this after The Wife Upstairs, but I'm seriously excited to see what will be written next.

Rachel Hawkins has been a must read author for me. I still find myself thinking about the ending of the Wife Upstairs. When I got the chance to read her next novel, I was thrilled! It definitely lived up to the hype I had created in my head. I really enjoyed this story and found it easy to read the time jumping timeline. I loved that it took place in Italy and the ending really got me! When I added this to my Goodreads, I saw it was inspired by Frankenstein and definitely can see the correlations there. It was a great story and has kept Rachel Hawkins as an author I will pick up every time.

A special thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for letting me read this ebook early, I quite enjoyed it!

Chess and Em are best friends. That's why when one of them faces hardship in their life, the famous one makes the other go on a trip with her. They stay in this beautiful villa in Italy where some not so beautiful things happened there many years earlier. Em revamps her writing as she uncovers secrets in the walls at the villa about a murder that took place there. She also uncovers secrets about her soon to be ex husband. Will history repeat itself in this villa?

When life gives you lemons....

This book has two parts in it. The story of Chess and Em, which is modern day and then the story of Mari, Lara, Pierce, Noel, and Johnnie in 1974--the murder that made this villa famous-ish. I really enjoyed the investigate part of this book as well. Em researches this villa and it's past and finds treasures that have been hidden away. So fun. She also finds out how far her famous best friend will go to save her.

Read if you need to get to Italy(who doesn't), you need a girls weekend, you love wine, and need a light read.

Like other books by Rachel Hawkings, I devoured this book in a day on the beach.. At the beginning I found the back and forth a bit confusing but did figure out what happens about half way through. But the book did what it is supposed to do, provided a perfect escape on a hot summer day. Thanks

Another great book by Rachel Hawkins. I loved and hated all the characters. They were all complex and relatable. Emily’s struggle to make ends meet while her ex is trying to grab as much of her money as he can, was frustrating and heartbreaking. How was she so broke?!?
And Chess was so wonderfully fake. We all have known someone like that, who is insincere, perennially late, rather selfish, and yet everyone else finds them practically perfect in every way.
The dual time line was confusing for a bit, but very enjoyable once I got the hang of things. The description of the Villa full of sex, drugs, & rock and roll… it felt so normal, like no big deal to spend a whole summer with a rock star, a wannabe, and a drug dealer. . Again, everyone was so likable, but so irritating. Flawed humans, all of them. I enjoyed reading how everything played out.

I was intrigued by the way The Villa moved back and forth between two times and two storylines. I found myself looking for similarities between the two stories, and the ending left me wondering just what had actually happened ... in both times.

I found this book difficult to follow. It was not clear within the first 1/4 of the book how the past and present related to each other, which made it difficult for me to follow each storyline. I didn't enjoy the newspaper and magazine articles intermingled throughout the book either, as it was not clear until the last 1/2 of the book how the various articles related to the storyline. However I did enjoy the character development in the book and thought each character was very complex/diverse which I liked.

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Two friends stay in an Italian villa one summer. With one being a highly successful influencer/self help expert and the other a mystery-writer going through an acrimonious divorce, the vacation is intended to allow the friends to reconnect. The villa has a history, with a famous murder, during the time that rock musicians were there in the 70s, taking place there years before.

The novel alternates between two timelines, showing the events that led up to the murder in the 70s as well as showing the relationship between the two friends in current times.

The premise of this novel was interesting, and there were lots of gothic details that gave it an eerie atmosphere. However, I found it a little slow at points, and guessed the ending quite early.

An enjoyable read, and my favourite of this author’s novels, this thriller is recommended for fans of twisty murder mysteries.

Thank you NetGalley for this eARC! I’ve read other books by Rachel Hawkins but this is the best one yet.
The book is about two best friends who go on a trip to Italy for the summer. One is a successful self-help author and the author is a cozy mystery author struggling through a divorce. Their story unfolds along with a story that took place in the same location 50 years earlier.
I thought I had it all figured out but then a couple of unexpected twists completely threw me off! Along with the great thriller elements there is also a sadness that each character is working through and in the end their situation changes but I’m not sure that sadness is gone. This book is a must-read!

I absolutely loved this book! The characters were all intriguing and flawed but still likeable and I found myself immediately invested in them and in their stories. I loved the interconnection between Emily and Chess, Mari and Lara, and Mari's book Lilith Rising. Highly, highly recommend this one.

This book was not for me. Set in an Italian villa, best friends Chess and Emily vacation there to write their books. However, Emily knows this villa as a famous murder house due to events in the 70’s. We also follow Mari, who travels to the villa in the 70’s with her musician boyfriend and her step-sister, invited by a famous rock star. Emily and chess begin to find clues that contradict the Italian court’s ruling of the 70’s murder and we watch events unfold in both the present timeline and the 70’s timeline.

Ultimately, I found this book boring. Barely anything happens until the final climax, and the final climax is such a let down. This book felt like it was trying to be slow and more of an atmospheric read, but the atmosphere just wasn’t there. I think some people may enjoy this book, but in a sea of thrillers, this book doesn’t do anything special.

“The Villa” is a mystery by Rachel Hawkins. I would say that it’s basically three stories combined into one book. The first story centers on a group of people (Lara, Mari, Noel, Pierce, and Johnnie) who go to Italy to work on music (loose interpretation there). Something happens and it affects everyone in different ways. The second story focuses on Emily and Chess childhood friends who decide to go to the same place to work on their separate books. The third story is, basically, the story of what happened to the first group of people, but told both in a fictional based-upon and diary entry manner. Ms. Hawkins makes it pretty easy to keep track of which story is which when - though the book also includes a podcast, emails, articles, and song lyrics. I must admit to having a few “Daisy Jones and The Six” meeting a Stephen King novel vibes - in other words, something up my alley. There’s a lot of foreshadowing, which I didn’t mind for once. I did feel some of the storylines were explained a bit too easily (such as a mystery illness) and one part had me mentally yelling at one of the characters because something was resolved a bit too neatly for my taste. And the ending - well, there are three endings - maybe four, depending upon how one wants to count the endings. I’m not sure how I feel about the “ending ending” - sometimes, sadly, things happen because, well, they do. I’d recommend this book to people who like Ms. Hawkins’ other books (this is my first book by her, although I’ve a few others marked as “to be read”) and this book interested me enough that I’m most likely going to move her other books higher onto my reading list.