Thank you so much @StMartinsPress for gifting me this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 03 January 2023)

SYNOPSIS | In 1974, Mari is invited to spend the summer at an Italian Villa with her lover (Pierce), stepsister (Lara), famous musician (Noel) & his drug dealer (Johnnie), however their time together results in a tragic death. In present day, Emily is struggling to write another cozy mystery as she is going through a divorce so her old best friend (Chess) invites her to a summer getaway at the same Italian Villa.

WHAT I LIKED:
- how the dual timelines slowly unfolded
- the big reveal (which will make it an excellent book club choice)
- mystery within a mystery vibes
- the snippets of song lyrics, book segments & articles

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- the jumping around between past & present as it kept pulling me out of each timeline
- I typically don't like stories that aren't set in modern day

Entertaining and propelling, I read this thriller pretty quickly. While it was at times bloody and violent, it didn't feel like a bloody and violent thriller if that makes any sense. I enjoyed both timelines equally which is kind of unusual and hard to do in a dual timeline book. I hope if they make this into a series they don't ruin it like they did Daisy Jones and The Six. This feels like a thriller version of that.

I think the pros are that this book kept me turning pages, I felt like the story had great potential, and I freaking love the cover. The cons are that I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters, the ending felt rushed, and the central theme of friendship went off the rails.

I think I enjoyed The Wife Upstairs so much that her thrillers since then haven’t lived up to the hype in my mind. But whoever designs her covers is brilliant - I’ve loved all 3 of them!

The line between friends and enemies is thin for Emily and Chess. Attempting to get back their close relationship from the past, Emily agrees to a vacation with Chess in a historic Villa with a murderous legacy. Sins of the past come back to curse the present. Emily becomes obsessed with the infamous murder. Will she unlock the hidden secrets of the past, or will her discoveries lead to tragedy in the present? Betrayal, revenge, deception and lies describe this intriguing thriller that alternates between crimes of the past and evils of the present. This thriller is atmospheric and haunting with an ever growing sense of foreboding. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my copy.

I read The Villa awhile ago and realized I never reviewed it. This was my first book by Rachel Hawkins and I loved it. I was immediately drawn in by the plot, the edginess of the characters, and the dual timeline of the story. Bonus points for the setting being in Italy. Thank you so much NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the digital copy!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was ok. This genre of books is always tricky, either its amazing or just ok. This was just ok. The cover is beautiful, though

Two best friends since childhood have grown apart as one has a crumbling marriage and a lackluster writing career (Emily) while the other is a world famous self-help writer (Chess). After a quick coffee, Chess invites Emily to spend the summer in Italy at a villa she is renting. It turns out that this villa was the seen of celebrity murder in the mid-70s. This fact gets both of their creative juices flowing but it the mystery really what it seems and do they have secrets from each other that could ruin everything.

The Villa is one of those page turner mysteries where you don't really like any of the characters but you are intrigued to find out what happens. The characters are a combination of charming manipulators or people who cannot find their own internal voice and stand up for themselves. You want more from the latter and hope the former get an ass whopping. The plot of this book is intriguing and leaves you guessing even at the end.

Definitely recommend for fans of this genre.

#shocker (!!!!) I’m behind on my TBR pile and I had every intention to finish this #advancedreaderscopy before publication , but that clearly did not happen 🤦🏼‍♀️
I loved this book - I may have needed extra coffee to get going this morning , but it was totally worth the #latenight binge . @ladyhawkins weaves a really interesting tale of friendship , love , and murder that kept me entertained until the very end . A solid 4⭐️ quick read that is told in dual perspectives between past and present , but also is seamlessly woven together in such a way that had me second guessing the entire timeline .

From @goodreads :: 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.

THANK YOU @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the opportunity the read this - I promise to read the next BEFORE publication day 😘

#bookstagram #bookreview #rachelhawkins #thevilla #tbr #netgalley #arc #bookreviewer #lifegetsbusysometimes

Such a good book.

I really enjoyed the story and the dual timeline. But i feel like the dual timeline is over used now. And in this case I don't think the second (1970s) time line added anything to the current one. I typically love this author but this one wasn't a win for me personally.

Y’all know my love for this author runs deep! I loved the modern domestic suspense take on Jane Eyre that was THE WIFE UPSTAIRS and I was here for it in RECKLESS GIRLS when a group of people find themselves docked at the same remote island with a murderous past. So obviously when I heard that THE VILLA was inspired by the summer in Italy where Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein while staying at a villa with Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, I was READY! This book delivered.

There are multiple timelines: in 2023, Emily is reeling from a contentious divorce when her longtime bestie and self-help guru Chess invites her to spend the summer at an Italian villa. The two will reconnect in the scenic countryside and work on their next books. But instead of writing the next cozy mystery in a long-running series, Emily is drawn in by the mysterious crime that occurred at the very same villa back in the 1970s. A group of musicians and writers spent a summer there before a shocking act of violence tore them apart. The two women who were there - Mari and her stepsister Lara - ended up creating a bestselling novel and album respectively, inspired by the tragedy. We get to read Mari’s story in flashbacks and watch as Emily searches for clues as to what REALLY happened long ago…

I liked the dual timelines and found this to be an engaging read. It’s always interesting to me when a writer plays with the trope of unreliable narratives in fiction. This is another great suspense read from Rachel Hawkins and I recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for an early copy in exchange for my honest review!

Could not get Into this at all. I didn’t finish it—I ended up skipping around and also going to the end though.

I don’t feel that I can give a full review but I will say this sounded so so cool and I thought it would be right up my alley. I think it was just too slow-burn for me and it was a let down because I think the concept had so much potential.

I LOVED this book & stayed completely riveted the entire time. Thrillers are a dime a dozen these days, but truly well-thought-out, perfectly paced thrillers are much more rare, and this is definitely one of them!

*Thanks to NetGalley & St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed The Villa, since I wasn't particularly fond of the author's other books.

Overall, I enjoyed the setting and characters quite a bit. I also liked the idea of the plot with the house as a character and two forms of art from the past playing a role in the story, but I thought all of those pieces could've been WAY more developed.

The present day characters and their relationship was very developed and engaging, but the past storyline could've played a bigger role in the suspensefulness of the story. But overall, I enjoyed this one and didn't predict the ending!

3.5 stars.

I absolutely loved this story! I always enjoy Rachel Hawkins books because they have the underlinings of older stories that have been modernized and it's what hooked me from the beginning with The Wife Upstairs. I personally loved how the three stories came together and intertwined to give you the full picture of what was fully going on. I would recommend this to any mystery lovers and literary lovers.

I really enjoyed this one. I liked the shifting point of views and both story lines.

I found that the ending was a little clunky and probably needed a re-edit.

🍋 The Villa - Rachel Hawkins

4 ⭐️ - I liked this one! Rachel Hawkins has been a bit hit or miss for me. I loved The Wife Upstairs, but didn’t love Reckless Girls so I was interested to see where this one measured up. I’d say, somewhere in-between! I don’t feel this was a thriller, but a cozy, fast-paced mystery instead!

Emily and Chess have been inseparable besties from the time they were kids…until now. As adults their relationship has been strained. Chess is a successful self-help author and Emily, well, she seems to be falling apart. When Chess suggests a girls trip to a villa in Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect. Except, “The Villa” is home of the notorious rockstar, Noel Gordon’s death…

This story moved at a great pace. I love changing POVs and timelines and I think it was great to get the growth of both the past and present stories. I really enjoyed the connections between the past events at The Villa and the current events at The Villa (IYKYK). I thought some storylines could have been beefed up a tad and it was not as dark as I was anticipating. A mystery it is, a thriller it is not. If you’re looking for a cozy, closed door mystery or a book about a book, this one’s for you!

I really enjoyed this book! It was a quick read and just what I needed at the right time last month. Don’t you think a book works better for you if you find the right book that you are exactly in the mood for? I guess that means I’m a “mood reader”.

The Villa has a very interesting premise. There’s a current day timeline with best friends Emily and Chess (I’m a southern girl so this name only reminds me of pie ) and they decide to spend the summer in an Italian villa. The house itself has a complicated history because of a murder that occurred in the summer of 1974 when a rock and roll band was staying there. Emily is a writer of cozy mysteries so of course she starts investigating that fateful 1974 summer. There is a lot of sex, drugs and rock and roll in this storyline and one particularly uncomfortable scene, but it was presented in a “closed door” way, which I appreciate. I don’t wanna read all the details of that stuff.

The book goes back and forth between Emily and Chess’s story and the young musicians from the 70’s, loosely based on Fleetwood Mac. There is also a nod to the infamous summer when Mary Shelley and her husband Percy stayed at a Lake Geneva castle known as the birthplace of Frankenstein. I didn’t know anything about her but I found Mary Shelley’s life really interesting when I went down the rabbit hole of researching her.

Anyway, that sounds like a lot for one book, and it was… but Rachel Hawkins made it work! And can we talk about this cover?! It’s gorgeous!

Oh, one more thing. I recommend this in print or e-book. There were a lot of book excerpts, song lyrics, emails, podcast excerpts and magazine articles that are easier to identify in print because of different fonts/italics and such. I would have been confused by these if I had been listening to it. Just my 2 cents.

I've tried so hard with this book, but it just isn't for me. Normally I'm a huge fan of dual timelines, but it isn't working for me in this one. Unfortunately this is a DNF for me after trying multiple times to read it. I still really enjoy Rachel Hawkins' writing and I'm looking forward to her next book!

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins. Thank you to the publisher for the egalley of this novel prior to publication. I have read several novels by Rachel Hawkins and she doesn’t disappoint. I had heard mixed reviews of this book but was pleasantly surprised. The book reads quickly and I really enjoyed the 2 different timelines/story lines. This is full of twists – some which I expected but some I didn’t. Highly recommended to thriller lovers! Looking forward to Hawkins next book!

This book was an enjoyable mix of murder mystery and friendship dynamics. The writing style really built up suspense and tension which provided shocking twists and turns!