Rachel Hawkins keeps her Gothic suspense crown locked firmly in her grasp when THE VILLA launches next Tuesday…it’s a perfect dark and creepy atmospheric book for some of you to kick off your New Year of reading with, surrounding two best friend writers who go on a retreat to a villa in Italy where a murder took place 50 years ago…and it gives one of them some inspiration to go digging…. I’m a total sucker for any fictional books about fictional writers and if you know me at all you know I’m obsessed with books in the thriller genre that explore the complexities of the female friendship dynamic so really this book just had my name written all over it.....

Rachel Hawkins solidified herself as one of my auto-buy authors with this one, she's great for that atmospheric popcorn read thriller.

Im only doing 4 stars because the timeline in the 70s got a bit boring to me at times, but the dynamic between Em and Chess in present day made up for it.

Rachel Hawkins has done it again! Thank you Macmillian Audio and NetGalley for allowing me to review this audiobook!

Emily and Chess have been best friends since they were little girls. They always leaned on each other during rough times and found themselves fighting like sisters, but that didn't deter them from loving each other. As they have gotten older, they have found themselves drifting apart and decide to take a month long writing vacation in Italy.

The Villa that Chess chose for them has a mysterious and dark background, where the death of a famous musician died. Emily and Chess might have grown apart in their adult lives, but they know how to keep secrets even if it makes them resent each other in the process. Though the resentment they have will ultimately push them closer together in the end.

This book has a fantastic audiobook. I loved the different narrators and the shifts going back and forth in time. Getting the story of Mary and Laura was a great parallel to Emily and Chess's friendship. The storylines of the past and the present intertwined so well and it kept me wanting to know more. I loved all of the messiness and drama. I loved the little twists and turns you get throughout the story. I loved the side media you get as the story progressed. This book was just fabulous all together and I can't wait for the next Rachel Hawkins book to come out!

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins
A thriller with two timelines.

In the modern day, Emily and her childhood friend Chess vacation at a fabulous villa in Italy with plans to write. Emily has always loved writing and she has found success with a cozy mystery series but coping with a recent illness and the breakup of her marriage has led to writers’ block.
Chess, meanwhile, has unexpectedly become a bestselling author and influencer. Her fun and breezy writing style has made her rich and guest appearances on Oprah have made her famous.

They’ve drifted apart over the years and Emily isn’t sure she wants to rekindle the friendship but thinks a change of scenery may inspire her to write. And it does but she’s not working on her cozy mystery but instead writing about a murder that took place in the villa in 1974.

Past:
Mari and her musician partner Pierce, her half sister Lara are invited to spend time in Italy with famous rock star Noel Gordon. The house is full of drug dealers, users and hangers on. Pierce who had hoped to impress Noel with his music, is distracted by all the random chaos. Mari and Lara, however are both inspired to create legendary art. Unfortunately, the combination of drugs and personalities leads to murder.

This is a good choice for people who enjoy books exploring the creative process, friendship. I connected more with the modern day story but others may feel differently.

The narration by Julia Whelan, Kimberly M. Wetherell, Shiromi Arserio made the characters come alive.

Another audiobook review courtesy of Macmillan Audio!

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins felt like a very timely book to be listening to while I watched White Lotus. Both set in Italy with murdery vibes and friends being shady to each other? Yes, please! Listening to the audiobook made this go by in the blink of an eye. The performances by Julia Whelan, Kimberly M. Wetherell, and Shiromi Arserio were cohesive and didn’t jar you out of the story when switching between narrators. I love when we have multiple narrators and this really helped with the jump in timelines. I kept wanting to get back to the audio and found myself looking for reasons to turn it back on.

The Villa feels like a drama and historical fiction with some thriller aspects thrown in. The beginning really sucks you in, towards the end I found myself just a bit skeptical. I think I was a little sick of the miscommunication between friends but it made sense for the story, at the same time. If you’re looking for a fun book that you can listen to while doing chores around the house, this is perfect for that!

Rachel Hawkins has become an auto-read author for me, and I just love that she can write both a capturing mystery and also a fun romance. I've enjoyed so many of her books now, and so I was excited to read her latest, savoring it for my first read of the new year.

THE VILLA is a gothic suspense set at an Italian villa with a dark history, featuring childhood friends, Emily and Chess, as they reunite in their 30's to vacation at this historic high-end holiday home, now known as Villa Aestas.

Pacing can always be a deciding factor for me when reading a mystery novel, but I was drawn into the storyline and alternating setting right away. The twists were solid, and I thought the characters were well developed. My only complaint would be that I felt like the initial steam and pacing started to fizzle out halfway through the book, but it was an enjoyable read overall.

I switched back and forth between the physical and audio copies, and really thought the narrator was great!

*many thanks to St Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for the gifted copy

I really enjoyed this thriller. I liked how the different stories, past and present, intertwined throughout the book. It allowed the reader/listener to see both sides.

The Villa, by Rachel Hawkins, is being promoted as a twisty thriller – or so they would have you believe. It’s hard to classify this book. Is it a domestic drama? Women’s lit? Historical fiction?

The book goes back and forth between two timelines. In the 1974, Mari and her step-sister spend the summer in an Italian villa with their musician boyfriends. Their summer of sex, drugs and rock and roll ends in murder.
In the present timeline,

Chess and Emily spend six weeks in the same Italian villa. Chess is a best-selling author of self-help books. Emily, who is embroiled in a nasty divorce, is struggling to write the next book in her cozy mystery series.

The first two-thirds of the book was fast-paced and interesting. It felt like I was reading a book with a slow burn leading up to a surprising twist. And then it completely went off the rails and what was a strong 4-star book shattered into a complete mess.

On a positive note, the audiobook was fantastic. Julia Whelan is always superb and I really enjoyed listening to Kimberly M. Wetherell for the first time.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my fair and unbiased opinion.

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins - Short Review

- Mystery & Thriller

- A Breezy Fiction

- Story of two sisters, 1974

- Story of two best friends, 2022

- Super easy to listen if you are listen to the Audiobook

- Solid Twists at the end!



Glad that I heard the audiobook instead of reading the paperback and liked the dramatic narration. Have you read the book or planning to?



Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

QUICK BITS
-Book in a book in a book
-Multiple POV

REVIEW
This book had a lot going on (but in this case I think it's a good thing).

I really loved the premise of this book and I felt it was quite an intricate idea that was well executed.

I love when we get a book in a book let alone three in one book. wow. This where I think some may think the story gets a little muddled.

Overall, this is a well done and excellently written thriller. I would recommend it to most!

RATINGS
7 Characters
8 Atmosphere
8 Writing Style
6 Plot
9 Intrigue
8 Enjoyment
2 SOS Bonus
TOTAL= 46+2= 48/12= 4.00

2.00/5.00 SOS Rating (some of the characters actions surprised me, but as for twists, fairly tame--I don think in general the book is written with shock factor is that makes an sense)

4.00/5.00 Rounded Rating

This is a story-within-a-story novel that focuses on lifelong friends Chess and Emily who are spending the summer at an Italian villa. Inside of that frame, we also learn of another group who stayed in the villa in the 1970s, which became infamous when one of them ended up brutally murdered. I was immediately drawn into the historical story that has as its inspiration the summer of 1816 when Mary Shelley, Percy Bysse Shelley, Lord Byron, and others gathered at a villa along the shores of Lake Geneva. Chess and Emily's story did not stand up to the intrigue of the other story, and so this felt like a three star read for much of the novel. However, the ending more than made up for my early misgivings. I would suggest anyone on the fence in the beginning continue reading (or listening) because the ending will make it worth it!

The dual narrators did a good job of capturing the voices of Emily and Mary and made each story easily recognizable.

Audiobook Narration by Julia Whelan, Kimberly M Wetherell, and Shiromi Arserio-- I love audiobooks with multiple narrators. This book was made for that! I really enjoyed these narrators and think they made the book so much more enjoyable! @macmillan.audio hit the nail on the head with getting this one put together!

Book Moods: murder, betrayal, mystery, toxic drama, "love, sex and rock and roll"

"Houses, remember..." and so will I. This book was like a train wreck. You can't look away. I started off by reading this and got halfway. Then, I got my hands on the audiobook and finished the second half in one day. The audiobook made it so much easier to pallette. There's just so many stories going on and so many toxic relationships. I love the idea of this book and how the storylines come together. There's twists and turns, and I did lots of head scratching. If you pick this one up, listen to it!

This book is over the top, uncomfortable, and full of drama--but I had the best time with it!!! It's exactly what I needed at just the right time. Loved how it all came together in the end. (And I really think I LOVE books that take place at a vacation home in Italy 😍)

Honestly, I can tell friends of mine would enjoy this book but I couldn’t. This book is a stomach ache. Our heroine has everything go wrong. Her husband leaves and is suing for ownership of her book series. Her friend is a huge success in a deeply annoying way. I want to tell her to get out. The anxiety is high but I can’t enjoy this as intended.

An interesting and suspenseful novel that kept me engaged. This book will appeal both readers that enjoy stories set in the seventies and those that like murder mysteries. I found both protagonists Emily and Chess likeable but the ending was too predictable for me. Nevertheless, good writing and good narration.

Wow! I think this is my favorite Rachel Hawkins book yet. It's Frankenstein meets 70s rock culture meets girls trip. I listened to this one and didn't stop until I finished it. The narration is so so good! It is a propulsive read that keeps you on your toes in both timelines. However, it does slow down a little around the halfway point; it picks back up again quickly. My only complaint is that it felt like it wrapped up a little strangely at the end. I would have liked a few more pages to flesh things out a little more - mainly in the present timeline.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an audio galley in return for a fair and honest review.

The Villa is a mystery/thriller set in Italy with two stories with alternating between a murder that happened in the 70’s and in the present are two friends on a summer vacation.

I found this book hard to get into. I really liked the present timeline the best. The relationship between the two friends had me wondering where the story was heading and how it would end up relating to the 70s story.

Overall I enjoyed it but didn’t find it to be very memorable.

Thank you NetGalley and LibroFm for the advanced audiobook,

An enjoyable, mystery thriller! Alternating between two timelines, with unexpecting yet intertwined stories, this book keeps you guessing from start to finish.

The characters in this story were layered and multidimensional, and the writing is excellent. I was surprised by how easy it was to be sucked in, and finished it in two days.

The way this story is told reminded me a bit of TJR’s writing, but mixed with a bit of mystery. I’m a big fan of Hawkins work, and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!

The Villa is a story within a story within a story… dual timelines with an extra fictional storyline playing out.

Emily and Chess were childhood best friends, but a few decades later, how well do they still know each other? Each are successful authors– Emily writes a popular cozy mystery series and Chess is a Glennon Doyle-ish guru. Emily is stuck in a rut–writing, working through a messy divorce, and recovering from a mystery illness. Chess invites her to spend the summer together at an Italian villa with a notorious past.

In 1974, another group of friends spent the summer there, but one ended up dead, another in prison. Despite the tragedy, two step sisters went on to giant creative success after finding inspiration at the villa.

The Villa sparks something inside of Emily– but instead of cozy mysteries, she’s obsessed with writing about the house.

We go back and forth, filling in the blanks from that fateful summer in 1974, while present-day secrets start coming to light between Emily and Chess. It’s addictive, intriguing, immersive, with an ending that, while bizarre, is super satisfying.

One thing I really enjoy about Rachel’s thrillers is the underlying theme of (I guess you would say) girl power? It seems like there’s always a lot to unpack about the nuances of female friendships.

The audio is just shy of eight hours, narrated by Julia Whelan, Kimberly M. Wetherell, and Shiromi Arserio. There are a few unique epistolary interludes to break up chapters.

FYI-if you’ve steered clear of the NetGalley app for the echo-y issue in the past (it honestly never bothered me lol)... it seems to be resolved. Everything sounds perfectly clear now. Thanks to Macmillan Audio for sending this audiobook my way!

The beginning of this audiobook threw me off. I didn’t know what I was listening to but after hearing more I realized it was part of the book Mari (character from the 70’s) wrote. This book bounces between present time, 70’s and a book world and listening to the audiobook it was sometimes confusing.
I wasn’t too fond of the 70’s timeframe story and the ending wasn’t my favorite. I’ve enjoyed previous books by Rachel Hawkins fell short in my opinion.
Thank you NetGalley for ARC copy of the audiobook.

Rachel Hawkins is the queen of classic retellings, and The Villa is no exception. I always enjoy her retellings, even though more often than not I haven’t read the original. I also love a Julia Whelan narration!

I loved the haunted house vibes of The Villa. In both the past and present timelines, the characters are vacationing in the same isolated resort that has a storied past. I preferred the past timeline, as I found Chess and Emily to be somewhat boring. There was more drama amongst the group in the 70s, which made it a more interesting read.

The author/writing aspect was particularly fun to read.

Rachel Hawkins continues to be one of my go-to authors for a quick, easy popcorn thriller. I’ve liked each of her books more than the last, so I’m excited to see what she comes up with next!