This book was a definite chore to get through. So much so that it ground all my reading progress of other books to a halt.

The chapters are broken up into each characters' point of view but they are all so similar (despite the author's attempt to vary them with their careers, families, hang-ups, etc.) that I was frustrated and utterly bored. On top of the snooze inducing monotony in voices, they all had problems I couldn't care less about. With no sympathetic/likable characters, the suspense aspect was essentially snuffed out; I didn't care what happened or to who.

The plot moved glacially and nothing struck me as particularly original to the suspense/thriller genre. All in all I'm sad to say the only feeling I'm left with after experiencing The Chateau is relief.

Being invited to a chateau in France sounds like such a picturesque and romantic getaway, doesn’t it? Too bad the plan takes a more sinister turn…

Best friends and family are supposed to be your closest allies and confidantes, but can that always ring true?

We are thrown right into this story from one perspective, but are able to visit other histories and thoughts of different characters alternating throughout the chapters. I think this was extremely important to paint a full picture of what happened, what motives were, and where opportunities lay.

In between trying to breakdown the psyche of each character, we are a part of quite a beautiful location with expensive foods and textures of outfits. It really gave me a clear mental picture of what each character looked like and gravitated towards. I felt like I knew these people and could see the minute facial features that gave away hidden feelings.

This is the kind of book where you just need to know what happens and keep reading. There are a handful of characters to keep track of, but the author created vivid differences and beliefs for each, that it was easy to maneuver.

Without giving anything away, I have to say that the last paragraph made me gasp. I cannot wait to see what is next for this author.

Thanks to the author, Jaclyn Goldis, Atria Books and NetGalley for the eARC copy of The Chateau in exchange for my review!

Happy Publication Date 5/23/2023.
Thank you author Jaclyn Goldis, Atria publications and Netgalley for sharing ARC.
If you are going into this book primarily thinking it’s a thriller , that’s not what it is , it’s more of murder mystery with heavy dose of drama. The story is narrated from multiple POV’s , all the 4 friends and additional 2 characters, so it takes some time to getting used to this especially since pretty much each of them have their own story and it’s reveals happening in this book which is a little over 300 pages . Nevertheless the drama elements with the reveals of whodunnit was decent. If you liked movies like Glass Onion you’ll probably like this debut novel too .
It’s a 3 / 5 star read for me .

A super intriguing mystery that draws you in from the first few pages! I got major "The Family Game" by Catherine Steadman vibes and that made me love it even more. Definitely wasn't the same thing so don't worry about a copycat read. Similar aspects were the strained relationships between the friends, secrets between all, a big death in the chateau, One of those reads that you'll devour and think you have everything figured out and really don't which I think makes a phenomenal read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book. The book was good but it was way too long for what it provided. The book was full of fillers. I almost DNF'd but pressed on because the book has great writing but some parts just dragged. The book got better as the time went on and the ending was quite good.

The cover of The Chateau by Jaclyn Goldis grabbed my attention - it is absolutely stunning. It was the story and suspense, however, that kept my attention.
It is a locked door style thriller with multiple POV and unreliable narrator - All the best features of a good mystery. There are lots of tiny twists and divulged secrets to keep you engaged and enough drama to be an episode of The Real Housewives.
I love the cliffhanger ending but I will warn that it may aggravate some readers. The open ending reminds me of a horror movie where you leave the theater thinking “they have to be making a sequel”. In this case, I don’t desire a sequel. Leave it the way it is and let everyone think what they will about what happens next. I think it needs to stay as a stand alone, leaving it with an air of mystery for people to debate at their book club.

I will be posting this review on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/p/CsmRp3mu2xx/?igshid=MmJiY2I4NDBkZg==

Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5256921908

And Amazon.

▪️Review ▪️
The Chateau- Jaclyn Goldis
Rating- ⭐️⭐️💫

First off, I want to give a big thanks to @netgalley, @atriabooks and the lovely author Jaclyn Goldis, for the ARC of The Chateau. 🖤🖤

Set in Provence France, we follow Darcy and her 3 best friends as they travel to visit her opulent grandmother, Seraphine Demargelasse, in her posh and elegant French Chateau. What was meant to be a fun, nostalgic girls trip, becomes a dark and cryptic nightmare when Seraphine is found brutally murdered. As secrets begin to bubble to the surface, the 4 women begin to question their friendships, who they can trust, and whether keeping their own personal ongoings a secret are worth dying for.

This story’s premise was quite intriguing to me and held a lot of promise. The beautiful setting and descriptive imagery of the chateau was captured nicely. It made me reminiscent of my trip to France. ❤️ 🇫🇷

Unfortunately, I wasn’t as enthralled with the story as I hoped to be. Goldis put a lot of attention into building characters with detailed and expansive backstories. For me, however, this took away from the thrilling/ mysterious aspects of the story and made a potential fast paced thriller, a very slow burn. I often found myself interested in a specific event in the story, only for it to lead to yet another character delving into events of their past which, in my opinion, made the intense “aha” moments less exciting.

Although I found the writing to be slow, there were a few twists that surprised me! I enjoyed the unexpected reveals, but I was a little unsure how to feel about the final twist and cliff hanger ( those always leave me with mixed feelings).

This story had some interesting aspects and plenty of chic yet mysterious vibes. It wasn’t my cup of tea, per se, but that is not to say it won’t be a great read for you!

Check out The Chateau, published today- May 23! 🖤🇫🇷✨

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬💭:
This was definitely a promising read. Soon as I saw the cover and the synopsis, I was intrigued!

Thank you Atria Books and Simon and Schuester for sending me a copy!

𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐛📝:
The Chateau has been a place Darcy and her friends frequented to visit her Grandmother Seraphine when they were studying abroad. 20 years later, they are called back for a mysterious reason. After a night of celebration, Seraphine was found brutally murdered.

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.💫/5. While this book was very intriguing, I found it a bit longer than i hoped. Lots of character building, monologues and POVs for my taste. But it was a plot that I ended up enjoying. Locked room murder mysteries can never be a bore. Plus the descriptive setting was absolutely alluring. The first part was slow, but picked up eventually. Not my favorite, but it also wasn’t bad. If you’re in the mood for a murder mystery, add this to your TBR!

𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚: 𝘞𝘩𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘵, 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘺, 𝘍𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘩 𝘴𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴

Four women are asked to return to Provence by Séraphine so that she can share her secrets with them. The four women are best friends and excited to be back together. As they get back together, they learn things about each other and about themselves that can change the dynamic of their friendships.



Séraphine is the main character of the book, she owns the chateau where the friends are invited to and she has the biggest secrets to share. I could feel her love for the women and knew from the beginning of the book that her secret, whatever it was, would be huge and change all their lives. I was right! Her secrets blew me away. I love how they were shared and glad that Séraphine was able to tell her truths to those that really matter to her.



The Chateau is a wonderful thriller. There is murder, there is mystery, and there is friendship. The secrets threaten the friendships, but these women show that some friendships can with stand almost anything.

The Chateau is an absolutely brilliant psychological thriller/suspense that will keep you guessing till the end. Four friends come together after twenty years at the request of Darcy's grandmother to tell them something. The setting, atmosphere, and suspense are all fantastic.

The gorgeous cover for this novel sets the tone for the story. It's atmospheric, and at the same time, the setting in France is beautiful. The author takes us into Provence, and the descriptions make you feel as if we are witnessing everything standing there.

A murder, an age-old secret, money, and suspicions all come together well in this drama/thriller novel. Thank you, Atria Books and Netgalley, for this book.

It has been twenty years since Darcy, Jade, Vix and Arabelle have spent time together at Darcy's grandmother's chateau. Now, all four women have received invitations from Séraphine Demargelasse to visit once again. Only a couple of nights into the stay, Seraphine is found brutally murdered in her bed. All four women, along with the groundskeeper named Raph, and Sylvie, who was not only Seraphine's dear friend, but is also Arabelle's grandmother, are all suspects. In the midst of this shocking crime, a sinister Instagram account pops up with the handle @imwatchingyou88 exposing snapshots from the friends’ intimate moments at the chateau, while threatening to reveal more. As they race to uncover who murdered Séraphine—and is now stalking them—the friends begin to suspect each other. Because the chateau houses many secrets…several worth killing for.

This book was excellent. I had a hard time at first just keeping track of who everyone was, and which storyline belonged to which name, but once I got in the swing of things, I absolutely devoured the book. Everyone in the chateau (grandmothers included) had secrets that were keeping, so it was a tangled web that you needed to slowly untangle, one thread at a time. There were decades-old jealousies to unpack, & friendships not only between the women, but between the husbands and the children. This had not only an excellent storyline, but there was a twist at the end I was not expecting. This is perfect for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware. I highly recommend it.

This is a really hard one for me to review. There are things I loved about it, and things I hated.

This one didn’t start getting good for me until at least 75% in. Those first 175 pages or so were unnecessary and overwritten. Now what I loved about this read was the subplot line of the Holocaust, hiding a Jewish family, and the ramifications of that. I thought that added a depth and intriguing subplot to this novel making it very unique. I also loved the ending. The last 20% really had me hooked and wanting to know what happened. The twist at the end was also fabulous.

This story takes place at a Chateau in France. Seraphine owns and lives at the Chateau. Her granddaughter Darcy and her three best friends would always visit Seraphine throughout the years. Fast forward to the present day which is 20 years later, Seraphine invites them over to the Chateau again. The next day Seraphine is murdered.

The story is told from each of the women in the book. It made it easier to follow because each woman had their own story and reason for wanting to come back to the Chateau. Many secrets are unraveled between the four friends throughout the book.

This is a great suspenseful book leaving you trying to figure out who the murderer is and why. The author did a wonderful job with the details throughout the story as well. It made it very easy to picture Chateau and the countryside.

I only gave it four stars because I figured out who did it pretty early on. I was hoping for maybe one more twist at the end to really blow me away but that twist sadly never came.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I love a good whodunit and this one definitely grabbed my interest right from the beginning and told through multiple POVs which is one of my favourite ways to read a whodunit.
This book will make you feel all the emotions as each character has their own troubles back home and you really don’t know who to trust.
The ending! I need to know if that person did that thing that they were asked to do! Talk about an open ending.

The cover of this book definitely caught my attention. It is so stunning and I immediately knew that I wanted to read this book! To start the book is written from multiple POV and I feel like at first, that definitely caused the book to start out slow because the reader is trying to get used to all of the characters and figure out who is who. I feel like once you get to about 30% of the way in and can stick it out, it is definitely worth it. Towards the end of the book, I didn’t want to put it down and was reading it every chance I got so I could figure out what happened to the characters. I also loved how the author set up the story for a sequel and I really hope there is a second book!

The Chateau is a captivating mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Set in a picturesque location, this novel is written with exquisite detail, lively prose, and a series of unexpected twists and turns that will leave you guessing until the very end. With each page, a new secret is revealed, adding to the suspense and intrigue of this thrilling tale. If you're looking for a book that will keep you engaged from start to finish, The Chateau is a must-read.

An all-female 'Knives Out' set in a luxurious French chateau?! Sign me up! 🤩

This book was pretty fun! It explores the twisted friendship of four different women—through their four POVs—as they revisit one of their grandmother's chateaus in France. It was a bit difficult in the beginning to keep all the characters straight, but they were well-developed enough that it got easier to keep track of their thoughts and motivations as the story moved forward.

There are lots of secrets revealed throughout and rich people drama galore—which is my fave—but the beginning is a bit slow so I had a hard time getting into it. I wouldn't classify this as a thriller; it's more of a whodunit, but it was still enjoyable nonetheless. 🕵🏻‍♀️ I liked the exploration of family history/trauma and the information about Van Gogh. I saw the twist coming, though I didn't guess all the details which was nice. And there's a fun mic-drop ending as well.

Thank you @netgalley and @atriabooks for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

The cover alone is stunning and gives me all the vibes of a Shirley Jackson novel/ The Haunting of Hill House. The fact is though, I just didn’t love it. I also didn’t dislike it. It was middle of the road for me. The book was a bit slow at the beginning. The main issue for me was I just couldn’t connect with the characters, and coupled with the open ending- this book just wasn’t what I expected. Loved the beautiful descriptions of the setting though!! It’s drama heavy and mystery lite, so if that’s a favorite of yours I guaranteed you will love it!!

Overall, I enjoyed this book. There were some big surprises that kept things interesting. It also perfectly described Provence (or at least I felt like it did, having never been there myself), immersing the reader in the landscape along with the book’s characters.

I did enjoy how it all tied together though it felt a bit like they had to twist things into some awkward reasoning to get there.

It was definitely an enjoyable read and one that I think would be perfect for a day at the beach.

When Darcy was in her twenties, she and three of her friends spent time at her grandmother’s chateau in Provence, France while they were studying abroad. Twenty years later, her grandmother has invited them to return to tell them something important, but she is found brutally murdered in her bed before she can, and the women begin to suspect there might be a killer among them.

More drama than thriller, this is written from multiple POVs, and each character has their own secrets. None of the characters have a distinctive voice, so I found myself frequently flipping back to the beginning of each chapter to remind myself who was “speaking”, but it wasn’t enough to detract from the enjoyment of the storyline, especially the unexpected ties to World War II and a famous work of art. And while I wish the ending had been more satisfying and contained a bit more closure, overall, I enjoyed this book and would read more from this author in the future. 3.5 stars

Atria/Emily Bestler Books via NetGalley kindly provided me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.