I enjoyed the setting of this book, but not much else. I found the writing very cheesy, and this was not a thriller. Sorry to say this was a miss for me.

The Chateau by Jaclyn Goldis is a twisty and suspenseful novel set in the French countryside of Provence.

Séraphine Demargelasse has invited her granddaughter Darcy and her three friends to her family chateau. Twenty years ago, the four women used to visit Séraphine regularly while they were studying abroad. Now, they’re all in their forties and dealing with various personal issues, but head to France to learn why Séraphine has summoned them.

She has something to tell them, but after a night of partying, one of the girls finds Séraphine brutally murdered in her bed. Suddenly, the girls realize they don’t trust each other as much as they thought. They begin to be suspicious of one another, especially when a creepy Instagram account starts posting pictures of them with ominous captions.

This suspenseful thriller follows multiple perspectives. It touches on different topics, including antisemitism, infertility, class, queer relationships, and art.

The writing is slightly repetitive. In the beginning, the same bits get regurgitated with each pov. And there is not much distinction between each character’s voice. They all sound similar, even with their distinct descriptions.

Despite those issues, I still gobbled up this story. The French countryside, the secrets, and the themes all created an intriguing atmosphere that kept me glued to the pages.

I’ll definitely keep an eye out for future books by this author.

Thank you to Atria Books for providing an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://booksandwheels.com

Thank you to Net Galley for this ARC. I enjoyed The Chateau. It was interesting how the author dropped hints as to what everyone's secrets were. We knew from the start that they all were hiding something. The novel was written in the perspectives of the main foursome and also had some chapters in the voices of secondary characters. I liked this method, however, I often found myself having to go back to the beginning of the chapter to remind myself which character was speaking. Their voices were often very similar and their thoughts could have been thought by any of the four. As a result, I give the book 3.5 stars.

I really enjoyed this book. The cover is gorgeous, I love how dark it is so the magenta really pops. The book is full of mysteries and secrets and some really unlikable women. But that didn't detract too much from the interest in the plot! There's some cheating, a secret Van Gogh painting, a terrible family legacy of betraying a Jewish family to the Nazis. There's a lot going on and the ending was a bit disappointing but I was heavily invested for most of the book.

Gorgeous cover and an interesting story. Darcy's grandma is pulled her and her friends back to The Chateau, a place full of memories and secrets for these longtime friends. I found the mystery compelling, I wanted to know more and get the answers. But I struggled to keep each girl's individual voice - I kept forgetting who was who and which life they belonged to, something that I thought would get easier the farther along I got but didn't. I loved the twists and how each new turn kept me guessing. The end was good until it went just a little farther. Did it leave it open for a book 2? I hope not, I like it contained just the way it was.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy to read a review.

This book immediately grabbed my attention and I couldn’t nail down a suspect. It had me guessing the entire time. What a great mystery weaving in history, art, and a vividly described location.

I love a good locked room mystery a la Agatha Christie. I eat them up! So I was very excited to delve into this one. I had high hopes, which may have put me at a slight disadvantage with this one. I liked the overall story and the mystery, while I thought wasn't too hard to solve, did unfold at a good pace. I think my biggest problem was with the characters themselves- they all fell a little flat for me. And honestly, I started having a hard time telling them apart. I couldn't really root for any of them.

I also thought the whole reason they weren't looking forward to going back to the Chateau had an air of mystery surrounding it that didn't really live up to the hype. I wanted a bigger mystery from their past visits, I guess. I also wanted to get to know Seraphine a little better in the beginning.

My biggest annoyance with the book was the use of slang and way too many social media references. I know that's the world we live in, but the talk of Instagram followers over and over as well as the use of words like 'cheugy' had me rolling my eyes slightly.

Overall, I'd definitely read more from this author- as a good mystery is like catnip to me. But, this one wasn't what I was hoping for.

Book review!!!!

A dream girls trip to a luxurious French chateau devolves into a deadly nightmare of secrets and murder.
That’s the short explanation. This book was a story within a story within a story. A lot of secrets revealed and I found it hard to keep all the names and relationships straight. The first 40% of the book was learning all the characters and not a lot happens. But then it began to pick up and the sh!t hits the fan. There is a lot to unfold in the last half of the book and I did enjoy it even though I was confused a few times.
I’d recommend this book if you like a book with a lot of story line and many characters.
Thank you @atriabooks @netgalley for the early copy of this book.
Publish date 5/23/23
336 pages
⭐️⭐️⭐️

#netgalleyreader #kindle #kindlebooks #earc #arc #thrillerbooks #bookstagram #bookreview #bookrecommendations #booksofinstagram #booksofig #bookish #reading #alwaysreading

When a book is described as "for fans of Lucy Foley, Ruth Ware, and Lisa Jewell", I know I'm going to love it. I could not put The Chateau down. It had the perfect amount of pace, deception, mystery, murder, and more that I love in a thriller. Not to mention how much I love stories that center around a girl's weekend gone wrong.

There are so many elements to this story. It almost felt like pulling back the layers of an onion at times; with each new chapter came a new revelation. The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the ending. I felt like things weren't as wrapped up as they could have been. Although, in a way, it was almost left making you wonder if there will be a sequel coming (I'm definitely rooting for one!)

Jaclyn Goldis definitely warrants being up there with the likes of Foley, Ware and Jewell. It's certainly a twisty ride.

Thank you Atria Books/Emily Bestler Books and NetGalley for the eARC!
4.5/5 stars

If you’re looking for a solid murder mystery, this is it! The Chateau is a fun, well thought out story that had several twists and turns!

The story follows a group of friends who is reunited after some time apart. They are all in their 40s now and seem to have their lives figured out. A couple of the ladies are married with kids, while some are recently broken up with their partner. The friends are all reunited at the invitation of Darcy’s grandmother to her chateau where the girls had spent a good part of their twenties. After Darcy’s grandmother is stabbed to death the night before she is to tell the girls some important news, the motives of this friend group may not be as innocent as they originally seem.

I was intrigued by the plot twists and impressed by the character development and overall story line. This was one of those books that was hard to put down because you wanted to know what was going to happen next! The end of the book too an interesting twist and almost left room for a sequel. If the author were to continue the story, I would definitely be first in line to check it out!

This book started off strong and had me hooked. But as I continued it, I became bored with the constant repition of events from the varying perspectives and how many time past events were hashed over.

The set up for this novel was very interesting, including the perspectives from the multiple characters that would become key players throughout. It reminded me of the guest list by Lucy Foley, however the execution had less of a "wow" factor.

There were many twists and turns in this novel, which is usually a good thing, however I think it went a bit overboard in this instance. There was so many goings on from like 60%+ that it was hard to keep track of all of the secrets that were existing throughout. Each character in turn had multiple secrets to reveal, which diminished the impact of the final twist.

DNF at 25%

I think rich people thrillers just aren't for me. They're hardly ever done well and are over the top dramatic. The characters in this book all felt the same and I hated all of them. This type of "thriller" is over-done and boring.

Best friends, all with secrets and a weekend where they are going to be revealed. I was totally sucked into this story right from the beginning. I suspected the culprit but didn't see the twists that went with that.

DNF. I’m usually a fan of over-the-top privileged women with drama but this one made me cringe immediately. It was too much. Maybe it’s the headspace I’m in, I would be willing to try again at a later time since usually I do like that kind of plot.

This book is a mystery that follows Darcy, Arabella, Jade, and Vix as they vacation in France for Jade's birthday. Darcy's grandmother Seraphina calls them all to meet with her and has something important to tell them but is found dead before she can. We get the POVs of all four women as they uncover secrets and work to find out who killed Seraphina and why.

I struggled a lot with this book, but I think the plot was good and interesting, especially with the uncovering of secrets and mysteries. I also liked most of the characters ad getting to know them and what they were hiding. I didn't really enjoy the multiple povs, though, that really confused made this book harder to read. Keeping track of all the characters and all their backstories while trying to pay attention to the mystery was a little much for me. The ending did pick up, and that plot twist in the last chapter was good and made the book worth it. Overall this was an okay read, the twists were good, and I liked that we had Jewish and queer representation.

Thank you, Atria Books and Netgalley, for this arc.

Seraphine has called her granddaughter and her three closest friends to her French Chateau for a meeting. She has something she wants to share with them. Seraphine became close to all the girls when they studied abroad many years prior.

Not long after their reunion, Seraphine is found brutally murdered before she was able to share her secret. When a mysterious and sinister Instagram account begins to follow them all, they begin to wonder what horrific things are afoot. Will they be able to figure out who is stalking them before its too late? Is the killer one of them?

I am usually a fan of locked room thrillers and this one was no different. I really enjoyed the different perspectives despite there being quite a few. I really enjoyed where this book was set, I felt like I was right there in France with them at the Chateau. I also really enjoyed all the characters. They all felt so realistic, which I enjoyed. The twists were fun and shocking and kept me guessing until the end. Really enjoyed how this one wrapped up.

If you’re looking for a locked room thriller set in a beautiful location then I hope you check this one out May 23rd.

Thank you to Atria Books, Emily Bestler Books, and Netgalley, @Netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I went into this book fairly blind, and I think that was a really good way to do it. I can’t talk too much about the plot without giving too much away, but this one was full of twists! The first half of the book was a bit slow - definitely more of a drama than a thriller. I did enjoy the atmospheric setting of the French chateau and descriptions of the towns, but there was a little too much delving into past memories that weren’t really relevant to the story. Each of the characters was pretty well fleshed out, and their relationships seemed pretty realistic. Now the best part of the book was the final fourth where it took a completely different turn than what I was expecting. The twists were really shocking, and it was a page turner at that point. Overall, a really entertaining thriller with a fun backdrop and some heavier subject matter than originally anticipated

Looks like it is all set for a sequel. I did really want to keep reading to find out who did it. Although I was not completely surprised.

The Chateau

3 star rating

A suspense thriller set in a French Chateau with for best friends and the grandmother of one of the women. The four women are brought to the Chateau by the grandmother for something important but no one knows what it is. Throughout the chapters pieces of the women’s past is revealed and one morning someone is found dead. The Women frantically work to figure out who done it as more family secrets are revealed.

I thought the best part of this book was the last 100 hour pages. Leading up to that it was a slow burn with lots of background information for each character. I found all the characters likable and loves the setting of the story. The descriptions of the setting was so picturesque and sounded beautiful

Thank you Atria/Emily Bestler Books for the ARC copy of The Chateau. Check it out May 23rd 2023!