The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

The Villa by Rachel HawkinsThe Villa by Rachel Hawkins
Published by St. Martin's Press on January 3, 2023
Genres: Thriller
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Goodreads
five-stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

About The Villa

This thriller is a dual timeline, tightly plotted masterpiece with so many twists and turns. I loved that every time I was sure I’d figured it all out, Ha! No ma’am, I did not. This book will suck you all of the way in and demand to be read RN, NO stopping. You’ll be lucky if you remember to breathe.

In the present day, two writers, best friends- Emily and Chess- whose lives and careers have taken different paths, decide to spend the summer at a villa in Italy. A perfect chance to work on their next books and reconnect.

In the past, in a mirror of the summer that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, a group of musicians and a writer gather to write. What follows is a summer of drugs, sex, tangled relationships, and finally murder.

Emily finds a copy of the book that came out of that long ago summer, reads it, and gets inspired. She also gets intrigued by the woman who wrote it and wants to tell her story, further enmeshing the two storylines.

My thoughts about The Villa

Lots of mysteries to unravel, right? But wait there’s more! What’s going on with Chess, why does she want to co-write with Emily? Emily has a successful series of cozy mysteries and Chess is a motivational influencer – think Girl, Wash Your Face. Not exactly genres that mix well. Does Chess know more than she’s admitting about why Emily’s husband cheated on her? What about Emily’s mysterious illness…

Fair warning, don’t start this if you don’t have time to binge it because once you start reading, you’re not going to be able to stop!

In closing

If you enjoy domestic thrillers and mysteries, seriously, READ THIS. Rachel Hawkins is a master at creating books that are un-put-downable. And THE VILLA is twisty, tangled goodness.

Thank you, St. Martin’s Press for the DRC!

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About Rachel Hawkins

Rachel Hawkins was born in Virginia and raised in Alabama. This means she uses words like “y’all” and “fixin'” a lot, and considers anything under 60 degrees to be borderline Arctic. Before deciding to write books about kissing and fire (and sometimes kissing while on fire), Rachel taught high school English for 3 years, and is still capable of teaching you The Canterbury Tales if you’re into that kind of thing.

She is married to a geologist, which means that they have incredibly strange dinner conversations (“So today at work, I wrote a chapter where killer fog, like, ATE PEOPLE.” “Huh. Well, I was chased by an angry reindeer while trying to map parts of Norway.” “Um…okay.”)

Rachel also has a little boy whose main hobbies are playing video games, running around in circles, and plotting his Future Intergalactic Take-Over.

When not writing books, Rachel enjoys reading, travelling, and knitting (very terribly.)

One Comment

  1. radiosarahc said:

    Okay, I’m interested! I’ll be binging this ?
    I wouldn’t have thought it was a thriller from the cover. Fab review, thanks for sharing ?

    December 28, 2022
    Reply

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