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Rachel Hawkins' The Villa ARC Review - ClaryNathanWill
ARC Reviews,  Reviews

Rachel Hawkins’ The Villa ARC Review

Thank you to Rachel Hawkins, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the advance reader copy of The Villa.

I have read many of Rachel Hawkins’ YA books, from Rebel Belle to Royals. So, I thought I would give one of Rachel’s adult mystery/thrillers a try. This book is a bit out of my comfort zone, but I found the premise intriguing. Overall this was not for me though.

From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins comes a deliciously wicked gothic suspense, set at an Italian villa with a dark history, for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware.

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.

Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge––and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends.

Inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, and the infamous summer Percy and Mary Shelley spent with Lord Byron at a Lake Geneva castle––the birthplace of Frankenstein––The Villa welcomes you into its deadly legacy.

Check out my more detailed thoughts below…

  • Characters: This story follows two sets of characters, modern-day and back in the 1970s. Our modern characters are Emily and Chess. Emily is in a rough go a cozy mystery writer not ready to meet her deadline as she’s still recovering from an unexplained illness and her husband left her. Em is presented in stark contrast to her best friend Chess, a self-help author who is extroverted and bombastic. I did not really connect with either character and I had a similar issue with the 1970s characters. The lead in the past is Mari: an easily swayed, naive, inspiring writer who as an older teen is the other woman in her relationship. Mari is dating Pierce, an inspiring musician who is cheating on his wife with Mari. They bring along to the villa, Lara, Mari’s step-sister, an aspiring singer-songwriter who is just as naive as Mari but a bit more bubbly. They all get invited to the villa by Noel, an established musician, who seemed to me the “Lord Byron” of the group who was a bit lost and much more sensual than the other characters. None of these characters were good people, there is so much adultery and cheating in this group, and no redeeming qualities that made me cheer any of them on.
  • Setting: Chess whisks Em off to Italy. Specifically, Orvieto which is in Umbria. It is a real Italian city! I really liked that Rachel Hawkins worked in real touches. My little bit of research brought back the places the characters visit such as the Well of St. Patrick is a historical landmark. Setting a story in an Italian villa is a great idea and I just felt like the setting was underused, as if the way in which this story is written it could have been set anywhere.
  • Pacing: I loved the premise, so I went into this book with high hopes. I was ready to be swept away as I have always been fascinated by the infamous writers’ retreat Lord Byron took to Geneva with Percy and Mary Shelley. So, I was disappointed when the beginning dragged on quite a bit. If this was not an ARC I requested I may have put this book down. The story picked up as secrets were revealed but the ending felt quite anti-climatic. Throughout the book, there are different textual elements: text messages, snippets from newspaper articles, and song lyrics. This could have just been an ARC issue but it was not very clear when the medium changed, but I like to think this was fixed in the finished editions.
  • Mystery: Some things were more predictable than others. I am an easily surprised person so I was surprised when I got some things right. Once the facts were all on the table I was not left in awe at the mystery that unfolded. I was not satisfied with the ending. But I am also very aware that this is not my typical genre and I would not say that this changed my mind on that at all.

The Villa receives three out of five stars.

Thank you again to Rachel Hawkins, St. Martin’s and NetGalley for the review opportunity. Thank you for reading and supporting my blog!


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