The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

 

This week some of my library holds came through so I bumped down books I was planning to read so I could read these long-awaited books.  The Villa is by Rachel Hawkins who wrote the very, very popular thriller The Wife Upstairs.  I have not read that one, so if you think it is awesome comment below! I follow Rachel Hawkins on Twitter because she also writes fun witchy-rom-com books under the pen name Erin Sterling (ie. The Ex-Hex) 

This book held my attention, I listened to the narration which is very well done and I got some extra work done around the house because I needed to find out what happened! This book has two timelines with two sets of characters and the only throughline is "The Villa" in Italy.  I found this to be quite clever. The Villa contains some nice red herrings and a couple of plot twists. One of our main characters ends the story going from one albatross to another and I think that is what I liked the best. 

Even though this book is centered around The Villa, the story is very character driven. I don't even recall many of the details of the setting because the characters in the 1970s and 2022 are so interesting.

4 stars for this book. I could definitely see this as a Netflix or Hulu limited-time series of 6-10 episodes. 

If You Dream It, You Can Do It!

The last day of the summer library reading challenge is here!  I wanted to read more books during this challenge than I read during the winter challenge and I achieved that goal. Winter reading: 6 books. Summer reading: 12 books.  Maybe this time I'll win a gift card! 

A Dark and Stormy Murder by Julia Buckley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm so glad I decided to read this book. This is such a well done Cozy Mystery. I love the setting of Blue Lake, the old home that has secrets, and Lena the would-be writer, getting the job of a lifetime!

Julia Buckley does such a nice job of building suspense in this novel -will Camilla be OK, is Lena safe? Is Sam West a good guy? Bob's horrible son made me literally LOL. Such a clever little thing.

I very much enjoyed that the story takes place w/o there having to be murder on top of murder in the small town--which can seem far fetched. I was almost certain a couple of characters had killed Martin, but I was wrong! How fun to be wrong.

5 stars by far! I can't wait to read the next adventure!

If you have been looking for a mystery that takes place in a Hallmark world, this book is for you. It's an excellent introduction into the world of cozy mysteries.  It is also a very good book to read if you are like me and are working on writing your own mystery book.  I would love to craft a book like this one!




View all my reviews

Hey There, Whatcha Reading?

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I suddenly realized the month of February is just about half over and I still needed to listen to one more audiobook in order to complete the audible challenge and earn a $20 gift card from Amazon. What to do? I previewed a few books and one caught my ear. Our Little Lies is read by a British reader with the most delightful accent--so I downloaded it. Audible.com has icons you earn for various feats and this book earned me the marathon badge because I could not stop listening.  I had to know how this book ended!

If you choose to read it, make sure you block off quality time.  Don't start reading at 8pm on Sunday when you have to work the next day! You have been warned!

Our Little Lies by Sue Watson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The first third of the book is such a slow-building rise of tension that it is almost maddening. You think you can rely on the narrator, but she doesn't even know herself. Layer upon layer you wonder, will she wise up? Will she believe herself? As the roller coaster starts down its steep incline, you can't stop reading this book. You really need to have time to stop everything else in your life and finish it.

Is there a twist? More than one--and then one big one. I'll be surprised if you figure it out before it happens.

The only issue I had with this book is I thought the villain got some undeserved redemption at the end.

If you are looking for a thriller you can't put down, get this book ASAP.


View all my reviews