Waiting on Wednesday 07/27/22
Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “Can’t Wait Wednesday” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!
Mogsy’s Pick
The Villa by Rachel Hawkins (January 3, 2023 by St. Martin’s Press)
A couple years ago, I enjoyed Hawkins’ modern retelling of Jane Eyre (The Wife Upstairs) so naturally I’m curious about her new one. It had me right at Gothic suspense!
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.
The BiblioSanctum 
Oh a new book! Nice!
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Damn that seems so tempting even for me who does not read horrror novels. I wonder if it will be more suspense or horror because I might read it if it’s alongside Simone St James’s genre. I’ll be waiting for your review Mogsy!
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Ooh nice! I still need to read Rachel’s first book in this series! It sounds like a lot of creepy fun though!
Here’s my CWW
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
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I saw this one turn up on goodreads recently and it caught my attention, too. The description brings back memories of a crazy messed up movie I watched long ago about that night with Byron and the Shelley’s. One day I’d like to read something a bit more non-fiction about it. But I’m also up for reading more fiction inspired by it.
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I have a copy of her book Reckless Girls that I really need to get to. She’s great on twitter, too, if you want to follow her.
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This sounds great and I was hooked from the word ‘gothic’.
Lynn 😀
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