Blair's Reviews > The Villa

(3.5) I’d been saving a bunch of ‘holiday books’ (easy reads set in summer and/or abroad, mainly thrillers) until I actually went on a holiday; The Villa was the first of these I read while away, and definitely the best. It has a similar setup to The Writing Retreat, and also reminded me of The Witch in the Well: the frenemy relationship, the premise of a blocked writer holing up in a big gothic house in the hope of making progress on a book she’s barely started, flashbacks to another fraught period in the villa’s history. Initially, I found the chapters about modern-day friends Emily and Chess far more absorbing than the 1970s scenes featuring teenage writer Mari and her rock-star boyfriend. With a lot of plot and a swiftly paced narrative, the 70s characters do end up feeling a bit thin. It all eventually comes together, though, and I thoroughly enjoyed the twisty ending. Plus, the vivid, colourfully imagined setting is just what you want from a book called The Villa.