White Villa: What happens when you invite an outsider in?

by Emily Hourican

What happens when you invite an outsider in?It was supposed to be the holiday of a lifetime - a luxury villa in Ibiza, a group of university friends, and their last chance to cut loose before embarking on their serious adult lives. But when when one of the group invites an outsider, the aloof and beautiful Natasha, tensions begin to simmer.The days pass amid the sweltering rays, and dissolve into wild, humid nights. And Natasha seems bent upon a path of destruction, leading her to Jennifer's boyfriend, Todd - while Jennifer and the rest of the group look on . . .Then, one hazy afternoon, paradise is shattered.Ten years later, the friends reunite. Will what happened that afternoon at White Villa now destroy the lives and facades they have so carefully built?

Genres: Fiction

327 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 3, 2017

About the author

Emily Hourican is a journalist and author. She has written features for the Sunday Independent for fifteen years, as well as Image magazine, Condé Nast Traveler and Woman and Home. She was also editor of The Dubliner Magazine.
Emily's first book, a memoir titled How To (Really) Be A Mother was published in 2013. She is also the author of novels The Privileged, White Villa, The Outsider and The Blamed, as well as two bestselling novels about the Guinness sisters: The Glorious Guinness Girls and The Guinness Girls: A Hint of Scandal.
She lives in Dublin with her family.

source: Amazon

Reviews

[Alexandra Murphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled to get through this book. I found the first part to be relatively interesting but became disinterested in the plot and characters as the novel progressed.

[Louise · Rating 1 out of 5]

I struggled to finish this book so much, it’s far longer than it needed to be and the narrator is quite self-indulgent. It generally felt like a book that was written too quickly, resulting from the stringing together of several different ideas.

[Ellyse Davis · Rating 1 out of 5]

BORING read, took me ages to get into it and that's if I ever really did. Nothing really happened, you kept expecting something big to come of it and it didn't

[Pauline Curtin · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a distinct halving of the book. The week in the villa and then their lives years later. However I remained indifferent as to what happened to these people to be honest. Although the writer went into a lot of detail about the events and things that shaped them I couldn't quite get involved. Maybe someone younger who likes discos and drugs and doesn't mind the heat would enjoy it more. Having said that, it wasn't just the age difference. It just wasn't my type of book. No doubt a lot of people will enjoy it enormously.

[Sebastian Scheiwe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m in two minds about the book. I agree with others it was unnecessarily wordy in some areas that didn’t really offer any depth. The plot was really compelling and kept me engaged especially in the backend, but most of the characters are just outright awful sounding people. The MC lies, manipulates, engages in affairs and drugs and fails to take any sort of accountability, narrowly escapes her life collapsing upon her whilst single handedly destroying other people’s lives— but because they came out the other side better for it somehow justifies her own acts. Her description of Todd in the end is a far better description of herself.
I assume her whole life in part two is suppose to be a manifestation of what happened in part one which I’d understand maybe if it was portrayed differently, but to me it seemed more out of shame and lack of wanting to take accountability that she fabricated a different version of what took place in part one to help her justify her selfishness.

[Ailish Cleary Egan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read!

[Catherine Drea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had to plough through this book, started off well but narrative was very wordy and almost pointless at times, struggled to finish it but did.....

[Pin · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK, this is not my kind of book at all. I found it pretty slow and too airy. Too much explanation and diluted narrative. I was struggled to finish it. 2 stars because it wasn't a really bad ending.

[Dariyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Shannon Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with this book. Only got half way through and gave up

[Rachel Kidd]

DNF

[Maria]

DNF

[Aoife Chew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book. Dark & self indulgent at times going off on tangents of impressive vocabulary but overall doesnt keep you captivated for the most part. Prob give it 3.75 stars rather than 4.