UNRAVELING OF JULIA
by Lisa Scottoline
Grand Central Publishing, 2025
★★★★★
Lately, Julia Pritzker is beginning to think she’s cursed. She’s lost her adoptive parents, then her husband is murdered. When she realizes that her horoscope essentially foretold his death, she begins to spiral. She fears her fate is written in the stars, not held in her own hands.
Then a letter arrives out of the blue, informing her that she has inherited a Tuscan villa and vineyard—but her benefactor is a total stranger named Emilia Rossi. Julia has no information about her biological family, so she wonders if Rossi could be a blood relative. Bewildered, she heads to Tuscany for answers.
There, Julia is horrified to discover that Rossi was a paranoid recluse, who believed herself to be a descendent of Duchess Caterina Sforza, a legendary Renaissance ruler. Stunned by her uncanny resemblance to Rossi, and even to Caterina, Julia is further unnerved when she unearths eerie parallels between them, including an obsession with astrology.
Before long, Julia suspects she’s being followed, and strange things begin to happen. Not even a chance meeting with a handsome Florentine can ease her troubled mind. When events turn deadly, Julia’s harrowing struggle becomes a search for her identity, a race to save her sanity, and ultimately, a question of her very survival.
Dear Readers,
From a young age, I’ve been captivated by the old Gothic romance paperbacks, where a woman in a flowing dress or nightgown is fleeing from a foreboding mansion or castle in the background. These Gothic romances enjoyed their heyday in the 1960s and 1970s but faded into obscurity by the 1980s. Now this brings me to my latest read, The Unraveling of Julia. While it’s not exactly a classic Gothic romance, it does carry some elements of that genre. This novel, written by bestselling author Lisa Scottoline, marks my first reading encounter with her work. I can already hear someone saying, “You’ve never heard of Lisa Scottoline?” To clarify, I’ve indeed seen her books in stores but didn’t feel drawn to the covers, titles, or blurbs—until now.
The Unraveling of Julia is a psychological thriller infused with Gothic vibes, though it’s not a traditional romance. However, there are two love stories woven into the plot—kind of. The cover art invokes that nostalgic Gothic romance feeling, minus the image of a gown-clad woman running from a creepy estate. That title, The Unraveling of Julia, gives off those eerie '70s horror vibes. Honestly, I was hooked even before reading the blurb.
The story centers around Julia Pritzker, who witnesses the murder of her beloved husband during a mugging. Before she can even begin to grieve, she learns she's inherited a fortune, along with a Tuscan villa and a vineyard. Did it come from a relative? Julia has no idea since she is adopted and knows nothing about her birth parents. So, who is this Italian benefactor, Emilia Rossi? Initially, she seems to be a stranger, but perhaps there’s more to the mystery than meets the eye.
Encouraged by her best friend, Courtney, Julia hastily packs her bags and heads to her inherited villa, which she discovers is in a state of disrepair. Emilia Rossi seemed to be quite a reclusive character—a paranoid woman with delusions, at least according to her servants. She believed herself to be a descendant of Duchess Caterina Sforza, from the Renaissance. Oh, I should mention that Julia has a penchant for horoscopes, especially after one eerily predicted her husband’s death. Coincidentally, Emilia had a similar interest in horoscopes. Is this merely a coincidence, or could there be a deeper connection between Julia and Emilia? Perhaps a familial bond?
I’ll pause my plot summary here, as I don’t want to give away any spoilers—and trust me, this book is full of twists and turns. I will say that the story features multiple mysteries that come together brilliantly by the end.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Unraveling of Julia. It was just the right book for me at the moment. It offers a mix of mysteries, horoscopes, a creepy villa, and a touch of the supernatural. While the Gothic elements were not prominent, they were cleverly incorporated just enough to satisfy my taste.
⁓B.J. Burgess
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