[Review] The Unraveling of Julia - Lisa Scottoline

Summary: 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. (Pub Date: Jul 15 2025)

Julia lost her husband when he defended her during a robbery. But soon after she inherits a fortune from an old lady in Italy she's never met. Could she be related to her biological family?

This is a book that is actually very easy to devour. The story is involving, the narration is mostly clean, so the pages almost turn by themselves. But, even though these characteristics persist to the end, the credibility of the story disappears little by little. In general, you can face it as your everyday thriller for the summer. It's quick-paced and keeps you curious—to be honest, though, I was more curious about what would happen than about the answer to mystery. That said, I like it when we have some supernatural element, but I wasn't fond of how it appears in this story. At times I'd almost shout at the book: Get a grip! 

It was also hard to connect with the few characters. For most of the read we just follow Julia while she tries to find out why she inherited all that from an Italian lady she'd never met. Julia is mourning her husband, so of course we don't get to meet her in her best condition, and I like how she doesn't get stuck in the same questions, it helped the story move. However, Julia was very boring. I don't know how else to put this, she's a pretty basic character. Thanks to that, as unfair as things are for her, I couldn't feel sorry. They just felt like basic facts in a thriller.

By the way, I had read another book by Scottoline before and back then I had felt her style wasn't for me. And it's funny that I see none of what had bothered me in this book. It's like I got a completely different writer, with their own issues. This was both confusing and refreshing—there was reason to give her a second chance! But which Scottoline am I finding when I give her a third chance?

In any case, this was a super quick read, and I loved the descriptions of Italy. They're the kind of details you just know the author has really been to the place and will give her best to make you feel there too. It was a lovely stay in spite of the ghosts.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 3 out of 5.