Velvet was the Night: President Obama's Summer Reading List 2022 pick

Product Information

My thanks to Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Random House Publishing / Ballantine Books for providing an advance copy to review via NetGalley. Velvet Was the Night is now available.

I was hooked from the first few chapters..... the mysterious/smoky tone, unusual characters (not your neighbor next door types) and the 1970's Mexico City setting.Why I enjoyed this book: Maite and Elvis were characters that I found it difficult to look away from. I won't say I liked them, per se, but they were memorable. If anything, this book most closely resembles Certain Dark Things to me because Maite and Elvis feel very similar to Atl and Domingo.

Her fictional story is set in Mexico City and focuses on a romance comic-obsessed secretary named Maite who gets caught up in the disappearance of her beautiful neighbor and meets a reluctant thug named Elvis who’s also trying to find her. There’s violence, a little sex, loads of naughty words, and a lot of intrigue. As the narrative evolves the two strangers begin to orbit closer and closer together, but will they collide? My sincerest appreciation to Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Del Rey, and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy. All opinions included herein are my own. Without emotionally connecting with the story, this felt like a slog that wouldn't end. I don't want to dissuade anyone from reading this because I can imagine it being enjoyable for the right audience, but unfortunately, it wasn't me. I remain a fan of the author, but I'll avoid any more of her noir pulp fiction. Elvis is a member of The Hawks. The Hawks were a government-trained paramilitary group. Elvis was an intriguing character. He grappled with using violence and cared about how others perceived him.Velvet was the Night is an explosive combination of such classic ’70s thrillers as Three Days of the Condor and contemporary Mexican noir like Yuri Herrera’s celebrated Signs Preceding the End of the World. Elvis is an enforcer for a group called the Hawks, whose main objective is to suppress political activists within the city. His life is surrounded by violence.

The characters didn't even met till the very end of the book.The romance angle wasn't good as well. It was boring. By the end of the novel, you come to truly feel for the characters and you are rooting for them, realising that Elvis doesn't want to do the things that are asked of him and that Maite has enjoyed the chance at an adventure. Elvis's battle with morality that we see throughout the novel shows his character growth and by the end, we see him have a real grasp on what he believes is right and wrong. The ending provided a real sense of closure for the story. Ultimately, the character progress is fantastically done and we see Maite grow into herself, realising that she is enough as a person and we see her start to fall in love with life again, just as we see Elvis move away from the things that have been bad for him.

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An enforcer and a secretary search for a missing student in this explosive noir novel set in 1971 Mexico.

She is deeply envious of her neighbour, Leonora, a beautiful art student who lives the life of excitement and intrigue Maite craves – so when she disappears under suspicious circumstances, Maite jumps at the chance to uncover Leonora’s secrets. Now, I'm starting from a place of bias when I say that I love Silvia Moreno-Garcia already. I'm primed to—at a minimum—enjoy their work as I love the writing style and their way of delving into character development. This novel was no exception. I loved it too. A delicious, twisted treat for lovers of noir. Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a masterful writer who pulls you into her dark world and never lets you go. From the suspenseful, slow-burn plot to the crisp, desperate characters, you will be obsessed.” —Simone St. James, New York Times bestselling author of The Sun Down Motel The story takes places in 70’s of Mexico, centered on high tension political area because the incidents enacted by PRI Mexican Political party! Elvis is member of Hawks : a group is unofficially works for government during the Dirty War as Maite is clerical worker who hates her job, loves reading romance lovers, listening to records, thirty, single. Sometimes the melody sets the tone and all the other notes follow in a certain sequence. Velvet Was the Night does just that as it prepares us for a loud upcoming crescendo. While people tend to lean into the familiar and recognizable, these intricate characters are forced to march to a different drum.....way different.I thought the characters in this story were a bit different than what I have seen in some of the author’s previous works. In some of those, the main protagonists can be selfish or flawed but would not necessarily be considered “bad” people as a whole. However, this novel features more characters who may be seen as immoral or morally ambiguous. It was an interesting shift and dynamic. They were all incredibly well written and developed too. Maite is the nervous, lonely secretary who adores Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. She spends her spare moments reading her Secret Romance comics. She is beside herself that a favorite character falls into a coma. It was funny how she would sneak moments of reading in at work. I've never heard of romance comics, but after googling them I was able to see many varieties. I loved her character and her chapters were my favorite. She was like a "Cinderella, dreaming". Maite is a 30-year-old woman in 1970s Mexico City. She lives in an apartment that she can't really afford, she works as a dictation secretary in a law office she doesn't like, and she's desperate for love and yet unwilling to open herself up to the possibility of finding it.