Velvet Was the Night - Becca In A Book

In 1970, Mexico City was struggling to find peace within its political climate, but all Maite wanted to do is read her romance stories and dream about a better time. But, when her neighbor asks her to watch her cat, Maite is dragged into a world of communism, gangs, and corrupt politics she never wanted to enter.

My Thoughts

I received this read as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much to NetGalley and the author for this opportunity. I’m such a huge fan of this author and I was so excited to get this read. Although there were some elements of the story I wasn’t a fan of, I enjoyed the overall story.

I went into the story completely blind, it was a pure author pick for me because I just love this author and her choice to do such amazing stories of Mexico from different historical time periods. This time the author took us to the 1970s and it was glorious. The clothes, the music, the elements of political turmoil was wonderful and so interesting.

The story was also extremely interesting as well, it mixed a missing person case with elements of gang violence, shady characters, and political turmoil. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time because it just kept getting deeper and more intricate and I was LIVING FOR IT! It all started with pet sitting an unwanted cat and it turned into such an insane ride of thrills and kills.

I was also completely obsessed with all the music that was mentioned and woven into this book. The author has even included a playlist of all the musical references she made at the back of the book…. You can bet that I added every single song to my spotify and am listening to it constantly. The music really brought out an interesting element to the story because it created a romance and an ambience to the environment that could have been gritty or depressing. I loved the nuances the music added because it would make a scene that didn’t really have any importance to the plot become important or interesting. UGH I JUST LOVED IT. It was like adding the creepy music to a scary movie to make it scarier. ( I mean there was no scary music mentioned, but you get what I’m saying.

So I loved the overall story and the small details that the author brought to this book, but the characters were either truly loveable or just plain irritating. The story was told through dual perspectives between the main characters of Elvis (yes, he got his name from Elvis Prestly, I was in love) and Maite. Now one character stole my heart while the other made me want to scream just a little…..

Elvis just stole my heart and ran with it throughout the whole book. I mean his name is Elvis, first of all, and he is a bad boy with a heart of gold…. Ms. Moreno-Garcia you made a main character just for meeeeeee. Thank you girl! I just loved to see his character develop and I really loved his back story and how he rose from the ashes. His ending was beautiful and it made me so happy.

Now….. Maite was another story. She was an interesting character to be sure, but BOY DID SHE ANNOY ME and I think that’s what the author wanted because she did it soooooo well. Maite is like a mixture of Bridget Jones and Don Quixote. I know that’s weird… let me explain…. There is a scene where she is very upset about how her life is going so she is sitting alone listening to her records. It reminded me of the beginning of the Bridget Jones movie and it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. She also was so obsessed with what everyone thought and her internal dialogue just reminded me of my own anxieties and it was not cute y’all. She went throughout the whole story as a very whiny and complainy character and IT WAS NOT WHAT THE COVER GAVE ME…. She also reminded me of Don Quixote because she was dreaming of a different time, but it was to her detriment and also NOT CUTE. However, I would love a copy of those romantic comics…

Overall, this story was shocking and thrilling and left me wanting more because that ending’s innuendo was colllddddddd……