Velvet Was the Night | Book Review

Velvet Was the Night
Publish Date: Aug 17, 2021

Thank you so much to Netgalley & Del Rey for granting me an ARC of this book!

First, I think it is actually important to know what genre of novel this is. SMG is a story teller. She weaves background, intrigue and turmoil. This is a historical noir – which I was not sure what that meant so had to read up on it, but did realize that it is a genre that I do not read often. I went in thinking “I LOVED Mexican Gothic!” but be aware that this book is totally different.

This book is still well written with dynamic characters that have edge to them – pretty much all of them have an edge.

I really enjoyed how music played a part in this book considering the historical references of how in “communist” Mexico, specific music was basically outlawed. It did add a fun dynamic and made sense with how the two main characters were “rebellious”. But otherwise, I feel like the main female character was a bit of a stretch. No spoilers, but I just didn’t feel that it made sense for her to be so involved. Also, there is a lot of violence – which I’m not opposed to in novels, but it was a lot. I get that it was important & how history happened, but it was pretty much half of the book.

I rated this book a 3.67 (2/3rds of a star) so closer to 4 – mainly because the genre was not my cup of tea, and I didn’t feel like the characters were people I understood, but I do like SMG’s style. The story was good & people that like historical fiction may enjoy it more.