This was a really enjoyable read. It was fascinating to read about the 1939 expo. The language used was beautiful, it was so well written, captivating in parts. I really did not want it to end. It is full of such interesting historical facts, details on events that I hadn't ever heard of before and with romance thrown into the mix also. Nelson is a great story teller. This was a truly enjoyable read, I highly recommend it.

I did not read much of this book, but from the bit I read, the writing is very well done. A definite bonus to the fascinating story.

Wow! That's almost all I can say after racing through this wonderful book. Full of detail, with an intriguing plot, the book is set in San Francisco in the late 1930'd as the Golden Gate International Expo was being built & opening.

I loved all the details about the Expo & about San Francisco that infused the book. You could really tell that it was written by a native with a keen appreciation of The City & its history.

But San Francisco is not the star of the book, Lily, the heroine is. A cub reporter for the local Hearst paper, she is assigned the Expo as her beat, writing human interest stories. Her reporter's instincts put her into interesting situations and up against many eccentric characters and locations.

Quite literally;lly I could not put down this book!

A beautiful story of 30's San Francisco and the World's fair that tries to illustrate peace in a time of war. Beautifully crafted.

Last night I finished “Beautiful Illusion” by Christie Nelson and I enjoyed it! I’ve been busy over the past couple of weeks so it’s taken me longer to read this than I would have liked. Therefore, this review will be quite brief.

3 Stars!

I requested “Beautiful Illusion” through NetGalley so thanks to them for allowing me to read it!

There’s talk of drugs as well as an unhealthy relationship in “Beautiful Illusion” so if you’re sensitive to either of those things, maybe don’t read it.

“Beautiful Illusion” tells the story of a girl called Lily who’s writing an article for a new build called Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. The novel is set in the 1930’s as it charts the build of The Golden Gate Bridge partly, too. “You’re a regular Joe, she said” demonstrates this as the language isn’t what we’d say today.

She meets characters who she becomes friends with as well as characters that she instantly dislikes. Woodrow is a character she likes, as is Tokido. Woodrow is a dwarfed man, and Tokido is a Japanese builder on the project. Are they both honest? They both “like” Lily. Who gets her, though? You’ll have to read to find out!

This novel has a lot to do with the Japanese/American war that happened in this period. I don’t know anything about this as I’m not American or Japanese so I was slightly out of my depth while reading.

Lily has grown up without her parents. Her mum so say died because of a drug addiction. It’s revealed that all is not as it seems here, though.

What did I like about Beautiful Illusion?

I liked the romance. There was a sort of love triangle but I didn’t hate it, as it sorted itself out quite quickly.

I liked the characters. They all had something different to offer in the story. Where one was a protector, another was a scoundrel and another was a friend.

What didn’t I like about Beautiful Illusion?

I didn’t like how the story was based around the construction of a building. I just thought this was kind of boring. Unique, but boring. I would have preferred if the story had been set in space or something totally off kilter. Although, the historical events wouldn’t have played in so well then.

One of the relationships seemed wrong. This is the author’s choice, obviously but it wasn’t the way that I wanted the story to happen.

Beautiful Illusion is filled with mysteries that slowly get revealed. As I said, I enjoyed it but there were quite a few slow moments that did hinder my speed of reading. For this, I’m giving Beautiful Illusion 3 Stars!

Despite the beautiful style of writing, and the well-planned characters and plot, this type of story was just not what I am interested in. I didn't fully finish it, but I know fans of a more historical type of fiction will really go for this one.

Also, the cover is truly breathtaking.