Alvaro kept secrets from his husband Manuel but now, after his death, Manuel is trying to tease them out from Alvaro's powerful and hateful family, This didn't engage me as much as I'd hoped and I DNF. Liked the setting,

Why this book became an international bestseller escapes me. There was a potentially interesting story hidden beneath all the verbiage but it was far too long, far too convoluted and ultimately far too ridiculous. At its core is the death of Manuel’s husband Alvaro in a car accident. This is devastating enough for him but when he rushes to the scene he soon discovers that Alvaro had a whole other life of which he had given Manuel no inkling. And what a hidden life this turns out to be. A completely dysfunctional family – although the simple word dysfunctional hardly begins to cover it – and a business empire that somehow Alvaro managed to run in his spare time. Each and every member of the family is bonkers, and although I suppose such families might exist, perhaps amongst the Galician nobility as here, it does rather beggar belief that most of them should be not only mad but evil. So many plot twists and turns. Every time one mystery seems to be about to be solved there’s another twist which brings everything into doubt again. And then the author obviously felt she had to bring every possible issue she could think of into the narrative – homosexuality and homophobia, drugs, infertility, prostitution, family succession, murder, cruelty, child abuse, and of course the inevitable less savoury side of the Catholic Church – and so on. It was all just too much for me – although I bravely struggled on as in a weird sort of way I did want to find out how it all panned out at the end. I just wish it hadn’t taken quite so long to get there.

I did not care for this book. I tried to like it but it just wasn't my cup of tea. The story was complicated and hard to follow.

If you like an extremely slow burn mystery, this is the book. Although beautifully crafted imagery, the pace is very slow. I found that I did not remember what I'd previously read as well as I'd like to, and had to go back over it again. I, however, know some book friends that would love this book, but it was not for me.

All This I Will Give To You was a well-written mystery and it grabbed me from the first page. The characters were well developed and brilliantly crafted to feel real and believable. Manuel was a complex character with so much depth. The author captures his grief perfectly and as the reader, you feel his pain and sense of loss. I felt a great deal of sympathy for him as he went through the ordeal of dealing with his husband's passing and when he learned his husband had been keeping secrets from him during the time they were together.

At first, it was a little difficult to get into it, because I struggled to warm up to some of the secondary characters. But as I learned more and more about Alvaro's dysfunctional family, But as I learned more and more about Alvaro's dysfunctional family, I couldn't help sympathizing with them. The book was so gripping and intense that I had to read it with some sense of detachment seeing as almost everyone was a suspect. I wasn't sure which of the characters I could trust and this kept me on my toes and heightened my anticipation.

I loved the setting in the garden and the vineyard, and how beautifully the author describes the environment and the scenery. I was easily transported to the location in the book. I loved how the writing reflects the tone of the scene— creating an atmosphere that is inviting and eerie when necessary. The tension in this book is palpable, and the reader can feel a sense of foreboding that anything could happen at any time.

Although the plot was slow-paced, I really enjoyed the way the author carefully crafted the mystery. It had many twists and turns which were a complete surprise. Some parts of the book were intense and quite disturbing. The author created a cast of unstable characters steeped in mystery and suspense. The book was like a puzzle and each chapter was a piece that fell into place and the conclusion was satisfying and yet deeply unsettling.

If you’re looking for a gripping mystery, I couldn’t recommend this book enough. This is my first book by the author and will not be my last.

I would like to thank NetGalley and AmazonCrossing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This might just be one of those cases where the problem is me, and not the book… So take this review with a grain of salt. I was actually looking forward to read All This I Will Give To You, since I love stories set in Spain and the blurb sounded fantastic. It might have been the translation, since I prefer reading Spanish books in the original language as the exuberant prose doesn’t always translate well… But the fact is that it didn’t turn out to be the reading experience I was hoping for. Overlong, with difficult to read prose and a writing style that makes it really hard to stay focused as you have to read some lines over and over again… Oh yes, it’s easy to say I really struggled with this story. The pace was superslow and the story felt halted; ever had car engine problems and tried to move the car with your whole body? That’s how I felt while I was trying to make it to the end of this story. Don’t get me wrong, I love detailed descriptions and the area described in All This I Will Give To You is a perfect excuse to do just so. I just think this story took it one step too far. I truly think this story would have benefited from a brutal editor cut and at least 150 pages less. Because there is no doubt that the idea behind this story and plot is fascinating as well as the many secrets of Alvaro’s family and history. It is just buried under so many unnecessary descriptions and overly baroque prose that the intrigue ends up being completely lost. Which is such a shame, because the complexity of the plot itself, with many twists and secrets to discover about the family, is excellent.

There were things I did enjoy in All This I Will Give To You. The fact that the main character is a novelist. The detailed descriptions of the setting in Galicia. The general plot, suspense, plot twists and secrets. The complexity of the story. But. Sadly overall I mostly ended up struggling with All This I Will Give To You. Between the very slow and halted pace, the overdose of descriptions and an overly barque prose I had a hard time to keep myself going. I felt like a potentially excellent story was buried under a pile unnecessary words and pages that prevented it from reaching its full potential.