2.5 - I respect and admire Silvia Moreno-Garcia as an author who has successfully written hit novels in a variety of genres. I love that she is bringing Mexican settings and characters to genres that may be lacking in that representation. With that being said, I think anyone who reads a lot will come across a few generally well liked authors who they just don’t jive with. Silvia Moreno- Garcia seems to be one of those for me. Her covers are gorgeous, the premises draw me in, and then I’m never a huge fan of the story.

I wanted MORE from these characters - Mostly I wanted something to come out of Maite’s romance comic book obsession!! I felt like for Maite and Elvis they each had one little quirk/passion and that was sort of the extent of their personality — besides being naive. This is a pet peeve of mine with most of this author’s main characters that I’ve encountered. They are adults but are as naive as teenagers, which I find hard to wrap my head around.

The 1970’s Mexico setting was great and I loved the incorporation of history into the narrative. The noir genre choice was fun for this and I’m interested in learning more about this period in time.

I haven’t given up yet though, I’m confident this author will end up writing a story I love!!

Book releases August 2021 - will post review now on my Goodreads and will post again/update review after release date.

Thank you to Penguin Random House , the author, and NetGalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

First off, I have to say the cover of this book is absolutely gorgeous. I love it so much. This is my 2nd SMG book, I read Mexican Gothic and loved it. Going into this one, I knew it was a different genre than Mexican Gothic and that it would be much different. With that being said, I do not think the noir genre is for me. This book was well written and SMG is an amazing author, but the historical and noir genre is just not my style. It wasn’t suspenseful enough for me and I just didn’t feel myself connecting with the book and the characters. I am glad I gave this book a read and tried the noir genre. Even though this one wasn’t for me, I will definitely be reading any future SMG books.

Thank you to Net Galley, Random House Publishing and Ballantine books for an Advanced Read copy in return for my honest review.

I will be leaving my review on Net Galley and Goodreads right now, as well as Amazon and Instagram on publication day.

I will read anything by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Her ability to write across genres is amazing and I can't wait to see where she takes us next. Velvet Was the Night takes place in a moody and atmospheric 1970s Mexico and is rightly classified as noir - the stakes are fairly low and the plot doesn't move super quickly. As historical fiction, this one really works and I'm definitely interested in learning more about this period of Mexican history. I'll hand this to fans of noir and pulp fiction at my library.

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and Random House for sending me this ARC!

I didn't think I was going to enjoy this one too much if I'm honest. But I'm giving it a solid ⅘ stars. My hats off to Silvia Moreno-Garcia. She is truly a talented writer. Author's, even some of my favs, fall into a pattern of writing that is easy to spot and their work becomes very familiar in tone and characters. I've read now four books by Ms. Moreno-Garcia, and each one has never fallen into any of the usual patterns.

I loved the tone of this book. Set in the 70s in Mexico City the story follows Elvis and Maite. Elvis is a mobster/gang member and Maite is a secretary at a dead-end job who lives for reading comic romances. Their stories will intertwine when Maite's neighbor Leonora disappears, presumably taking something of great value to many others.

I felt like I was in the 70s and images that came to my head were from the 2018 movie, "Bad Times at The El Royale." I did like the characters without really liking the characters if that makes sense. I understood to a degree where they were coming from but I wasn't crazy about them. It didn't stop me from enjoying the story and learning about the political history of that time. I strongly recommend giving this a read.


The review will be posted on my Instagram on 4/16. Username: booknookcook04

I so wanted to enjoy this one, as I've enjoyed Silvia Moreno-Garcia's other books, but I just found myself longing to go back to her fantasy worlds.

I felt disconnected from these characters and this story. I wanted this to be like a second MEXICAN GOTHIC but for me it lacked atmosphere and depth.

Overall, I was not a fan.

I found out about this book earlier today and was instantly intrigued. I was so excited to find out my request had been approved so quickly. I couldn’t wait to dive in as I loved Mexican Gothic.

I was immediately engrossed with this book and couldn’t put it down. Normally I dread reading new books because it takes a while to get me engaged but that was not the case here! I couldn’t wait to find out how Maite and Elvis intersected and interacted. We follow them as they both look for Leonora who has gone missing while hiding some sought after information.

This book was fast paced and captivating. I am grateful to Netgalley and Random House for my advanced copy. Make sure to check this out for a super interesting read!

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

First off, I was so excited to get approved to review this ARC! Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of my favorite authors. Just like everyone else, I enjoyed Mexican Gothic. However, my absolute favorite book by her was her debut novel Signal to Noise, a YA fantasy book about the power of music. When I saw that this thriller also has a musical aspect, I couldn't wait to read it. Once again, thank you so much to Random House for sending me this ARC!

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is an amazing historical thriller set in Mexico City in the 1970's. The story alternates between two main characters: Maite, who is almost 30 and unmarried, a fact that her mother bemoans, and Elvis, a rock-and-roll-loving gangster who has been assigned to track down Maite's neighbor. Although music is an important part of this book, I found Maite's love of Secret Romance comics to be both more interesting and endearing. Although she's single in real life, she enjoys the fantasy, action, and romance in comics. Of course, I can relate to that. Here is an excerpt from Chapter Two, when when we're introduced to Maite for the first time:

"Then came her current obsession: Secret Romance.
The latest storyline concerned Beatriz, a young nurse sent to a distant tropical island to care for an ailing old woman, who is torn between her passion for two brothers, Jorge Luis, a chivalrous doctor, and Pablo Palomo, a dissolute playboy nursing a broken heart.
She lived for those stories. She woke up, fed her parakeet, went to work, came back, put on music, and pored over each panel in the comic books; she gnawed at each word like a starving woman."

Maite is a great protagonist. I related to her love for comics, and I held my breath during her chapters as she, at first, seeks to return her neighbor's cat to her, and then later investigates her neighbor's mysterious disappearance. Instead of reading about action-packed romances, she finds that her life has changed, and she has become the protagonist in that type of story. The action ratchets up and up from there, leading to a gun-filled, blood-soaked conclusion, but with a happy ending. Overall, I greatly enjoyed this historical thriller, which is up there among the best of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's books. If you're a fan of the author or of historical thrillers in general, I highly recommend that you check out Velvet Was the Night when it comes out in August!

One of the joys of reading novels by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the feeling that you are reading something unlike anything you've read before, even when you are familiar with the genre she's writing. In Velvet Was the Night, noir feels fresh and newly intriguing.

Set in Mexico City in the early 1970s, Velvet Was the Night follows two people searching for the missing Leonora and an item she's purloined. Elvis is part of the Hawks, a shadowy group of thugs that target "commies" and other political dissidents; his leader, El Mago, wants him to track down Leonora shortly after a Hawk mission goes awry. Maite, a 30-year-old secretary whose actual life is far less fulfilling than those of the romantic graphic novels she reads, agrees to pet-sit for her neighbor, Leonora, and suddenly finds herself hunting for Leonora when she doesn't return as planned.

The novel hits all the main characteristics of noir. Institutional corruption? Check. Morally ambiguous characters? Check. Lust and violence? Check. Dark and atmospheric? Check.

The femme fatale at the center of the plot is far less dangerous or intriguing than most other women at the heart of noirs, and that's the first sign that Moreno-Garcia is playing with the tropes of this genre. Maite is obsessed with serial romances, and at times, this reads like a romance she would enjoy, with two apparently fated characters drawing closer to a fateful meeting. It's also a novel concerned with belonging and loneliness, and the flawed people invited to fill the holes in these characters' lives.

The parallel story structure that flips between Maite and Elvis plays with perspective in interesting ways, and though the plot is chronological, an occasional "rewind" to shift perspectives makes the story feel more dynamic. And readers will want to spend time with both characters equally, which can be a tough feat to pull off.

All in all, this was a thoroughly enjoyable read. 4.5/5 stars.

I feel like I raced through this book because I couldn't wait to see what happened. I had no idea about the riots and massacres that occurred in Mexico City and other places in Mexico during this time. Maite, Elvis, Leonora, the Hawks. All fascinating and intricately woven. I loved that there was a playlist, and all the mentions of the songs which I knew (both the Spanish and English ones!) Very different from her other books I've read, Mexican Gothic and Untamed Shore but still in the same vein as her others. It felt familiar and different but I really enjoyed it.

Velvet Was the Night is more noir than thriller; it seems like an updated Raymond Chandler-esque book. The tone is persistently dark, even bleak, but the reader gets the sense that the point-of-view characters will come through. It is set during the 1970s, a decade in which the Mexican government used force against protesters, including students, communists and left wing dissidents. Paramilitary groups, like the Hawks in the story, administered the force, including death and torture.

Elvis, one of the POV characters, is part of the Hawks. A slum kid who envisions himself as Elvis Presley, he dreams of a better life but is unsure of how he can escape the one he’s in. Maite, the other POV characters, is a secretary who’s bored with her job and fantasizes about suave lovers who will help her escape her dreary existence. When Maite’s neighbor disappears, the beautiful Leonora, a rich wanna-be activist, Maite is drawn into the world of student revolutionaries and gangsters. Maite and Elvis share a love of American music and books, things that could hold their relationship together—if they ever develop one.

While I really liked Mexican Gothic, this book was just not for me. I did not feel invested in the main characters and that made the story drag on quite a bit. The writing style also did not work for me and didn't hold my interest.

4/5 stars.

content warnings: gang violence, gun violence, death, assault

(full review to be posted in August)

I am once again pleasantly surprised by how brilliant Silvia Moreno-Garcia is in creating a wonderful and immersive novel. I loved the noir aspect of it, interwoven into the plot and keeping the suspense and pace up the entire time. I was so invested in finding out how the story unfolded, and I loved both the main characters. Both Maite and Elvis are lonely characters searching for something more to life, and I liked reading both of their perspectives.

I'm not one for historical fiction, but I really adored reading this book. It touched on some interesting and important topics, and I appreciated the afterword putting a spotlight on the facts behind the event and the real horror that happened in real life.

Thank you to Random House Ballantine, Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Netgalley for giving me an advanced copy to review!

This was the first book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia I'd read (although I have Certain Dark Things and Mexican Gothic on my TBR!). I am a huge thriller fan and was excited to break into the noir genre and I'd heard only amazing things about Moreno-Garcia's writing. However, this one left me feeling a little bit disappointed. I liked the premise of the book--two characters whose stories come together. However, the story felt pretty slow.

This was definitely more noir than I was anticipating, but the mysterious missing woman was what kept me going. I had to know. That story line was written very well and wrapped up in a satisfying way. That and the LOCATION. I've never been to Mexico City, but reading this book gave me a beautiful picture in my head of the city. The atmosphere that was created was just wonderful. I'm hoping that her future books are a little faster paced and am by no means out on her future works. This one just felt a little flat.

I'm going to publish a review on my Instagram (@readingwithmarlow) in the coming weeks!

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for giving me a copy to review!

This is probably a case of the book just was not for me plotwise, like i actually think the plot just didn't work for me. I've read the author's other noir books (Certain Dark Things and Untamed Shore) and loved them both so I know it probably isn't a genre thing. This is my 4th book by the author and I've loved all of her work, except this one sadly. It just felt... slower than her other books? Like it actually was hard to pick it up because it always felt like I was trudging through mud and this comes from someone who reads classics. So I'm used to different pacing.

I think for me a lot of it has to do with characters, I just did not care about our leads the way I had with previous works. And I'm fine with unlikable or characters you can't relate to. Just for some reason I couldn't feel anything for them and they didn't feel as "alive" as previous leads. And... not gonna lie I didn't like Elvis' POV at all, it felt like nothing ever really got done until the end just a lot of El Mago.

The atmosphere though? INCREDIBLE. You really do get a scope for Mexico City and the surrounding area, as well as a bit of history. The atmosphere created in this book is phenomenal and should be used as a guide in regards for creating a setting, its incredible how "in" you feel when reading.

I also kinda saw the big reveal coming, but I think that was just a fluke. It was a weird guess and I turned out to be right. And I do like the note it ends on, feels very appropriate all things considered.

While the introduction of the story was not what I usually read, I continued for a short time but stopped. It was not my cup of tea period.

Velvet Was the Night was a noir book, unlike others I've read. It kept a fast pace with the narration switching every other chapter between our two main characters, Elvis and Maite. Its plot, rooted in history, was gripping through the very end. I enjoyed the elements of noir throughout the book without it feeling like it was beating me over the head with it, like some noir books. I loved the one-sided relationship Elvis built with Maite and felt that the characters were well fleshed out and believable. I truly enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it.

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review

Now that’s a nice story. Not at all what I was expecting, but a pleasant surprise. Great ending

In this hard-edge thriller set in 1970 amid the “Dirty Wars” of Mexico. The story follows, Elvis, a member of the Hawks, a criminal organization aligned with the Mexican government, and Maite, a 30 years old plain and introverted secretary who dreams of love and adventure. When Maite agrees to pet-sit her neighbor’s cat, she gets caught up in a dangerous game of cat and mice between the corrupt Mexican Government, the Hawks, and the political protestors of that era.

I found it rather easy to like Elvis, a young man growing tired of the violence and the thug mentality, but caught between his loyalties to the organization and his lack of other opportunities. He is an easy character to root for. Maite’s character is a little harder to like. She’s a very sad and insecure character, yet seems to lack any redeeming qualities when she is first introduced. However, I felt there was a lot of character development for her during this novel, and Maite acquires a new strength and self-awareness. The pacing is quick and the conclusion is very satisfying.

In 1970’s Mexico, Elvis is a gangster who doesn’t enjoy his job all that much anymore. Maite is a bored secretary who lives for the next edition of her favorite serial romance and makes up weekend plans so she’ll seem less pathetic to her coworkers. But when her next-door neighbor, the beautiful Leonora, asks Maite to watch her cat, then disappears, Maite’s search for Leonora drags her into the world of gangsters, a student revolutionary movement and even a KGB agent.

The best way I can describe this is to say that Silvia Moreno-Garcia has written a Raymond Chandler mystery for modern readers. This is a change of pace from her other books like Mexican Gothic, but is still thoroughly delightful.

I loved both of these characters and wanted them to come out the other side of the intrigue in one piece. Maite’s willingness to step out of her comfort zone - from art collective to murder scene to being tailed by secret police - made her intriguing. She wanted more from life than she’d found yet and grabbed her chance to enter a different- albeit extremely dangerous- world. Even though we know Elvis is a bad dude who beats and kills people, his loyalty to his friends and his longing for a more normal life makes him an interesting character.

A great read for lovers of historical suspense!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

How does Moreno-Garcia write elegantly in more than one genre? What a TALENT she has! I'm normally not one for historical fiction but this one did it, I loved it. It was beautiful and heartbreaking. This story did get a little boring at the end, but that's probably my own fault and taste for everything not historical fiction. Silvia, you did it again.