Phenomenal storyline and writing! I went in with certain expectations of this story, and it completely went another way. Very good.

This book took me a bit out of my comfort zone being more violent than I usually read, but it was very informative and done with heart. I enjoyed learning about aspects of 1970's Mexico that I had not been aware of before. I appreciated how relevant music was to the time period and likely the author, and it added a warm element to the book which at times had a colder tone, mostly due to the subject matter and that half the book is told from the perspective of a Hawk. It was interesting to see this time period through the lenses of the two main characters, who came from interesting and different backgrounds.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, Ballantine, Del Rey, and Sylvia Moreno-Garcia for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Velvet Was the Night is an atmospheric noir dive into Mexico City of the early 1970s, a time of student uprisings, police and secret forces and foreign agents, class divisions and criminal underworlds and anarchic collectives. Into this setting, author Silvia Moreno-Garcia inserts a tale of a missing person, a lonely young woman who gets in over her head, and the young thug who dreams of a more glamorous life, set to the tune of great American crooners like Elvis Presley and Bobby Darin.

4.3 STARS

WELL SILVIA DEFINITELY KNOWS HOW TO WRITE HISTORICAL FICTION

If you like Hispanic historical fiction that feels thoroughly authentic, has a sharp, dark edge, and is so centered around the characters that is almost literary fiction... then Silvia is your author and you most likely would love this book!

Silvia's books never disappoint as far as good rep for both culture and historical facts.

This book will take you right back to Mexico of the 70s. So well described, realistic and immersive you could swear you met these characters! You could swear they are REAL PEOPLE. Was it the news you saw? and old newspaper? a documentary you watched maybe? A dreamed you had?

You will be able to smell the cigarettes everyone smokes, see the orange of the 70s wallpaper everywhere, and cut the political tension of the times with a real knife too.

Can recommend this book enough!

This is a historical noir, which I was unfamiliar with the genre, that kept me interested with its deep descriptions and great characters. This is her forte, writing characters that are complex and deep. Her characters in this book are somewhat loners, which makes their decisions a little difficult to understand (for me.) The characters unite with their experiences, yet you feel they are holding back. I was unfamiliar with the Dirty War, so I found myself wondering about that a lot. I grew up in the 70s so I had a deep interest in the setting as well, more so than I typically do. I don't like a lot of violence and somehow I didn't pick up on that in the description, so I found myself skimming through those parts, but the storyline is so compelling that I kept reading, and I am so glad I did! I loved learning about Mexican history and something that was happening in the world when I was growing up.

If you are a fan of her writings, you won't be disappointed. Mexican Gothic is way different, but the intensity that she writes with is present in this book and you will appreciate the research she has done to present the time period well.

This is the second book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia that I’ve read, and once again her writing had me captivated! The pacing was perfect; it was hard for me to find a good place to stop because the end of each chapter made me want to keep reading. And I don’t know how she did it, but I started the book both hating and being intrigued by Maite and I ended up rooting for her. I loved reading the story through Maite and Elvis’s perspectives and I enjoyed learning more about a part of history I didn’t know anything about.

This was not the book I expected having read Mexican Gothic. I really enjoyed it nonetheless. I loved the crime noir feel, the multiple perspectives, and the way that the reader is kept guessing until the very end. I definitely would recommend this book to anyone who likes an interesting read.

BEFORE YOU READ: Make sure you listen to the Spotify playlist so you can really get into the mood & setting of the novel.

I got an ARC from Netgalley and am embarrassingly late on the review

What I liked:
-Pacing! This book is fast-paced, and grips you from the start. I never got bored or drifted off while reading.
-Atmosphere. Silvia Moreno-Garcia does a really great job of writing the tension and conflict of the period (1970s Mexico)
-Writing. This book and the dialogue was SO WELL WRITTEN and I cannot wait to read more from the author.

What I disliked:
-The characters. Maybe I just couldn't relate to these specific characters, but they never drew me in the way I felt like they should have considering how great the story is (although I got close with Maite).

This book just wasn't for me. I had a hard time getting through it and ended up not finishing it. Now the story is interesting don't get me wrong. But it just didn't suck me into it like I would have liked. I can see others enjoying this. The writing is good, the characters are complex. It just wasn't for me.

TW: sex workers, vulgar language, murder

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book: 1970s, Mexico City. Maite is a secretary who lives for one thing: the latest issue of Secret Romance. While student protests and political unrest consume the city, Maite escapes into stories of passion and danger.

Her next-door neighbor, Leonora, a beautiful art student, seems to live a life of intrigue and romance that Maite envies. When Leonora disappears under suspicious circumstances, Maite finds herself searching for the missing woman—and journeying deeper into Leonora’s secret life of student radicals and dissidents.

Meanwhile, someone else is also looking for Leonora at the behest of his boss, a shadowy figure who commands goon squads dedicated to squashing political activists. Elvis is an eccentric criminal who longs to escape his own life: He loathes violence and loves old movies and rock ’n’ roll. But as Elvis searches for the missing woman, he comes to observe Maite from a distance—and grows more and more obsessed with this woman who shares his love of music and the unspoken loneliness of his heart.

Now as Maite and Elvis come closer to discovering the truth behind Leonora’s disappearance, they can no longer escape the danger that threatens to consume their lives, with hitmen, government agents, and Russian spies all aiming to protect Leonora’s secrets—at gunpoint.
Release Date: August 17, 2021
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 289
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

What I Liked:
• The cover is super pretty
• The story seems interesting
• The mystery is very interesting

What I Didn't Like:
• It felt like certain parts dragged and dragged on.

Overall Thoughts: For some odd reason this book reminded me of a Mexican Pulp Fiction. The way that Maite and Elvis are with one being balls to the wall and the other being calm I suppose it's understandable how I could. I liked the book for the most part but I just felt like it was lacking something more. I don't know if it just felt too repetitive as we kept going on and they kept looking for her but every new location they went to they couldn't find her oh, it just felt like okay let's get to the point here!

I really liked the writing style and all the characters were quite okay my eyes nobody was overly annoying over the other person.

This one just like meh.. I'll forget it in a week.

Final Thoughts: I will continue with the author and her other books. She has a really good style.

I loved this noir read! So twisty, compelling, and dark. It was so atmospheric and made me feel as if I were right there with the characters. The perfect autumn read.

I really like this author, and her forte is writing really memorable characters. This story, however, was a mystery - and I was not compelled or pulled in by that plot whatsoever. I’ll still continue to read this author, but this one was just okay for me.

I liked Velvet was the Night better than Mexican Gothic. This one had a far better sense of place, and I learned something about Mexican politics in the '70s. It had interested characters, even though I tired a little of Maite's low self-esteem. The ending seemed too easy considering everything everyone went through, but it did wrap everything up nicely. It was a good mystery.

While I found the plot to be compelling, the writing style was--again--just not for me. I so badly want to like Moreno-Garcia's style, and I just can't. The problem isn't her, it's me.

A secretary, a mob boss and his thug are the main characters of this novel.. Set in the 70’s, Maite is working and has a very boring life. She works, goes home and reads her magazines.. that is until her neighbor .. doesn’t come home for some time. Maite notices right and way and starts to wonder, come up with reasons she is gone. Endlessness watching Leonora’s apartment.. Maite sees that someone else is looking for her.. Elvis shows up and asked all kinds of questions about Leonora.. While there is political unrest and protests in the city, this duo comes together to try to figure out this mystery.. Both for their own reasons.. they get into her apartment.. they travel around town interviewing people.. their banter is cute. The story is kind of flat.. I was hoping for.. there was a lot of going back and forth and It didn’t keep me interested.. I finished it.. but not my favorite read this year.. It wasn’t really a mystery yet we were left guessing and following along.. I always love the chance to review books and I would continue to read books by Sylvia Marino-Garcia..

This was my first read by this author and I really enjoyed her style! It was interesting to see this time period play out in Mexico.

I was not sure if I was going to like this book. To my surprise, I really enjoyed it. It was much different then I expected. It is at heart a really good mystery. The main character, Maite is living a stale life, but has a romantic streak and reads Romance Books. She is looking for some Excitement in her life. The book is set around this theme.

One day, her neighbor, Glamorous and Chic, Leonara says she needs to go away for a few days and asks Maite to watch her cat. Leonara has everything that Maïte thinks is missing in her life; nice apartment, art, cool boyfriends, a busy and fun life. Suddenly, Leonara goes missing. Gangsters, The Secret Police, Rebels, Communists, Hitman, are suddenly part of her life. It’s hard to know who is telling the truth or who to trust. So, finding out the whole story was intriguing and some of the characters really surprised me. It was a twisty and dark tale that kept me quite interested until the end.

The book was also about history that I was unfamiliar with. These characters were based on The Dirty War where the government, a mobster group called El Hawk, Communists, and just young protesters all were involved. During a peaceful protest hundreds of protesters were injured or killed. The CIA was involved in funding the Government and Groups at this time. After this, much more control is forced on people not to protest anymore or even to engage with music. It was seen as subversive and dangerous. Mixing music and different songs into the book was an added element I liked. It was a tragic piece of history and no one ever was held accountable.

So, this was a Mystery, Thriller, Romance, Historical Fiction, and True Events all in one book. I really liked it.

Thank you NetGalley, Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Random House Publishing for granting me a copy of this book.

Almost thirty and unmarried, Maite, a legal secretary, is removed from the unrest of 1970s Mexico City, instead immersing herself in the serialized stories in the “Secret Romance” magazine.

When her glamorous and intriguing neighbor, art student Leonora asks Maite to cat sit, Maite agrees, but when Leonora fails to come home, she tries to track her movements, leading her to a cadre of student revolutionaries.

Elvis, rock n’ roll connoisseur and reluctant criminal, is also searching for Leonora under orders from El Mago, a secretive figure who leads a group of criminals in coordinated efforts to quash student protestors and dissidents. As he retraces Leonora’s recent activity, he keeps seeing Maite from afar and projects a narrative onto her that, like him, she loves music, and is a kindred spirit who would understand him.

Independently, Maite and Elvis get closer to untangling Leonora’s secrets, but their searches lead to entanglements with government agents, Russian spies, and mistrustful allies—all willing to kill to protect their interests.

Maite isn’t likable, but she’s very interesting, especially as she moves from an indifferent spectator of life to participating in a high adrenaline manhunt. Though some of his behavior was despicable, I found Elvis sympathetic and easy to root for.
Additionally, I really had no idea about this part of Mexican history, and found learning more about it valuable. I love Moreno-Garcia’s writing and enjoyed the very atmospheric, character-driven novel.

I like a good mystery but admittedly I don’t know much about noir or what was going on in Mexico in the 1970s to be fair I don’t know what was going on anywhere in the world in the 1970s so all the communist stuff is a bit lost on me all that said this was a rather interesting story...

Maite is a lonely secretary and dreamer who gets lost in her romantic comic books that she uses to escape reality... she a romantic living in her own little world of books and music. Sure her life is dull and boring and she wishes it was different but different and exciting things only seem to happen to other people... What she cannot imagine is that a simple favor from her seemingly interesting and fabulous neighbor will completely change her life... Leonora needs someone to look after her cat for a few days simple enough right? So how does that task end in Maite searching for her when she goes missing? Getting involved with dangerous people and being watched by even more dangerous people. Leonora’s secrets might just prove to be deadly for Maite....

Elvis is unhappy with his life... he’s essentially a thug who engages in criminal activity for the government. His current job is to find Leonora and that involves watching and following Maite. And things get a little crazy for him to and they do not go as he expects.

Maite is a little annoying and sooo naïve... she’s way too old to be so stuck in a fantasy world but I suppose it was a different time maybe women were more fanciful. And admittedly it was a crazy situation that she was drawn into. Though she’s also rather obsessive and a little crazy too. Somehow despite his line of work it was easy to like Elvis. I suppose it’s because though he did bad things he wasn’t really a bad guy just someone lost trying to survive.

Again I say I don’t know much about noir or the time period but I suppose that just makes me more like Maite who didn’t know much about what was going on around her. It was a good story and though she irritates me I did like Maite and I liked Elvis and I definitely figured out exactly who Elvis was working for early on that was not a surprise. I look forward to reading more from the author in the future, I’m working my way through all of her books.

Haunting, atmospheric, addictive - so good! Kept me entertained. Thank you for the opportunity to be an early reader!