I found this imaginative biography of Maria Callas extremely interesting and read the whole book in one day of traveling. It was a fascinating recreation of many memories of news stories and magazine pictures which rendered all the characters real. Obviously, an imagined story based on articles and photos but very well done and believable fiction biography .

Diva is an historical fiction book about Maria Callas, one of the best opera singers ever. She performed in all the grand opera houses in the world. She had an unhappy childhood because she felt her mother loved her sister more than her. But her mother did recognize Maria’s vocal talent and saw that she got the best training. However, Maria was not happy in her marriage with her husband either, who managed her career. When she met Aristotle Onassis, known as the richest Greek, she felt real happiness and fulfillment. But their relationship was also rocky because Ari was not willing to get married again until he met Jacqueline Kennedy.
I enjoyed the story and learning about all about the operas and staging, and reading about all the celebrities that Maria met, but I didn’t think that all the explicit sex was necessary.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.
#NetGalley #Diva #DaisyGoodwin

The writing was choppy and felt detached from the characters, who were all unlikeable. There were times that the POV would randomly switch from Maria to another character and back again, which was confusing.

Back to Maria, she was portrayed as someone who doesn’t take responsibility for her choices - she blames them on everyone else, her mother, father, husband, friends, etc. Additionally, she’s surrounded by people who don’t seem to care about her or her wellbeing as a person. All she seems to be to them is a voice and a moneymaker. As much as I wanted to feel sorry for her, I couldn’t because I found her so unlikeable.

With historical fiction, there’s a fine line between creating fictional stories from research and taking liberties with that research. In this case, I feel Diva went too far. I’m afraid this novel does a disservice to the real Maria Callas. I would have preferred a story that included more of her past - growing up during the war, her musical training, rise to stardom, etc rather than one focused solely on her marriage and her cringey affair with Onassis.

This was a fun peek into the life of a person and world I knew nothing about. This story kept me engaged from start to finish and was historical fiction at its best!

This was such a delightful book. As a fan of historical fiction and of opera, I loved reading about Maria Callas, and I really loved that this focused on a particular part of her life, rather than trying to fictionalize her entire career. This was such a full love story, well written and well developed, but the fashion and the glamour and the celebrity and the realities of being a performer created such a brilliant and vivid world for the love story to take place in. I think anyone who enjoys romance would enjoy this book, you don’t need to be an opera fan, but it does help if you have a basic understanding or at least are curious. Highly recommend and I’m sure I’ll read it again!

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance reader’s copy.

I love nothing more than an excellent historical fiction book. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find books that appeal to me in this genre. So when something like Diva by Daisy Goodwin is published, I am only TOO EXCITED to read it. This one is s solid, well-written, and detailed.

I learned so much while reading it and it was the perfect break from the suspense and mystery books I typically read.

The plot:

In the glittering and ruthlessly competitive world of opera, Maria Callas was known simply as la divina: the divine one. With her glorious voice, and instinctive flair for the dramatic and striking beauty, she was the toast of the grandest opera houses in the world. But her fame was hard-won: raised in Nazi-occupied Greece by a mother who mercilessly exploited her golden voice, she learned early in life to protect herself from those who would use her for their ends.

When she met the fabulously rich Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, for the first time in her life, she believed she’d found someone who saw the woman within the legendary soprano. She fell desperately in love. He introduced her to a life of unbelievable luxury, showering her with jewels and sojourns in the most fashionable international watering holes with celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

And then suddenly, it was over. The international press announced that Aristotle Onassis would marry the most famous woman in the world, former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, leaving Maria to pick up the pieces.



Out on January 23.

I have read this author’s other books and enjoyed all of them. The book is written about a true person, Maria. Callas, and her career singing opera. It goes into detail about her lifestyle, marriage, affair, etc which follows true events in her life. Yet the author adds conversation and feelings so that it is a great historical fiction read.. It was great to get to preview this book.

Diva by Daisy Goodwin is a loose biographical fiction about the opera singer Maria Callas. The story takes place in the middle of Callas's career, as she's already a renowned singer, famous for her personable voice and regal work ethic. Goodwin walks us through some of her most famous arias that were career-breaking at the time. Another big part of the story is her failing marriage and love affair with the dastardly smooth-talker Aristotle Onassis. I have words about this man.

Even though this book is a fictional account to fill in the gaps, Goodwin was able to shed some light on the real Maria Callas. If you did some research on her, you'd barely find anything about her personal life, but rather her work ethic and diva stature.

3.5 stars

Delighted to include this title in the January edition of Novel Encounters, my column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national culture magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

The main character of this book is acclaimed Opera Singer Maria Callas who is known as one of the best soprano voices of all time. The story follows her life as a singer, flashes back to her childhood at times, and shows her interactions and relationships with people like Grace Kelly and Aristotle Onassis.

The story gives an interesting behind the scenes look of what life is like for an opera singer and everything it took to be one. I had no idea how much time and effort went into caring for a voice or the vocal rest needed to perform at such a high level.
While I’ve enjoyed listening to opera I’ve never seen a live performance and this story made me feel like that is an aspect of my life I need to remedy.

I did a combo of audio and digital versions and while I respect the narrator doing so many different accents and voices it was a lot to ask one person to do. I preferred the digital format this time around but one thing I did really like was that there were recordings of Callas herself singing as the audiobook transitions between chapters.

I also spent a good hour researching her life and watching clips her performances on YouTube. She was an incredible talent and one I’d never heard of before. The writing style wasn’t quite to my preference but I’m very grateful this book introduced me to Callas!

Thanks to St Martins Press for the arc and Macmillan Audio for the alc via Netgalley.

💎 Diva - Daisy Goodwin

3.5 ⭐️ - I had no idea who Maria Callas was before I read this book but you can bet I know a lot about her now. I was interested in this one because I’m a historical fiction fan and it sounded intriguing. The story telling is lovely and the overall story is engaging.

The writing in this book is captivating, melodic, and beautiful. The beginning was a bit slow and I found myself wondering what was happening. As the story progressed, I found myself more interested and engaged in Maria’s life, love, and growth as woman. She was beautiful, powerful, and strong. If you know who she was, this one is a definite read for you. If you don’t, look her up and then pick this one up! I definitely recommend this one on audio as it has clips of the real Maria Callas singing opera.

Thank you to Netgally, Macmillan Audio, and St. Martin Press for the early access to this book and audiobook! Diva graces the book stage on 1/23!

I wasn’t too familiar with Maria Callas or her relationship with Onassis. It’s a beautifully written book.It’s very easy to read. It’s full of romance and scandal.
I really liked the main character, she seemed like the ultimate performer. Definitely recommend

Although this started out slow for me, I was pulled in to her life, her fame, and her love affair with Onassis. I did feel that the story ended a bit abruptly, and wish there had been more details toward the end. I was not familiar with Maria Callas before reading this book, and finished this wanting to read more about her life after this time and listen to her perform,

This is the second novel that I’ve read by Daisy Goodwin, and appreciate the vividness and insight she provides into showing the strength and independence of her female protagonists.

As someone who loves historical biographies and fiction based in truth, along with having read almost all books on the Kennedy’s, I was intrigued by a book that would delve deeper into the life of someone I hadn’t read about yet from that era. Unfortunately, this book did not meet expectations. It was like fan fiction meets Harlequin. The “affair” didn’t even start until almost 60% in and it was described so grossly in so many of the pages. There’s not really a redeeming person in the book but since it is a work of fiction, I can’t be sure if things are even true. If they aren’t, what terrible things to make up about people. I can’t decide which is worse, these are true facts about real people or the author thought it okay to make up such terrible things. It was kind of disgusting to read some of it and I found myself skimming just so it would be over. You can take some creative liberties but I can’t understand some of them when the truth is so interesting. When reading something based in truth that I’m not fully familiar with, I like to research people, places, and events in more depth as I read so it was disconcerting to find “little liberties” weren’t taken, but instead history was rewritten. This is not one of those well-researched, historically balanced novels that tell the story but add some flair. It seems more like a complete fiction that uses real names.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.

First note: I did not know who Maria Callas was before reading this book.
I enjoyed this book. I do not read a lot of historical fiction, and I thought this was a great first start for me.
Maria was the definition of a diva, and I loved every minute of it. I loved seeing a woman who was strong in her beliefs and confident in herself and her talents.
Maria’s relationship with Ari was an interesting one. But I hated him so much that it made me want to stop reading. I had to keep reminding myself that it was a different time. As well as, the relationship was real, and I can’t expect him to be a perfect fictional man.
I enjoyed the author's writing style and plan to read more from her.
Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Maria Callas was a world famous opera singer and was known as La divine one. Born in 1932 in NYC, Maria’s mother took her back to Greece when she was 13, leaving her father behind. During her childhood, Maria never felt good enough and it was her sister, Jackie who was her mother’s favorite. Singing to survive during WII, Maria’s voice provided money so the family could eat. A chance encounter with Aristotle Onassis, Maria falls madly for him and the couple were together for 9 years. Ari showers Maria with lavish gifts and introducing her to the rich, famous and influential people.

This was a great story and I enjoyed reading about Maria. I didn’t know anything about her going into the book but really enjoyed her story.

The story of Maria Callas, the renowned Soprano and Aristotle Onassis, shipping magnate and one of the richest men of his time. Two famous Greek personalities, brought up in impoverished conditions who came up the hard way and wrote their own success stories through sheer talent, grit and hard work. Daisy Goodwin waves her magic wand and writes an engrossing tale full of fairytale romance, glittering galas, stunning Cartier diamonds and haute couture. The animated writing transported me to the front row of Maria Callas performing Norma and Tosca. I googled and watched videos of both online later. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn about Maria's early life, her struggle to rise to the pinnacle of success, her fraught relationships with her mother and sister and her constant quest for true love. We all know how Onassis was a compulsive womanizer and went on to marry the famous widow, Jackie Kennedy. Goodwin, through this tale, has successfully managed to bring Maria Callas out of the shadow of Jackie Kennedy and portray her as a strong, independent and successful woman in her own right. If you like historical fiction based on real-life personalities, this is the book for you. An enjoyable, easy and informative read.

Thank you NetGalley, St Martin's Press and Daisy Goodwin for the ARC.

I have read all of this author’s books. I have to say this one is the best one. Although I enjoyed the others, this one is a major page turner. I had heard about Maria Callas but always behind the story of Jackie O. or Aristotle. This is her story. It is very interesting. Definitely a good read to pick up. I had the pleasure of reading an ARC and this is my opinion
#stmartinspress #daisygoodwin #netgalley

I am a huge opera buff and love Maria Callas, one of the most amazing, beautiful, visceral divas of our time, so I was incredibly excited to dive into this book. However, sadly, it fell flat.

My biggest issue is with the author's prose. It felt clunky, burdensome and somewhat cumbrous. I couldn't connect with any of the characters and the crux of the book -- the love affair between Callas and Onassis -- was so dull and boring. I also felt there was a lot of time spent on mundane issues, like clothing that distracted from the personification of the characters.

All in all, I was happy the Diva was recognized, but the focus could've been better.

Thank you to the author, Daisy Goodwin, the publisher, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. The book is released on January 23, 2024.

I really wanted to get into this one but it was just not grabbing me when I read it. I did not finish this one.