Unfortunately I couldn't finish this book. I read about 50% but it didn't grab me the way I expected from the description. I really wanted to give it a go as I want to read from more latinamerican authors.. but this one didn't do it for me.

I'm a big fan of Diego Boneta as an actor, so when he announced he was writing his first book I was excited! This book surprised me. It was very romantic and almost even erotic, and I liked the character dynamics at play here. The writing did sometimes struggle to hold my interest, but the more I read the book the more I enjoyed the phrasing and the more intrigued by the story I was. The end definitely gets crazy, I was not expecting any of the reveals. This book is also being turned into a limited series which I am sure will be amazing just based on the crazy plot of the novel.

Book/Story: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐⭐
Book Cover: ⭐️⭐⭐⭐

<b>Trigger Warning(s)</b>: <i>
Murder
Suicide
Death Of Child
Infidelity
Sexism
Death Of Sibling</i>
<b>POV</b>: <i>Dual, Third Person</i>
<b>Series/Standalone:</b> <i> Standalone</i>
<b>First In Series</b>: <i>N/A</i>
<b>Trope(s)</b>: <i> N/A</i>
<b>Spice</b>: <i> ️️N/A️️</i>
<b>Genre</b>: <i>Psychological Thriller/ Domestic Thriller</i>
<b>Burn</b>: <i> 🔥🔥🔥 </i>
<b>Safe or Dark</b>: <i>Safe</i> ️️️
<b>Release Date</b>: <i>May 1, 2025</i>

Holy crap! Diego Boneta knocked it out of the park with this dark and twisty thriller! 

Oh man, what a fun and wild ride this one was! 

Plot/Writing 📄

This book gripped me from the first sentence on the very first page and didn’t let me go until the last. I read the first chapter and immediately had to know what each character’s motives were. I needed to find out the details of their agendas because , OH, THEY ALL HAD ONE!

I personally found the pacing of this plot to be wonderful. It wasn’t too fast nor too slow. It was somewhere right in the middle. It moved fast enough to keep my interest and want to continue to find out what happened next but slow enough that it didn’t give too much away too soon. We just had to sit back, relax, and let things unfold.

The sexual tension between Sofia Velasco and Julian Villareal was done nicely. It wasn’t forced and developed naturally. It was believable in the sense that at one time or another I’m sure we’ve all met someone we have insane sexual tension with but nothing more. Oh, the push and pull between the two was fantastic. I ate it up. I can see how it was easy for Julian to get wrapped up in Sofia’s web. I know I certainly did.

Once the twists started coming, I felt like they didn’t stop! Oh, they were SO good and SO drama-filled. Everything got turned upside down, became unraveled, and spiraled out of control. Well done, Mr. Boneta. Very well done. 

I did have an inkling as to what one of the twists might be at about the half way mark of the book but could never fully confirm if I was right or not until it was revealed. 

The ending was great! I didn’t see it coming at all, and I LOVED it! I never figured out the truth behind Julian and his secrets. Actually, I never figured out the truth about any of the character’s secrets. However, looking back on it, Boneta sprinkled the tiniest breadcrumbs hinting as to what it might be from the jump. I never picked up on them, and that was part of the fun.

Diego Boneta’s writing is absolutely beautiful. It was very descriptive and engaging without being bogged down. The author was able to give us all the information we needed about the storyline and the key characters without being confusing. The writing was clear and easy to follow. The creepy and secretive vibes of this book were EVERYTHING!

This was a domestic thriller and mystery all rolled into one, and it was FABULOUS!

Despite pulling the reader in from the very start of the book, this is more of a slow burn. So, if you’re looking for something quick-paced and action-packed, this might not be for you. However, on the other hand, if you are someone who doesn’t enjoy a slow burn but is willing to give it a try, just stick with it until about 50% into the story when things really start to pick up. YOU WON’T REGRET IT!

Needless to say, this book had me locked in from start to finish. I just couldn’t put it down! 

FIVE WELL-DESERVED STARS!

I’m definitely looking forward to reading more of Diego Boneta’s work. 

Characters 👫 

Julian Villareal – I really enjoyed Julian’s character. He felt like something was fishy with the Velascos and was on a mission to find out the truth. If only for the sake of his late friend, who he clearly loved dearly. He was very good at keeping cool, and his poker face hardly ever let people know what was going on in his mind. I often felt like he was playing chess while everyone else was playing checkers. (One of my husband’s favorite sayings is, “When everyone else is playing checkers, you have to be playing chess.”) There was so much more to Julian than meets the eye. He had no problem with possibly eliminating the ones who risked outing him and upending his carefully thought-out plan. Oh, the secrets he keeps. 

Alejandro Velasco – Even though Alejandro’s the driving force behind the story, he is deceased, so we never get to meet him. What we learn about him is pieced together from other characters sharing memories of him and flashbacks. Therefore, we have to take everything we think we know about him at face value and with a grain of salt. Boneta made me really enjoy Ale’s character despite him not being a strong presence in the book. That’s often a hard feat for authors to pull off. 

Sofia Velasco – I was torn when it came to Sofia’s character. On one hand, I found her to be a bit stuck-up and snotty. On the other hand, I understood that she was trying to show the world she was more than capable of making her way in the family business despite being a female who was offered fewer opportunities than her male counterparts. She was very strong-willed and was not afraid to share her opinions. She did what she had to do to make it to the top and get the credit she deserved. Sofia and Alejandro had a complicated sibling relationship, but in her own way, she loved him. Sofia did everything in her power to get what she wanted.

Gabriel Velasco – The sneaky and secretive patriarch of the family. He always seemed like he was up to no good, even if he hid it well in front of others. 

Maria Velasco – The complex and grieving mother. She often stood in the background, silently being submissive to her more powerful husband. She was always willing to lend a helping hand when she was able to.

Elizabeth – A gossip who enjoyed sharing a secret with someone. It was clear she wasn’t against seducing a man to get the things she wanted, even the Velasco patriarch. Elizabeth clearly enjoyed having leverage against people, wielding power over them.

Lukas – A man with a Napoleon complex who flashed his feigned self-importance to make up for his small stature. Sofia’s little lap dog, who did her bidding without asking questions. Lukas too loved having dirt on others, airing it out, and using it to his advantage.

Mateo – He was clearly with and engaged to Sofia as some kind of power move after the merger between his family’s and the Velasco’s family’s business. Mateo felt as though he and Sofia were some sort of power couple. He flaunted his feigned self-importance like a badge of honor. Although he came off confident and secure in himself. He did feel slightly threatened by Julian’s arrival. In the end, though, Sofia just wasn't into Mateo enough to keep him around.

Eduardo – Julian and Alejandro’s friend. We meet him mainly through flashbacks like Ale. Also, like Alejandro, Boneta managed to get me fully invested in him without him even being a part of the current plotline. The author is two for two on that aspect.  Despite mainly being in the past, perhaps Eduardo plays a bigger picture than we’re initially led to believe. 

Favorite Quotes 💕

“You were either prepared to get torn apart, or you were willing to do the tearing.”

“I love my family; I love this country. But the sexism runs deeper in both than I’d like it to.”

“Men tried to lord power over each other in so many unsubtle ways.”

“It felt like their eyes had locked long enough for her to haunt his dreams, long enough for her to have glimpsed some deep truth about him that he’d rather keep secret.”

“I'm a decent person, and so you think I'm full of shit?”

TLDR: AN ADDICTIVE AND TWISTY THRILLER! A WILD RIDE FROM START TO FINISH!

As always, please remember that reading is subjective, and that’s what makes it so great. 😊

I would like to thank Amazon Crossing and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

This is my voluntary, unbiased, and honest review.

What a debut by Diego Boneta. Slow at times, the novel really picks up on the third act and ending. Appreciated the unexpected twist and what Boneta accomplished in his first novel.

Disclaimer: thank you to both Netgalley and the publisher for lending me an ARC of this book. This has not affected my review at all, where my thoughts are all my own.

So, Alejandro Velasco is dead. Suicide, rule by everybody that knew him, and even the police that study his dead. Everybody, except his best friend Julián, who personifies himself at the Velasco family house to both pay his respects and blend in with them for a while. He pretends to be one more, to investigate and found out what actually happened, because Julían believes his friends to having been murdered. He may be right, he may be wrong, and he won't have much time to find out once he gets tangle with the Velascos and his secrets and everybodies' truths start coming to light.

I'll start with the decease. Even though we get to know Alejandro through both some flashbacks and everything that his family tells about him, we don't get to see him much in the page, so it's more about having to believe anything the characters say that he was, which, at the end of the day, is their perception of Alejandro, than seeing him do and say things to get to know him deeply. The strange thing is, as we only got to know the basic parts of Alejandro's characters and his view of the family business, I feel for him and got to care for him and wanted to find the truth alongside Julián. And it's his fault, because Julián's love for his friend is written everywhere, bleeding out of the pages. And he made me care for Ale even though we only saw little parts of him. Given that this is the author's first novel (if not, feel free to correct me), all my respect to him for accomplishing such feat, that not even experimented authors get to do well some times.

Next, I'm gonna tackle Alejandro's family: a father, a mother, and a sister. Rich as filth and with a thriving business that will get them richer. Even with a dead son that should have inherited the company. What a bunch of hypocrites and false people, no wonder Alejandro didn't like them at all😂
I'm gonna focused in Sophia, de younger sister of Ale, also a tennis player and with whom Julián will have most of the tension, sparks flying and lots of other things that I won't mention to avoid spoilers.

I liked Sofia's character as she tried to make herself a place by her own merits in a world that won't give her any chance for being a woman, even though she's shown she's more capable than others, even though she worked her ass off to carry the family's company, even though she gives her all at the tennis court. She's the other POV of this book, so we get to know her well, her believes and her difficult relationship with Alejandro. I loved Sofia's character, but I didn't like her relationship with Julián; too much lust and tension, not much of an emotional connection, albeit, this is exactly the type of relationship that would take place in a story like this. My dislike of the relationship is personal, I don't tend to like this type of relationship where it starts with sexual tension, they act on it, and the emotional aspect is not much develop, but this book called for it, and the author manage it with as much grace as possible.

Finally, the man of the moment, the main character and our main narrator: Julián. Loved his character, his way of maneuvering the Velascos and how he did everything in his hand to find out the truth about Alejandro's death, even if it costs him his life. This are the friends that one would like to have in real life, if you ask me. The truth about him did surprised me; it was laid out so subtle, that even though I anticipated some parts of it, the whole truth was a shock. Amazing. Elevated this book to an anticipated release of the year for me.

At the end, even though this book is about finding a possible murderer, is also about human connections. Julián loved his friends with all his heart, and he lost it, and I mourned with him for all 200+ pages, with may be what elevated this from a 4 star read to a 5 for me. The mystery was intriguing until the last revealed truth and the cast accompanying Julián was all varied and, even though not very good people, complex enough to fill the pages with their views and believes, creating interesting conflict, ups and downs and tension that kept me on the edge, making me turn the digital pages at an F1 speed level until it was finish.

What else to say? I don't want to make this an essay, nor to dwell too much and risk spoilers; as of the day of writing this review, there's still 4 months until release. So, let's just wrap it up. Hope ya'll enjoyed and I manage to sold you the book a bit🤏🏻

I'm not sure what to compare this book to because is not my usual genre😅, but is definitely a 2025 release (May, if I remember correctly) that people should have in mind. Twisty, funny, a fast read that will have people on the edge of their chairs, with secrets and characters moments that will elevate the tension to a hundred; fully recommended

I loved this. It took me a while to finish it, but the story was so good. I devoured the book in just a day.

It's something new for my taste which, in my humble opinion, did not disappoint. I would love to see more books from the author and would definitely read them again in the future

Very good, so dark and twisty. Kept me going for a while.

It did not see the end coming. good suspense thriller to start the year.

Thank you to NetGalley for this free ARC. All views and opinions in this review are my own.

This book was wildly entertaining, I finished it in 2 days. As a fan of “The Talented Mr. Ripley”, I thought this book was right up my alley, since stories of “outsiders” trying to ingratiate themselves with the rich are always very fascinating to me. I love how the author showed the perspectives of both Julian and Sofia. Both characters are so complex, and their motives keep the reader guessing until the end.

I am hoping that the Amazon Prime Video series adaptation will be just as good, if not better, than the book.

Julian Villareal arrives at the Velasco estate to pay his respects to the family of his late best friend and tennis mate, Alejandro Velasco. By ingratiating himself to Alejandro's mother and father, he gains privileged access to a world of wealth and influence -- a world that Alejandro was running from before he died. Believing that a possible conspiracy is at play, Julian begins a torrid affair with Ale's sister Sofia, an ambitious rising star at her father's telecom company. If Julian plays his cards right, he might just get to the root of the mystery.

This entertaining novel sustained my interest and kept me guessing until the very end. The narrative perspective volleys between Julian and Sofia, building tension as their journeys collide. The novel explores themes of class division, guilt, and assumed identity as a ticket into an otherwise inaccessible world. Some narrative twists strain credulity, but in the heightened and occasionally melodramatic space that this novel occupies, you can afford to suspend disbelief here and there.

Full of suspense and tension. Excellent creep factor. I loved this story from cover to cover. I look forward to more from this author.

I would’ve never guessed that the Diego Boneta I grew up watching in soaps was going to write a book, and a good one. Not a masterpiece, but it reminded me to the kind of story told in old Mexican movies.

What a stunning debut thriller! The pace is perfect and the story, wow, it's really gripping and creepy. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for this free eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This twisty, fast-paced thriller kept me hooked from the very first page. Right from the start, I knew I'd found a favorite character in Sofia Velasco. She is an incredibly strong, fierce, and ambitious character, reminding me of Lady Macbeth in her relentless pursuit of power and control. She’s sharp, calculating, and undeniably compelling, and I found myself rooting for her despite her several ... questionable choices. As for Julian, our male lead, his complexity and vulnerability (and how it unravels slowly throughout) made him just as captivating. Though both characters operate in a morally gray area, their undeniable chemistry and tension romance made it impossible for me to put this book down. Their dynamic was full of subtle, intimate moments that added a layer of depth to their relationship, making it all the more intensely memorable. The mystery element was brilliantly executed, with clever twists and turns that kept me guessing, and despite a few minor plot holes, nothing took away from the overall enjoyment of the book. The story is clear-cut, with a crisp narrative that keeps the tension building, and while it may lack the more ornate prose of classical literature, the straightforward writing is still highly effective. The pacing, character development, and plot twists were all top-notch, making this book a thrilling, unmissable read. Five stars. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

This had that mystery element that I was looking for and was engaged with the overall package of the story. The characters worked well in the world and I really felt like they belonged in this world. Diego Boneta has a strong writing style and was able to weave a strong tale with interesting characters.

Wow! This book played out in my head like a full-on drama! It is so good! And honestly, if you hadn’t told me this was a debut, I’d never have guessed! Highly recommend if you’re in the mood for something dramatic, intense and mysterious 🔥.