Velvet Was the Night is a smooth-as-silk look at a rarely explored time and place in history, through a Mexican noir lens. I was captured from the start.

Velvet Was the Night is described as, "noir about a daydreaming secretary, a lonesome thug, and the mystery of the missing woman that brings them together."

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Elvis and Maite team up to find Leonora when she goes missing. This is a historical noir set in 1970's Mexico. It's charged by political intrigue and the chemistry between our main characters. They each have their own agenda when it comes to finding Leonora and this sets up our tension and conflict. Seek this book out!

Silvia Moreno-Garcia rarely misses, and this tale of vampires in Mexico City was dark, character-driven, and thoughtful. Genre fans will adore this. (And the STUNNING cover will absolutely draw attention. Give your art department a raise, please.)

The book takes place in 1970s Mexico City and alternates POV between two characters. Maite is a secretary who leads a fairly quiet life and loves music and romance graphic novels. Elvis is a criminal who loves rock and roll and dreams of more for himself.
A young woman goes missing and Maite and Elvis both get caught up looking for her.

I’m going to start off and sadly say, I didn’t love this one as much as Mexican Gothic. After MG, I was soooo excited to read this one and was absolutely ecstatic when I was approved for an ARC on NetGalley!

Unfortunately though, it wasn’t as good as Mexican Gothic, for me anyway. Overall, I just didn’t like the characters very much 😬

Here’s what I did love though: the setting! The setting is written in such a beautiful way! I’ve never been to Mexico City, but I feel like I have been because of how descriptive it is!
I love the plot and the storyline (I just didn’t feel the urgency in finding Leonora or in anything else, really). It was also really interesting to learn so much about the events that took place regarding the student protests in Mexico. The more I learn about Mexican history the more I realize how little I know. I love reading Moreno-Garcia’s work and reading about Mexican characters who are people living life and not tropes. As a Chicana reader, it means the world to me.

Overall, it was a good read. I enjoyed it and I will absolutely be reading more of her works!

This is my second novel from Moreno, who has soundly established herself as an author with a strong voice. My first novel from her was Mexican Gothic, a novel that I thoroughly enjoyed and wished she wrote more in the horror/suspense genre. However, Velvet Was the Night is a book decidedly not in that same vein but of political suspense. As noted in the Author’s Note, this book is based on a real horror story: government-funded violence against civilians and protestors. As an American, we are shielded from the terrorist acts that the U.S. government funded in other countries, especially in the “war against Communism”. This novel highlights exactly what dynamics are in play during such a high-tension moment in Mexico political history. People killing each other, running away, espionage, the like. The way that one of the protagonists, Maite, spent her whole time before the events of the novel willfully oblivious to the politics and the dangers of the world, yet was dragged in anyway. A wonderful metaphor to how no matter how much you don’t read the news or engage with dangerous characters, you are affected by politics and the dangerous games they play with civilian lives.

This book is wonderful and has unique, memorable characters. I only wish there was more to Elvis as Maite is much more flushed out. All in all, I highly recommend this book if you would like a small course in Mexican history.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the chance to read and enjoy this historical noir (not thriller in the words of the author herself). Velvet was the Night from Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a love letter to those looking for exactly what Ms Moreno-Garcia promises: a noir book set in the recent past (1970s, Mexico City). As have many other readers and reviewers, I read and loved her gothic thriller Mexican Gothic and though this book is very different, it is also similar in reflecting a writer who can create a mood and strong characters. If you think about what the title conveys, Velvet is the Night, you get the sense of the noir, the simmering/steaminess of a time or turmoil mingling with secret lives and that sense of exploration and intrigue that can be a part of mystery and complex secretive lives.

I do like noir when it is done well and though slow (to me noir is slow, the goal is not to thrill or generate suspense) the goal is to explore a story and characters and setting with an intentional mood and intentional writing, this book does that well). The plot weaves in with the setting and the characters of Maite, Lenora, and Elvis. Maite gets involved in her neighbor Lenora's life via cat sitting (I love that quirk) and Lenora disappears, Maite decides to search and then she finds her life intermingling with Elvis, who is supposed to be quashing uprising and protests in Mexico City and is tasked to find Lenora as well. The story is more about these characters, their motivations, and less about the plot and readers who appreciate this type of story and writing will enjoy Maite and Elvis and this book.

I am excited when I can enjoy multiple different books and styles from an author, I appreciate an author who can intentionally play with themes, mood, characters, story, and style. This book won't be for those looking for something similar to Mexican Gothic but I think that is what I ended up liking about this book. I requested to review it because of my appreciate for Mexican Gothic but ended up with a book different from that and that was actually for the better as now I see an author who has a lot of to offer readers. I look forward to next books from Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Oh how I hate to say this, but this book was a letdown for me. It was a highly anticipated book for me since I have read and enjoyed a few other books written by the author.
I was interested in how the author would incorporate the 1970s student protests and political unrest in Mexico City. I had watched Break It All: The History of Rock in Latin America on Netflix and it mentioned this time period and some music that came out during it. So in that regard, I had a little background information. I will say that I was a little confused with all these groups fighting each other and it took me a while to figure out who was who and affiliated to which group. Once I did that, it was clear to me which characters I could not trust. On the plus side, I did enjoy Elvis' and Maite's references to music. It brought a little something special to the story.
As for Maite, I really disliked her (she's probably in the top 10 female characters that I dislike). She was a secretary who was unhappy with her life and resistant to changing it. Instead she envisioned herself as the lead in her comic romance series she read or she imagined what was next for those characters. Her character never grew and was honestly annoying.
Elvis had a better storyline, but I still wasn't interested in him. Not too much to tell about him other than that he was a lonely man who wanted to be loved by someone/anyone.
I pushed through to finish this book several times in hopes that it would get better. It didn't. Nothing really happens until you've reached 90% of the book and then what you've been expecting to happen is unrealistic and rushed. The ending left me unsatisfied and conflicted with what I wanted to happen to both characters.
While this review may not be a positive one, I look forward to the next book from this author because I've enjoyed a few of her other books.
Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Velvet Was the Night. Wow. Just wow. This is a historical noir that truly has you invested in our main characters’ lives. You’re introduced to two main people, Emilio and Maite, both who are desperate to find the missing Leonora. Except both of them have completely different goals. Maite doesn’t want to watch the dang cat anymore and get her pet-sitting check, while Emilio has been tasked with the job by his boss. All throughout this book, you’re invested in the mystery of the missing woman, all while learning about the political unrest occurring in Mexico during the 1970s. Not only is the storyline interesting, but Moreno-Garcia hits you with so much historical accuracy that you actually end up learning so much about things you didn’t necessarily know a lot about before. Definitely check out her author’s note at the end of the book for a little more insight on that. Needless to say, it’s a 5/5 stars from me.

What I loved:
- dual perspectives from characters that I absolutely adored. Not only that, but the characters were truly balanced with each other and were a solid contrast to the side characters
- Maite is really relatable. Like she is just your plain average woman. She doesn’t overly trust the new events in her life, but she’s curious. She’s insecure and self deprecating. She’s just living the normal life of someone who goes to work and reads her books and chills by herself. I could see myself in her shoes… maybe that just says something about me though lol
- everything about Mexico’s history that was mentioned. I cannot give SMG enough credit for the actual cultural and historical knowledge she provides in her books
- sometimes the end of a mystery falls flat for me at the end, but this one was wrapped u[ in a nice little bow f-r us. I was really happy with it.

What I didn’t love as much:
- this is more of a me thing, but the beginning was a little info dumpy, and I definitely felt like I should have kept a notepad to write down key things. There are so many political organizations and abbreviations and I was getting so confused. I still cannot fully tell you what the DFS is, but I get it for the most part (I think)
- Emilio as a character is A+. Maite’s desire for him is just so annoying though.
- nothing else, I loved the whole book regardless of the two small things I mentioned above

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing - Ballantine for sending me and advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Velvet Was the Night comes out August 17, 2021. Be sure to grab a copy of this amazing author’s new book!

The reviews & notes from the author that call this a historical noir are absolutely correct -- it is very different from her usual fantasy, though the characters & world they live in are every bit as intriguing. Like others of her books I've read, it starts strong, gets a little slowish in between, and then wraps up nicely. I definitely identified with Maite and her daydreaming, even if at times she wasn't the most likeable character. I still want to know if anything happens between her & the other protagonist, a street gang member that goes by Elvis, at the end. It was nice that the book included notes about the historical accuracy of the book, and the US's anti-communism efforts in Mexico, the damage of which is still not (and will never be) known. Aside from the character development, one of my favorite things about this title is that it comes with its own Spotify playlist of songs mentioned throughout the book, which also really helps to create the setting (and also introduced me to some lovely 70's Latino musicians).

I was a huge fan of SMG’s Mexican Gothic so I was very excited to receive the ARC for Velvet Was The Night. A slow burn, this noir thriller is definitely one that “simmers” and revolves around Mexico’s history in the 1970s and old rock & roll. Since those two aren’t something I’m entirely familiar with, it was an engaging learning experience but it didn’t feel *as* enticing to me as MG had. Still, I’d recommend for historical fiction, music, & noir lovers.

Velvet Was the Night from Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine

I had a startling moment of coincidence-bound solidarity when I started reading this and our second protagonist, Maite, is introduced: She is 29, on the cusp of her 30th birthday and working as a secretary at a law firm, “not built for change,” and wondering what she’s with her life…and do you know what? That is exactly me, from the job, to the age, to the staying in one place for five years just to avoid doing something new, and it was like the words reached through the page and said “Hey what are you doing with your life?” Luckily, we then get into a little more of her personality and I was like okay, so it isn’t about someone *exactly* like me, but still it was a brief moment of disconcerting parallel.

I actually struggled a bit with rating this book. It is the first book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia that I have read, and I have been hearing so many good things about her work that I was anxious to get started. I think perhaps I would have done better to start with one of her SF books, as all of the recommendations I have received focused on her work in that genre and this book appears to be a sharp departure from those works—although Maite’s daydreams often have a rather gothic tinge to them. This story is historical noir, and it is far more character driven than it is plot driven – if you are following along for the plot, I think you will come away with the almost static sense that the stakes are so low that nothing can change; it is set against a backdrop of roiling political turmoil and activism and instead focuses on a handful of people on the fringes of the action. Things are happening, but the focus of this story isn’t following any of the moving parts. If you are following along for the characters, you’ll get a much more satisfying arc, with a particularly deep dive into the lives and motivations of Elvis and Maite – though you may come away not particularly fond of either of them, you <i>will</i> know them both quite well by the end. The writing is stellar, even if the genre might throw you.

One thing I really liked about this book was the way it incorporated music, Spanish covers of popular English songs, and particularly moments when the text discussed the ways that the Mexican government was acting to suppress rock music as communist propaganda. The author’s even provides a playlist that incorporates all of the songs referenced in the book, with I listened to in the background while I read. It really led to a more immersive reading experience and I was thrilled with the experience. You can listen on to the author’s playlist on Spotify at: randomhousebooks.com/VelvetWasTheNightPlaylist

As a total side note, when Maite decides to get involved in a potentially deadly mess of commie activists, paramilitary groups and the secret police her rationale was absolutely hilarious; she thinks of all her own problems and all the potential new problems this could give her and decide that those can be problems for her future self, after all, “Beside, she hadn’t been on an outing in so long.” Look, this may be set in 1970s Mexico City, but that sentiment right there is also hard-core Covid Quarantine <i>MOOD</i>.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and SMG for allowing me to read & review this ARC before pub date.

This is actually my first novel by this author and won’t be my last. I was expecting it to be a thriller, but still really enjoyed this one. I loved the setting and atmosphere that this story had. I did want a little more from the characters and the storyline however. But all in all, I liked it and will definitely be reading more by her.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a master of mood. When we read a noir by her, it's like settling into her world. It is languid and sultry. The plot of this book was different from the other few novels I have read by her. Instead of having a horror twist, this was much more historical and political. At the heart of the story we have a mystery and the characters are all twisted within a great thread.
I enjoyed this book and I will recommend it to others!
Thank you Netgalley for allowing me a chance to read this ARC.

*special thanks to Del Rey and NetGalley for the ARC copy in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 stars
I want to start off by saying that I will read anything that SMG writes.

This is a slower paced mystery noir novel that takes you back in time.
SMG said that this is not a thriller, and I agree. The stakes don’t feel high, and it isn’t overly suspenseful.

I loved the time period and the atmosphere this book created.

I wasn’t able to connect with this story as much as I’ve connected with her other ones. I wanted more from the characters. I wanted them to do more, be more. They were all very interesting, but I didn’t feel we got to know them enough. And I wish they were connected throughout the novel more.

I do appreciate how she can write in so many different genres. Keeps us readers on our toes. She is, and will always be a talented author, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia has done it again.

I’ve read and reviewed several of Moreno-Garcia’s novels, but I think this one might be my new favorite? It is vastly different from her other works and is definitely a slow burn, but I promise it is worth it. I absolutely LOVED the atmospheric undertones surrounding this plot. And the way Moreno-Garcia builds 1970s Mexico City is *chefs kiss*

In many ways, Velvet is the Night is also a timely reflection on the current state of our own world? Loneliness and corruption are major themes throughout this book. Given the current state of our world, in which government corruption, disease, and isolation abound, this novel seems particularly timely. I really related to the sense of isolation that our two main characters experience throughout the novel

One thing I want to be clear on: this book does not have any science fiction or fantasy elements. It is a historical noir. Do not go into this expecting something with the supernatural elements of Mexican Gothic, Gods of Jade and Shadow, or the Beautiful Ones. It is disappointing to see so many poor reviews complaining that this novel lacks the fantasy elements contained in the author’s prior work.

All in all, this book is fantastic. Definitely will be buying myself a physical copy when it is released.

For me, Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia ranked in the middle. It took me a while to get into it, but once I did, it was excellent. I enjoyed it. Although it takes some time to get into the narrative and lore, this was an enjoyable read. I found it to be intriguing and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time.

A Review of “Velvet Was the Night” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Full Disclosure I was provided a NetGalley copy of this book, however, have voluntarily chosen to write a review. All opinions are my own.

Velvet Was the Night is scheduled for an August 17, 2021 release

When dreams and reality collide

Maite Jaramillo is a mousy woman living vicariously through the heroines in her romance periodicals. A bit of a “Walter Mitty” type, she has been known to spin tales of romance and intrigue to the other women in her secretary pool at work. When Maite finds herself approached by her neighbor Leonora to watch her cat for the weekend, she sees this as an opportunity to peek into the life of the beautiful and mysterious art student. But when the days, turn into weeks Maite joins with Leonora’s colleagues to find her before it’s too late. For the woman that once only dreamed of a life of action and mystery, she now finds herself deeply involved with radicals, dodging hitmen and Russians in a race to find Leonora before the bad guys do.

Set in the summer of 1971, Mexico City is undergoing a time of unrest; where radical students stage protests and government-funded teams of strong-armed thugs seek to quash their spirit in addition to any media presence. Elvis is one of those thugs. As part of El Mago’s “Hawks” Elvis and his counterparts are tasked to locate and retrieve a potentially volatile series of photos from the young art student Leonora. But with the team engaging in a series of stakeouts that all bring them back to following the nondescript secretary, Elvis cannot help but wonder how this person fits into the big picture or why he feels so drawn to her.

“Velvet Was the Night” is the first book I have read by author Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Being a fan of the noir genre, I figured I would give it a try, however, not being familiar with her style of writing, it took me quite a long time to really start to get interested and invested in the characters. That is not to say that this was a bad story at all, but rather a ‘slow burn’ of a narrative that I started reading in the car line after school while waiting to pick up my daughter and finished by sitting up into the late hours of the evening to see what would happen next.
Maite’s character, on the surface, seemed shallow but as the story progresses she realizes that she is a better person than the box her overbearing mother has placed her into. Elvis, on the other hand, while technically one of the “bad guys” was still probably one of my favorite characters. It was interesting to watch his transformation from a “star-struck” street thug learning a new word daily in an effort to rise to the level of his mentor El Mago, to a person who has faced some hard shocking truths but has come out the other end stronger for it. How these two ever were even in the same orbit so to speak is an entirely different story which Moreno-Garcia has done well to weave. If you are a fan of crime fiction, historical fiction, noir, or gritty action novels I would recommend Velvet Was the Night.

This is not one of the suspenseful gothic novels that this author has become so renown for - it’s pure historical/crime noir. And I’m in the minority here because this book just didn’t click for me.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of my favorite authors and I went into this book expecting to find the same type of fast-paced, mysterious and suspenseful plot that features the same type of unconventional characters and impeccable settings that grace the pages of her other novels. While the incredible writing, unique characters, and flawlessly-presented setting and time period were all present in ‘Velvet was the Night,’ it was a slow-paced book that took a long time to unfurl. I’ve tried and tried to get into the noir genre, but I think I’m going to have to chalk it up as something that’s just not for me.

I'm going to be in the minority who didn't particularly enjoy this novel (but I rounded up). Velvet Was the Night ultimately didn't meet most of the expectations that I had for it. I expected intrigue and mystery, mixed with some quirky characters, and a fast-paced story. However, aside from the characters having some quirks I felt pretty let down. The pacing was a lot slower than I thought it was going to be and the two main characters didn't come together early enough to keep my interest. I kept hoping that they would come together and join their investigations in the next chapter, because I honestly thought they would be fun together, but it just didn't work out that way.

Overall, I would recommend this for fans of slower-paced books, Cold War espionage vibes, naive characters, and historical noir novels (though I would personally be hard pressed to name another one). I look forward to reading another novel by Silvia Moreno-Garcia in the future, but ultimately this one just didn't work so well for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Del Rey for providing me with an eARC of this novel. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

This particular story took me a little while to get into truly only because of the pacing, but once the story picks up it has no intention of stopping. I love this author and how she has the talent to transport you into a different setting and in this case, a different time completely. The imagery and interludes of music in the story are magical. Pick it up and read if you are looking for something different and intriguing.

*Thanks to NetGalley for access to this ARC*