Diego Boneta’s debut novel, The Undoing of Alejandro Velasco, is a stylish and suspenseful thriller that blends the opulence of a Mexican business dynasty with the intrigue of a murder mystery. Set in the picturesque town of San Miguel de Allende, the story follows Julian Villareal, a charismatic stranger who arrives at the Velasco estate following the sudden death of his friend and tennis rival, Alejandro. As Julian delves deeper into the family's secrets, he becomes entangled in a web of ambition, betrayal, and desire, particularly with Sofia, Alejandro’s enigmatic sister.
Overall, The Undoing of Alejandro Velasco is a compelling debut that showcases Boneta's storytelling prowess, offering a fresh perspective on Mexican culture and a captivating journey into the heart of a family's darkest secrets.

Thanks to Amazon Crossing and NetGalley for an ARC of The Undoing of Alejandro Velasco in exchange for an honest review.

I was really drawn to this book but it’s brilliant cover and also that Diego Boneta had written a book doubly excited me. Unfortunately it really didn’t hold my attention in the way I had hoped.

Nice twists throughout - struggled with having not a single likeable character (could be a me problem)

I thought the synopsis of this book sounded really interesting, not to mention the creepy cover, but it was not for me. I kept waiting to get sucked in and it just never happened. Thanks so much to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review - it's out now!

Diego Boneta’s debut novel, “The Undoing of Alejandro Velasco”, which published on May 1, 2025, ambitiously attempts to peel back the layers of a powerful Mexican dynasty, but ultimately falls short of delivering a compelling or cohesive narrative. The story centers on the Velasco family and the secrets that bind—and unravel—them, yet the mystery at the heart of the novel feels unconvincing and, at times, implausible.

One of the book’s most prominent motifs is tennis, which appears throughout the narrative, seemingly intended to serve as a thematic thread. Unfortunately, it feels more like a distraction than an asset, lacking the finesse or narrative weight to justify its repeated presence.

The characters themselves don’t offer much redemption. Few, if any, come across as fully realized individuals. Most are one-dimensional and difficult to connect with, which makes the stakes of the central mystery feel all the more remote. It’s also disappointing that the story overlooks an opportunity to meaningfully explore the role of women within the family. The women, often laboring behind the scenes, are largely sidelined, while the men remain firmly in control—a dynamic that’s acknowledged but never meaningfully explored.

In the end, The Undoing of Alejandro Velasco has the makings of an intriguing family drama, but it stumbles in execution. With more nuanced character development and a sharper thematic focus, especially around gender and power, this debut could have delivered a more resonant story. As it stands, it’s a promising premise that doesn’t quite live up to its potential.

A special thank you to @netgalley and @amazonpublishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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I’ll admit, what first caught my attention was seeing that Diego Boneta had written a novel. As someone who grew up watching his work, I was so curious to see this new creative side of him and I’m happy to say, the book did not disappoint.

The story follows Julian, who leaves UCLA after learning that his best friend, Alejandro, has reportedly died by suicide. But Julian isn’t convinced. Something about it doesn’t feel right and he’s determined to find out the truth.

What he doesn’t expect is to uncover the dark, twisted secrets hiding behind Alejandro’s wealthy and powerful family in San Miguel de Allende. Beneath their glamorous image lies a web of secrets, lies, and danger. Their obsession with appearances, power, and legacy pulls Julian into a web of lies, while he tries to keep his own secrets buried.

This book had me hooked from the start. I loved how so many characters weren’t who they seemed to be and the way everything slowly unraveled. And that plot twist at the end? I genuinely didn’t see it coming.

If you’re looking for an easy-to-read, binge-worthy thriller, that has a setting that feels fresh and cinematic, this is it. Diego Boneta gives us a glimpse of a darker, more complex Mexico we rarely get to see in fiction and I loved every second of it.

Life among the very wealthy often involves mistrust, questioned loyalty, intentional deceit, and misdirection. Alejandro’s death is kept quiet by the family to avoid appearing vulnerable. Julian, his best friend, believes it was murder and integrates himself into the Velasco compound to uncover the truth. The novel is written with cliffhangers at the end of each chapter. The first 70% of the book sets up the twists and turns revealed in the final chapters.

There were some fun moments, particularly the utterly insane climax, but I found myself mostly bored by Boneta's debut. It was too back-loaded, with hardly any intrigue or interest or event plot development happening until the halfway point, and by then, it felt kind of like whiplash with twist after twist after twist.

By the time the novel reached its end, it felt like just another telenolva, a soapy, tropey, silly romantic thriller.

Boneta's debut novel follows a man - Julian, who unexpectedly arrives at the Velasco house after their son Alejandro's undoing. Set on getting answers to the reason for his close friend's undoing, he gets caught up in the Velasco's wealthy lifestyle, the tennis courts, and Alejandro's sister Sofia allure while harboring grave secrets of his own.
This was a really interesting, fast-paced thriller with really good and shocking twists. The main characters felt well fleshed out, mostly because we got to be in their mind as they made key decisions. We knew their motives, anxieties and feelings and worked through their own deadly secrets. It was also really atmospheric, I felt like I was in Mexico too, playing tennis in the heat. It was also a good family study of wealthy families in Mexico, the relations between the members of that class, the power of wealth and status. The writing style was also enjoyable, quick witted, the jokes landed and fit the tone of the plot and the voice of characters well.
I think, though, that the romance was out of place here and took a lot of the plot and space that I wish was dedicated to the who-dunnit that we were on. I wanted to see more theories before the reveal about how Alejandro was done, evidence that would drive some suspicion in Julian, Instead, the narrative, much like Julian, wandered away from searching for the truth and got veered into the wealth and intrigue of the Velascos. And while I enjoyed weaving the Velasco web, I wish more time was spent on the search, the suspecting and getting crucial evidence before the last 10%.
Overall, it was a really gripping thriller and family saga with deadly secrets, and what the wealthy would do for power, status and family name.

The Undoing of Alejandro Velasco, by first-time author Diego Boneta, is a delightful surprise. What interested me most was the intense character development of each player in this novel. The reader understands why the rich are different. This opens a plethora of problems instigated by the family patriarch, a well-to-do Mexican American businessperson. Distrust, unpredictability, and subtle twists pervade the entire novel, making the reader hesitant to put down the book. This is a novel that takes a few pages to capture the interest of the reader. Still, I highly recommend it as a character study and mystery, especially considering today’s instantaneous and hubris-filled materialistic lifestyle that spreads like cancer.

I found this book very compelling from the mysterious title through to the largely unlikeable characters, but when has unlikeability meant that people don’t want to continue to watch/read/listen to someone?

The book initially gave me Talented Mr Ripley vibes but as it continued it turned into a tremendously lyrical world of it own.

I look forward to more titles by this author

This read like a Mexican telenovela, and I loved it! I'm thrilled this is going to be a limited series. The dark academia and allure of the Velasco family drew me in. The twists and turns of the story kept me captivated, and the tension between Julian and Sofia was delicious!

Thank you, Amazon Publishing, for the ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 stars rounded up.

This was very well written! I think this would be a fun movie. Lots of rich people, looking over shoulders and scandal.

Alejandro haunted the narrative and I love characters like that. He was the most interesting to me even thought he wasn’t ever in it.

Julián and Sofia were such interesting characters! They were very headstrong and knew where to poke at people’s weaknesses. Their dynamic was so seductive and filled with tension. You could really feel that on the page.

All the characters seemed to know how to play the game and they all played really well off each other.

I loved how much Julián protected Alejandro. You could really tell how much he loved him when he wouldn’t let anyone talk poorly of him. I would have loved to see more flashbacks into their friendship.

One thing I did NOT like in this book was the bull fighting scene. It was short, but it made me very uncomfortable. No, it’s not just life when they died like Sofia thought. You’re killing an animal for human entertainment. That made me very upset. I had to skim over that part because I didn’t want to read about it. Thought I should mention it if someone doesn’t want to read that part either.

There were a couple of twists in there that were pretty good! Some of them some people probably could guess, but the story was good enough that I don’t really think that was a problem.

Even though this was a short book which I appreciated, it did start to drag at the end for me. Not that it was written poorly or boring, I just thought at a certain point the story was almost done, but it went on for a while after, and I mainly didn’t care what was going on.

I thought Julián and Sofia were perfect for each other, but I wasn’t very invested in their relationship. I was eating up the tension between them before they got together, but once things started happening between them I lost interest. It was more exciting when they were sneaking around or trying not be together. Maybe too because I mainly cared to know what happened to Alejandro, and their moments took away from that.

I wish the book focused a little more on him. As I said he definitely haunted the narrative which I appreciated, but a lot of the story got away from Julián trying to find out what happened to Alejandro and more so trying to navigate how to get by without getting people suspicious while also focusing more on Sofia, which that aspect I didn’t care as much about.

The business side of the story was important, but it kind of bored me. It ended up tying together really well, but there were a lot of parts I didn’t care to read because most of it went over my head because I’m not a big business person.

I can’t say exactly why without getting into spoilers, but I wish it didn’t have an epilogue and ended where it did before that, but again that’s probably just a me issue. It almost set it up where there could be another book, which I don’t hate, especially because I don’t think there will be one, but I liked more of the open ending that the chapter before it left on. I thought it made it more a complete story and tied better to the title of the book.

Since I had a couple of issues with it, I bumped it down to four stars, but I would still recommend reading this! The writing style was very captivating and it was a compelling story, enough to make on you edge and eager to find out what’s all happening!

A wealthy man ends his life, or was it murder? I enjoyed this book and thought the premise was very interesting. I loved that the author would end the chapters with a cliff hanger, I feel like I haven’t read a book that does that in a while! With that being said, this book was very easy to get through because I had to know what would happen next. I would definitely recommend!

When I started this book, the first thing we learned was that a young, handsome man has traveled to Mexico after the death of his best friend. I could smell the lies and intrigue. I knew pretty quickly things were not as they seemed. Everyone has secrets and the wealthy seem to be able to get away with just about anything. But Julian has arrived in San Marco and the estate of Alejandro’s wealthy family, to try and solve the mystery of what happened.

Everyone seems a bit guilty and fingers can be pointed at anyone. Even Julian, himself, may not be everything he claims to be. Julian is also drawn to Sofia, who is Alejandro’s sister and the romantic sparks are intense between the two as they battle it out in tennis and in even more intimate situations.

There’s quite a bit to uncover in this novel and I was swiftly sucked in. It’s not action packed but the mystery and questions behind nearly everyone’s actions will have you questioning everyone’s motives. It’s an enjoyable read and though I don’t speak Spanish fluently, I think my high school exposure helped me translate some of the phrases that are thrown in. I do think I may try one of the drinks mentioned, it sounded quite good.

soooo many thoughts! first off, finding out this was written by drew from the rock of ages movie slash spencer's tennis love interest from pretty little liars was crazy. multitalented king!! truly kind of in awe of all he can do, especially because the writing flow and style was one of the best parts of this book, which brings me to my second point. the multilingual writing was a first for me, and it was done so incredibly well. no word for word translations were ever really given, but it all made sense in the context. to be fair i speak portuguese and could just understand a lot of the words, but even if i didn't, i feel like i never would have been confused or had to look anything up. it was realistic and well done, as someone who also speaks two languages. the plot was pretty predictable in an hbo suspense mystery way, but that didn't mean that i didn't have a ball. it kept me engaged and wanting to see where the story would go - the most predictable things were mostly the tropes being used. it seems he already has a deal with amazon to make it a show lmao and it's definitely gonna be a great miniseries. only thing is i'm not sure how they're gonna pull off the big plot twist (which i didn't see coming!) because i feel like it explicitly worked because of the writing and not being able to see faces lol but i will be sat and watching!!

Thanks to Amazon Crossing and NetGalley for an ARC of The Undoing of Alejandro Velasco in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3/5

I had high hopes for this book, drawn in by its promise of drama and the potential of a murder mystery. However, I found that the pacing did not hold my interest as much as I had hoped. While it may not have resonated with me, I can see how it might appeal to other readers who enjoy a slower pace read.

Written mostly in English but lots of appropriate Español. Alejandro Velasco was murdered before the beginning of the book and the man who knew him/found the body (Julian Villareal) presents himself to the home of Alejandro's wealthy influential parents. Now the intrigue and backstabbing begin and shortly thereafter a romance emergences between Julian and Sofia Velasco. The characters have real depth, the mystery has some fascinating twists, and overall, I liked it a lot.
I requested and received a temporary uncorrected digital galley from Amazon Crossing courtesy of NetGalley.
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This is Diego's debut novel and it was a good read!

Not the best I've ever read, but it was still good as a debut! I would definitely read something else by him.

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for the opportunity to review this debut novel!

The Undoing of Alejandro Velasco is Diego Boneta’s debut novel and it was not quite what I was expecting. Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for the chance to read this via gifted eARC. All thoughts are my own and honest.

I had really been looking forward to reading this when I requested it and I went into it fully expecting to love it. However, this was nothing spectacular or jaw-dropping. It was just fine. That’s it, honestly.

I’m still recommending this one though. I think there’s definitely an audience for this book out there who will love this more than me.

I know the summary says it, but there was too much of a romance subplot/aspect for me. I hate love. Sorry. I like the other stuff, though.