I was really looking forward to this book and I'm so disappointed I found it a real struggle to get through! We are following a bunch of different characters in LA during the 1940s and seeing how they come from all different backgrounds - in particular we are following Maria, who emigrated from Mussolini's Italy as a child and is now an enemy alien in the land she calls her new home. Working with Mercury Pictures, Maria has established herself as a dominant force while haunted by the father she left behind in a prison camp.

I loved the sound of this book and honestly movie land during WW2 isn't something I've read about it before and I was looking forward to discovering more and being in immersed in a world full of glamour, excitement as well as tension and fear. This is all certainly there but I found the story was very slow to get going, it jumped back and forth too much and because we are following so many different characters, I found myself losing track of where we were in timeline and story at times. Unfortunately this just wasn't one for me.