bookswithlydscl's Reviews (639)

Silvia Moreno-Garcia was a 2023 new author discovery for me and as I rapidly plough through her repertoire I'm finding time and again that she delivers the goods and The Seventh Veil of Salome is no different.

The ever eclectic crosser of genres, this time SMG has settled on historical fiction, giving us the glamourous and not-quite so glamourous world of Old Hollywood. Set in the 1950s at the height of the Hays code and the Red Scare, Salome is a warts and all love letter to filmmaking, the film world and its bit players. But of course it's so much more than that. Amongst the points of view of our three main characters -Vera, Nancy and Salome, we get romance, jealousy, revenge, the desire to grow up and not be under the shadow of family, commentary on a woman's place in Hollywood, commentary on what it is to be a person of colour especially during that era. 

I found it to be just a gorgeous piece of writing overall. It was powerful, vivid and fluid, bringing the characters, setting and story to life. The story of Salome playing out at the same time as Vera and Nancy's stories showed us, as readers, that nothing truly changes. Whether in Bibilical times, the 1950s or now the struggles, challenges and fears of womanhood are still essentially the same and all three of our leads have so many connections and similarities despite all being so vastly different.

The story builds slowly and I loved the interspersing of reflections and think pieces by bit characters throughout that helps move the story along and rounds out the thoughts and actions of Vera, Nancy and Salome. You know it's all building to something as you're reading but it's never quite clear what direction the inevitable tragedy will take, even knowing the ending of the Salome story you muse throughout about what shape it could take in our 1950s storyline.

The ending, when we got there, just got straight to my heart. It was bittersweet and left a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach with a sense of loss and yearning for more and yearning for a different outcome whilst also perfectly bringing all strands of the story together.

It was no surprise to me that I absolutely loved this book, especially as I am an eclectic reader and flit between genres so Moreno-Garcia's varying use of genres in her works absolutely suits me and she hit the spot with this historical fiction entry in her canon. It was enchanting with a cleverly woven story that gives you so much more than just being about the making of a film and I can see myself coming back to it repeatedly in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books | Arcadia for a digital review copy of "The Seventh Veil of Salome" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

A great introduction to the trilogy/series. Slow paced for the most part and very character focused. The world is built effectively and has definitely left me wanting to read on.

Fitz is a wonderful lead character and I Loved The Fool and Burrich.

Strong sense of setting, real potential but not particularly memorable.

All the hallmarks of CJ Tudor were already apparent in this debut - dark, horror adjacent thriller, unreliable narrator and plenty of secrets and twists. Really enjoyed and the audiobook was great too.

Didn't enjoy this one nearly as much as others from Kate Morton.

Overall, despite the gorgeous writing as always, it just didn't click for me - too many characters, the historical fiction elements weren't as compelling as normal, and the ending felt anticlimactic. I even felt bored during the middle sections, which felt like they dragged. Will still continue working through her back catalogue as not every book will be a winner. 

Enjoyed this but not wowed with this opening book of the trilogy. Wish we'd had more time in the Red world. The test was interesting but was too long and dragged for me. Will proceed with book 2 to see how things develop.

Spicy, LGBTQIA+ M|M retelling of Treasure Island. Didn't quite work for me but a well written, adventurous and exhilarating tale with a couple of extremely spicy scenes. 

Welcome to France, Kitty Underhay! Finally our intrepid investigator/hotelier has made it abroad and, under the guise of holidaying, will be sampling the delights of Nice with Matt whilst they wait to collect some politically sensitive papers from British agent Federico Benedetto aka Fred Bennet.

Unfortunately instead of collecting the papers they stumble over his body in a dark alley in the wrong part of town which leads to a lot of questions, no answers and the need for a bit of sleuthing to work out who can be trusted to then solve the case and save the day by finding the documents.

Kitty and Matt can always be trusted to dig deep and investigate thoroughly and I really enjoyed the espionage aspect to this particular story. Overall  it was a really enjoyable addition to the series and I liked the new elements added. Taking the Bryant's to a new locale, out of their comfort zone and isolated from their support network worked really well and building up to the breakout of WW2 gave it a new dimension with lots of potential for future stories. 

We still have plenty glitz and glamour which I love but to have such a monumental period of world history shaping events makes for a really interesting dynamic and I'm interested in how the series will develop with that in mind.

For me this series is a fun, reliable and comfort read. I love the characters, I love the situations they get into and how the mystery unravels - in this case with an action packed conclusion that brought everything together in a really satisfying way. At Book 16 Helena Dixon shows no signs of slowing down in pace or quality and I, as always, look forward to the next instalment!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for a digital review copy of "Murder on the French Riviera" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.