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A review by burghbooksandbrews
The Woman in the Castello by Kelsey James
3.0
Have you ever had the experience while reading of “if I hadn’t read xxx book, I would probably like this one a lot more?” That was kind of my experience with this book as it is the second book I have read this year that involves the movie industry and Nazis and possible paranormal activities. Obviously I am biased in my love of Silvia Moreno-Garcia, but Silver Nitrate just worked so much better for me personally.
This book follows the filming of an Italian horror movie centering on our main character, an up-and-coming actress trying to make a name for herself and support her mother and daughter. I went into this book expecting more of a historically based thriller, and while there were elements of that, a lot of this ended up being more of a family drama as our main character, Silvia, meets her mother’s estranged sister, Gabriela, and ends up filming the movie in her castle and learning her family has a lot of secrets. There isn’t anything wrong with this, but it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for when I picked this one up.
My biggest issue is with the main character. She has a period in the book where she just becomes so unlikeable that I found it hard to care about her after the fact. This includes trying to guilt the guy she has been sleeping with to just be immediately okay with the fact that she has a daughter she didn’t tell him about and tries to make him the bad guy for needing time to process that. And then soon after that, she lashes out at her friend, Lucrezia (one of the characters I really liked), insinuating that she is shallow and untrustworthy for how she lives her life. I found it hard to connect with this character after this because she spent the book being so worried about how people would react to finding out she had a daughter out of wedlock but then didn’t give anyone else the same grace that she wanted.
I did love the setting of this book and really wish there had been more about the castle and the possible hauntings there as well as more about the film itself. Those parts of the story I found really interesting and engaging.
This book follows the filming of an Italian horror movie centering on our main character, an up-and-coming actress trying to make a name for herself and support her mother and daughter. I went into this book expecting more of a historically based thriller, and while there were elements of that, a lot of this ended up being more of a family drama as our main character, Silvia, meets her mother’s estranged sister, Gabriela, and ends up filming the movie in her castle and learning her family has a lot of secrets. There isn’t anything wrong with this, but it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for when I picked this one up.
My biggest issue is with the main character. She has a period in the book where she just becomes so unlikeable that I found it hard to care about her after the fact. This includes trying to guilt the guy she has been sleeping with to just be immediately okay with the fact that she has a daughter she didn’t tell him about and tries to make him the bad guy for needing time to process that. And then soon after that, she lashes out at her friend, Lucrezia (one of the characters I really liked), insinuating that she is shallow and untrustworthy for how she lives her life. I found it hard to connect with this character after this because she spent the book being so worried about how people would react to finding out she had a daughter out of wedlock but then didn’t give anyone else the same grace that she wanted.
I did love the setting of this book and really wish there had been more about the castle and the possible hauntings there as well as more about the film itself. Those parts of the story I found really interesting and engaging.