Julie's Review: The Beautiful Strangers

Author: Camille Di Maio
Series: None
Publication Date: March 5, 2019
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Pages: 304
Obtained: Great Thoughts, Great Readers Book Salon
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: A wonderful story about finding your place in the world and finding your place in your family
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Summary: 1958. Kate Morgan, tethered to her family’s failing San Francisco restaurant, is looking for an escape. She gets her chance by honoring a cryptic plea from her grandfather: find the beautiful stranger. The search takes her to Hotel del Coronado, the beachfront landmark on the Southern California coast where filming is underway on the movie Some Like It Hot. For a movie lover like Kate, it’s a fantasy come true. So is the offer of a position at the glamorous hotel. And a new romance is making her heart beat just as fast. But as sure as she is that Coronado is her future, Kate discovers it’s also where the ghosts of the past have come to stay. Sixty years ago a guest died tragically, and she still haunts the hotel’s halls. ~amazon.com

Review: As a kid we stayed at the Hotel Del Coronado and I remember loving it. Of course the rich history of it alluded me then but if I were to go back I would want to know more about it. Ms. Di Maio does that with this book. She gives you some history of the hotel, the ghost and the making of a classic Hollywood film. In it though lies a family’s history that is about to be unraveled.

Kate leaves her life in San Francisco working in the family restaurant to pretty much go on a wild goose chase based on her ailing Grandfather's wish. This leads her to the Hotel Del Coronado looking for a job since that's where he told her to go. He had even circled the opening for a job since they needed extra workers due to a movie being filmed there. Luckily she lands the job and even more lucky that she gets to serve Ms. Monroe her morning tray and in a way they befriend each other. 

Kate is a dreamer and so is her granddad. They spent time together by going to the movies, where Kate develop a passion for them. So working on a movie set is a dream come true with peeks behind the curtain. Kate is a wonderful and endearing character that will have you rooting for her the whole novel. How Kate's family history is tied to the Coronado is what makes this story really hum. Any time Old Hollywood is involved I'm hooked because it's such a fascinating time in movie making and the shift in our culture. 

This is a novel that will hook you from the first few pages and won’t let you go until you read the final two words. I highly recommend. 

Julie's Review: Before the Rains Fall

Author: Camille Di Maio
Series: None
Publication Date: May 16, 2017
Publisher: Lake Union
Pages: 334
Obtained: Get Red PR
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction, Historical Fiction
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: A story of sacrifice, family, and forgiveness
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Summary: After serving seventy years in prison for the murder of her sister, Eula, Della Lee has finally returned home to the Texas town of Puerto Pesar. She’s free from confinement—and ready to tell her secrets before it’s too late. She finds a willing audience in journalist Mick Anders, who is reeling after his suspension from a Boston newspaper and in town, reluctantly, to investigate a mysterious portrait of Eula that reportedly sheds tears. He crosses paths with Dr. Paloma Vega, who’s visiting Puerto Pesar with her own mission: to take care of her ailing grandmother and to rescue her rebellious younger sister before something terrible happens. Paloma and Mick have their reasons to be in the hot, parched border town whose name translates as “Port of Regret.” But they don’t anticipate how their lives will be changed forever. Moving and engrossing, this dual story alternates between Della’s dark ordeals of the 1940s and Paloma and Mick’s present-day search for answers―about roots, family, love, and what is truly important in life. ~amazon.com  

Review: My first question before jumping into Before the Rain Falls was how does anyone actually serve 70 years in prison?! Seriously?! How can you even function? What is left for you on the outside? Will you even know how to function?These are all the issues Della Lee is facing as she returns to her home town to live out her days and to tell her truth about what really happened that fateful afternoon with her sister, Eula.

Mick is in Puerto Pesar to chase a story about the crying portrait of Eula Lee because he's basically in a scandal back home and his editor needs him to be scarce. Paloma is back in Puerto Pesar because her grandmother had a heart attack and needs to be cared for. She's torn about being home and also about starting her job in New York. She dreads being back but she's also pulled there as well. There is something about going home that leaves one with mixed feelings.

I loved how Ms. Di Maio told Della's story in flashbacks and also in telling her story to Mick. Mick realizes that the story isn't about if the portrait of Eula Lee but it is what Della has to say that needs to be told. As Della's story is revealed it isn't too hard to see what happened but why Della did it is ingrained in culture and religion.

Ms. Di Maio does a fantastic job of describing Puerto Pesar and the culture of a small town. In some of the scenes you feel that you are right there having mango margaritas and sopapilas with Mick and Paloma. I loved Paloma's relationship with her Grandmother; they really loved and cared for each other.

While this was my first time reading Ms. Di Maio, I will be going back to read The Memory of Us and I look forward to what she writes in the future. 



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