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A review by mstall_
The Last Secret of Lily Adams by Sara Blaydes
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
The Last Secret of Lily Adams is a dual perspective story about a rising hollywood actress Lily Adams and her granddughter Caroyln. Carolyn and her daughter, Em, are getting Lily's affairs in order after her passing in present day. Carolyn and Em's relationship is tense at best since the divorce between Carolyn and her husband a few months prior. Carolyn is hoping the trip from Seattle to LA will provide good boding time with Em. As they are navigating clearing out Lily's things, they stumble upon evidence that Lily knew a starlet named Stella Lane who was brutally murdered. Intrigued, they set off down a journey of discovery to unearth just how close Lily and Stella were.
Over seventy years in the past we get Lily's narrative. She is an up and coming actress who is enamored with the golden age of film. She begins to delve deeper and deeper into the underbelly of Hollywood and finds out too late that it is not all glitz and glam. An unlikely friendship with a co-star, the famous Stella Lane, may be the most dangerous experience yet.
I was drawn to The Last Secret of Lily Adams because the description boasted old hollywood glamour, murder and mystery however I am left wanting by the book as a whole. The pacing in the book was off to me - some parts of the story seemed to drag and then other parts that felt important flew by. I wanted a bit more around Jack and Lily and less about Carolyn and Em. The dialogue in the book also felt disingenuous, particularly the dialogue during the flashbacks in the 1940s and 50s. It felt like the author was trying to write through an old timey trans-atlantic voice but couldn't sustain it so the dialouge just felt odd. For example, there were a lot of lines like "I'm still the greatest goddamn actress the wold has ever seen" which just felt extremely cringe. The ending also was way too fast and the twists/reactions were at time really confusing.
Overall I am rating this book a 3/5 stars. I want to thank NetGalley for their advanced reader's copy for an honest review.
Over seventy years in the past we get Lily's narrative. She is an up and coming actress who is enamored with the golden age of film. She begins to delve deeper and deeper into the underbelly of Hollywood and finds out too late that it is not all glitz and glam. An unlikely friendship with a co-star, the famous Stella Lane, may be the most dangerous experience yet.
I was drawn to The Last Secret of Lily Adams because the description boasted old hollywood glamour, murder and mystery however I am left wanting by the book as a whole. The pacing in the book was off to me - some parts of the story seemed to drag and then other parts that felt important flew by. I wanted a bit more around Jack and Lily and less about Carolyn and Em. The dialogue in the book also felt disingenuous, particularly the dialogue during the flashbacks in the 1940s and 50s. It felt like the author was trying to write through an old timey trans-atlantic voice but couldn't sustain it so the dialouge just felt odd. For example, there were a lot of lines like "I'm still the greatest goddamn actress the wold has ever seen" which just felt extremely cringe. The ending also was way too fast and the twists/reactions were at time really confusing.
Overall I am rating this book a 3/5 stars. I want to thank NetGalley for their advanced reader's copy for an honest review.