Read: Tell Me Something True by Leila Cobo
I won this book as part of the Hispanic Heritage Month giveaway on Bookfoolery and Babble. I’d never heard of Tell Me Something True prior to the giveaway and to be honest, it’s not really my usual type of read.
Gabriella, 21, lives in Los Angeles but makes a yearly trip to Cali, Columbia, to visit her grandmother. On this trip, she falls for the mysterious Angel Silva, a drug dealer’s son, and discovers a diary that her late mother Helena had written to her. The narration moves between Gabriella and Helena (via her diary) as Gabriella learns the truth of her mother’s time in Columbia and the affair she had before she died.
This was only an ok read for me. It was quick, easy but didn’t quite hit the spot for me. What surprised me was the lack of involvement of music in this story. Although we are told that Gabriella is a pianist and Angel a concert promoter, there seems to be little passion for music. It was told but not shown to the reader in all its colour and vibrance. Which is a pity as Cobo is a key figure in latin music today.
This might be a bit of a spoiler but the book ends with a rather compelling and dramatic finish and I must say that I’m glad that Cobo didn’t go the Hollywood route and clean it up all bright and shiny.
Verdict: Unfortunately, this was quite a ho-hum review for a pretty average read.
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