Mercury Pictures Presents

I was super excited about this one. The synopsis drew me in, the cover is gorgeous, the setting is fantastic, the premise is promising... but I found myself utterly bored and impatient to finish.

The book mainly follows Maria's story, an Italian immigrant who moved to America with her mother. At the start of World War II, she is working for Mercury Pictures. This was a turbulent time for Hollywood for a lot of immigrants given the stigma against people coming from countries aligned with the Axis powers. As the war carries on, Maria and the others have to navigate the changes that come with wartime as well as figures from Maria's past.

I loved the concept of all of this, but it fell flat for me. There were too many characters. I couldn't name half of them from memory if I tried. The plot was chaotic, or I should say plots. This felt like two different books. There were some funny lines, so I'll compliment the witty writing (actually, it was well-written altogether). Still, I'm not really sure what the full picture of the book was. There were too many jumps and not enough character development.