#BookReview :: All That Glitters by Liza Treviño

Alexandria Moreno—clever, sexy, ambitious and, at times, self-destructive. She blazes a path from Texas to Los Angeles at the dawn of the 1980s to make her dreams of becoming an A-list Hollywood film director come true. She and her best friend arrive in Los Angeles with little more than hope and the determination to make it big. Alex, a beauty as dark and mysterious as her scarred heart, stands at the bottom of the Hollywood mountain looking up, fighting for her chance to climb to the top. Will her quest to live fast and take no prisoners on her way to success destroy her in the end?

All That Glitters is a women’s fiction Jackie Collins-type saga that introduces a strong, driven Latina heroine at the center of a rags-to-riches story spanning a decade of action. Along the way, Alexandria walks the fine line separating ambition and self-destruction, and discovers that some sacrifices will cost her everything.

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I was excited to read this book because for us outsiders, the real life of a Hollywood star seems like glamourous and scandalous at the same time. What would it be like in fiction?

“All That Glitters” is the story of Alexandria ‘Alex’ Moreno who arrives at Los Angeles with the big American dream of becoming a top Director in Hollywood. But life in Hollywood isn’t easy and Alex finds that out pretty quick. As the title suggests, she gets entangled in a life of Sex, Drugs, and glamorous lifestyles. But will she be able to fight her battles to emerge on top? Or will she be just another casualty of the complexities of the business?

With Alex, what catches your attention first is the fact that she has big dreams; and she has the zeal to follow it through even in the toughest of times. Her path isn’t easy but she shows strength of character for most part of the book. But there are times when she makes you wonder if she is finally broken or just doing what she needs to do in order to reach her goals. The other characters in the book do not really shine much and it maybe intentional on the author’s part in order to make Alex stand out more. They are just there as people who Alex meets on her way, but it feels like that they are all in the shadows while Alex is standing in the spotlight. The plot of the book is as promised in the blurb. It doesn’t disappoint, but neither does it surprise the readers. The author’s narrative though works provocatively throughout the book and is perhaps one of the best attributes of the book. The language and narrative welcomes its readers to a comfortable world.


Overall, it was quite entertaining though I would have liked the book better if it had a few more strong characters in order to pitch Alex against and compare their strengths in order to prove how strong a character she really is.