Wikipedia:The Pope's Mistress

The Pope's Mistress is the first novel of the Pope's Mistress trilogy, written by Cuban/Mexican-American author, Laylah Aragón. It was first published in 2019 and it became a #1 Amazon New Release and a Kindle bestseller within two weeks of its publishing. It was written by Aragón in less than four weeks for 2019's National Book Writing Month. A present-day autobiographical re-telling of true historical incidents with a modern twist, Aragón weaves together history, philosophy and current events into one intricate narrative that is filled with plot twists. It has been described as "an exploration of the nature of the human mind and spirit in the face of unanticipated challenges and untold power."

Summary
A contemporary twist on real historical events, The Pope's Mistress is a thought-provoking story that is as much philosophy and history as it is drama and mystery. It opens with Laylah sitting alone in what she describes as her office in an unknown location, thinking about how she is going to tell Marquis the story of how she knew Giovanni. Marquis then comes in with her breakfast and is shocked by her sudden decision to tell him the story he's been asking her about for six years. Gloria hesitantly joins them, sitting next to Marquis after an unsuccessful attempt to get Marquis out of the room, and Laylah begins to tell a story that is set six years prior. She tells it as if she's in it to avoid giving any information obtained by hindsight.

Laylah's telling of the story begins with her arriving at a sex club in West Hollywood, CA during the last night of a business trip. She begins to flirt with a nameless bartender until she is approached by Marco, who she befriends, along with his good friends, fraternal twin brothers Vicente and Antonio, and his husband, Jiego. She ends up staying the night at Marco's apartment, where she meets his "roommate", who is introduced as Adriana but who she recognizes as Milan, the mentor of her ex-girlfriend. Milan begins to press Laylah about her views on religion, and catholicism specifically, when Laylah starts to get uncomfortable. An aggravated philosophical conversation ensues, until they all three head to Laylah's hotel and then to the airport for her flight, during which Marco reveals that he believes his father to be the Pope, Milan gets frustrated, and Laylah thinks they are both crazy.

They arrive at the airport and Laylah gets on the plane, as she is working on a very important speech that is to be given the next morning, when she looks up and sees Marco getting on the plane. She panics and runs to the bathroom just to return to find Marco sitting in the seat next to hers. He manages to convince her that he is not a threat and that he just wants to talk, to which she reacts by sitting back in her seat but then bursting into tears. They do not talk to each other for nearly the entire flight, while Laylah finishes the speech she's writing and they then agree to go to dinner to talk about it. At dinner, Marco tells her about his childhood, about his father and about his need for her to help him with a crisis that they are all in which remains vague. They then get an Uber to Laylah's apartment and Marco tells her that she has to read the book Ishmael by Daniel Quinn before they can discuss it further. She gets frustrated and he proceeds to explicate an analogy about boiling frogs, which Laylah relates to deeply but the subject of Marco's apparent job offer remains completely vague.

The next morning, Laylah goes to work and the speech that she wrote the day before, delivered by her CEO boss, is a complete success. She then goes to lunch with Marco and he gives her a copy of Ishmael by Daniel Quinn that he just bought for her. Laylah reads it, they stay up all night discussing it, and they then get on a flight back to Los Angeles. Laylah sleeps during the entire flight, while Marco does not go to sleep until they get back to his apartment. Then Jiego and his brother come by while Marco is sleeping and Laylah leaves to back to the club to find her bartender crush. He isn't there but she ends up befriending a different unnamed bartender and her girlfriend, and leaves the club with them, not getting back to Marco's apartment until 3am. The next morning Laylah is telling Marco about how she made a few friends and Marco gets nervous about what she told them, then making her sign a non-disclosure agreement related to all of her interactions with him, with Adriana, with the Pope, and with all of their families and anywhere they travel to. Laylah signs it without hesitation but still feels some uncertainty.

Laylah and Marco then fly to Vatican City and strategize on the flight. Laylah asks Marco during the flight if she can have one day to herself when they get there. He says yes but he didn't know that she was going to get on a train to Paris to meet up with the unnamed couple that she met at the club the night before, so he is furious when she gets back. Laylah gets upset at his reaction and is confused by it but proceeds to get ready for the day. Marco comes back a few hours later with a picnic basket full of food and a large bag of Catholic books and magazines. They study and categorize all of the material for hours until Marco gets a phone call that makes him drop everything. He then tells Laylah to stay inside and bolt lock the door, and then rushes out. Hours after that, having not heard anything and knowing that Marco was going to be leaving soon, Laylah decides to go to his room to check on him and see what is going on. As soon as she leaves, she realizes that there was someone watching her room and watching her as she made her way towards Marco's room. She gets to Marco's room and finds Adriana there, disguised as a nun, who warns her that she has to be very careful, before her and Marco leave the hotel and Laylah goes back to her room.

When she gets to her room, Laylah sees a man standing in front of her door dressed in a Cardinal's uniform, who she believes is the same man who was watching her earlier. He tells her that she is not welcome, they have an exchange of words and he leaves. When Laylah enters her room, she finds that the room has been cleaned, all of her belongings have been packed, and someone has left a large slab of rare steak on her table. She is mortified, trying to figure out what is going on and what she did to upset someone so much that they would do this, until she falls asleep. The next morning, she gets in a cab with a friendly driver and has a pleasant ride to the airport that starts to make her feel better. Then she gets on the flight and lands at JFK in New York City, where it is still morning. She walks off the plane to find everyone in the gate waiting area with their eyes fixed on the screen watching a news reporter talking about a man who was found stabbed with his throat slit in the East River. They then reveal his identity as Giovanni De Luca, a resident of West Hollywood, CA. Laylah quickly realizes that this is her bartender and she panics, thinking os this as a clear sign that someone is coming after her and people close to her. She then runs outside, throws her phone in the trash, gets in a cab and checks herself into the place that she has been ever since.

Marquis and Gloria are in disbelief as Laylah finishes telling her story, and Laylah asserts her need for protection now that she has told it, which Gloria confirms. The next evening, Laylah tells Marquis that she is moving back to her apartment and Marquis is ecstatic. Laylah then decides to walk around before going, as she is waiting for a ride, and comes across a tv in the lobby just as a picture of her face pops up in the corner of the screen. She rushes to turn up the volume so she can hear it. It is then revealed that Laylah was actually a suspect in Giovanni's murder, along with his wife, Maria De Luca, that Laylah is in fact in a psychiatric facility, and that her story told to Marquis and Gloria resulted in Marquis, her psychiatrist giving his approval for her to be released from the facility. It is also revealed that Maria De Luca had her parole hearing the same day and has now also been released, as well as that both women had been pregnant at the time that they were institutionalized.

Main Characters
• Laylah Aragon - a Cuban-American executive speechwriter from Los Angeles who lived in New York City working for a famous CEO and traveling frequently, until the brutal murder of a man she was pursuing romantically resulted in her becoming a recluse for six years.

• Marco De Luca - an Italian/Argentinian gay man who befriends Laylah at a sex club in Los Angeles and then seeks to hire her for a mysterious position advising his father, who he claims is the Pope.

• Adriana (Milan) - a private tutor of famous and wealthy children who took in Marco at a young age, and who also happened to be the mentor of Laylah's ex-girlfriend when she was a teenager.

• Marquis Brown - Laylah's confidant who she adores and who carefully crafts her story for. He is later revealed to be Laylah's psychiatrist who gives her approval to leave the psychiatric facility that she had checked herself into.

• Gloria Hernandez - the woman who is also present during Laylah's telling of the story to Marquis, later revealed to be a security guard at the psychiatric facility.

• Giovanni De Luca - the subject of Laylah's story, later revealed to be the club bartender she was flirting with who was then brutally murdered.

Style
Laylah Aragón's style in The Pope's Mistress is contemporary. She employs novel techniques such as the use of italics to indicate dialogue in a memory versus spoken dialogue.

Described as:

"full of intrigue, drama and suspense"

"thought-provoking subject matter"

"compelling storyline"

"riveting" and "historic"

"unexpected plot twists"

"highly relevant topics"

"sticks with you long after you finish reading"

"astonishing" and "enthralling"

"contemporary themes"

"empowering and inspirational"

Said to be good for fans of:

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente

When Fox Is A Thousand by Larissa Lai

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Known for:

Strong female protagonist

Diverse characters

Fresh modern perspective

Multifaceted story

Witty and clever tone

Engaging storytelling

Multicultural themes

Topics
Climate change

Global warming

Culture

Multicultural perspectives

Cultural revolution

Deep ecology

Sexual freedom

Feminism

Religion

Humanism

Toxic masculinity

Agnosticism

Atheism

Veganism

LGBTQ

Latinx diversity