An email entry that really touched my heart and my musings on it!

Next Year In Havana

You guys, this book, the first in a series is a hit! The Cuban Revolution is in the midst of ruining lives and causing havoc on people's ideologies. One thing that is held on to for the Perez Family is that they will be returning to Havana when Fidel is overthrown which could be any day...

Isabelle, Beatriz, Elisa, and Maria Perez are sisters who take different actions between Batista and Castro's power. Some do what their mother expects, marry rich influential men, others fall in love with revolutionaries and some just keep secrets of their experiences in times of terror and uncertainty.

Getting to know these girls was a delight even when you wanted to shake them and tell them to grow-up, or get smart. Elisa's story is in the foreground and her life changes the minute that she meets a strong, dark professor at the university her brother has attended. No longer a naive young girl, Elisa's story interchanges with her granddaughter, Marisol's desire to fulfill her grandmother's request to be buried in Cuba in a place that is a treasure hunt of her grandmother's heart and story of her youth.

The slight familiar path of Marisol's romance and Elisa's romance is endearing and yet, so different. The surprises in this book are unforeseeable and I love that about this book.

I have read all three in the series thus far and though this book is well written and the characters full of depth and people you could become friends with, this is not my favorite of the three books, this book comes close though, although it is my second favorite of the Perez girls storylines. My favorite being the last of the three thus far: The Last Train to Key West.

I understand why Reese Witherspoon picked this book as one of her Hello Sunshine Book Club picks in 2018. It was meant to be read and relished.

When We Left Cuba

I have now reread all three of Ms. Cleeton's book about the Perez women. My favorite is her last- The Last Train to Key West, however, Beatriz is by far my favorite Perez Woman. She was independently fierce. She knew what she didn't want in life which is what her mother only wanted for her: motherhood and to be a wife to an influential man. Did she fall in love with an influential man, yes, she did. Did he realize the rest of her mother's only desire for her girls? Nope, not at all. She had other plans. Things that created her to grow, stretch, and sometimes fall down.

This book, Next Year in Havana is full of romance, historical fiction, and some badass action through espionage.

Ms. Cleeton's writing is strong, her research in the history full of depth, and I highly recommend reading this book! Of course, start with Next Year in Havana!

The Last Train To Key West

Publisher’s Summary“

"one person’s paradise can be another’s prison, and Key West-native Helen Berner yearns to escape.

The Cuban Revolution of 1933 left Mirta Perez’s family in a precarious position. After an arranged wedding in Havana, Mirta arrives in the Keys on her honeymoon. While she can’t deny the growing attraction to the stranger she’s married, her new husband’s illicit business interests may threaten not only her relationship, but her life.Elizabeth Preston’s trip from New York to Key West is a chance to save her once-wealthy family from their troubles as a result of the Wall Street crash. Her quest takes her to the camps occupied by veterans of the Great War and pairs her with an unlikely ally on a treacherous hunt of his own.”

Key West the Southernmost Point in the United States. It was the end of the earth for those who needed to escape to and/or from where you could cross the ocean 90 miles and arrive in Cuba. For those who wanted to disappear, and just live the simple life no matter if it was into a bottle, a boat or to a chair on the beach where you could sit all day and die there if you really wanted to. Key West was perfect you could arrive by the train on the newly laid tracks of Henry Flagler railroads, or his “Flagler Folly” as some called it, however, it had a enemy; that lady of beauty, the lady of warmth and sunshine, the lady of temper –– Mother Nature…

My Review

Key West is one of my children’s favorite stomping grounds when we lived in Florida. They were amazed at the street vendors, bums, and street acts on Mallory Square. They loved dipping their toes into the warm Florida Straits, building castles and body statues in the white sands, visiting the six-toed cats at author Ernest Hemingway’s Florida estate, and eating to their hearts delight at every imaginable food option in town. That is the experience we had. That is not the experience in Chanel Cleeton’s new book, The Last Train to Key West. Ms. Cleeton’s novel is a side of Key West that most don’t want to know. The stories of three women and their different experiences of the island life. Experiences that will change their lives forever. There is love, heartache, horror, and humor.

I have read all of Ms. Cleeton’s novels. The Last Train to Key West might be my favorite thus far. It could be because I could picture the environment surrounding Mirta, Helen, and Elizabeth's stories. I don’t think though that it was important to enjoy this book by knowing all of that mostly because the book is full of deep imagery and fantastic storytelling. The kind that you can feel in your bones. You gasp, grasp, and gag on the swirling watery apparent paradise.

I loved the Intersectionality of this book. I bet it was so fun to build Mirta, Helen and Elizabeth’s stories and then see where they could happenstance-ingly meet each other. That writing fun is felt in the book in the pure emotions that each encounter provides. Each woman has her personality challenges, each woman finds her strength and realizes that the life she has been living is minuscule compared to what it is when this novel ends. I love reading novels where there is growth through introspective, physical change and walking to your own true decisions.

I will not give away the story, I don’t believe in ruining that for other readers. I will say though that this book had me dreaming of Florida, and going back to Key West and still there were times I would rather look out my office window at my Conch Shells sitting in my breezy garden as I am now while I write this review. 😉