great story, interesting history ( )

This was a book I’ve been meaning to read for several years so was especially excited to find it in a Little Free Library. And I just discovered it is the first of five!

After reading this historical romance based on the 1950s Cuban revolution and its aftermath, a new-to-me time period, I do recommend it, with one caveat. The first 100 pages or so have a lot of Cuban history and politics and can feel like a bit of a slog, but it does pick up after that and is ultimately a romance. For that reason I rate it 3.5, rounded up to a 4.

This dual timeline story features Elisa in 1938 and her granddaughter Marisol in 2017 with both women falling in love with revolutionaries. It was a little predictable, or maybe I just wasn’t in the mood. The political unrest was portrayed with danger, secrets, intrigue, sacrifice – who to trust?

Bestselling author Chanel Cleeton was inspired by her own family’s history to create this family saga and love story against the background of Cuba’s political unrest (a sanitized term to describe the cruel dictatorship, guerrilla rebellion, revolutionaries, and political exiles). This is ultimately a memorable story of struggles, courage, and hope. ( )

This is one of those books that is written so vividly it's easy to fall right into. I loved every description and the care with which Cuba's difficult and complicated history was written - it made me want to learn more and to question what I thought I knew. The love stories - while a bit idyllic were heart wrenching, and even though there was some slight suspension of reality (I don't know anyone who would fall in love with someone in less than two days in a foreign country), I somehow didn't mind it.

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Next Year in Havana was the first book Chanel Cleeton authored. I picked it up from Audible because I really liked The Last Train to Key West, and I was eager for another book in the same vein. This novel introduces the Perez family (various members of the family are characters in other of Cleeton’s books), specifically Elisa, a privileged young woman caught up in the Cuban Revolution of 1958. The dual timeline novel also features Elisa’s granddaughter Marisol, who is tasked with returning to Cuba after Fidel Castro’s death and surreptitiously spreading her grandmother’s ashes. Cleeton does an excellent job of bringing Cuba past and present to life. She presents various sides of the revolution, sympathetic to those who fled into exile and those who chose to stay. The communist regime is not viewed favorably — all the injustices are exposed. While the politics of the times are the backdrop, the human element is what kept me turning the pages. There is love, loss, and a hope for a future. I liked both time periods equally, causing me to keep listening to find out what was going to happen to each of the main characters. There are some twists that I found very satisfying. Please note that this a general market offering — there are some adult situations. Specific to the audiobook: two narrators lend their voices allowing for Alissa and Marisol to shine through.

Bottom line, I liked this book and would not hesitate to pick up another by Cleeton.

Recommended.

Audience: adults.

(I purchased the audiobook through Audible. All opinions expressed are mine alone.) ( )

This exploration of what it means to be Cuban, both for people who stayed and for expats, juxtaposes a late-1950s and present-day storyline. There were two characters who were used to simply state the facts of Cuba's political history and current situation. I enjoyed learning more about Cuba, but it might have been more interesting to be shown rather than told. I didn't find the romances compelling or realistic. ( )