A HELLO SUNSHINE x REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK“A beautiful novel that’s full of forbidden passions, family secrets and a lot of courage and sacrifice.”—Reese WitherspoonAfter the death of her beloved grandmother, a Cuban-American woman travels to Havana, where she discovers the roots of her identity—and unearths a family secret hidden since the revolution…Havana, 1958. The daughter of a … revolution…
Havana, 1958. The daughter of a sugar baron, nineteen-year-old Elisa Perez is part of Cuba’s high society, where she is largely sheltered from the country’s growing political unrest—until she embarks on a clandestine affair with a passionate revolutionary…
Miami, 2017. Freelance writer Marisol Ferrera grew up hearing romantic stories of Cuba from her late grandmother Elisa, who was forced to flee with her family during the revolution. Elisa’s last wish was for Marisol to scatter her ashes in the country of her birth.
Arriving in Havana, Marisol comes face-to-face with the contrast of Cuba’s tropical, timeless beauty and its perilous political climate. When more family history comes to light and Marisol finds herself attracted to a man with secrets of his own, she’ll need the lessons of her grandmother’s past to help her understand the true meaning of courage.
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Interesting Historical Fiction.
My husband was a refuge from Cuba. The story varified the many stories of his earlier life in Cuba. .a good read !
Read it in a day
I was surprised by how engaging this was.
The story went back and forth in time, following first Marisol, the granddaughter of a wealthy Cuban refugee who fled from Cuba right after Batista was ousted and Castro took over, and her grandmother Elisa in real time as that was happening. It wasn’t a frame story, though, as each protagonist had her own plot line and character arc, though the two mirrored each other closely.
Elisa, the debutante daughter of a sugar plantation owner, falls in love with a revolutionary fighting to oust Batista. At this point I rather expected that the story would be pro-communist (or at least pro-socialist) propaganda, but it was far more complex than that, and I thought it did justice to the real history very well. Neither Batista’s nor Castro’s regime was blameless, but Pablo, her lover, did not realize what he was ushering in in Bastista’s stead. Meanwhile, Marisol returns to modern day Cuba after Castro’s death, when Cuba is just about to open up to Americans, ostensibly as a travel writer, but also to scatter her grandmother’s ashes. What she finds there is her heritage, secrets her grandmother kept from her all her life, and a romance with her own revolutionary, Luis–ironically on the opposite side from the one Pablo fought to empower, though the two had very similar ideals.
The tension between Marisol and Luis was a bit annoying and redundant, honestly, but I loved the parallel aspects of the two women’s stories, and the political atmospheres in which they unfolded. Particularly because it was told without an obvious agenda. The story did a good job of showing the complexities of both sides.
My rating: ****
Political content: present but complex; no overt propaganda
Sexual content: present, but just in two back-to-back scenes you could skip, and fairly tastefully done
Language: I think there was some but I didn’t register much of it
Violence: present given the subject matter, but not gratuitous
The story of a family living the atrocities of the political environment in Cuba, this was a great book and the story permeates between two generations grandmother and grandaughter.
Eliza’s story was heartbreaking, I love how bold she was even if that didn’t show and had to pretend otherwise, living in Cuba during those years was hard on a woman specially if you had money and a reputation to maintain, her parents already had a suitor for her, arranged marriages were common at that time, but Eliza was not ready to commit with someone whom she didn’t love, finding herself trapped between what her parents wanted and her own desires.
Marisol, I love her characters so much, for me, she somehow represented what her grandmother could achieve, including being with the man she loves, she was strong like Eliza but I feel like even more, she wanted to find more about her family’s past and in the meantime, she didn’t count that life was going to bring her more than stories or memories.. at some point, I felt like Eliza’s story was merging now with Marisol after so many years.
I enjoy so much this book, the characters, the romances, the drama, and all the ups and downs of the Perez family life during those terrible times, I feel like they deserved more, they really were good people living and fighting so many battles.
I’m happy that Marisol was able to meet with some of the most important characters of the story, that she was able to find somehow a closure or hope in this crazy world, but mostly I’m happy that the author gave us the love, the passion, and these characters needed after so much pain in their lives.
Fantastic
Really enjoyed it. Can’t wait to grab the next one in the series. Loved learning about the history of Cuba.
An excellent love story set in the last days of the Baptista regime’s rule over Cuba as the past love story that intertwines with the current times and the granddaughter. I would have liked more about the Cuban history, but absolutely enjoyed the emotional pulls this author got from me.
This book was beautifully written. A wonderful love story written around an important moment in history that gives us a glimpse into the Cuban culture for those who left their homeland and those who stayed.
I’ll be reading the rest of the series.
Loved the story and setting and history of Cuba and revolution
I liked it,because I was raised in Miami and it had echos of that and the people I knew!
This book was very engrossing. The detailed Cuban history had me Googling for more history. There was so much I didn’t know. I gave it four stars because, while there was resolution and somewhat of a HEA at the end, I was still left wanting more. I wanted to know more about Marisol’s family both in Havana and in Florida. I want to know if Marisol is satisfied with her choices. I’m hoping that Beatriz’ story will answer some of those questions. I would also love to see more books featuring the Perez family. Overall, this book is worth the read. I highly recommend it.
Lot of historical information about Cuba and what it’s citizens lived through, or not.
I loved this book. Such an interesting setting and I really enjoyed finding out about Cuba, and I loved the way the two stories were interwoven.
I learned quite a bit about Cuba and it’s tragic history in a way that was also entertaining
This is a wonderful novel of both history and romance; intrigue and family secrets. The characters are well developed and believable. For anyone interested in the history of Cuba and how it intersects with the United States this is an informative story. It’s also a story of relationship, but romantic and familial. It’s a touching and compelling book.
Such an amazing novel with realistic characters! If you like history mixed with originality novels this is the book for you! A little predictable at times but overall a fantastic read!
Beautifully-written book about life in Cuba before, during, and after Fidel Castro. I highly recommend it.
Really good read!!
Not as good as When We Left Cuba, but sort of a follow-up novel on going back to Cuba after many years away—or being born in US, but still considered Cuban. The romance angle was obvious. The ending a little unlikely.