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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Provides a look into a country a generation knows little about.
Couldn’t finish this. Couldn’t even get past the first two chapters.
It was a double romance and a bit predictable. I didn’t dislike it but didn’t love it either. The best part was the descriptive writing which painted a great picture of Cuba past and present. I also appreciated the insight into the social/political struggles Cubans face today.
Love reading about other cultures. The trials, the triumphs, the family dynamics. Understanding the passions of the people and the useless traits that are no longer working.
Gloria Squitiro: A first lady of Kanas City and author of May Cause Drowsiness and Blurred Vision: The Side Effects of Bravery—YOU, Too! can OVERCOME ANXIETY and live a bigger more carefree life—Become a New and Better You!
#YayWomenWriters
The book takes turns between being a history text and a romance novel. Both stories are engaging, but it isn’t quite satisfying as either one!l
Oh my, it is impossible to give this book the proper review it deserves. I can’t summarize it in a way that shows you just how wonderful this book was to read, you just have to read it yourself. Next Year in Havana is a beautiful, heart wrenching tale that brings Cuba and its inhabitants, and exiles, to life. It’s one of the best Historical Fictions I have read in a very long time, with incredible, descriptive writing and a story that pulled so much emotion from me. I found myself entranced, enjoying the opulence of upper-class life with Elisa Perez as Chanel Cleeton took us back in time to 1959 and the magical, but increasingly dangerous streets of Havana. Told from the dual perspectives of Elisa in the past and her great-granddaughter, Marisol, in the present, readers get to visit the city frozen in time. It’s about love, passion, history, freedom, and patriotism.
“I can’t do this. I can’t leave. I can’t stay.”
Elisa and Marisol’s time in Cuba mirror one anothers, with Marisol learning far more about the woman she called grandmother while on the streets she once roamed. I really appreciated how similar Elisa and Marisol were, yet their differences were distinct and profound when you consider the locations and politics that each grew up in. They each are strong, stubborn women who yearn for knowledge and adventure that their families do not understand. Marisol’s knowledge of Cuba is from romantic stories of the past, an impossible dream that reality could never live up to, and so similar to the viewpoint that many young Americans still have. Her view is changed as she sees Cuba as it is today, crumbling, but still sparkling and strong. Elisa’s view is from the viewpoint of a woman on the cusp of true adulthood, her place in the world not meant for politics and social injustice, but her love of a passionate, educated man challenges that.
“These are the stories of my childhood come to life, the spirit of my grandmother, my family, our legacy, everywhere i turn.”
Chanel Cleeton details the pre-revolution change and present day regime with extensive detail, bringing emotion and personal feelings into a story we only know from the pages of history books. Both secondary male characters, Pablo and Luis, open up the main character’s eyes, their quiet insubordination and challenge of the power exerted on them shaking up the comfort each has had in their unenlightened lives. There is so much grace in how Elisa and Marisol accept the difficulties presented to them, with Elisa embracing the struggles of exile and Marisol adopting the same courage many Cubans do with seeking and sharing the realities and truths of life in Cuba. Then there’s the many secondary characters, beginning with Ana and growing increasingly more interesting with each interaction with the people of Elisa’s past, like Magda, and the new people in Marisol’s present, like Luis, Cristina, and even her great-aunt Beatriz. Each shares their view on Cuba as it was and is today, their stories shaping Marisol and bringing her even closer to her grandmother and to the country that feels like home.
“It’s raucous and beautiful, and more than anything, I want to belong here, want this city to become a part of me.”
Next Year in Havana was such a powerful story for me, with Cuba coming to life with Chanel Cleeton’s imagery and the detail given to the injustices of life there so evocative. The novel came across as very authentic, with two equally important plots, the romance of the characters and the romance between the country and its people. I was so overcome with emotion, I cried at times that weren’t truly sad moments in the story, but rather tugged at my heart as I pictured Cuba and its resilient people. It took this book from a historical romance to a literary masterpiece, the pages filled with culture and people devoted to a country that has let it down.
“ ‘Next Year in Havana. It’s the toast we never stop saying, because the dream of it never comes true.’ ”
Next Year in Havana is a romantic, hopeful story with well-developed characters whose adventures parallel one another in past and present Cuba. I really fell in love with this novel and have so much compassion for the characters. It’s a thoughtful novel, poignant and very relevant to the times. Historical Fiction fans will fall in love with Next Year in Havana and Chanel Cleeton’s lyrical prose. You’ll find yourself wandering the streets of Havana, admiring the vintage cars and the bright colors, and you won’t regret a moment spent living in this book. If you’re a sentimental girl like me, grab a pack of tissues for when you start your journey.
I enjoyed the basic story. The characters were likable. What I didn’t enjoy was the endless politicizing about the Castro regime.
This is a good book to read in learning more about Cuban culture.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book with its backdrop of Cuban history. It’s amazing how the youthful zeal in revolutions for a better life to overthrow a dictatorship ended up being replaced by a “new dictatorship”…so sad! I thought the author did a great job with the historical perspectives and the descriptions of the life of those at the time and what ultimately happened to them.
Beautiful writing. A real, honest look at Cuba. Entertaining but also really interesting from an historical perspective.
Modern day Cuban-American journalist and Coral Gables, Florida resident Marisol Ferrera promises her recently deceased grandmother, Elisa, that after her death Marisol will scatter her grandmother’s ashes at a place that she believes to be her grandmother’s most heart-felt location in her beloved homeland, Havana, Cuba. Marisol embarks on a journey of discovery as she uncovers secrets about her family, especially her grandmother, the history of revolution in Cuba, and the heart-breaking conditions under which the Cuban people live.
Marisol now views Cuban history through the eyes of her Cuban relatives and her handsome, educated lover who live in fear for their safety and well-being. As Batista is driven from power in the 1950s, revolutionary Fidel Castro is believed by many to be the antidote to the poisonous rule of the previous dictator. Pretending to be what he is not, Fidel Castro curries favor with segments of the Cuban population and the American government in order to attain his goal of absolute power as he quickly imposes the doctrines of communism on his hapless people, utilizing death squads, imprisonment, and torture to squash all criticism. Instead of restoring Cuba to the 1940 Constitution as originally promised, Castro imposes the Fundamental Laws.
Marisol witnesses the emotionally charged tug of war between those who stayed and those who left which continues to this day. Marisol’s heart breaks as she sees the conditions under which her relatives are living. Poverty, near starvation, food rationing, forbidden religious observance, and inequality of currency conversions and educational opportunities plague Cuba. Marisol learns to act covertly to offer aid to her family who are not able to trust government, media, neighbors, friends and even other family members. Marisol vows to return to Cuba the following year to continue to do whatever she can to change the plight of her relatives and those who stayed.
No story set in Cuba could exist without flowery romantic language, descriptions appealing to the five senses, stirring music, a heroic love interest, false imprisonment, violent arrests, the rebuilding of family ties, and an understanding of social injustice that prevails on this island located 90 miles off Key West, Florida.
Many of the Cubans who left “the island that can break your heart” moved to Miami, Florida where most have prospered in their adopted country. As is often the case, the wealthier have the means to leave while the poorer do not.
Readers will hear the urgent request to help encourage Cuba to institute social and governmental changes so those who left may freely return to family and lives left behind, and those who stay may have an improved quality of life affording them basic dignity in their struggle for food, education, and political choices. American embargoes have only served to hurt the populace as the corrupt government officials are not negatively impacted.
After the death of Fidel Castro, his brother, Raul, took over the running of the government while continuing Fidel’s policies. Cuba needs help.
The story is poignant, but repetitious of facts, descriptions, and conversations. Marisol frequently asks herself a barrage of questions but whole paragraphs of internal musings would better be presented as statements. These techniques decrease, thankfully, in the second half of the book.
The author, Chanel Cleeton, lives in the US and has a BA in International Relations, and MS in Global Politics, and a JD from the University of South Carolina School of Law. Ms. Cleeton devotes her education and her life to improving social justice.
Wonderful story and great historical fiction. I did not know much about Cuba’s history , but now have a different view of Castro and the US’s involvement in Cuba’s past and likely her future. A must read.
I fell in love with Havana and it’s tragic history. As I have started my next book my heart remains with these characters and story. Next year in Havana!
The best thing was knowledge about the story of Cuba and Castrol (w/a good story)
Loved it!
This book gives the reader insights into the history of Cuba. Chanel Cleeton writes with feeling about the violence, family conflict and fear that finally forced families to flee from their homes.
“Next Year in Havana” is one of Chanel Cleeton’s books about the “Perez” family who is forced to flee Cuba during the revolution despite their prominence as a well to do family whose fortune is in sugar.
Torn between what they want and what is safe – caught in the middle are the daughters. Batista is feared, but the revolution that is to come is to be much worse.
This is the story of Elisa and her granddaughter Marisol.
With the death of Fidel Castro, relations between Cuba and the United Stated have thawed out – to a point. Marisol is now charged with scattering her grandmother’s ashes in Elisa’s beloved Cuba.
When Marisol arrives, she thinks she is “home”. But, she is soon conflicted – the Cuba she finds is nothing like what her grandmother romanticized despite the death of Fidel Castro and those thinking the country would return to normal after.
Marisol is staying with her grandmother’s friend, who has a gift for Marisol – the box Elisa buried in the backyard before leaving. As she begins looking for a place to scatter her grandmother’s ashes, she slowly unravels the truth behind her family and finds something that changes everything she’s been raised to believe. Marisol digs for the truth behind the letters her grandmother left her.
And, Marisol herself is torn between the romance of the Cuba her grandmother remembers, the Cuba her grandmother left, the Cuba that currently exists, and the freedom that is waiting at home in the United States.
She also, like her grandmother, finds herself falling in love with a revolutionary – Ana’s grandson Luis.
Luis wants to change Cuba – his idea is to change from within, no matter what it may cost him – even his life. But, reality is very cruel.
Marisol sees the various forms of Cuba around her – the beauty and dangers. She searches for answers about the man her grandmother loved, the man entwined with the Perez family. The man she knew nothing about.
Marisol realizes she didn’t know her grandmother as well as she thought either, and that life in Cuba is tenuous at best.
At times this is like a political essay about the history and life of Cuba, and at times a historical romance novel. This was an interesting read about lost loves, challenges, and perceptions.
It’s also a look into those who fled Cuba and those who were left behind; how they feel about each other; and the different definitions of what it is to be “Cuban”.
Cleeton weaves the tale so that the reader can feel the conflict of past vs. present – what has changed vs. what hasn’t changed. She also lays out the uncertainty of the future, hence the title “Next Year in Havana”, which is like a mantra for those with eternal hope of eventually returning to their homeland.
I picked this book up because of Cleeton’s newest release “When We Left Cuba”. The premise of that book was interesting, and as I like to read books in order, I thought I’d try this one. Thankfully my local library had a copy of it.
Despite this being an interesting story, for some reason I had difficulty in getting started. Once I did, it kept my interest long enough to finish it. It’s not one I would personally buy. However, the book is an interesting read if just once.
This was a good read. Obviously well-researched and a topic that I’ve never read before- the Cuban Revolution. Excellent descriptions of scenery and a page turning narrative. It got a bit preachy toward the end and I found myself skimming a few paragraphs of speeches. And why do we have to have so much mushy romance in historical fiction with women leads? Why? And falling head over heels in love in a few days? Eh…
But I still highly recommend this book for the sheer history and brutal honesty of it all.
Great book. Didn’t know much about Cuba and this book opened my eyes to like before, during and after Castro. Also enjoyed the characters. Looking forward to reading the sequel b
I enjoyed this story and learned a lot about Cuba and it’s history.