Instant New York Times bestseller!In 1960s Florida, a young Cuban exile will risk her life—and heart—to take back her country in this exhilarating historical novel from the author of The Last Train to Key West and Next Year in Havana, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick.Beautiful. Daring. Deadly. The Cuban Revolution took everything from sugar heiress Beatriz Perez—her family, her people, her … everything from sugar heiress Beatriz Perez—her family, her people, her country. Recruited by the CIA to infiltrate Fidel Castro’s inner circle and pulled into the dangerous world of espionage, Beatriz is consumed by her quest for revenge and her desire to reclaim the life she lost.
As the Cold War swells like a hurricane over the shores of the Florida Strait, Beatriz is caught between the clash of Cuban American politics and the perils of a forbidden affair with a powerful man driven by ambitions of his own. When the ever-changing tides of history threaten everything she has fought for, she must make a choice between her past and future—but the wrong move could cost Beatriz everything—not just the island she loves, but also the man who has stolen her heart…
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I learned a lot about Cuba that I did not know. Good book.
4.5-Stars
I’m eternally grateful to my buddy reader for bringing my attention to this book. Also, as Cleeton is a new author for me, the excitement I felt was tangible. This is one of the few novels I’ve read that incited some very interesting conversation between my better half and me; however, I did find the first half of the story a tad slow. That being said, I learnt to appreciate why the author had taken her time as my reading progressed. Basically, she was laying down the foundations of the Perez family’s dynamics, giving her readers the opportunity to get to know the heroine’s relationship with her parents and sisters, not forgetting her best friend.
“…War has a way of sanding down your virtue.”
Beatriz’s beauty takes away the breath of any mortal. A nonconformist much to one of the family member’s dismay, I totally understood why she had no wish to do what was expected of her. There’s certainly nothing to dislike about this young woman who’d fled Cuba in the military coup. Leaving a privileged life behind and grieving for the loss of someone dear to her heart, she’s having trouble adapting to her new surroundings, yearning to return.
‘I have little use for false modesty these days; if you’re not going to fight for yourself, who will?’
Despite her father losing his lucrative business, the family’s making the best of the cultural changes. She, on the other hand, is consumed with revenge, is unforgiving and strong-willed, these traits attracting who to my mind of thinking, was the devil in person. Of course, he isn’t but he might just as well have been. What she agrees to do is hard stuff but here’s the thing; the plot is totally plausible. The dates, places and the detailed account of such complex and at times, heartbreaking happenings were spot on.
“The line between villain and hero is whisper thin and, frequently, a matter of perspective. Gray, Miss Perez. We operate in the gray.”
Nick Preston. Ooh, my…such a beautiful and refined man. Older than her, he obviously has more experience in the ways of the world and political ideologies, which I liked a hell of a lot. They try to stay away from each other because there is so much on the line. Whether they are capable of doing so remains to be seen; nonetheless, there were some hellishly emotional scenes I couldn’t help tearing up over.
‘He appears as though he’s painted in broad strokes, his visage immortalized by exuberant sweeps and swirls of the artist’s brush, a god come down to meddle in the affairs of mere mortals.’
Moments of joy are few and far between in this historical novel of love, hate and forgiveness. I got so annoyed with Beatriz’s mother, her father staying in the background didn’t mean he was unaware of his daughter’s quest. There he was when she needed him most. I really liked how her younger sister Eliza steadfastly supports Beatriz and cannot wait to read her story which fortunately I can be read as a standalone.
“But it is not good to always be at war, to always be fighting.”
“I will try to keep that in mind.”
So, Eduardo…Beatriz’s lifelong friend. I had mixed feelings towards him. He came across as loving and concerned but in the same breath, I felt he’d set her up, fed her to the lions for the want of another expression. And his confession was of no surprise.
‘In another life, we might have been magnificent together.’
When We Left Cuba is immaculately written. I thought the few passages narrated in third-person a valiant move on the author’s part, a pleasant break in a story told in first-person. What can I say about the ending when all I can think of is the what-ifs. It was imperfectly perfect, leaving a smile on my face and bringing tears to my eyes. Bravo Cleeton!
This is a follow up to the author’s book, Next Year in Havana. This goes back in time before the previous book’s time frame. What a wonderful story that weaves history, family, country, and romance. This was a delightful read and I highly recommend you add it to your to-be-read list.
Beatriz Perez, with her beauty and her paste jewelry, can work the Palm Beach social circuit with the best of them, but she can’t pretend it’s what she wants. The fake smiles, the social status marriages the American dream, it doesn’t mean as much to her as the future of Cuba does. While her family feels safe, despite the loss of their home and the family’s successful sugar business, Beatriz burns with anger, with a desperate desire for revenge, with a sadness that penetrates even the happiest of moments. As future Beatriz drinks a champagne of celebration and reflects on the past, young Beatriz makes the choice to risk it all, to join the CIA in the act of espionage.
“‘We’ll be in Havana soon,’ he vows.
‘We’ll dance at the Tropicana,’ I counter.”
Chanel Cleeton does it again with When We Left Cuba, taking readers into the past with a gorgeous, sweeping historical fiction. Blending fiction and facts, the romantic tale follows Beatriz as she gives up jewels and Palm Beach fame for the secretive life of a spy. And yet, Beatriz can’t hide from love, the kind of love that’s forbidden, that makes her question the politics at play, the kind that could ruin her revenge plan entirely. I love love loved Beatriz in Next Year in Havana, just the small glimpses of her that we were given told us she’d be a force to reckon with and in When We Left Cuba we see just that. She’s fierce, driven, beautiful beyond words, and yet she’s weighed down by the loss of her home, of her life, of the future she dreamed of. Beatriz, the girl who once loved jewels and fancy dresses, now lives for revenge. Except Nicholas Randolph Preston III makes her believe in happiness, the kind she can escape to, but that she also knows she can’t have, not when he’s sitting in a senate seat and she is spying for a team not known for abiding by the rules.
“There is no place for a broken heart in all of this.”
Chanel Cleeton kept me engaged with the perfect blend of romance and suspense; I loved the chemistry between Nick and Beatriz, yet while I read of their stolen kisses I yearned for the reveal of secrets that would get Beatriz closer to her goal. I loved her perspective on her family’s escape, of the experiences they had in Cuba, of the politics in America at the time. She is an independent, opinionated women at a time when that was frowned upon. Her passion overflows from the pages, filling me with the same desperate desire to right the wrongs in Cuba.
“He fell in love with a socialite and has gotten a spy in return.”
When We Left Cuba is a fascinating novel that takes readers back in time in American and Cuban history. Chanel Cleeton weaves fact with fiction as strong-willed Beatriz Perez romances the Kennedy-connected elite and blends with the girls vying for the attention of a wild revolutionary. Chanel Cleeton has such an incredible, romantic way with words, I could feel the bubbles in my own throat as Beatriz sipped the finest champagne and the butterflies of fear that flapped their wings inside her as she traded in family and safety for secrets. I was intrigued and entertained from the first page to the very last, Beatriz’ voice becoming real in my mind as she narrated the dangerous world of espionage and told of the man who she nearly risked it all for. Suspenseful, poignant, and romantic, When We Left Cuba, and its beautiful heroine, is an instant favorite for me for 2019. I won’t soon forget Beatriz Perez and her love of her home, Cuba.
I loved this book. When I picked it up I didn’t think there was anyway it would be as good as Next Year In Havana. I was so wrong. Beatriz marches right in and takes you for a wonderful ride. Highly recommend.
I did not finish. I did not enjoy this book nearly as much as Next Year in Havana. It lacked the interesting history that the previous book had and was just too much.
unique & exciting!
When We Left Havana is the story of a family’s ups and downs, throughout two Cuban eras. The author is well-qualified to pen this tale, with the history of her own Cuban and Cuban-American family. The story begins in 1958 and ends in 2017. This book shows how the politics and dangers of Cuba affected the everyday lives and safety of families. Throughout the book, the continuing, common thread is hope. Sometimes the hopes evolve, but always there is hope. There is hope that after Batistia is out of office, there will be better treatment and more freedoms for citizens. Unfortunately, Fidel Castro doesn’t fulfill their hopes; instead things just worsen. The government takes over businesses, and thus famillies lose businesses and legacies to which they devoted time, labor and hearts. With the government in control of inudstries, therre are continuing shortages and long lines for just basic supplies. As Marisol’s love interest, Luis, says on page 128, “Cubans do lines bretter than anyone. Lines for bread. Lines for beans….” Luis had many pithy thoughts, including on page 120, where he said, “…For many Cubans, though, something as simple as owning a car is an exercies in all the ways the government can screw you over….”
They lose everything they have on this Earth, except for family – and sometimes, with no corroborating proof, family members are imprisoned. Some even lose family members to exexution with NO trials, because they dared to stand up against the “leader” Castro.
The hoped-for and promised equality of everyone turned to dust; as the book reminds us, Castro originally promised equality, freedom and elections. Things didn’t go that way. But their hopes remained for the future.
The book is a good cautionary tale for those who think that salvation lies in a Socialistic state in which the government takes over the people’s lives- businesses, what kinds of cars they can drive (in our case, all-electric only is the plan) etc. As Marisol’s late grandmother’s childhood friend points out, “Terrible things rarely happen at once…They’re incremental, so people don’t realize how bad things have gotten until it’s too late….”
Reading this book is not only a heatworming tale of a special family, but also a good reminder for those who live in free countries, a reminder of the things we take for granted, that are rarely experienced luxuries in some Socialist and Communist countries. As Luis points out, there are many everyday changes the Cubans whose families stayed – the Cubans of today – would liek to see, just to make their challenging lives in Cuba a little easier. But still th love of their country never wanes.
The book does a good job of showing both the common elements, as well as the differences between the two communities of Cubans – those who chose to stay behind versus those who left for America in what they expected to be a temporary stay. We see both points of view. When the exiles left Cuba, they were not allowed to take personal mementos, so most of what they carried with them of Cuba, would be what they held in their hearts, memories and hopes, and they passed these along to the generations after them. For the exiles in the US, always the hope and plan are to eventually return. On page 13, one family member asks “How long will we be gone?” …”Two months? Six months? A year?” They speak for many Cuban exiles, who never gave up the hope they treasured in their hearts. Marisol starts out on a trip to Cuba to find the best place to scatter her grandmother’s ashes. But she also uncovers family mysteries, and finds a true part of herself, as well.. Will Luis and she stay together on the island, will she return to the US without him, or wiill he go back with her to the United States? I won’t give away spoilers, but suffice it to say that this book is well worth your time and money.
If you saw my review for Next Year in Havana back in March, you’ll know how deeply I fell in love with Chanel’s first historical fiction novel. It was a switch for me, a pretty much solely romance reader, but it’s still one of my favorite books of the year so far. And an all time favorite. The follow up, When We Left Cuba, also has a special place in my heart. It was beautiful, empowering and unforgettable.
Beatriz Perez was a force of nature. I knew this based on the little time she appeared in Next Year in Havana. But I also knew there was so much more to her than what I saw in that book. I couldn’t wait to get the full story. I was utterly enamored with her from the first pages of When We Left Cuba, torn between wanting to devour the entire book and savor it. In case you’re curious, I chose devour, reading it in one sitting. Beatriz’s strength and determination was enviable and I found myself on the edge of my seat more than once, wondering what would happen. And the romance? Oh, my heart. It might never recover.
Beatriz’s story — and When We Left Cuba overall — was everything I wanted and more. I lived for everything from the espionage to the romance (of course). My feels had feels during this book. I think I highlighted about a 1/3 of it because the words were just so gorgeous. I could feel Chanel’s passion for Cuba and the Perez sisters in every single word. My own words just can’t do justice to hers and to the things these books have done to me. I wasn’t sure I would enjoy historical fiction, but hers fit oh-so-right for this romance-loving lady. I can’t wait to see what she gives us next.
Favorite Quotes:
The thing about collecting marriage proposals is that people assume you’re a flirt, and perhaps I was, once, long ago, but now it feels unnatural to play the coquette. I am somewhere between the girl I was and the woman I want to be.
“You should try a little rebellion sometimes. It’s really not so bad.”
“Cuba is my home. It will always be home. I will always wish for it to be better, to be what I think it could be, but yes. It will always have my heart.”
If I’m going to have regrets in this life, I’d rather them be for the chances I took and not the opportunities I let slip away.
“Will you dance with me, Beatriz Perez, kisser-of-revolutionaries and thief-of-hearts?”
Men come and go, revolutions rise and fall, and here we stand.
Beautiful writing. This was a Reese Witherspoon book club pick categorized as a romance. I’d call it a romantic suspense, or even a romantic spy novel. This is a love story between Beatrice Perez, a Cuban woman from a displaced prominent family and Nick Preston, a US Senator. It is set in the sixties when Fidel Castro took his revolution into Cuba. I lived through this period – The Bay of Pigs blunder, the Soviet buildup in Cuba, Kennedy’s tough line and assassination – and remember it well. Few writers would be able to capture a relationship where passions flow freely but commitment is denied based upon the objectives of each. The author does it brilliantly. Highly recommended.
I really enjoyed Chanel Cleeton’s follow up to the excellent Next Year in Havana. The Perez family have escaped the revolution to live in Florida and make a new life. But daughter Beatriz, who has no interest in the debutante scene and who is mourning the death of her twin brother at the hands of Fidel Castro’s supporters, wants to return to Cuba and the life she left behind. When the CIA offers her the opportunity to avenge her brother’s death and overthrow the revolution by killing Castro, she cannot resist, but what she didn’t count on was falling in love with an American senator…
I’d been eagerly wait for the release of this book ever since I read Last Year in Havana eight months ago. It was worth the wait. It’s not a romance. It’s a love story. But it’s also so much more. This is the perfect read for fans of historical fiction, and for those readers who love intrigue, vivid settings, wonderful, well-defined characters, and exceptional writing. I can’t wait to read Chanel’s next historical fiction novel.
Cleeton once again delivers a masterful tale of political intrigue tinged with personal heartbreak. Her ferocity and fearlessness can be found on every page, and Beatriz’s story—one of vengeance, betrayal, and bravery—astonishes and thrills.
I love this author. Somehow her books seem so authentic to time and place that it reels me in.
This novel confirmed my theory that people who wrote books I admired would likely recommend books I admired. I love the work by Laura Kamoie (co-written with Stephanie Dray), so I wasn’t surprised that I adored the book she recommended, When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton.
The heroine of this novel, Beatriz Perez, is that rare woman in fiction who has a larger agenda in life than just falling in love, getting married, and raising a family. Fall in love she does, but the rest of it? Beatriz is determined to go her own way.
This is a passionate love story played out against the backdrop of Fidel Castro’s rise in Cuba, the Cuban missile crisis, and the power struggle between the US and then-Soviet Union. Beatriz is a beautiful ex-patriated Cuban living in Florida with her formerly wealthy family. Her mother’s only wish is for Beatriz to marry. Beatriz wants only to avenge her twin brother’s murder by killing Fidel Castro.
We know from history that Beatriz Perez did not kill Fidel Castro, but her efforts to do so in this story are nonetheless nerve-wracking and action-packed. Equally nerve-wracking, from my point of view, is Beatriz’ inner struggle to choose between the man she loves and living the life she feels she was meant to live.
Interesting for me, too, to read about that tumultuous era in history, when I was a fourth grader in Arizona and largely oblivious to the events of the day.
All in all, a great read!
Let me start off by saying, I’m not a huge historical girl. I don’t hate it but I just don’t gravitate towards it. I don’t know if it’s cause this is the 60s and that doesn’t feel super distant or because Next Year in Havana slowly opened the door by being half in the past, but I absolutely loved this one.
Beatriz is fiery and determined and I loved absolutely everything about her. I loved her commitment to her country and her ideals above all else. Maybe things don’t always work out for her, but she’s committed to her goals 1000% and I super admire that.
The political intrigue and the espionage mixed with Beatriz’ love story were absolutely everything. Jumping back and walking with Beatriz definitely made me feel like I was back in that time with her. I loved that she was such a free spirit also. She would not let anyone set her back or underestimate her. She was so tough and driven and I am absolutely obsessed with her.
Beatriz Perez and her family are living in Florida after fleeing The Cuban Revolution. They are all acclimating to their simple lifestyle after growing up with wealth and privilege. Her father suffered a big financial loss when his land was seized and is currently trying to rebuild his sugar empire. Beatriz yearns for her old life back in Cuba and seeks revenge for her brother’s death at the hands of Fidel Castro.
Acting as a spy for the CIA, Beatriz is willing to take chances to bring on the death of Castro. Her missions are dangerous but Beatriz is willing to sacrifice anything to get her back to her beloved homeland. She meets an ambitious US Senator and romantic sparks fly. Their relationship is not beneficial to either of their careers and his pending marriage. Despite the obstacles, it’s tough to avoid each other due to the chemistry that exists between them.
When We Left Cuba is the continuation of Last Year in Havana and I enjoyed this book as much as Chanel Cleeton’s first novel. This book can be read as a stand-alone but you would be missing out on a great story.
By turns a captivating historical novel, a sweeping love story, and a daring tale of espionage—I absolutely adored this gem of a novel.
Beatriz lost everything during the Cuban revolution. She lost her home, her country but the worst was losing her brother. She and her family are trying to make a new life in Florida. It has not been as easy as Beatriz expected. She is a beautiful young lady with a fierce love of Cuba and this gets her into a heap of trouble.
Beatriz is one tough lady and y’all know…I love tough women characters! She is determined to fight back regardless of the cost. And believe me, it cost her plenty. Between the CIA, a friend who is possibly the enemy and a political, married love interest, Beatriz’s reputation is shattered. This does not stop her in the least!
This story is so compelling. I don’t think I have read many books set in Cuba during this time period. Fidel Castro and the tragedy of the Cuban revolution is absolutely riveting. However, the CIA part of this story seemed a little far fetched to me. But, that is just a minor issue. The tale and the characters are woven together so strategically and the author has crafted such a unique storyline that no one needs to miss this one. Plus the cover is fabulous!
I received this novel from the author for a honest review.
Historical Fiction is not a genre I visit very often but so blown away was I by NEXT YEAR IN HAVANA, I showed no hesitation when picking up Chanel’s companion novel, WHEN WE LEFT CUBA.
To those that have read the predecessor we are aware that the Perez Family were among Cuba’s aristocratics before having to flee due to the dangers posed by Castro. It’s profound effect on Beatriz leads her to make break away from the society girl image and take her place on the frontline in her impassioned attempt to seek revenge and justice.
Beatriz’s true love is Cuba and admittedly I had to overlook some of the decisions she made in order to align myself with her as our Heroine. The politics of the era play huge role, and at times it was weighty in both description and pacing, but with that said, there’s no denying the massive undertaking the author took in bringing history to life.
WHEN WE LEFT CUBA was a vivid and emotional insight into life around the Cuban Revolution, and once again Chanel’s writing was able to bring forth the beauty of Cuba and the dangers faced by those determined to regain it’s glory.