I really enjoyed this look into the politics of Cuba, both from the 1959 perspective and present-day. I’m looking forward to reading the others in Cleeton’s series.

There are two stories being told simultaneously in Next Year in Havana. Elisa’s story–that of a sugar princess in Havana in the 1950s, and her granddaughter, Marisol’s story when she travels to Havana to spread her grandmother’s ashes in the country she loved, but fled with her family. I was captivated by both women, and both stories. I had only a cursory knowledge of Cuban history, and I was fascinated by the history of the revolution, and especially of the Cuban people. The story unfolded in such a way I learned so much, while being thoroughly entertained. Ms. Cleeton does an excellent job of presenting multiple perspectives of the revolution–Batista supporters, those who fought with Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, as well as those who opposed both Batista and Castro. So many interesting perspectives, it was a lot to think about and consider. The parallels between both women’s stories worked beautifully, both as fascinating stories, and to highlight the parallels of the lives of the Cuban people, both then and now. Nothing had really changed, only those with connections to regime held positions of power and privilege, while the majority of Cubans remain poor and exploited by those in power.

Marisol stays with Rosa, her grandmother’s childhood best friend and neighbor while in Havana. While Elisa’s family chose to leave Cuba for Miami, and were able to transition their sugar business to the US, Rosa’s family stayed in Havana, and lost their rum business when Castro nationalized all Cuban industry. It’s easy to understand why so many people left Cuba, this book left me feeling like I have a better understanding of those who stayed. After her arrival in Cuba, Rosa gives a box of Elisa’s mementos, including love letters, to Marisol. Reading the letters, and looking through the bits and pieces of her grandmother’s early life make her realize there was so much about Elisa she never knew. She sets off to discover her grandmother’s secrets. The mystery of Elisa’s early life in Havana during the revolution were riveting. The sense of mystery, danger, and romance kept me glued to my ereader. Ms. Cleeton’s beautiful descriptions of Havana and those who call it home–both currently and in the 1950s–had me longing to go see it all for myself. I have a friend who recently traveled to Cuba, and I felt compelled to contact her to talk about it (and to recommend this book to her). I loved this book. The complex situations and characters, the mystery, and yes, the romance. Read this book–you will be so glad you did.

This book transported me to Dominican Republic. I obviously wasn't born by those years, but a lot of the stuff mentioned can be compared to my homeland, Puerto Rico, from what I've heard from my grandparents. Chanel Cleeton made this story come alive in a way that had me immersed entirely into the story and I never wanted to leave this world I was pulled into. I can't wait to pick up the sequel!

I'm a huge fan of Cleeton contemporary romance. So, reading this one was stepping a bit out of my comfort zone. Cleeton definitely made it worth taking that chance. Next Year in Havana was such a lovely book.

I'm so in love with this books! it's such a beautiful and powerful story, full of strong and well written characters, with a story that would take you on a rollercoaster of feeling, Chanel Cleeton took us on a trip to Havana and its history that was so real and emotional, and you could tell how close to her heart those sentiments are. I absolutely love the way it was developed and that back and foward between the past and present made it even better.

Favorite Quotes:

… there’s a faint sheen of gray that adorns the landscape as though the entire city needs a good scrubbing. Havana is like a woman who was grand once and has fallen on hard times, and yet hints of her former brilliance remain, traces of an era since passed, a photograph faded by time and circumstance, its edges crumbling to dust.

I feel as though I’ve become a point of curiosity, an exhibit like the island of crocodiles at the Havana Zoo, those mighty animals sunning their backs with contempt for the gawking tourists and locals who point and exclaim over their size. Being a Perez in Havana— one of the sugar queens— is akin to wondering if you should charge admission for the window into your life…

There’s a different level of poverty in Cuba that suggests that not only is the deck stacked against you, but someone keeps stealing all the cards.

Terrible things rarely happen all at once… They’re incremental, so people don’t realize how bad things have gotten until it’s too late.

My Review:


I confess to blatant ignorance about Cuba, past or present. Before picking up this exceptionally detailed account, my accumulated knowledge about Cuba was limited to a vague memory of the rafters, something about JFK and the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and that Fidel Castro had been an oppressive communist dictator who gave long boring speeches that he forced his citizens to listen to for hours on end in the heat and sun, I remember my severely strict sixth grade teacher fervently pounding that last fact home and later putting on a test. I also have a vivid memory of looking at a picture of the heavily reviled man with an unkempt beard and dressed in green fatigues and a billed cap and thinking him an unhinged monster; an opinion that apparently was deeply imprinted on my gray matter as it has held through to present day.

Chanel Cleeton’s highly descriptive and epic story was written in dual timelines and from a dual POV, and I enjoyed the juxtaposition. Sixty-years after her then nineteen-year-old grandmother had fled a dangerous and chaotic Cuba with her family, Marisol takes a trip to Cuba to spread her grandmother’s ashes and hopefully learn about her family history while traveling under the guise of a journalistic junket to gather information for a tourism article about Cuba. Careful what you wish for - she uncovered dark secrets that her beloved grandmother had never hinted it, as well as stunning revelations concerning her family tree.

The storylines were lushly detailed and swirling with atmosphere, and could easily be deployed as a fully fleshed-out screenplay. The emotional tone was fraught with tension and heavy with angst. I could have done with about one hundred fewer pages repeatedly outlining the abuses and folly of past and present political systems, as politics are just not my jam. However, the examples of basic day-to-day challenges the politically polarized Cuban citizens endured and continue to struggle with carried considerable more impact for me and were expertly executed. I have been schooled, and in a significantly more entertaining manner than my harsh and unyielding sixth-grader teacher could have ever aspired to.

I had heard so much about this book ack when it first was getting ready to release. It sounded absolutely amazing and I was so drawn in with how personal the story was to Cleeton.

And this story dis not disappoint. It was so beautifully written. And such a touching story. The characters were relatable. And just the kind that make you want to really pull for them and feel for them. I found myself so emotionally invested in the book, more so then I typically am with books.

Overall, I absolutely loved this book. And I suggest to anyone to go pick this one up if they want a 5 star read

I loved this book! Chanel Cleeton did something that I love taking the past and present and melding them together. Loved Elisa and my heart broke for her. I loved Marisol and how she took everything in stride. I’m so excited for Chanel’s next book!

The beautifully written and richly detailed Next Year in Havana is so much more than a gorgeous cover. The story within is both heartbreaking and hopeful, with the love of a torn country and her people dreaming of a better future passionately portrayed on every page.

Marisol is a journalist who recently lost her grandmother, Elisa, who was the most important person in her life. As part of her Elisa’s last wishes, Marisol embarks on a somewhat harrowing journey to Cuba with ashes smuggled in her suitcase. Once she is in Cuba, family history and buried secrets come to light, requiring Marisol to pursue leads and piece together the details she never knew existed about her grandmother. With the help of her tour guide and love interest, Luis, Marisol finally finds the truth about the woman she adored but never really knew fully.

The timeline in Havana switches between Marisol’s present and her grandmother’s past, and I love how they intertwine to create a complete story. Both of these women are strong and passionate while honoring the bonds of family and of truth to themselves.

Cleeton does an excellent job of bringing the plight of the people from now and then to the forefront of every scene. It almost feels as if Cuba and its revolution are another set of characters in the plot of the story. While I enjoyed the story and the immense detail, I did feel that it weighed down the pacing. However, I am highly anticipating the next installment of this family’s saga, When We Left Cuba, which is set to release in April of 2019.

Chanel Cleeton mesmerizes in this book. I adored the characters and the journey they set on! It was an in-depth look into the Cuba and it's residents.

I gushed about the book on my podcast here: http://traffic.libsyn.com/womenwithbooks/WWB_Ch_30_-_Chanel_Cleeton.mp3

I hate to admit it, but about all I knew about Cuba was that we had to practice at school for bomb threats during the Cuban Missile Crisis (and I didn't know what was going on at the time), it's a communist country that doesn't have trade with the US, and they are known for great cigars. So I was excited to read this historical fiction set in Cuba.

Marisol Ferrera is a journalist living in the United States, but her family is from Cuba. Her beloved grandmother has recently died, and she is on her way to Cuba for the first time to fulfill her Grandmother's dying wish to have her ashes buried in her homeland. She stays with her grandmother's best friend, and her son escorts Marisol around Cuba and her grandmother's hometown. The book also flashes back recounting her grandmother, Elisa's story. It is through Elisa's story where much of the history is portrayed. She is from a wealthy family and falls in love with a revolutionary. The story involving Marisol brings the past up to date providing insight into Cuba today.

Both stories were compelling, each with a little romance intertwined in the story. Cleeton does an excellent job of capturing Cuba where I felt I could fully imagine it, and it did fill in gaps for me in my knowledge about Cuba. I love books like this about families and the struggles they face. It also points out the challenges of politics in a turbulent time

A heavy book but well written, about leaving Cuba at a time of political unrest.This book goes back and forth in time including love, politics, heartbreak, so many deep emotions. It's a family I will not forget.

Next Year in Havana is one of the most fascinating, romantic books I have ever read. It was simply breathtaking.

"After 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 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--and what it means to be Cuban"--
Source: Library Journal, 2018

Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton is a 2018 Penguin/Berkley publication.

Cuba- 1958

Elisa Perez, a sugar heiress, falls in love with a revolutionary. But, their lives are so far removed from one another the relationship is one that seems doomed from the start. Sure enough, she and Pablo are separated, and Elisa’s family fled to America, never to return to their beloved Cuba.

Fast forward to 2017-

“When I was younger, I begged my grandmother to tell me about Cuba. It was a mythical island, contained in my heart, entirely drawn from the version of Cuba she created in exile in Miami and the stories she shared with me. I was caught between two lands- two iterations of myself- the one I inhabited in my body and the one I lived in my dreams.”

Marisol’s grandmother dies and to honor her last wishes, Marisol smuggles her ashes into Cuba. But, arriving in Cuba is only the beginning of her adventure. She must pick the perfect spot to spread her grandmother’s ashes, so that end, she touches base with Elisa’s best friend, hoping to gain some insight. This is how she meets Luis, who escorts her around the city and helps her play amateur detective as she searches for Pablo, the love of Elisa’s life.

However, Luis’s job as a professor has him under scrutiny and Marisol has been watched since she first stepped foot in Cuba. They begin to fall in love, playing a very dangerous game with their futures and maybe even their lives. Eventually they will face a heartbreaking fork in the road where they will both have to make the most difficult choice of their lives.

This story was absolutely amazing!! It’s epic, grand, sweeping, emotional, and heart wrenching.

The family saga is told in bold, rich details, so vivid I felt like I was there taking in all the sights and sounds of Cuba. The atmosphere is heavy with foreboding and tension, danger always lurking in the shadows. Love, at times, chooses the most inopportune moments to invade one’s heart, but also has a knack for knowing just the right time and place, knowing somehow, someway that it’s now or never. Both scenarios come with hard choices and consequences.

The book is also very informative, giving readers an up close and personal look at what life is really like in Cuba. While I did find all of this very interesting, at times the ‘lectures’ or history lessons slowed the momentum of the story, but I still think readers need to absorb at least some of this information because this knowledge contributes to the high level of anguish and suspense that builds as the novel reaches its climax.

“The world as we know it has died, and I do not recognize the one that has taken its place”

This history also serves as a cautionary tale in many ways, but it is also very complicated, with people making choices they believed were the right ones to make at the time, while others clung to the way of life they had established, suddenly finding themselves in exile.

“You never know what’s to come. That’s the beauty of life. If everything happened the way we wished, the way we planned, we’d miss out on the best parts, the unexpected pleasure.”

Naturally, for me, the love stories- plural- is what brought out the strongest emotions in me. Their stories parallel one another in many ways, with one being tragic and the other filled with danger- but also one filled with hope for a better outcome and maybe even a better way of life for those living in Cuba.

4 stars

I put this book on hold for a long time, and I regret that, because I had an ARC and it was SO SO good. I can’t wait for the sequel - Beatriz was such a mystery and I want more of her IMMEDIATELY.

Anyway.

Next Year in Havana was unexpected for me. I thought it was a little slow at first, so I set it aside. But then my life changed - I got a new job and find myself living in Puerto Rico and remembered this book I started in the winter about exile and longing and being away from your home. It’s the book I needed.

Isn’t it funny how that happens sometimes? You don’t realize there is a book right in front of you that could change everything, that could make your life make sense, and then, there it is. That was NYIH for me.

The writing is also beautiful and I’m going to be recommending this one for years to come.

3.4 - I wanted to like this one more than I actually did; great historical fiction about Cuba, but the tale (in my opinion) got too sidetracked by the modern day story, which seemed incredibly contrived

Next Year in Havana is an enlightening historical romantic novel that parallels two love stories alternating and intertwining between 1958, when Batista loses power to Fidel Castro and 2017, when the ashes of Eliza Perrez, daughter of a rich sugar plantation owner, are taken from Miami, back to Havana to be buried by her granddaughter, who becomes involved with a romance of her own.

The fast moving tale introduces the reader to life with all it’s glamour, for some, in 1958 and to the deterioration in 2017, after years of communist dictatorship and isolation from the USA.

The author gives and excellent depiction of what life is like now, when good food and hotels are only available to tourists. There is so little food that it is rationed among the Cubans and speaking out against the regime can find one beaten in jail or worse.

"Free. Democratic." He lifts the cigar to his mouth, inhaling in one deep breath. He exhales a cloud of smoke. "I would like to shout. The freedom to protest when I do not agree with what my government is doing without fear of retribution. The freedom to listen to music without the fear that the regime will accuse me of being too "Western" and throw me in jail. I don't want to spend my days looking over my shoulder, wondering if my neighbor is really a member of the secret police, that one of my students in my classroom isn't there solely for the purpose of spying on me for the government, that I won't accidentally say something that could result in me being thrown in jail or worse. I want to own something of my own, something the government can't take away from me, something that is mine."

I loved this book for so many reasons. The writing is so lush and beautiful that I felt transported on to the streets of Cuba myself -- I could feel the hot wind on my face, smell the delicious aromas coming from Ana's kitchen, hear the traffic in the streets, and see the beautiful old buildings and architecture. Cleeton completely immersed me in her world and I enjoyed every minute of it. The story begins with Marisol who, grieving the loss of her beloved grandmother Elisa, decides to make the journey to Cuba to honor her grandmother's wish and spread her ashes in her homeland. Marisol is a bright, inquisitive writer who grew up listening to her grandmother spin fantastic tales of her life as the daughter of a Cuban sugar baron. Knowing only the romanticized version of her grandmother's life, Marisol is met with the conflicting reality of what life was really like for her grandmother once Marisol's feet hit Cuban soil.

The book alternates between Marisol in the present day and her grandmother and her sisters as they live through the Cuban Revolution. Strong female characters are in abundance throughout this book and I devoured the chapters that were told from Elisa's point of view. I loved that the author wrote all the female protagonists as fiercely independent, resourceful women. Young Elisa falls deeply in love with a passionate, political revolutionary as the fighting between Castro and Batista's men intensifies. Soon she and her family become targets as former supporters of Batista and they are forced to make the agonizing decision of whether or not to stay in the land that they love or to flee in exile as Castro comes to power. As Marisol and Elisa's stories intertwine, Marisol is forced to come to terms with the reality that her grandmother lived and what she herself will risk for the man that she loves.

I did not know much about the Cuban Revolution or the brutality in which the Cuban people were treated. I was not aware that the excessive restrictions placed on the freedom of press, expression and due process are still huge problems that the people of Cuba face today. This book definitely sparked an interest to learn more and seek out other literature about Cuba, it's politics and it's people. Next Year in Havana is about heritage, love, sacrifice and loyalty. It's about deciding what you believe and having the courage to stand for it, no matter the cost. Cleeton's incredible knowledge of the history of this vibrant country was as informative as it was intimate, and I am anxiously waiting for her second book, When We Left Cuba, to be released. Fall in love with the people, the country, and the Perez family in this heartbreakingly beautiful family saga. 4.5 stars.

Many thanks to Berkley Publishing for providing a copy of this gorgeous work in exchange for my honest review.