Cover Image: The Last Train to Key West

The Last Train to Key West

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Member Reviews

The Last Train to Key West was the third book by Chanel Cleeton I have read, and this book solidified that she is on my list of favorite authors! I really enjoy historical fiction, and I appreciate how she writes about events in history that are often overlooked. This story switches perspectives between three women who all find themselves in Key West during Labor Day weekend of 1935. I really enjoyed all three of the storylines, which is not always true for me in multi-perspective novels. The story culminates with the category 5 hurricane hitting the island, and as someone who grew up in Louisiana, I thought she did a great job describing the sensory experience of a hurricane. I will say, I thought the pacing of this novel was a little off. The book isn't that long, and I thought the way the three storylines all came together at the end felt rushed. This book would make such a great beach read for this summer, for when you want a suspenseful, multi-person romance novel.

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Chanel Cleeton is a very special author and one I’m very grateful to have found. She writes about countries, settings and people with such passion and often weaves in real life events too. What’s not to like? This time, she’s taken a horrible event - one of the most devastating hurricanes in the USA - and woven it into a tale of women, friendship and human resilience.

It’s an emotional read and that train of the title takes you on quite a journey. Three stories of love and resilience told by three women from very different backgrounds. There’ssuch depth to the stories and I felt as if I knew each character in turn despite their different ages, backgrounds and personalities.

I can’t imagine living through a hurricane. I’ve seen a tornado from a distance in Texas and even that looked pretty scary. I found the wind to be powerful then but to Americans it was nothing. That was scary in itself. So, to picture this…well it’s nigh-on impossible. However, the author does allow you to see, feel and hear what it must have been like.

The three stories were very different and totally fascinating. We have an abused spouse, a woman from Duba and someone trying to find her brother. This brother is a soldier and is station in Islamorada - one of the islands that was practically destroyed in the real life hurricane.

There’s even more historical delights in the way Chanel has woven in the train of the title. That train is the famous Henry Flagler railroad which was the only way to cross the islands at the time, part from boats of course.

I really enjoyed this novel and found the stories fascinating and varied. Topped with the historical reality, the hope and destruction in one, this was a novel which I found I’d been holding my breath at the end.

Very visual and very appealing to the literary senses.

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This historical fiction book focuses on the Florida Keys over Labor Day 1935, when a treacherous hurricane hits with little warning. Henry Flagler's railroad is also featured in the story. Three women rotate the storytelling. Helen is a Key West native, pregnant, a waitress at the local diner, and a victim of spousal abuse. Mirta arrives from her native Cuba with her new husband, an arranged marriage to save her broke family. Elizabeth is on the Flagler train from New York City to Key West, trying to find her brother, a soldier at one of the camps set up on Islamarada to house World War I soldiers while they build roads. The women and their respective men interact in unusual ways during the weekend as they all try to survive the hurricane.

I enjoyed the setting of the Keys during the hurricane, which actually happened. It was an unnamed storm, and reached category 5, destroying Flagler's railroad, the only way to access the Keys other than boats. Although at times I had trouble remembering which woman was which,and the unusual interactions between the characters at times seemed forced, I did enjoy spending time with everyone. Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC.

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I struggled through this book. The description had me intrigued and I requested it, but then I couldn't seem to get into the story.
I'm sure many will like it and it does lend itself to a book club discussion, just didn't catch me.
Thank you NetGalley for this book

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Henry Flagler is considered the “father of Florida tourism”, he built beautiful hotels that brought tourists in droves and completed an engineering marvel that allowed visitors to travel to the Florida Keys without ever getting on a boat. The rail line from his overseas highway is still standing today, almost 100 years after being built. But his greatest triumph would also be the scene of great tragedy, when a hurricane in 1935 sweeps his train, full of passengers into the sea. Cleeton places three women on the ill fated train, Mirta Perez, who’s fleeing Cuba to marry a wealthy American, Florida native Helen Berner, who’s looking for adventure and Elizabeth Preston, who’s trying to save what’s left of her family’s fortune after the stock market crash of 1929

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