Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton-Review Tour & Giveaway

NEXT YEAR IN HAVANA
by Chanel Cleeton
Release Date: February 6, 2018
Genre: women’s fiction, historical fiction, romance

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date February 6, 2018

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.

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REVIEW: NEXT YEAR IN HAVANA is the first instalment in Chanel Cleeton’s women’s fiction/ historical romance fiction series focusing on the Cuban-American Perez family. This is Eliza Perez, and her granddaughter Marisol Ferrera’s story line.

Told from alternating timelines, and dual first person points of view (Eliza and Marisol) NEXT YEAR IN HAVANA is a story of historical fiction; of revolution; of politics and war; of surviving against the odds during the Cuban revolution; of one family’s history between the present and the past. Upon the death of her cherished grandmother Eliza Perez, Marisol Ferrera embarks on a journey to Cuba, where she will meet her future, and uncover her past. Returning her grandmother’s ashes to her beloved homeland, Marisol will encounter the true meaning of struggle and loss, as she goes in search of her family’s history, finding more than she could ever imagined.

NEXT YEAR IN HAVANA is a fictionalized account of one well-to-do family’s struggle growing up in the 50s during the Cuban Revolution, their flight to freedom, and the promises made to one day return. We follow as one woman defies her family as she falls in love with a man of questionable affiliations; and another woman discovers that the past never forgets; that lessons learned are easily forgotten.

Chanel Cleeton pulls the reader into the turmoil and upheaval of Cuba in the late1950’s; where family is pitted against family; neighbors against neighbors; the rich against the poor. An engaging, brilliantly written, and intoxicating tale of the human spirit, love and never letting go.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

Originally from Florida, Chanel Cleeton grew up on stories of her family’s exodus from Cuba following the events of the Cuban Revolution. Her passion for politics and history continued during her years spent studying in England where she earned a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Richmond, The American International University in London and a master’s degree in Global Politics from the London School of Economics & Political Science. Chanel also received her Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law. She loves to travel and has lived in the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia.