Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton

I follow Reece Wetherspoon on Insta and saw she was recommending this book as her Bookclub July pick. It looked quite interesting, THEN, I discovered that it was the choice for my own book club. This is the synopsis……

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.

To be honest I was expecting to love it.  I didn’t, although I did like it, quite a bit. It was very interesting to read about life before Fidel Castro took over Cuba and life after.

I always had the impression that Fidel liberated Cuba. That he took a corrupt country and made it different. He tried to make it better, but then you can’t please everyone.  It was interesting to see what changed.  That Elisa’s family went from rich and from high society to running for their lives and having to leave their country before they were shot.

I liked the fact that the story gave you Elisa’s story and how she lived then what happened to her after her family fled, then to pass on to Marisol and her going back to a very different Cuba that her grandmother experienced.

The writing was great but I did feel it was written a bit one-sided, that Fidel “ruined” the country and got the feeling that he wasn’t very liked. He probably wasn’t but he wasn’t classed as much of a dictator either. To be honest IM not sure, I’ve never actually read much about Cuba, so it is a bit of ignorant opinion really.

It was a good read, I liked the characters and the writing was great. I can see why Reece Wetherspoon picked it as her July pick. A lovely love story mixed up in a riveting story about Cuba and how it was to live there during the revolution, then pick it up.