Book Review: When We Left Cuba | Chanel Cleeton

Chanel Cleeton’s Next Year in Havana, was a powerful historical fiction novel about a woman named Elisa Perez forced to flee Cuba with her family in 1958, and her granddaughter traveling to Cuba in 2017 to spread her ashes. When We Left Cuba is the brilliant follow up to Next Year in Havana, and centers around Elisa’s sister, Beatriz Perez. I doubt I’m alone in saying Beatriz was my favorite of the Perez sisters in the first book, so I’m happy she gets her own story!

About the Book

The Cuban Revolution took 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…

Review

The world was introduced to Beatriz Perez in Next Year in Havana, which centered around her sister Elisa Perez and the story of the Perez family being forced to flee Cuba and settle in Miami. You don’t need to read these books in order, When We Left Cuba is Beatriz’s story about the way her life changed in the wake of Fidel Castro’s rise to dictator in Cuba and the political turmoil that wrecked the lives of many Cuban people.

From the very first lines of the book, the reader is confronted with the bold, captivating, spunky heroine, Beatriz. Her personality and story are quite different from Elisa’s, and I can understand why Cleeton chose to tell Elisa’s story first. It allowed more space to get into the history of Cuba and the Perez family, allowing Beatriz’s story to take flight.

“The thing about collecting marriage proposals is they’re much like cultivating eccentricities. One is an absolute must for being admired in polite—or slightly less-than-polite—society. Two ensure you’re a sought-after guest at parties, three add a soupcon of mystery, four are a scandal, and five, well, five make you a legend.”

Beatriz is, if nothing else, a legend! Like Elisa, Beatriz lost so much when her family was forced to leave Cuba. As the Perez family adjusts to their life in Miami, Beatriz is gripped by her anger at Fidel Castro, who is responsible for her brother’s murder. She’s at the age and of a status where marriage should be her goal, but Beatriz isn’t interested in courtship.

“Dreams never die all at once. They die in pieces, floating a little farther and farther away each day.”

But that doesn’t mean the men on the Palm Beach social circuit aren’t interested in Beatriz. In fact, its on the night of her fifth engagement (legend status unlocked) that Beatriz meets a handsome senator who will change everything. Beatriz ends up being pulled to help infiltrate part of Castro’s inner circle.

“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.”

As Beatriz puts her life at risk to try and aid a takedown of Castro, she can’t help but fall in love with the handsome senator, Nick. This is a couple that shouldn’t work (after all, Nick is married when they initially meet), but they are a match. Love is like that, sometimes. However, if you’re expecting this book to be a romance novel, you may be setting yourself up for a different book than what this is. This is an historical espionage novel, much more focused on the revolution in Cuba and what is going on with Fidel Castro. It just also happens to have a love story.

“The truth is, time is a luxury—yes. But like so many other luxuries in life, it is best savored rather than gorged.”

A politically-charged, powerful work of historical fiction, you’ll find when you were done that you were getting a history lesson on the Cuban Revolution without realizing it! If you’re anything like me, you’ll be so engrossed in the glitz, glamour, and drama of Beatriz Perez that you won’t be able to put the book down.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing for my copy. Opinions are my own.