Next Year in Havana

By Chanel Cleeton

Marisol Ferrera grew up hearing wonderful, romantic stories about Cuba from her beloved Grandmother, Elisa. This tremendous story has dual POV that alternates with flashes back to the past with Elisa and Marisol carries the story forward with the present day. Readers will fall in love and also have their hearts ache as they adventure through Cuba with grandmother and granddaughter. Honoring grandmother’s wishes, Marisol takes Elisa’s ashes back to Cuba after her death. Marisol is thrilled to finally be in the place where her grandmother called home and talked so fondly about. Marisol quickly falls in love with Cuba but as she experiences Cuba’s perilous political climate first hand, she notices things aren’t exactly how her grandmother had described them. What’s more, she stumbled upon a life that her grandmother had never told her about - a life that could possibly change her family’s lives forever. While searching for answers to her grandmother’s past, Marisol begins to develop feelings for a young man with secrets of his own. Together, they try to find answers before the Cuba government decides to silence their efforts.

Have you ever had a book that sent you on such a journey, when you finished it you felt a little empty? That’s what this book did to me. The emotional rollercoaster ride that I went on when traveling through Cuba with Elisa and Marisol was thrilling, enlightening, funny, and heartbreaking. There were parts in the book that sent my heart racing and I had to put it down for a minute or two to collect myself before diving right back in. Chanel Cleeton does an excellent job of immersing her reader into her story. I lovingly give this book 4 stars. It is well written and delivers a story that will stick with readers for a long time. It is so easy to connect with each of Cleeton’s characters, who are a diverse and beautiful tapestry of all things that make up families and who a person is. Do yourself a favor and pick up this book. After you finish it, you’ll be pleased to know it’s part of a series.