Review for The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba by Chanel Cleeton

 

The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba by  Chanel Cleeton 

Kindle Edition, 384 pages

Expected publication: May 4th 2021

Genre:  Historical Fiction, Romance, Chick Lit, Women’s Fiction

 

From Goodreads:  At the end of the nineteenth century, three revolutionary women fight for freedom in New York Times bestselling author Chanel Cleeton’s captivating new novel inspired by real-life events and the true story of a legendary Cuban woman–Evangelina Cisneros–who changed the course of history.

A feud rages in Gilded Age New York City between newspaper tycoons William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. When Grace Harrington lands a job at Hearst’s newspaper in 1896, she’s caught in a cutthroat world where one scoop can make or break your career, but it’s a story emerging from Cuba that changes her life.

Unjustly imprisoned in a notorious Havana women’s jail, eighteen-year-old Evangelina Cisneros dreams of a Cuba free from Spanish oppression. When Hearst learns of her plight and splashes her image on the front page of his paper, proclaiming her, “The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba,” she becomes a rallying cry for American intervention in the battle for Cuban independence.

With the help of Marina Perez, a courier secretly working for the Cuban revolutionaries in Havana, Grace and Hearst’s staff attempt to free Evangelina. But when Cuban civilians are forced into reconcentration camps and the explosion of the USS Maine propels the United States and Spain toward war, the three women must risk everything in their fight for freedom.

My Thoughts… A story of The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba standing up for her country and calling for America to help Cuba defeat the Spanish and give Cuba the freedom they desire.  Every part of this historical fiction book gave me insight into life during a war.   The camps that citizens were forced into, the prisons they lived in, and the love they lost and found during a time of unrest all brought the story to life and gave me a new view of Cuban history.  

The story newspaper moguls, Hearst and Pulitzer, fighting to be the biggest paper in New York during the Gilded Age was interesting.  I loved Grace and the fact that she stepped outside of the usual woman roles by becoming a stunt writer.   She pushes the boundaries and succeeds in reaching her goals.

Chantel Cleeton writes about the women in Cuba with a style that pulls the reader in, brings Cuba to life, and teaches the history in a fictional book with as much truth as possible. 

Add to your MUST-READ list on Goodreads

 

Meet Chanel Cleeton…Chanel Cleeton is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick Next Year in Havana, When We Left Cuba, The Last Train to Key West, and The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba. 

Originally from Florida, Chanel 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.