Book Review: "When We Left Cuba" by Chanel Cleeton
“When We Left Cuba” by Chanel Cleeton
Bookshop | Kindle
Publisher Synopsis: In 1960s Florida, a young Cuban exile will risk her life--and heart--to take back her country in this exhilarating historical novel from the author of The Last Train to Key West and Next Year in Havana, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick.
Beautiful. Daring. Deadly.
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...
Rating (out of 5): 3.5
Review: When I started reading this book, I was immediately taken in by the novel’s opening line:
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 soupçon of mystery, four are a scandal, and five, well, five make you a legend.
Unfortunately, it was kind of downhill from there.
The protagonist of “When We Left Cuba” is Beatriz—a strong-willed young woman who has recently fled from Havana to Palm Beach with her family after the Cuban Revolution. She’s one of four daughters, and her twin brother was killed in the revolution. Her busybody mother is committed to marrying off each of her daughters, and her father is absent quite a bit in the interest of rebuilding his lost fortune.
While I found Beatriz’s character interesting at the beginning of the novel—she is committed to avenging her brother’s death by helping take down Fidel Castro and not interested in marrying one of the well-off men of Palm Beach—by the novel’s end, she just became tedious. Beatriz becomes involved with Nick, an (engaged) U.S. Senator who is a close friend of then-candidate John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Of course it becomes a bit of a scandal, and Beatriz becomes deeper involved with the CIA’s covert plots to oust Fidel—at one point even going undercover in another country.
I did appreciate that the novel was historically accurate and portrayed a family that was personally affected by the Cuban Revolution (a historical event whose ins and outs I am not too familiar with…). The Bay of Pigs invasion is included, and there is some commentary on the U.S.’ tendency to meddle in other countries’ affairs (all in the name of “spreading democracy,” of course). But by the third time Beatriz and Nick argued about her involvement with the CIA, it became a bit tedious.
The writing was engaging (I highlighted several passages), but I felt the novel was a bit too long and repetitive at parts, and Beatriz’ character felt increasingly dramatic as the novel progressed. Not a bad read by any means, but it wasn’t a favorite.
TL;DR: A good, but somewhat repetitive historical fiction novel that weaves romance and covert spy operations with lovely prose.
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