Chanel Cleeton’s writing is completely transporting. I feel like I’ve learned so much about Cuba from her books. Particularly as we never really covered Cuba except for the Cuban Missile Crisis and Remember The Maine in my history classes. The Most Beautiful Girl In Cuba is an attention grabbing book that covers Cuba’s fight for independence from Spain. I was captivated by this book and would have read it in a day or two if not for real life getting in the way.
The Most Beautiful Girl In Cuba has three main characters. They are Grace, Marina, and Evangelina. Grace wants to be a reporter like Nellie Bly and so she finds herself a job with William Randolph Hearst as a reporter, secretly spying for Pulitzer with the hopes that she can earn herself a job at Pulitzer’s paper. Marina was from a wealthy family (the Perez family from Cleeton’s other books) but she married a farm boy and now she finds herself in a reconcentration camp in Havana taking in laundry to earn money and survive. Evangelina is a real woman from history and is the titular most beautiful girl in Cuba. She has been jailed and accused of luring a Spanish officer to be attacked by the revolutionaries. Evangelina, however, maintains that he attempted to force himself on her.
The three women featured in this book cross paths throughout. However, each provides a unique perspective to the Cuban fight for independence. We learn about the yellow journalism more in depth. Additionally, we get a perspective of the jail for women as well as the reconcentration camps. I learned that so many people died in Cuba during this time due to what Spain had put them through.
Aside from actually learning something from this book, I felt like The Most Beautiful Girl In Cuba had vast entertainment value as well. There are different romances for each of the three main characters. There are scents which felt like nail biters. I felt as though I could relate to Marina, Evangelina, and Grace in different ways. All three characters had me rooting for them. Cleeton has written another winner.
Latest posts by April (Books&Wine) (see all)
- Five Books I Recently Read - March 12, 2023
- 5 Mini Reviews - January 12, 2023
- Audiobook Mini Reviews Part Three - January 9, 2023
