The Most Beautiful Girl In Cuba by Chanel Cleeton | Book Review

I received this book for free from Library, Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Named one of 2021's Most Anticipated Historical Novels and Best Beach Reads by Entertainment Weekly ∙ Oprah Magazine ∙ Travel + Leisure ∙ BuzzFeed ∙ Parade ∙ PopSugar ∙ Bustle ∙ SheReads ∙ Brit + Co and more! "An exciting and inspiring read that shows us how womanhood, courage and revolution are three words that often mean the same thing."―NPR
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.

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.

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April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

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