The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba
by Chanel Cleeton
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 Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
It feels as though we are waiting to die here, growing mad minute by minute, our bones aging, the life leeching from us.
My debut was far from a splash, more like a slow drizzle, and now at twenty-five, unmarried and living with my mother’s eccentric sister, I am hardly marriage material.
In my current attire, everyone makes a concerted effort not to make eye contact with me as I pass by them. My appearance provides the perfect opportunity to work as a courier because no one, least of all the wealthy and privileged citizens of Havana, wants to confront the human face of this war.
It’s impossible to feel victorious when the “victory” leaves your country in ruins.
My Review:
I must confess other than knowing where it is on the map and the lore of their famous cigars, I am woefully ignorant about Cuba, Cuban history, and Cuban culture. I wore Mr. Google out while I read this tome and was astounded at how much of this story was actually true or based on true events. The author must have researched thousands of hours and brought history to life. She often walked a fine line to avoid being overwrought, as there was agony in every character’s storyline, so – much – agony. This was an informative as well as a challenging read for me and she implanted me so deeply within the narrative, I was struggling along with the characters. There was no shortage of despair, fear, misery, abuse, deprivation, and horrific conditions. The writing was highly descriptive as well as emotive and heart-squeezing and was intermittently paced yet quite eventful and busy. I need a spa day and a vat of wine to recover.
