Today’s author interview guest is Chanel Cleeton, who stops by the show to talk about her brand new historical novel The Last Train to Key West. One of Bustle’s Most Anticipated Books of Summ…
Author Stories Podcast Episode 908 Chanel Cleeton Returns With The Last Train To Key West – The Author Stories Podcast With Hank Garner
Our Last Days in Barcelona — Chanel Cleeton
Chanel Cleeton's The Last Train to Key West, in front of my late-summer garden. Chanel Cleeton's The Last Train to Key West, the third in a loosely connected set of historical novels/romances built around the sort-of-aristocratic Cuban Pérez family, is just my sort of beach read: filled with history, class strife, and the heady fantasy…
The Last Train to Key West – Essentially a Nerd
Book Review - The Last Train to Key West ·
Review: THE LAST TRAIN TO KEY WEST by Chanel Cleeton – The Bookish Libra
Instant New York Times bestseller! 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
When We Left Cuba
The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton: 9780451490889
The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba: An Evening with Chanel Cleeton and Cristina Nosti - Crowdcast
The following post includes affiliate links. More details here. Dear readers, are you ready for another bit of insight into how the Heart.Wants.Books sauce is made? Well, here it is. I’ve shared that if I wait too long to draft a post, then I get all sorts of things wrong about the book (incorrectly referring to Bennett sisters is the most memorable I can come up with right now), and Ashley has to work extra hard to fix my mess, so I just try not to wait. Ideally, I finish a book and then process a few days and write it up. I’m always reading something, so this is a delicate balance of processing and reading and sometimes it works better than others. We’ve made no secret that we’ve started #witchyreads in preparation for a month-long celebration in October (which #spoileralert, starts a week from today, or at Virtual Book Club last Friday, whichever), so I’ll not hold back and share that I finished The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton in two days (yes, TWO) and then jumped straight into an intense witchy read. That was not my best plan dear readers. Now I have a quiet moment to think and type and I’m consumed by this witchy read, and also distracted by the recent hurricane that has ravished parts of the Gulf Coast. Here’s the thing though, I’m also resisting the urge to check out and/or one click Cleeton’s back list. Too many great books is a glorious problem to have! The Last Train to Key West is historical fiction, with a heaping side of romance, that follows the lives of three very different women leading up to and immediately following the Labor Day hurricane that hit the Florida Keys in 1935. We meet each of these three women in Key West. Helen grew up in Key West and is struggling in her abusive marriage, lasting this long because of her husband’s frequent absences on his fishing boat. Mirta has just entered into an arranged marriage and is honeymooning in the Keys on her way from trying to help her family and escape the politics in Cuba to her new life in New York with her notorious husband she is just getting to know. Elizabeth has come to Florida in search of the sender of a letter, and a way out of the mess her family is in following the stock market crash of 1929. I knew nothing about the hurricane, one of the strongest and deadliest to hit the US, before reading this book, only that there was a hurricane as a plot point in this book. Here’s why we read the author’s notes and acknowledgements: Cleeton, a Florida native, wrote this book because she’d read about the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, and the tragic loss of so many World War I veterans who were in the Keys working on the highway. I don’t know about you all, but historical fiction is my favorite way to learn about history. As a political science major who also did a deep dive into the first half of the twentieth century in AP US History, the Bonus Army wasn’t news to me, but what happened with the veterans after they left Washington, D.C. wasn’t something I remembered from school (and may not have even been covered), so I’m especially glad to have this story told in a new way. While The Last Train to Key West, really is about how the 1935 Labor Day hurricane affects those in its path, it’s also about man’s efforts to dominate nature, how the Keys and mother nature refused, and how the Great Depression affected people from different socio-economic backgrounds. All of that is told through the lens of our three women who are each trying to make the best of various abhorrent situations and do anything they can to save their families and create a better life for themselves, IN THE MIDDLE OF A HORRIFIC HURRICANE. One thing I adore about more recent titles in general is the inclusion of consent. Elizabeth is clear from the start that she knows her power as a woman and does not hold back her opinions from Sam, mainly that cultural acceptance is the only thing limiting her. From her first page, we know Mirta has concerns about the (lack of a) physical side of her arranged marriage to a practical stranger. For all of Anthony’s issues, he is kind to his wife, in and out of bed, and makes it clear that he wants a real marriage and he’s not going to mess that up by rushing marital relations that his proper society wife isn’t emotionally ready to handle. While the bedroom scenes are closed-door, we know he takes his time, and is open with her about why. I don’t want to speak about Helen’s experiences because spoilers, but we know her husband is abusive, and others who interact with her know this too and are very considerate of her past experiences. THIS IS THE WAY. I want to say more about this, but also I don’t. The Last Train to Key West is beautifully written with gorgeous descriptions, and the women have depth, even though we track three main characters in only 300 pages (most of the book takes place in only a few days). There is a bit of a bow at the end, but not enough for me (and I’m hoping for more since this is a June 2020 release, but not expecting it as her next book will take readers back to Cuba in May). I give this book an enthusiastic four stars. While I am not likely to reread this any time soon (unless we get a follow up and then I am very likely to reread), I am stoked to dig into Cleeton’s back list, and not just Next Year in Havana and When We Left Cuba, but also her romance novels too! [Ashley Here: From what […]
The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton - Heart Wants Books
King County Library on X: Take a lunch break with bestselling authors of historical fiction on July 28. They will discuss their new books and answer questions. Authors include: Chanel Cleeton Fiona