Welcome to Litsy!

"As exiles, that hope is embedded in the very essence of our soul, taught from birth--
Next year in Havana--
It's the #toast we never stop saying, because the dream of it never comes true"

#25Alive

@Princess-Kingofkings thanks for the #ffs #fallingforfallswap ! I love the book sleeve. Sorry I forgot to open yesterday!

#AboutABook #WithDualTimeline

September selection for #12booksof2023

Next Year in Havana is a love story. It‘s not just a romantic story of people falling in love, it‘s a story about one‘s love of country, culture, history, and family. Chanel Cleeton delivered a fascinating first book to The Cuba Saga series.

Full review at https://abookandadog.com

I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join in if you want!

#ABookADay2023

1. So far it‘s the tagged book…
2. 30th wedding anniversary (Who‘d have thunk it?)
#two4tuesday

I‘m woefully behind on #ReadingTheAmericas2023 but have at least now completed #Cuba … one of the countries for which I had multiple options. The dual timeline worked for this story. Though I already knew much about the situation past and present, putting human faces to it was very touching.

So this one just didn‘t do much for me. I like a good historical novel that you actually learn something from but this story just kind of dragged on for me with a little too much detail. It took about 2 months to read and I just kinda left it on the back burner for in between books. I saw there is a spin off from this book from another perspective..I think one perspective was enough 🤨

Marisol travels to #Cuba to spread her grandmother Elisa‘s ashes and tries to better understand the country from which her family was exiled. I really liked the Cuban history and politics here as well as the dual storylines to enhance the perspective, but the author tried much too hard to make the stories parallel, pushed more romance than I cared for, and repeated certain phrases far too often.

#ReadingAmericas2023

A lot of politics. Two mirrored love stories, decades apart. It inspires hope amongst sadness.

This book was beautiful. All at once parallel, connected love stories, mystery, historical, and modern. I know some things about Cuba (I saw DD Havana Nights, after all), but this glimpse into the complex politics and history of the island was perfectly captured in a compelling and engaging read.

I loved this book so much. So much! More than I anticipated. The characters are so well written, and the descriptions of Cuba are evocative. The author really makes Cuba come alive, like a separate character of the book. here are books that are good, that are novels. And then there are books that wonderful, that are literature. NEXT YEAR IN HAVANA is literature, and I‘m very eager to find the rest of the author‘s books.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

I decided to do some things out of my comfort zone. A celebrity book list AND audiobooks…. Not my typical things. But as I‘m listening, the protagonist keeps saying, “he‘s married”, responding to her forbidden attraction to this man. But I‘m just sitting in the car saying back, “he‘s your cousin!”. Did I only half listen and completely misunderstand Louis relationship? Being married is the last of her problems with that one🤦🏻‍♀️

You want to read this. Tense and moving, we look into the lives and loves of those who survived the Cuban Revolution and then their ancestors after Fidel Castro died.

This is a light pick for me. The story was good and I liked the characters but there was a LOT of dialogue lecturing on the history of Cuba and it got to be a bit much.

Dual timelines/ Havana,1958 and Miami, 2017. The story of the prominent Perez Family,sugar company owners.Elisa, one of the debutante daughters,falls in love with a rebel in Castro‘s Army.When the President flees the country, so must the family,to start a new life in Miami. When Elisa dies,her granddaughter returns to Cuba with her ashes. Incite from the Cuban perspective about what happened in the past and currently. #foodandlit #cuba
⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a narrow Pick but I really loved the nuances about Cuban history and the push-pull for exiled Cubans. The second love story felt forced to me, especially the ending.

Current audiobook. #foodandlit #cuba

Next Year in Havana 4/5 ⭐️

Up next is In the Dream House.

#ThingsinCommon Authors first names start with C

Our next pick for #ItsLit VBC!

1. I Must Betray You
2. Not yet
3. Tagged…I think I just figured out what the title means

@Eggs

Happy Wednesday 💗 Here are your questions ⬆️ and here are my answers ⬇️

1️⃣ I like to peruse the bookish box subscriptions online—there are all kinds ranging from $28 to $hundreds per box. Etsy has bookish box sellers too.
2️⃣ I set a lower goal on GR this year:350 instead of my usual 550
3️⃣ the tagged is HF dual timeline - 4⭐️

#wondrouswednesday

I feel guilty cheating on my school textbooks with a physical novel but for whatever reason an audiobook feels fine.

I‘m not much for romance as a genre but I am really enjoying this book so far. Cleeton does a wonderful job expressing the realities of Cuban politics without glossing over the painful truths of the country‘s history. This is a novel where multigenerational families, romance, socioeconomics and deep loyalty for La Patria collide.

#Beginswithn
#GratefulHeart

💗📚🌸

Good story

A Reese‘s book club book so I have high hopes, looking forward to learning a bit more about the Cuban revolution too! I tend to pick books that are set in World War Two as I‘m so familiar with that period of history, so lots to learn here.
#nextyearinhavana #chanelcleeton

Didn‘t want to put this down. Great couple twists I did not see coming!

#mbcreadathon #mbcbookfrogsreadathon6

Never posted a review for this one. This was recommended to me by BookRiot for #GetTBR

I really enjoyed this book. I‘m embarrassed to say I didn‘t know much about Cuba‘s history. Set in 1959 and 2017.

As always, I enjoyed the past storyline more than the present day one but overall really liked this book.

Honestly, I‘m more excited to read Beatriz‘s story but am glad this book put that one on my radar.

As close as I could think of!

#Spain
#JulyJourneys

Tanya you are so wonderful! I love everything! I already know where I'm going to hang up the sign. 🍉 I love how we got each other the same book 😂 The book sleeve is gorgeous! I love stickers, I have a HUGE collection. Also I've never seen those watermelon candies before so I'm super excited to try them! Thank you for everything!!! 🥰 #sliceofsummerswap

Split between Elisa Perez's experiences during the Cuban Revolution just before Castro took over and her family was forced to flee and her granddaughter's return to the island in modern day to scatter her families ashes. The lives of the two Perez women take surprisingly similar paths even if decades apart and it's another beautiful exploration of the history of Cuba and Cubans in exile living with their love and anger from afar.

4 stars / ⭐⭐⭐⭐

1. Next Year in Havana and The Other Black Girl

2. The Taking of Jake Livingston

3. A Psalm for the Wild-Built, One Last Stop, The Ones We're Meant to Find, Malibu Rising, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, and Amari and the Night Brothers

#WeekendReads

Put together a physical #BookSpin list! It just turned out I had 85% of the books I‘m going to try and read.

I‘m looking forward to all these books. I‘m just waiting for July to show up!

#Pink
#CuriousCovers
#TBR

💗🌷

I really enjoyed this and would love to visit Cuba some day. Finished after a very warm day hiking in Arches! #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

Latest book haul!! Plans are: Next Year in Havana ( current read), When We Left Cuba, Anne of Green Gables, and finally The Downstairs Girl. I am loving the mix of Historical and Contemporary Fiction. I love Marisol and Elisa as characters already.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
I finally got around to reading this lovely story. I listened to the audiobook and the narrators did a fabulous job. I hope the other books in the series are just as enjoyable.

1. Absolutely!
2. No way! I would never be able to focus.

#Two4Tuesday

@TheSpineView

pretty good audiobook! not sure i would‘ve been able to get through it if i actually ‘read‘ it since historical fiction isn‘t really my jam buuuuut i perhaps am a little hooked💃❤️🇨🇺 i‘m game for a series! #nextyearinhavana #reesebookclub #audible

This has been on my TBR for too long. Today is your Day!