The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba by Chanel Cleeton

The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba by Chanel Cleeton

Publish Date: May 4, 2021

Summary

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.

About the Author

Originally from Florida, Chanel Cleeton grew up on stories of her family's exodus from Cuba following the events of the Cuban Revolution. Her passion for politics and history continued during her years spent studying in England, where she earned a bachelor's degree in International Relations from Richmond, The American International University in London, and a master's degree in Global Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Chanel also received her Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law.



Nerdy Mom Dot Com Review

As humans, throughout our histories, we collectively need a figure head to rally ourselves behind in moments of war and injustice. The human mind needs an example of why we are moving together for a collective purpose. In Chanel Cleeton's The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba that figure was Evangelina. 

The basis of Chanel's story revolves around Cuba's strive for independance from Spain in the late 19th century. The reader is introduced to Evangelina, a woman who is passionate about Cuba becoming an independant country and keeping to her beliefs no matter the cost to herself. She is quickly imprisoned for going against the Spanish but to her luck she catches the eye of the American press, which in turns gives the American public a face to put to the Cuban movement for independance. 

There are three main story lines in The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba and Chanel Cleeton introduces them with three strong female characters. There is Evangelina, the face of the revolution, Grace, an American journalist trying to become a respected writer in a man's world, and Marina, a Cuban woman that helps liberate Evangelina causing the beginning of the American involvement for Cuban independance. Cleeton breaks down each woman's involvement by chapters with each womans story unfolding little by little with each chapter eventually entwining with each other by the end of the story. All three women play a huge part in the story and illustrate the strength of the female spirit even under oppresive circumstances. 

I personally enjoyed Chanel Cleeton's story and to find out that Evangelina actually existed was breath taking. I have never studied much about the Cuban liberation from the Spainish so never really heard about Evangelina or the plight of the Cubans in the 19th century. The stress that Cleeton described on Evangelina's character was real and raw. She was made to feel that she had to be the face that would "launch a thousand ships" to free her people, big shoes to step into for a fragile female, or so she was viewed. As a reader even if you have no interest in the subject of Cuban liberation, I feel you owe yourself the favor of meeting Chanel Cleeton's strong female characters, I'm pretty certain you will find a character aspect of yourself in one or all of them.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an advanced reader copy for an honest review. 

For Purchase: The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba