I’ve been so excited to tell you about this book I just read: When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton.

This book is a sequel to one I read and loved last year: Next Year in Havana.

This work of historical fiction is told from the perspective of Beatriz Perez, who fled Cuba with her family when Fidel took power (their exile is covered in the first book).

“It’s been nearly a year since we left Cuba for what was supposed to be a few months away until the world realized what Fidel Castro had done to our island, and American has welcomed us into her loving embrace – almost.”

Now living in Miami, the rest of her family is trying their best to assimilate, but Beatrice yearns for her homeland and decides to risk everything to save it.

The book I just finished, Lost Roses: A Novel, is getting a lot of attention as the prequel to Lilac Girls, both by Martha Hall Kelly. Thanks to NetGalley I got access to this book in advance, and I’m ready to tell you more about it.

I liked this book though I had a couple of issues with it. Perhaps my expectations going in were a bit off, so I hope to help out with that in this post (for your future enjoyment). I do think it’s worth reading!

It’s been a long winter, and I am ready to start my “spring reading” which means I will compile a new list of the most intriguing new books to read. As I read through this list, I will post about the books I want to recommend (usually this isn’t all of them although I had great luck with my winter reading list!!). And today I am happy to write that I can already recommend a book from my spring list:

American Princess: A Novel of First Daughter Alice Roosevelt

This is historical fiction by Stephanie Marie Thornton as the subtitle implies about a first daughter starting in 1901. I did not know anything about the oldest daughter of Teddy Roosevelt before reading this book. Apparently she obtained celebratory status with the press reporting her every move (many of these moves being rebellious) and even had the color “Alice Blue” named after her.