Chanel Cleeton gives readers an atmospheric glimpse into the complex Cuban-American relations of the 1960s in When We Left Cuba. Forced to flee Havana with her family when Fidel Castro seized power, Cuban sugar heiress Beatriz Perez is bored and restless in 1960s Palm Beach. While her mother worries over marrying off her daughters and her father buries himself in work, Beatriz longs for a greater purpose to her life, especially one that will include Castro's downfall. Then she meets Nick, a handsome young U.S. senator who's both irresistible and absolutely wrong for her. Soon after, Beatriz is approached by the CIA to aid them in a plot to kill Castro. But the Americans' involvement is more troubling than it first appears.
Beatriz, a secondary character in Cleeton's Next Year in Havana, takes center stage here, narrating her own story with occasional flashes forward to Castro's death in 2016. As Beatriz struggles with her feelings for Nick and their conflicting ambitions, she also wrestles with the competing pull of duty to her family, love for her homeland and her own thirst for independence. Her CIA job provides income and a shot at bringing down Castro, but what she really wants is the chance to create a life that's entirely her own--with or without Nick. With rich historical detail, incisive dialogue and a firebrand heroine, Cleeton paints a vivid portrait of a woman caught in the currents of a turbulent time yet determined to make her own way. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams