Our Last Days in Barcelona

March 28, 2022
In this engrossing saga, Cleeton picks up the story of the Perez family from When We Left Cuba, following their exile in Florida after Castro’s revolution. The eldest daughter, Isabel, 28, travels to Barcelona in 1964, worried that her sister Beatriz’s job at the U.S. consulate there, a cover for CIA-supported anti-Castro work, has put her in danger. In Beatriz’s apartment, Isabel discovers an old photo of herself as a toddler taken in Barcelona with her mother, Alicia, and an unknown man. Cleeton then shifts back to 1936, with Alicia taking Isabel to visit her parents in Spain after learning of her husband Emilio’s infidelities. Alicia reconnects with Nestor, a doctor she had a crush on when they were both students. They fall in love while Alicia tries to help her unmarried pregnant sister, Consuela, keep her baby. Back in 1964, Isabel falls in love with Beatriz’s friend, Diego, whom she later suspects is working for the CIA. There are satisfying endings for mother and daughter, with an unexpected revelation of how Alicia’s choice made Isabel’s possible a generation later. Cleeton’s complex female characters and evocative settings, spiced with a dollop of political drama, make this a pleasing outing. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marshall Lyon Literary.

May 1, 2022

In 1964 Palm Beach, Cuban exile Isabel Perez is determined to find her sister Beatriz, who has vanished without a trace. Isabel forms an alliance with a man named Diego, who says he is Beatriz's friend. With no other choice but to trust him, Isabel travels with Diego to Spain, trying to retrace her sister's footsteps. What they find is that Beatriz is involved with the CIA and its web of spies in a risky plot to overthrow Fidel Castro. Stranger still, Isabel discovers that a chapter of her mother Alicia's own story that started in 1936, is closely linked to Beatriz's disappearance. In a magnificent tale of resilience and courage, Cleeton weaves a mother's past with her daughters' present, both forged in times of war and revolution. From Cuba to Barcelona to Palm Beach, Cleeton describes historical events so accurately and vividly that readers will feel transported to the 1930s and '60s. VERDICT Historical fiction fans will love this novel by Cleeton (The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba) and its perfectly detailed descriptions of a long-gone era.--Adriana Delgado

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2022
The Perez sisters are back! The new installment in Cleeton's Perez family saga, following The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba (2021), features the two eldest daughters, Isabel and Beatriz, along with matriarch Alicia and Rosa, her best friend. Leaving her stodgy husband behind, eldest sister Isabel leaves Palm Beach, where she landed after being exiled from Cuba, in a hurry in 1964, after impulsive risk-taker Beatriz goes missing in Barcelona. Searching for Beatriz amid the brutality of Franco's Spain, Isabel finds intrigue, a handsome stranger, and a tantalizing photograph hinting at her mother's secret Barcelona adventures. Cleeton has Alicia narrate her story, set during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s. Rosa tells of being newly widowed in Havana and agitating for women's rights under the repressive Machado regime. Isabel, who does not remember being with her mother as a toddler, recounts her own Barcelona tale. Cleeton weaves the three women's stories together to create another charming historical novel about strong women facing adversity in life and love, who are passionately loyal to family and forever yearning for their lost homeland.

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