Let me preface this review by stating that this is very much a historical fiction and not a historical romance. There is a very faint romantic storyline in this book but it is hardly the driving force or the main focus of the story. It is merely a slight sideplot and if that’s not your cuppa, then this book may not be for you.

That being said, I was thoroughly engrossed in this story about three different women living in three different time periods, their lives all somehow converging under the most unusual of circumstances. And while I typically and primarily read romance novels, I do make an exception for certain authors, Chanel Cleeton being one of them. My introduction to her work was through romance novels since that’s what she used to write before she pivoted away to writing historical fiction, much of it focused on Cuba in the early and mid 1900s. 

Since this book has three main protagonists, it only seems fair to break this review into three main sections, focused on each of the main characters.  

Margo:

It seems best to start with Margo as she also opens the book and the first chapter is told through her POV. She’s the only character whose entire storyline is set in current times, a young, recently divorced American businesswoman in her 30s living in London. She runs a successful business where she helps clients find lost or elusive treasures, antiques, furniture, artwork, family heirlooms, etc. She is also the only one of the three protagonists who does get a slight romantic storyline with an HEA when, in her hunt for the titular book for a mysterious and wealthy client, she is forced to cross paths with her British ex husband, formerly a detective who worked on art crimes, often for Interpol, and is now running his own investigation firm. 

I’ll be honest, Margo was, in my viewpoint, the least interesting of the three protagonists, partly because she felt almost like an outside observer, sort of representing the reader in uncovering the mystery of this book but also because, her narrative wasn’t really fleshed out as well as the other two characters. Yes, she takes this client on and in her search for this missing book that only has one copy in print, she happens upon the murder of a friend and then teams up with the ex husband she still harbors feelings for to search for this book together. So, she does go through some things. But the real heart and soul of this story comes from the remaining two protagonists. 

Pilar:

Pilar is a librarian living in Havana in the 1960s, during Fidel’s authoritarian reign over Cuba. One of the reasons I love these specific historical fiction books so much is because it focuses on a time period and country that I know very little about. My public school education certainly did not include much about Cuban history, even the parts of it that intercepted with our own country’s history, so these books are an eye opening revelation in terms of what life was like in Cuba pre and post revolution and during the Fidel Castro era. 

Pilar is married but her husband was arrested by Fidel’s men for alleged crimes against the government. She lives in fervent hope of being able to see her husband again and goes to work at a library, where she secretly protects books left to her by people who are fleeing Cuba. She hides them to prevent them from falling into the hands of Fidel’s government. When her neighbor leaves her the titular book before she herself flees Cuba with instructions for Pilar to return the book to the author, Pilar reads the book over and over again, finding peace and solace at a time when she feels desperately alone and unsure about who to trust. When events conspire to force Pilar to flee Cuba herself, she tracks down the author to return the book before she has to leave the country of her birth. 

Eva:

And that leads us to the final protagonist of the book, the titular character, Eva, a school teacher and aspiring writer in Havana in 1900. She has no family left, has lived through the revolution but this is before Fidel became president and in 1900 Havana, Eva gets the opportunity of a lifetime. In an effort to aid in Cuban-American relations and also to rebuild the Cuban education system from the ground up, the government institutes Cuban Summer School where over a thousand Cuban school teachers are sent to study at Harvard for the summer. (This is an actual thing that happened, per the author’s notes, I was fascinated to learn). So Eva, who has never traveled out of Cuba, takes an American military ship from Cuba to Boston where she and her fellow Cuban teachers would take courses in English and history and geography and pedagogy and bring all that newfound knowledge back to Cuba for their own students.  (This is, of course, American imperialism couched as two countries trying to build bridges and whatnot). 

Eva’s story – both her own personal story and the book she ends up writing as a result of the choices she makes and the ones taken out of her hands, is the true impetus of this book and there’s a part of me that wishes the book had devoted more space to Eva’s chapters. I don’t want to give too much away about Eva’s part of the story but it’s riveting and heartbreaking and Pilar and Eva (and to some degree, Margo) encapsulate strength and determination and bravery in the face of some very real danger. 

This book is also a love letter to books and to storytellers and to the people who read those stories and pass them on, share them, love them. It’s a love letter to the truth tellers and people who work to preserve history for future generations. There is so much of what happens in this book, especially in Pilar and Eva’s timelines that feels relevant to current times. 

So, if you’re in the mood to read a historical fiction that takes place in multiple time periods and delves into Cuban history, I highly refcommed this book but also her other historical fiction titles. They will transport you to a time period and country that is fascinating and worth learning more about. 

Grade: A

Content Notes: murder, attempted murder, wrongful imprisonment, breaking and entering, assault