First published 2018
Marisol Ferrera arrives in Havana carrying her grandmother Elisa's ashes and a lifetime of stories about pre-revolution Cuba. The freelance writer from Miami has come to fulfill Elisa's dying wish to return to her homeland. As Marisol explores the streets of modern Havana, she uncovers hidden chapters of her family's past that her grandmother never shared. The story shifts between 1958, where nineteen-year-old Elisa Perez lives as the daughter of a sugar baron in Cuba's elite circles, and 2017, where Marisol navigates both her grandmother's secrets and her growing attraction to a Cuban man with mysteries of his own. Elisa's sheltered world crumbles when she begins a forbidden romance with a revolutionary, forcing her to confront the political upheaval that will soon destroy everything she knows. Through parallel journeys across decades, both women must find the strength to face dangerous truths about love, family, and what it costs to call a place home.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: forbidden-romance, parallel-timelines
Setting: Cuba, Havana, Miami
Period: 1958, 2017
1 pages · MP3 CD · Blackstone Publishing