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Next Year in Havana
Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton is $2.99! This was a Reese Witherspoon book club pick and I’m so happy Reese is showing some attention to romance and romance-adjacent titles. This book has dual timelines: 2017 Miami and 1958 Havana. Have you read this one?
After the death of her beloved grandmother, a Cuban-American woman travels to Havana, where she discovers the roots of her identity–and unearths a family secret hidden since the revolution…
Havana, 1958. The daughter of a sugar baron, nineteen-year-old Elisa Perez is part of Cuba’s high society, where she is largely sheltered from the country’s growing political unrest–until she embarks on a clandestine affair with a passionate revolutionary…
Miami, 2017. Freelance writer Marisol Ferrera grew up hearing romantic stories of Cuba from her late grandmother Elisa, who was forced to flee with her family during the revolution. Elisa’s last wish was for Marisol to scatter her ashes in the country of her birth.
Arriving in Havana, Marisol comes face-to-face with the contrast of Cuba’s tropical, timeless beauty and its perilous political climate. When more family history comes to light and Marisol finds herself attracted to a man with secrets of his own, she’ll need the lessons of her grandmother’s past to help her understand the true meaning of courage.
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An Unconditional Freedom
An Unconditional Freedom by Alyssa Cole is $1.99! This is the third book in Cole’s The Loyal League series, and came out this February. Reviews on Goodreads seem divided on whether this one was the best in the series, or didn’t live up to the first two. If you’ve read it, what do you think?
An assassination plot that could end the Civil War, and a drive for vengeance that could destroy a secret league of unsung heroes . . .
Daniel Cumberland’s uneventful life as a freedman in Massachusetts ended the night he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. To then have his freedom restored by the very man who stole his beloved’s heart is almost too much to bear. When he’s offered entry into the Loyal League, the covert organization of spies who helped free him, Daniel seizes the opportunity to help take down the Confederacy and vent the rage that consumes him.
When the Union Army occupies Janeta Sanchez’s small Florida town, her family’s goodwill and ties to Cuba fail to protect her father from being unjustly imprisoned for treason. To ensure her father’s release, Janeta is made an offer she can’t refuse: spy for the Confederacy. Driven by a desire for vengeance and the hope of saving her family, she agrees to infiltrate the Loyal League as a double agent.
Daniel is both aggravated and intrigued by the headstrong recruit. For the first time in months, he feels something other than anger, but a partner means being accountable, and Daniel’s secret plan to settle a vendetta and strike a blow for the Union can be entrusted to no one. As Janeta and Daniel track Jefferson Davis on his tour of the South, their dual hidden missions are threatened by the ghosts of their pasts and a growing mutual attraction—that might be their only hope for the future.
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Maybe This Time
Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie is $2.99! This is the Crusie with the ghost, if I recall. It’s been so long since I’ve read it, though I remember it being cute. Not my favorite though. Do you have a preferred Crusie? If you could only recommend one to a reader to capture the Crusie experience, which book would you choose?
When Andie Miller goes to see her ex-husband, North Archer, to return ten years of uncashed alimony checks, he asks for one final favor: A distant cousin has died and left him guardian of two orphans who have driven out three nannies already; will she take the job? Bribed with money and a need for closure, Andie says yes, packs her bags, and heads for Southern Ohio.
But when she meets the two children she realizes things are much worse than she feared. The children aren’t any run-of-the-mill delinquents, the creepy old house where they live is being run by the worst housekeeper since Mrs. Danvers, and something strange is happening at night. Plus, Andie’s fiance thinks it’s a plan by North to get Andie back, and since Andie’s been dreaming about North since she arrived at the house, she’s not sure he isn’t right.
Then her ex-brother-in-law arrives with a duplicitous journalist and a self-doubting parapsychologist, closely followed by an annoyed medium, Andie’s tarot card–reading mother, her avenging ex-mother-in-law, and her jealous fiancé. Just when Andie’s sure things couldn’t get more complicated, North arrives to make her wonder if maybe this time things could be different…
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Final Girls
Final Girls by Riley Sager is $1.99! This thriller was the topic of much debate on SBTB, when it came out that the author was a man using an ambiguous pen name. I know I, for one, thought the book was written by a woman. You can check out our discussion here. Have you read this one? What’d you think?
Ten years ago, college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie–scale massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to—a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls. Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout’s knife; Sam, who went up against the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape Pine Cottage and the man she refers to only as Him. The three girls are all attempting to put their nightmares behind them, and, with that, one another. Despite the media’s attempts, they never meet.
Now, Quincy is doing well—maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost-fiancé, Jeff; a popular baking blog; a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life all those years ago. Her memory won’t even allow her to recall the events of that night; the past is in the past.
That is, until Lisa, the first Final Girl, is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit, and Sam, the second, appears on Quincy’s doorstep. Blowing through Quincy’s life like a whirlwind, Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the past, with increasingly dire consequences, all of which makes Quincy question why Sam is really seeking her out. And when new details about Lisa’s death come to light, Quincy’s life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel Sam’s truths from her lies, evade the police and hungry reporters, and, most crucially, remember what really happened at Pine Cottage, before what was started ten years ago is finished.
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BET ME is perhaps the quintessential Jennifer Crusie for me.
From my review:
“Crusie gives the readers sometimes opposing, sometimes complimentary explanations about how love works (Tony’s chaos theory, Bonnie’s fairy tale, Cynthie’s “four levels” and Liza’s cynicism). A psychologist (one who is more gifted than Cynthie at least) could have a field day speculating on Crusie’s meaning in bumping all these couples (and views of relationships) up against each other and seeing what falls out.
This time around, my reaction to the story became more of pondering why some relationships work and how expectations impact outcome. The many characters in this book who aren’t able to actually communicate with each other is also worth contemplating. The book is almost a primer on how many ways there are to NOT talk and NOT hear what others are saying. Through it all, even with their missteps and failings, Min and Cal get it right, seeing past outward appearances (both perfect and not-so-perfect) to see the worth of the person within.”
I’ll also give a shout-out to FAST WOMEN for it’s sometimes painful look at divorce and for its representation of female friendship. And to THE CINDERELLA DEAL for it’s mostly lighthearted but poignant take on the fake fiancee trope. It’s one I’ve reread several times.
I was just coming here to say Bet Me, it’s one of my comfort reads. I have it in paper and ebook, so I can dip in as needed.
I think for me, Welcome to Temptation, or Faking It. I really enjoyed the characters and the siblings raised by con artists who are aiming for the straight(er) and narrow.
Fast Women was like a Cary Grant – Katherine Hepburn movie. Snappy dialogue, dazzling characters, loose easy action. Welcome to Temptation was pretty amazing too, with fun pop culture references and dense, funny dialogue. My favorites!
My top ones: Welcome to Temptation, Faking It, Bet Me, Wild Ride.
Weirdly enough, I kind of agree with both sides on the Cole: it struck me as the strongest book of the trilogy but also as the weakest romance.
I love Bet Me, but Faking It is my number one rec for Crusie. Even though it is nominally a sequel to Welcome to Temptation, it can definitely be read as a stand alone. There are complex interwoven themes around family, including obligation, love of several different kinds, non traditional families, and a secondary romance for the MCs mother which was also satisfying. And like any Crusie, the dialogue was fun and the humor hits well.
I loved Next Year in Havana. One of my top reads for this year.
I’ve tried a few Crusie books, which I think includes starting and never finishing this one, but “Bet Me” is my go-to rec for her books. A friend of mine actually messaged me like 8 years ago today (thanks for the reminder, FB memories) to tell me that she read it in one sitting because she couldn’t put it down – and that includes when she was getting in some mileage on the elliptical. (She did get a bit motion sick from trying to read and work out at the same time.)
Agnes and the Hitman for me. A funny, fast-moving, & heartfelt gallop of a story. I also appreciate that Agnes is quite an angry person, and that anger is written as being an essential part of her personality, not something to be cured or repressed even though it causes problems for her. And when unleashed against her enemies ’tis glorious to read.
I think for me it’s either Bet Me or Agnes and the Hitman.
I have several Jennifer Crusie books I love but my absolute favorite is Agnes and the Hitman, a collaboration with Bob Mayer. Sooo funny. Even my husband liked it.
I also love Fast Women, Welcome to Temptation, Bet Me, Faking It (which follows Welcome to Temptation) and Wild Ride (another collab with Bob Mayer).
I’ve read all of these several times. But if you can only read one, read Agnes and the Hitman.
I vote Bet Me too but this has made me think I need to go back and read more Crusie. Bet Me was my gateway drug to the entire romance genre. That being said, I actually really loved Maybe This Time. Crusie was an English teacher/prof and The Turn of the Screw was one of her favorite books to teach. It’s meant to be an homage to that book and she did a nice job with it. Plus it’s a little spooky, perfect for this time of year.
Two thumbs up for Chanel Cleeton! I loved Next Year in Havana. Her latest The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba has been my favorite read this year. Highly recommend!
@BKMeggie—Jennifer Cruise was my intro to the fact that romance could be better than velvet thrusting, pooling satin, and the awfulness that was whatever Catherine Coulter I read my senior year of high school. Welcome to Temptation and Faking It are definitely my favorites of hers.
I was also going to comment that Maybe This Time is an homage / re-imagining of The Turn of the Screw. As I recall, I thought it worked better as a ghost story / feminist spin on gothics than it did as a traditional genre romance. It has a satisfying hea but the main couple aren’t in the same location for a good part of the story and a lot of the focus is on the kids and the house.
It’s also set in the 1990s even though it was written later than that. I assume because creating a sense of isolated dread is easier if you don’t have to explain why the protags can’t just use their cell phones or go to the local library and use their Internet.
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned Anyone But You! It has all the hallmarks of a classic Cruise — funny, sweet, great secondary characters, a hilarious dog — packed into a quick-moving category romance. I must’ve read it half a dozen times over the years and I love it.
Next Year in Havana was a great read. I love all the Alyssa Cole books in the series and this one was my favourite.
@Georgina, I’m not sure how I forgot to mention Anyone But You! Thank you for the reminder. I reread that one at the beginning of the pandemic lockdown, and it was just as fun as the first time I read it. I think it’s one of my favorite portrayals of a dog in any book, and a sweet romance.
Doesn’t look as if Maybe This Time is available on Kindle in the UK, which is a shame. I have read it, but would like an e-version.
Welcome to Temptation is my all-time favorite, closely followed by Faking It. I actually like Charlie All Night too, although it’s definitely dated now.
Welcome to Temptation is the one for me. It was the book that taught me that romance could be fun, witty and intelligent. Followed by Bet me which taught me that happily after is not a baby epilogue. I love that epilogue. I always reread it at least 3 times.
I own all JC’s books. My fav is still the first one I read..WELCOME TO TEMPTATION. tHE READER IS GREAT IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN AND THERE’S ALWAYS MY RE INTRO TO Dusty. Opps, forgot the caps lock was on.
I’m definitely on the Welcome to Temptation/Faking It bandwagon. I re-read these recently and they actually hold up well over time.
But honorable mention to another Crusie that I don’t see anyone talking about: Crazy For You. It is not entirely lighthearted–it shows some very toxic relationship stuff, with stalking, gaslighting, etc. But handled in a pretty good way, I thought.
Jennifer Crusie remains one of my favorites, as she could make me laugh and sigh and nod in agreement like few other contemporary authors. As an example of her gifts, after reading a number of Old Skool romances where the hero and heroine are described in excruciating (and eventually boring) detail every few pages (her blue/azure/turquoise eyes, his black/raven/midnight hair), it was a pleasure to read Crusie’s description of Phineas, the hero of WtT, who “looked like every glossy frat boy in every nerd movie ever made, like every popular town boy who’d ever looked right through her in high school, like every rotten rich kid who’d ever belonged where she hadn’t.” We know he’s handsome but hair color, height, musculature don’t need details when after that description I can picture him immediately.
Agnes and the hitman is a perfect book. I love the Meyer/Crusie writing team