What I’m Reading (4.2.23)

The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton (★★★★★)

Audiobook • Libby • Historical Fiction • 2020

Short synopsis: It’s 1935 in Key West, and a hurricane is barrelling down on the city. Three women will be caught up in its wrath: Helen, who is 8 months pregnant and in an abusive marriage; Mirta, who just got married to a man she barely knows and is on her honeymoon; and Elizabeth, whose family was decimated due to the Wall Street crash and is in search of her brother. 

I loved this story. It captured my attention from the very beginning and I was always excited to return to my audiobook to listen to more of these three women’s stories. I’m also glad I did not listen to this book during hurricane season because I think it could have been a bit triggering, ha. Learning more about the 1935 Labor Day hurricane (which was one of just a handful of Category 5 hurricanes to hit the contiguous United States) and how much it destroyed Key West and the surrounding communities was really fascinating, as I’ve never heard of this hurricane before! What was most disturbing to learn about, though, were veteran work camps, which were established for the veterans returning home from war and in need of jobs. These work camps allowed veterans to work as laborers; in Key West, they were working on a bridge that would connect Key West to the mainland. But the conditions at these camps were awful and because of the storm, hundreds of veterans died. It’s another hard part of our history that I knew nothing about. In the end, this story was a five-star read for me because I loved the characters, was engaged from the very beginning, and enjoyed the history lesson I received between the pages.

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb (★★★★☆)

Print • Library • Contemporary Fiction • 2022

Short synopsis: Ray McMillan is a Black classical musician who inherited a priceless Stradivarius violin and is an up-and-coming star in the classical music scene. But then his violin gets stolen and held for ransom right before he’s to compete in the international Tchaikovsky Competition. Who has his violin and how will he get it back?

The first thing to know about this novel that it is not a mystery or thriller. Sure, there is the underlying mystery of what happened to Ray’s priceless violin, but this story is so much bigger than that. It’s about Ray, about being Black and the racism Ray experiences in the classical music scene, about being constantly overlooked and put down because of the color of his skin and being poor, about family and greed, about how far someone will go for money. Parts of this book were so hard to read because I just hated everything Ray had to go through. His family was terrible and the racism was hard to witness. But it was so well-written and a beautiful ode to classical music. Ray was such a fully developed character that every bad thing that happened to him made me angry and every good thing made me so happy. The sign of a great book, for sure. This is the kind of book I would love to see made into a movie or short TV series!

A Caribbean Heiress in Paris by Adriana Herrera (★★★★☆)

E-Book • Libby • Historical Romance • 2022

Short synopsis: Luz Alana is a Dominican woman who became owner of her family’s rum business when her father unexpectedly died. Along with her younger sister and two female friends, Luz Alana embarks to Paris to take part in the 1889 Exposition Universelle, a world’s fair where she will be able to showcase her wares and hopefully build a network of merchants who will sell her rum. Unfortunately, everyone she encounters is rude and dismissive. Until she meets Evan Sinclair, the Earl of Darnick. Evan can’t get enough of Luz Alana when he first meets her; she goes toe-to-toe with him as they spar and it lights a fire in him. When he learns about the difficulties she’s experiencing selling her rum, he vows to help her.

Okay, I think we need to get this out of the way: This book is more historical adjacent than straight-up historical. This is Herrera’s first attempt at a historical romance novel and while I can appreciate what she did here, she didn’t quite meet the mark when it comes to historical fiction. What I did love was having a whole cast of people of color in a historical romance, which is not something you see ever. There were also a lot of mentions of slavery and colonialism… also topics you rarely see in these books. The chemistry between Luz Alana and Evan was believable, and so was the way they fell in love. There were parts of the story where the author tried to amp up the tension with some miscommunication issues, and I just had to roll my eyes. We can do better than this, romance authors! There are so many more interesting ways to create emotional tension than miscommunication subplots. Anyway, this was more of a 3.5-star book, but I’m boosting it up to 4 stars because it did keep me pretty well engaged and I loved seeing such great representation in a subgenre that doesn’t often have that.

What are you reading?