Find Me in Havana

Check out my full review at https://literaryquicksand.com/2021/04/review-find-me-in-havana-by-serena-burdick/

This book has me conflicted. In some ways I loved it, and in some ways, it didn't quite work for me. I'll try my best to explain my mixed-up feelings here!

Alright so first of all, Estelita's story was fascinating and I couldn't believe the book was based on a true story! So dramatic. I would say, if you plan to read this book, don't look up Estelita Rodriguez. Let yourself be surprised by the story arc instead.

I liked both Estelita and her daughter, Nina, but they were both definitely flawed. Estelita is kind of a horrible mom, and Nina makes some pretty interesting choices throughout the book. I do think Burdick is an excellent relationship writer — I was sucked into this book pretty quickly because the characters and their relationships pulled me in. Nina loves her mom, but Estelita's flaws are hard to deal with. Estelita loves her daughter, but isn't quite sure how to balance their relationship with her career.

What didn't work for me with this book was the letter style. The book goes back and forth between mother and daughter, and the text is written like a letter. So, when it's Nina's chapter, she'll talk about her mom by using “you.” This was weird for me. The chapters are definitely not like letters anyone would write. There are so many details....great details for a novel, not for a believable letter. Plus, in the end, they're speaking in letters when that actually becomes impossible. It's just kind of odd.

3.5 stars.

The writing was pretty phenomenal, I really enjoyed the historical aspect, and I had a hard time tearing myself away from this book. This book is correctly compared to “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.” Just add the Cuban revolution and multi-generational mother/daughter relationships in there. I love historical fiction and enjoy multi-generational family sagas a lot so I really liked the lead up to the climax/the end.

The book was tense throughout and I think the author did a fantastic job of building tension throughout scenes. She introduced characters well and build them up pretty well. I had a bit of a hard time swallowing the believability of the the mother's romantic partners but they helped move the plot along so I found that relatively easy to overlook.

I have to round my rating down though because of the end. The prologue pulled me in but by the time we got to the resolution I was really disappointed in the way the character's stories ended. Some of it was sweet but I mostly just disappointed.

* I want to add that the audiobook is also VERY well produced and worth a listen!

I don't like that Nina's entire ending revolved around a man/finding love. I really didn't like that. Although I did think it was sweet that she found Julian's family and got the big family she wanted I wanted to see something more beyond just romance as part of her character arc. Also I wish we had some justice against Rodrigo. That was all so frustrating. After so much injustice in the book it would've been nice to have some kind of justice.