Booklist has reviewed HAVANA LOST, and it’s a great review! (Be still my heart). Thank you, thank you…
The Cuban Revolution is the rich backdrop for this riveting historical thriller. In the days just prior to the revolution, life in Cuba is difficult. Spies are everywhere. Poverty and hunger are rampant. But for American Francesca Pacelli, life is easy. Her Mafia-boss father owns a luxury hotel and casino in Havana, where they live. When Francesca meets Luis Perez, a rebel fighter, she falls in love fast and runs away with him. Her father tracks her down and sends her back to the States, where the brokenhearted and pregnant Francesca is pushed into an arranged marriage. All their lives are changed by these events, and the story follows these characters from 1950s Cuba to present-day Chicago, where Francesca is now head of the family and is as ruthless as she needs to be. Meanwhile, Luis ends up in South Africa, where he stumbles upon a crew mining coltan, a rare mineral necessary in the production of computers, and finds himself in serious danger: blood diamonds aren’t the only export causing brutal violence in South Africa. This multigenerational page-turner is packed with intrigue and shocking plot twists.
— Stacy Alesi