A review by kappafrog
The Cuban Heiress by Chanel Cleeton

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

This was a fun and fast read. I liked the mysteries and intrigue and trying to figure out what happened. To my surprise, I also really liked Harry and his romance with
Catherine
. They had a lot of chemistry, and he worked well as the "noble thief" archetype. Elena and especially Julio received less development and characterization - I would have liked to learn more about them and especially Julio's political activities and how Elena, being from a wealthy family, felt about them. The setting of the lavish ballroom society escaping the Depression was a fun one to explore. I really liked seeing Havana, but I wish we had seen much more of it.

That kinda sums up my feelings on this book as a whole - a lot was introduced but was rushed in the execution, and I wanted to spend more time on various ideas. Elena could have used more characterization - who was she outside of her relationships? I would have liked to see more of the crew conflicts that led to the final horrific ending of the fire too. Julio and Harry gave us little snippets, but I was left feeling like that part of the plot was underdeveloped in spite of being the reasoning behind the big set piece at the end. On the flip side, I thought the epilogue added nothing and would have liked to see an exploration of
Elena and Ava's
relationship in its place.

Some of the twists were clever and a nice change of pace, while others were a little perplexing.
I liked that the murder in the beginning turned out not to be the point of the mystery at all. However, I didn't like that the connection between Elena and Katie was sprung on us when we'd been experiencing Katie's first-person POV for so long.
That was another thing - why was Katie written in first person and Elena in third? It felt like it was just so that the novel could open with the exciting line about the dead woman (Elena) in third person, rather than being justified by the plot or structure.
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