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The Cuban Chronicles Reviewed By Emily Decobert Of Bookpleasures.com
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Emily Decobert

Reviewer Emily Decobert: Emily graduated from Kentucky Wesleyan College with degrees in History and Psychology and a Masters in Library Media from Western Kentucky University.  She spent a few years being a teacher and librarian until she left to help run her husband's business and work on her novels.  Emily reads about five books a week and loves reviewing.  She is a book reviewer for bookpleasures.com and other publishers. Click here to access Emily's blog.



 
By Emily Decobert
Published on October 6, 2009
 

Author: Wanda St. Hilaire
ISBN: 978-1-4401-3294-0
Publisher: IUniverse

I enjoyed the book but it was slightly confusing.  It was written as a letter to an old friend and Wanda refers to people and events that Monique must know but the reader doesn’t understand.  I also would have liked to have more details about the country itself, but it is an interesting read and I do recommend it

Author: Wanda St. Hilaire
ISBN: 978-1-4401-3294-0
Publisher: IUniverse

Click Here To Purchase The Cuban Chronicles: A True Tale of Rascals, Rogues, and Romance

Wanda St. Hilaire has the travel bug.  She loves Hispanic countries and Mexico is one of her favorites.  However, she decided to step out of bounds and go to Cuba, a country she hadn’t been to in twenty years.  She experiences the strangeness of life in this communist country and the thrill and terror of a love affaire gone wrong.

This book is formatted as a diary-letter to Wanda’s good friend, Monique, and we don’t have an all knowing narrator, but a writer who is sharing events as she experiences them.  It creates an unfolding drama that draws the reader into the tale.

It all starts off with a first trip to Cuba.  This trip is a wonderful experience where many men court her and it is a flurry of dancing and flirting.  While she is there she meets a suave journalist named Pablo that to all appearance is a fine gentleman.  He is so wonderful; Wanda decides she will spend Christmas with this new opportunity.

Absence reveals the strangest things.  Her knight in shining armor becomes needy and pleading  when they are apart and Wanda begins to wonder about this new Romeo.  Despite her doubt, she goes to Cuba again.  There, things take a terrible turn.

This is both an interesting story and a warning to would be travelers.  It is very fascinating to mentally go with a person and experience Cuba first hand.  Americans are still not welcomed and I was eager to know what life is like in Castro’s Cuba.  Like any Communist country, it is a place of poverty and despair for the actual people.  Natives watch as tourists live a life they can never have.  It creates a society of desperate men who want to latch onto richer foreign.

This is also a tale that warns single girls about the perils of dating.  Travel, the internet, and phone services connects women to men from all over the world and many want to date these exciting men who are so different from the guys in their home country.  However, there is also a chance of women being put in dangerous situations and this story is an example of how things can go wrong.

I enjoyed the book but it was slightly confusing.  It was written as a letter to an old friend and Wanda refers to people and events that Monique must know but the reader doesn’t understand.  I also would have liked to have more details about the country itself, but it is an interesting read and I do recommend it.

Click Here To Purchase The Cuban Chronicles: A True Tale of Rascals, Rogues, and Romance