The Review

A beautiful story of two women connected by family and fate, the novel expertly crafts a narrative of how the daughter of a renowned actress and singer must come to terms with the childhood she had and the life she’s led thus far after her mother’s passing. The shift in perspective between both Nina and her mother Estelita was an inspired choice, as readers are able to get a better sense of where each of them was coming from, and the tragic circumstances they each found themselves in.

The backdrop of Cuba and the nation’s violent history of revolution and war did a great job of highlighting not only the nation’s history but the vast culture that the people of Cuba had as well. However the core of this story is undoubtedly the relationship between a mother and her daughter, and the daughters need to understand her mother’s life and how to let go of the past in order to move on with her own life. The novel is marred by tragic events to be sure, but the emotional journey is well worth the known outcome and makes this a truly intimate historical fiction read.

The Verdict

A mesmerizing, emotional, and heartfelt read of the relationship between a mother and her daughter, author Serena Burdick’s “Find Me In Havana” is a must-read historical fiction novel. The real-life people within this novel come to life in a memorable way, and the honest look into the lives of these two women will be something so many of us can connect with. If you haven’t yet, grab your copies today!

Find Me in Havana by Serena Burdick is a tragic but memorable story that encompasses Cuban history, Hollywood, violence against girls, and the relationships between sister, mothers, and daughters. Although written as fiction, this book is based on a true story. Prior to this book, I had never heard of Estelita Rodriguez or her sad and complicated life. Now, as her daughter intended, I will remember her life.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2021/01/find-me-in-havana.html

Reviewed for NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing Winter 2021 historical fiction blog tour.

This is one of those stories that lives up to the adage “fiction is the lie that tells the truth.” Because this is a fictionalized story of a real life, a real death, and a real mystery. The author, having been told this story, filled in the blanks provided by the story of a daughter, 30 years later, telling the story of the mother who died under mysterious circumstances, and whom, quite possibly, she never really knew.

The woman at the center of this story is Estelita Rodriguez, a Cuban actress who was featured in a series of Westerns with Roy Rogers, and whose best known role was in Rio Bravo with John Wayne.

She died young and under rather mysterious circumstances in 1966, at the age of 37, leaving behind a husband she was about to divorce and a 20-year-old daughter whose memories provide the heart of this pseudo-speculative biography.

I say pseudo because Nina Rodriguez, although she tells this story much, much later in her life, is remembering events in her mother’s life that she either witnessed as a child or pieced together long after the events. Much of what she remembers is filtered through her childhood perspective and some of it may be inaccurate, either because of a lack of perspective, a lack of information, or simply the tendency of memories to blur over time.

So Nina’s memory of her stepfather Grant Withers’ death isn’t quite what happened. Or rather it isn’t quite when and where it happened. He did die that way, but four years after her mother divorced him and neither Estelita nor Nina were witnesses.

Time and memory play tricks on us all.

The story is also speculative because the cause of Estelita’s death was not determined at the time, so the mystery surrounding her death has never been resolved. It may be as Nina describes it in the book. That story fits the pieces she had but we’ll never really know.

What we do have is a story that blends Nina’s memories with messages that are written as if they came from Estelita. It’s the story of a life that had its highs and lows, but also a life that traveled from, through, and returned to some very dark times and places.

And she survived, even if entirely too often by the skin of her teeth. Until, suddenly and unexpectedly, she was gone. Leaving her daughter to pick up the tiny, broken pieces of both of their lives.

Escape Rating B: In a week where I was looking for stories with happy endings, this one was particularly heartbreaking. Estelita’s story is a walk through some very dark places, to the point where the reader sometimes questions how she managed to survive as long as she did.

It’s also a story where the protagonist has sown the seeds of their own destruction to the point where it’s not really a surprise that it finally reaches out and sucks her under.

One of the things that surprised me while reading is just how much Estelita and the heroine of yesterday’s book have in common. That they are both Latinx is the superficial part of that similarity. The deeper underlying commonality is the way that they both spend their lives looking for validation through the eyes of and in their relationships with, men. Usually the wrong men, at that. The differences begin because Jasmine, yesterday’s heroine, gets herself out of that trap, where Estelita never does. But part of Jasmine’s ability to do that comes from her marvelously supportive family, where Estelita seems to have always been an outsider in hers.

And that the times they lived in were so very different.

The hardest part of Estelita’s life to read, however, relates to her experience of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, when she briefly returned to her homeland after her father and two of her brothers-in-law had been imprisoned for their support of the ousted Batista. The harrowing events of those few brief months, at least according to this fictionalized biography, left both Estelita and Nina emotionally scarred for the rest of their lives.

If it happened this way, or at all.

In the end, I have mixed feelings about this book. It is, as I said earlier, a walk through very dark places, whether fictionalized or not. It’s an absorbing read, even if it was not what I was in the mood for, and that colors my perceptions. The story also feels very subjective, as it isn’t so much Estelita’s story as it is Nina’s recollections of Estelita’s story as seen through Nina’s eyes as a child and young adult. The two women don’t relate as much to or understand each other nearly as well as the blurb might lead readers to believe.

In the end, a frequently compelling read, but not a remotely happy one.

3.5 stars! Find Me in Havana follows a mother and daughter in the 1950s and 60s. This historical fiction gives off major “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” vibes. With the mother being a Cuban American actress and singer in the 1950s. I thought the storyline was clever to add the Cuban historical aspect. However , it did fall short a bit. I enjoyed the historical aspects and I really felt for Nina and her mother. But at times I felt like the story dragged a bit, I did not become invested until the 50% point and the epilogue did not wrap the story up very well. The ending had so much potential, but it really get rushed.

I'm a big fan of novels that feature real people, and Serena Burdick's novel Find Me In Havana tells the story of Estelita Rodriguez, a Cuban actress from the 1950s with whom I was unfamiliar.

Young Estelita came to the United States when she was fifteen years old with her mother. She began as a singer, but her mother Maria encouraged her to become an actress, so they moved to Hollywood where Estelita worked primarily in movie Westerns.

Find Me In Havana tells a fictionalized account of Estelita's life in letters between Estelita and her young daughter Nina. While Estelita spends her time working and socializing with John Wayne and Angie Dickinson, Nina spends her time alone with her grandmother or at her Catholic boarding school near her home.

Nina wants her mother's attention, but Estelita's work consumes her. Nina's father, popular Mexican singer Chu Chu Martinez who hasn't seen Nina in years, shows up at her school and takes Nina to Mexico, telling her that Estelita no longer wants her. Estelita is distraught, and plots a way to rescue her daughter.

The story moves back to Cuba, where Estelita's father has been taken by the revolutionary forces of Fidel Castro. Estelita, Maria, and Nina go to Cuba, where they find Estelita's sisters and their young children living together in the family home. The men who have not been taken by the revolutionaries have fled to Miami, leaving the women alone.

Soldiers have invaded the home, including Che Guevara. With no men to protect them, the women and children are at the mercy of the soldiers. They have been told not to harm Estelita, as she is their ticket to getting the United States on their side.

The section of the book set in Cuba is the most captivating. Nina enjoys spending time with cousins she has never met, and Estelita revels in being back home with her sisters. The soldiers, however, soon become less amenable, and they become hostile and violent to the women.

One of the themes of this novel is that women, particularly of this time, were at the mercy of men. Nina watched as her four-times-married mother "appeased the good men, hoping they'd stay with you; placated the bad ones hoping they wouldn't hurt you." In the end, it didn't serve Estelita.

I found Estelita's story fascinating, and even more so when I realized that the author exclusively interviewed her daughter Nina. It adds such authenticity to this novel. If you enjoy novels based on real people as I do, Find Me In Havana is one to put on your to-be-read list. I will be looking for more information on the life of Estelita Rodriguez.

Thanks to Harlequin Books for putting me on their Historical Fiction Winter Blog Tour.

Before reading Find Me in Havana, I had never heard of Cuban-born singer and actress Estelita Rodriguez. So reading this book was very interesting to me. I love discovering new people and places.

I was also intrigued Cuban history is rarely written about so learning about it was really a blessing.

I enjoyed how the book was written from two different points of view so you were able to get the full scope of emotions and what was happening. The writing was phenomenal and I truly got caught up in this story about a real person and true events.

Overall a wonderful read I could not put down.

Find Me in Havana: A Novel by Serena Burdick releases on January 12, 2021. This historical fiction book is based on the true story of Estelita Rodriguez. The book is written from dual perspectives of Estelita and her daughter, Nina. I enjoyed this book more once I realized it was based on a true story. It is a fascinating time period of a Cuban actress in old Hollywood. Thanks to Park Row Books via Netgalley for this review copy.

This book is written as a mother and a daughter writing letters to each other through the good and bad days of their lives. I loved that this book was based on a real mother and daughter. The mother, Estelita, and her daughter Nina learn how each other is feeling through the years. Estelita is an actress and a singer born in Cuba. The story tells how she grows up and ends in the United States. Both Estelita and Nina had many good and bad things happen through their lives. This is a very sad story but there are many happy points. I received a copy of this book from Harlequin through Netgalley for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

Estelita Rodriguez began singing at the age of nine years old. This led to her singing in a nightclub in 1936. She went from Havana, Cuba to New York to Hollywood. While she achieved the spotlight, things did not shine bright for her - by any stretch of the imagination.

For one thing, Estelita and her daughter Gina were among the many victims of the 1933 Cuban Revolution. The tragedies that happened to Estelita and her family were beyond horrid. Additionally, Estelita never gave up in her search for love, marrying several men over the course of her life.

Although this book is marketed as historical fiction, it is based on Estelita's true-life story and how her death affected her daughter Nina. As this tragic story is relayed, it is done in the form of memories taken from both Estelita's and Gina's points of view, almost in journal fashion. The author, Serena Burdick, combined research that were based on both true events as well as various interviews.

One of the events relayed in this book is during the filming of the movie Rio Bravo as well as the mention of famous personalities that were in Estelita's life while she was a Hollywood icon. Whether singing or acting, Estelita definitely achieved fame. However, her life was never easy, especially during some extremely difficult years in Cuba, her marriages and while parenting daughter Gina. It was her death years later that was explored in this book, which was no easy read and one that will be with me for quite some time. Find Me in Havana dealt with many issues. especially when Cuban history was part of the story. Also, there were other serious, often disturbing events related in this book, which might just warrant trigger warnings for rape, suicide, molestation, brutality and murder.

Many thanks to Park Row Books and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

This book alternates between Estelita beginning in the late 1930's, and her daughter Nina, in the mid 1960's. In Estelita's timeline, as her family struggles to find footing after the Cuban Revolution, Estelita finds a career singing. Her and her mother move to America, where she finds a career in Hollywood. In Nina's timeline, her mother has just passed away, and she is trying to come to terms with her childhood.

The back and forth between the mother and daughter's timelines worked really well. It flowed smoothly, and was well paced. The book was very well written and engaging. The characters were dynamic and well rounded. I look forward to reading more from this author!

Mother daughter relationships are always complicated even in the best circumstances throw in a Hollywood career and it’s even worse. Told in letters, we meet Nina and her mom Estelita. Estelita didn’t really know how to be a mom and an actress so most of the time the actress wins out with some consequences for her daughter and ultimately herself.

I really enjoyed their story.

When I read the blurb for Find Me In Havana, I'll admit that I had to look up Estelita Rodriguez. Her name niggled at me, but her picture quickly put that niggle to rest. Her Hollywood career was before my time, but I've certainly heard of her, and it seems like I even remember seeing her on some of the classic movie channels on television. So, I suppose that realization along with the blurb piqued my interest, and I'm glad it did. This may be a fictionalized story, but it is based on truth. The story is told in letter form with chapters alternating between Estelita and her daughter, Nina. It's wonderfully written and totally compelling from the very first page to the last. It didn't take long for me to be pulled in to the lives of these women and their emotional journeys. I've seen this book listed as historical fiction and general fiction. I'd say that's accurate, but I would think this story would appeal to many more than just readers of those genres. I know I'd certainly recommend it.

I loved Serena Burdick's novel last year, The Girls with No Names, so I was excited to pick up Find Me in Havana. Unfortunately, I just didn't love it. My biggest critique is the second person, switching points of view format. It did serve the story by giving us an adult perspective and a child perspective, especially when adult content was happening. But it was rather confusing at times, and I didn't feel as connect to the characters as I otherwise would have. I also didn't like the pacing of the book. We get snippets of the future while the story is told in the past, but then when we get caught up to the future, everything is rushed. It deflated the ending a little, and it failed at inspiring me. So while this book is dramatic and has some good history in it, it just didn't work for me.

Writing Aesthetic/Style: 3
Plot/Movement: 2
Character Development: 2
Overall: 2

Trigger Warnings: suicide, drug overdose, sexual abuse, rape, domestic abuse, kidnapping

Thank you, NetGalley and Park Row Books, for the review copy!

Not always easy to process the subject matter, but a great story regardless. Seeing the author, Serena Burdick’s, book up for selection, I couldn’t say no. Girl in the Afternoon was one of my favorite books the year that I read it, so I went in with high expectations for another great story. I was not disappointed. This is one of those “based on a true story” novels that make you realize the backstory of certain people make for fascinating reading. We follow Nina and her mother Estelita’s lives as they struggle with love, betrayal, tragedy over and over again. The power and difficulty of family is at the center of the story and it unfolds through letters between Nina and Estelita reflecting on the past, incidents that shaped their lives and things left unsaid. It held my attention from the beginning and I was invested in the characters in short order. The epilogue helped round out the story and was equally fascinating. I feel as if I had a history lesson as well as a life lesson. Great book!

In Cuba, 1936, many families are struggling with the fallout of the Cuban Revolution. Estelita Rodriguez and her family are no exception. When Estelita is discovered while singing in a Havana nightclub, she believes all her luck is about to change. Suddenly, at fifteen Estelita is singing on stages such as the Copacabana, and rubbing elbows with the handsomely famous Mexican singer, Chu Chu Martinez. The pair enter into a whirlwind romance, and soon Estelita finds herself pregnant. When Chu Chu forbids her from ever singing again, Estelita flees with their daughter, Nina, to live out her dreams in Hollywood.

In Big Sur, 1966, Nina Rodriguez is reeling from the sudden and mysterious death of her mother, Estelita. She grew up in awe of her mother's talents and charisma, even if her attentions were usually focused on anything but Nina. Even as a child, Nina knew that she was never the number one priority in her mother's life, and she knew her mother experienced hardships that she could never fully understand. As Nina finds herself slipping into the same destructive patterns that plagued her mother, she looks to her mother's past to learn and make a better future for herself.

I knew nothing of Estelita Rodriguez or her life before going into this book, but I still enjoyed it all the same. Both Estelita and Nina lead such hard lives and it was heartbreaking to see everything they had to endure. There were some aspects of their lives that seemed so glamorous, but it was as if the more fame Estelita achieved, the more she and her family suffered. This is told in a series of letters both by Nina and Estelita and while I did find it slightly hard to fully connect to, it did make the story feel more personal. However, the family dynamics are what shines in this. For much of the story, mother and daughter felt very at odds with one another, and you learn through the letters that that wasn't necessarily the case. This is an engaging historical fiction about real characters, their hardships, and the kind of understanding and connection that can only come from a relationship between a mother and a daughter.

A mother and daughter both take turns telling the story of the 1930s from California to Mexico to Cuba through many different types of drama and tragedy and how they each endured through it all. Based in fact, this novel introduced me to a woman in Hollywood that I had no previous knowledge of and made me do some research to find out where fact met fiction.

Estelita Rodriguez was a major film star, of Cuban descent, she ended up starring in nine Roy Rogers movies which made up a majority of her film career. This book took place during quite a span of years, so the reader gets to see her before her career takes off and through and beyond her death.

A minor hiccup for me in this book was the labeling of chapters. Each started with mother or daughter and made it seem as though each chapter was written almost in letter form, but it really didn't read that way. The chapter headers made the reading confusing and I had to write myself a sticky note, so I kept it straight as to who would be talking. I think I would have labeled the chapters differently to make things a little easier to read.

I did love that both characters were given the chance to tell their sides of the story throughout the book. Seeing from Estelita, the mother's point of view, when she thinks she is doing what is best for her family and then Nina, her daughter, describing what she wished her mother would do or how she perceived the situations in a different way - it was interesting to see what mother daughter each wanted from the other.

This was a good historical fiction in that it taught me about something I didn't know, but in an entertaining way.

Find Me In Havana is a historical fiction based on the life of actress Estelita Rodriguez. Despite her career its focus is not on her life in film. We are given insight into the Cuban revolution when Castro came to power. But this book is not really about that either. This book is about a mother and a daughter.

It is written in an epistolary style with chapters alternating between letters from Estelita and her daughter Nina. It is interesting to see their feelings and mindsets. How each of them experiences these different life events. You get to see how their perception differs. For example when Nina is kidnapped by her father she feels as if her mother has sent her away. That she has once again chosen her career or someone else over her. But Estelita feels rejected as well, not sure if Nina chose to leave.

Here you have a woman who performed with the likes of Desi Arnaz, starred in films opposite John Wayne and hung out with Sammy Davis Jr. But Estelita and Nina did not have a glamorous life. Besides the kidnapping, there's molestation, rape, domestic violence and substance abuse. The two were not close to their extended family. Their support system consisted of Estelita's mother. Despite her devotion, all Nina wanted was to be alone with her mother. Just the two of them for once. No grandma. No husbands. No admirers. Just her and her mom.

As much as Find Me In Havana is about that mother-daughter bond, it does capture the time period vividly. In some cases with shocking revelation which prompted me to do my own web sleuthing. Whenever I read an historical fiction I want to know where the line between fact and fiction lies. And I want to know how much creative license was used. But in all my searching I couldn't find too many facts about Estelita's life. Even on websites dedicated to her, there were scarce details about her personal life outside her four marriages. There was also a lot of mystery surrounding her death. Some sources said it was influenza. Others said that the cause of death was undetermined.

I was happy when I stumbled upon an interview with Estelita's daughter Nina Lopez where she is talking with author Serena Burdick. She was pleased with the end result of the book. Not only did Burdick present a true picture of her mother and their life together, but she was able to capture the essence of Nina's feelings and her inner thoughts. She confirms that there is truth in these words. But for some reason Nina seemed sad to me. When I finished the book I was hopeful for her. Part of my combing the internet was to find her. To find what had become of her. Had she found her place in the world? Was she getting the attention she so desperately craved as a child? Does she feel full, sated with all that life has to offer? I guess this is a testament to Burdick's writing, as I feel as if I know Nina personally and why I am invested in her actual life story.

Find Me In Havana is my second novel by Serena Burdick. The common thread that I see with Burdick is looking at women in history and telling those stories that have been lost or forgotten. Here she is to say that these women lived. That these are there stories. That there truths will not be buried, nor their memories forsaken.

This historical fiction centered around a true story will draw you in and break your heart. The story of Estalita Rodriguez , and her daughter Nina. Openly honest about the complexities about women's relationships, not only with each other, but in the hard places of time. #findmeinhavana #netgalley #serenaburdick

Find Me in Havana is a difficult book to grade.  Startling, original, frank and powerful, it spellbinds and breaks a reader’s heart.

The book tells the tale of Estelita Rodriguez, a Cuban actress whose time in the spotlight led to a supporting role in Rio Bravo and a series of Roy Rogers films. Estelita had a troubled and storied life in the spotlight during Hollywood’s golden years; she had four husbands and faced racism and misogyny in her short life.  Her last role – in the infamous B movie Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter - arrived in theaters only a month and four days after Estelita’s sudden death at thirty-seven, still unsolved and still mysterious, when her daughter and only child was only twenty.

Her daughter and only child Nina was twenty at the time, and is is she who splits the narrative here.  Mourning her mother and suspecting foul play may have played a hand in her sudden death - from what  cause the authorities cannot (or refuse to) determine - Nina sets about trying to figure out the hows and whys of Estelita’s unexplained and unexpected death.

All the while – and in first person present – a ghostly Estelita narrates the story of her life in letter format to her daughter, detailing her early career as a child nightclub singer watched over by her own mother, and her emergence from the shadow of her sister Danita, whose relationship with Estelita never recovers when Estelita’s fame eclipses their double act.  Estelita begins singing on the radio, and the post-Cuban Revolution political unrest of the time together with a meeting in a smoky Cuban nightclub at the age of nine with Desi Arnaz soon has her dreaming of America. She emigrates at fifteen, to a gig at the Copacabana, but a deal with MGM falls apart, and Estelita ends up spending four years singing in nightclubs in New York. Here, she meets Chu Chu Martinez, Nina’s father.  Because Chu Chu forbids Estelita to continue her career, she takes their daughter and flees for Hollywood. She’s noticed by western serial maker Republic Pictures, and through Republic she becomes a frequent co-star of Roy Rogers, and friendly with John Wayne, with whom she has a father/daughter relationship.  But Rio Bravo with the Duke proves to be the peak of Estalita’s career, and by the time of her death, she’s fallen down the rungs of Hollywood’s golden ladder to poverty row and monster flicks.

Find Me in Havana is a highly unusual book.  Based on interviews with Nina, Burdick fictionalizes a world where the poignant and almost painfully intimate double portrait the reader receives of both Nina and her mother is entirely unique to the scope of the realm of a novel.

Nina does not spare the audience both the best and the worst of what she experienced.  While she loved her grandmother and mother and worshiped Estelita’s beauty, the book details that one of her stepfathers (Ismael Alfonso Halfss) tried to sexually molest her when she was a preteen, and though Estelita divorces him, her attempt at securing Nina’s safety by placing her in a religious school, the decision to rend her from her family reads to Nina as blame.  Another stepfather (actor Grant Withers) committed suicide with Nina and her abuela in the house in the wake of his divorce from Estelita. Her biological father, meanwhile, is calculating and cool, and steals her away to Mexico City and tries to hold her hostage, leaving her all day in the company of a drunken stranger and new young wife.  There is a blistering sense of purpose here, as Nina and Estelita try to make it back over the border after Estelita has rescued her daughter – one is reminded of other border crossings, of other desperate parents, of other families separated.  Worst of all is the physically abusive Ricardo A. Pego, the doctor-husband Estelita marries last.  Nina, after a bad acid trip, has to a stay in a mental hospital, and after a suicide attempt is led to eventual wholeness – something Estelita, trapped in a cycle of domestic violence, cannot attain. It’s impossible to know how much of this happened to the real Nina and how much of it is fictionalization – Burdick is that talented.

There are other books that do a decent job of portraying Estelita’s family’s political activism and the pain and joy of life in a Cuba that’s aching and straining under its revolutionary ideas. It does well in portraying the Hollywood of the time, too – the land where Rita Hayworth’s meteoric rise to stardom during Estelita’s time involved painful electrolysis procedures and an Anglicanized name.

Find me in Havana is a fascinating, lacerating story. For some, it will be one too difficult to read. Others – who might know about Estelita or the difficulties of being a Cuban woman in America trying to make a success of her life – will be spellbound.  I found it to be wonderfully engrossing, heartbreaking, and ultimately life-affirming.  I hope others feel the same way.

NOTE: This book includes underage sexual activity, spousal abuse, domestic violence, drug use, murder, attempted suicide, rape and attempted rape of a minor.

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Find Me In Havana is a tragic story told in letters between a mother and a daughter. Before reading this, I had no idea of the life Estelita Rodriguez lived. For someone to go through so much heartache, and longing to find her place in this world to end up where she did was absolutely heartbreaking. The author did a fantastic job telling her story and made me want to pull for her.