Big thanks to Park Row Books and Netgalley for allowing me to read this one in return for an honest review. I had a hard time with this one. The amount of tragedy was aplenty and I found myself just bummed out reading it. I think this book was just not for me. Definitely check triggers, there are a LOT. 3 stars

I was intrigued by the book because it was about a real Hollywood actress. However, I did not know it was an epistolary novel. This made it hard for me to follow along. I would have liked it better if it was told in a narrative format. Still, I recommend this fans of Platinum Doll! The narrator did the best she could with an epistolary novel. Because of the format, it was very hard to pull off. Without reading the book, the audiobook was hard to follow.

Thank you NetGalley for this audio file. I did not listen to it because I thought it was the actual book . I requested it without looking

I really enjoyed this book! It was a fun experience but was not my favorite. I enjoyed seeing Cuban representation (as I am Cuban) and am always excited to read a book with that rep in it. The story at times dragged and was not really my cup of tea. I would definitely recommend this to an older audience who enjoys historical fiction and enjoy the old-time/ Old Hollywood "spy" feel.

I loved the Narrator for this Audio book. She kept me engaged. I did not zone out once like I usually do when I listen to audiobooks.

I did not realize until I finished listening to the audiobook that the story was based on an actual person. I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy the story, but am definitely happy I kept going. I think the audiobook made it even more interesting for me with the accents.

There were some good – and not-so-good things about Find me in Havana. The characters and storyline were interesting, and I appreciated that it was historical fiction set in Cuba, Miami, and Hollywood instead of Europe during WWII. I must admit that I hadn’t heard of Estelita Rodriguez, and I enjoyed researching her life as I listened to the book. But that’s where the pros stopped for me. To be brutally honest, I should have reviewed this book immediately after I finished it, because I’m having trouble remembering the details. I can, however, tell you how it made me feel. I don’t shy away from sad books, but this one was downright disturbing from beginning to end. I wish I’d read the book rather than listening to it, because the narration was tedious and the timeline was confusing. The pacing was plodding, and I had to push through to finish it. So while the book included some fascinating history, it just didn’t work for me. 3.5 stars.

3.5/5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley, Park Row Books, and Harper Collins audio for this review copy!

Trigger Warnings: Domestic Abuse, Rape, Child Abuse, Drug Use, Physical Violence

Before reading <b> Find Me in Havana </b>, I had never heard of Estelita Rodriguez, the Cuban-American actress from the Golden Age of cinema. I requested this mostly on a whim, but I'm so glad I did. I've always enjoyed learning about film & Cuban history, so this was the perfect intersection of my interests.

This book is beautifully written - heartbreak upon heartbreak. We know from the start that Estelita dies at the age of 37 and this book chronicles the relationship between her and her daughter Nina throughout those years. Written in alternating, diary-like letters, we're able to see both Estelita and Nina's POVs of events that happened throughout their lives - spanning from Los Angeles, Mexico, and Cuba. It's primarily an exploration of their tenuous relationship and how they were never quite able to reach each other.

Parts of this book absolutely revolted me. I'm not normally affected by triggering elements in a book, but the <spoiler> constant rape and sexual assault of minors was extremely difficult to get through. I know it happened, but it didn't feel like it really served a point, other than to show hwo traumatized Nina was. </spoiler>

Unfortunately, I had quite a bit of problem with the pacing of this book. While I understand the author piecemealed pieces of Nina & Estelita's actual life with fictionalized recreations, but it often felt like two entirely separate stories. You had the beginning of Estelita rescuing Nina from Mexico and then you have them trapped in Cuba. It didn't feel like either of those really fit together or flowed well. I also struggled about whether or not this was a biography or historical fiction - how much of it's actually fictionalized and how much did the author get from Nina? Thinking about that took me out of the story quite a bit.

Unrelated to the book, the audio for this was...horrendous. I'm not sure if it was the production quality itself or because it was through netgalley, but it was extremely monotonous and robotic sounding. While the narrators themselves were fantastic, the recording quality was not great and I struggled to get through it.

In all, I recommend this book. It is absolutely beautifully written and introduces you to a figure that not much is known about!

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Giving this 5 stars bc i couldnt put it down and finished it within a few hours, even thinking back about it, it was really good, would reread for sure.

*Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced reader's copy.* This one was pretty dark in tone. Multi-generational Cuban family story centering around a complicated mother-daughter relationship. Reminded me a lot of The Actress and The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo with a bit of Chanel Cleeton thrown in for the Cuba history aspect. This wasn't a light or happy read - deals with mental health, parental neglect, sexual abuse and rape, drug abuse and death/loss of a parent. You definitely want to be in the right mood to read this book but it does end on a more happy positive note - it just takes a long time to get there!

Let's start with the cover which admittedly drew me in as it is beautifully done and caused me to keep coming back to this until I finally bumped it up on my "to read" list and read it via audiobook. Thank you to #NetGalley for an #AudioARC of it. The audio includes two narrators, Marisol Ramirez and Frankie Corzo. This was particularly helpful as the novel is structured as letters from the main character and her daughter to each other. Additionally, Frankie Corzo's voice was familiar as she is a fairly prolific narrator and I remembered her voice from Chanel Cleeton's "Next Year in Havana."

Now, moving onto the story itself. I had never heard of Estelita Rodriguez and found her story intriguing and heartbreaking. I went into this book wanting to love it but somehow, I felt a bit disappointed in it. The story primarily covers her life from the mid-1950s until her death in 1966 with most of the story being over the course of one very complicated period that included the kidnapping of her daughter to Mexico and then almost immediately, a trip to Havana, Cuba during the Cuban Revolution. While I understand that this was a fictionalized story of her life and this may have been the sequence of events, it just felt like a lot of topics were combined in this one novel...suicide, child molestation, misogyny, kidnapping, rape, murder, war, mother/daughter relationships, inter-generational relationships. Whew! And, I never could figure out how the title related to the story.

Overall, while it didn't "wow" me, I enjoyed the story and would give it a 3.4 star rating.

Thanks to @netgalley and @harperaudio for an audiobook copy of this book. I’d not heard of Estelita Rodriguez before this. She was a Cuban-born singer and actress from 1940’s-1960’s. The book is historical fiction based on interviews with her only child, Nina.
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I’m always interested to learn about real stories and historical events. The story spans from the upheaval and revolutions in Cuba to the golden age of Hollywood. The book is good but heartbreaking. Estelita and Nina are brutalized repeatedly and struggled to maintain a good relationship until Estelita’s early death at 37. In the epilogue we learn that Nina built a good life after her mother’s death. It’s lends a little comfort to the series of tragedies.
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It’s an interesting look at the less glamorous side of Hollywood and the hideous things that the Cuban have people suffered.

This book is based on the life of Cuban actress and singer Estelita Rodriguez and her daughter Nina Lopez. It chronicles her move from Cuba to the US in pursuit of a movie career while juggling her role as a single mother. The story alternates between Estilita and Nina’s perspectives using a series of letters.

The start of this audio book was confusing. It took me a few chapters to get into the rhythm of the writing and understand which character was narrating. Once I got into the story, however, it was riveting. The life of a Hollywood movie star in the mid 20th century was touched upon but much of the plot was about the mother daughter relationship impacted by Estilita’s career and husbands. The story also takes the reader into Mexico and Cuba during the revolution.

This historical fiction was touching and heartbreaking. I even shed a few tears at the end. The audio performance was very good. Another fabulous book by this author as I also loved her previous one.

Thank you to Harper Audio, Harlequin Audio and Netgalley for an advanced audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.
I really wanted to like this book but the narrator was bland and the story was boring. I had high hopes of it being somewhat like Chanel Cleeton’s When We Left Cuba but it wasn’t and this story fell flat. I had trouble connecting to the characters and I didn’t care for the way women were portrayed. I also didn’t care for the ending.

This was pure torture. I am not sure if it was because I listened to an audio version of the book instead of physically reading, but I felt like I was being put through a special version of hell.. I tried listening to it in various settings, thinking a change of scene would help my mood, or set the pace, or help in any way, but I found myself tuning the audio out for minutes at a time and then cutting back in to wonder what I had missed. This was almost a DNR.. or DNL in this case.. but I pushed through.

Where to begin? I will say it started off interesting. I thought the book was going in one direction and was thinking ok cool, insight into a Hollywood mom’s relationship with her neglected daughter. Then it switched to sexual assault/kidnapping. Which then went into TWO Cuban revolutions. Which also included sexual assault (on adults and children). Then it switched over to abuse on abuse on more abuse. And somewhere in between all that, a lesbian lover. And then murder.

I’ve read trauma porn before. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara is trauma porn to the max, but it’s done WELL. This book is trauma porn for the sake of trauma porn. Oh, you thought she (and the reader) would finally catch a break? NOPE, here’s a woman getting beat up by her FOURTH husband after the THIRD husband sexually assaulted her daughter. Why? Just why?

And don’t get me started on the characters. Apparently this was meant to give insight on a “forgotten” Hollywood star and help us remember her in a positive light but... Let’s just say this book is about a neglectful, spineless woman who “raises” an equally annoying, more selfish little girl. The only redeeming part of the whole book is Estelita’s mom who is the ONLY rational guide in both these women’s lives and she gets shit on nonstop throughout the whole thing. No thanks. This was a terrible way to honor her mother if that’s what Nina was going for.

Do not read. Or listen.

I didn't realize until I finished listening to this audiobook that it was based on a true story and what a remarkable one it is!

Estelita Rodriguez lived a life that seems like it could have been the subject of one of the movies she starred in - leaving Cuba as a young girl to pursue a singing and acting career in the U.S., she found some success but also had to rescue her daughter who was kidnapped by her father and was imprisoned with her family by Fidel Castro when she returned to her home before dying mysteriously before she turned 40.

Each chapter alternates between the POV of Estelita and her daughter, Nina, and I loved both narrators. The author interviewed Nina and this access gives the story details that really bring the story to life. This is a unique take on historical fiction that mixes tales from old Hollywood with the Cuban Revolution and family drama - I highly recommend it.

Wow, wow, wow. Find Me in Havana was absolutely stunning and amazing. Told in a back-and-forth narrative between Estelita Rodriguez and her daughter, Nina, this is historical fiction at its absolute best. Based on true events from Estelita and Nina's lives, Serena Burdick does a masterful job of combining fact with fiction and captivating the reader/listener. At times heartbreaking, but at others funny and uplifting, I absolutely loved this book. The audio version of Find Me in Havana is narrated by Marisol Ramirez and Frankie Corzo, and they are absolutely perfect.

The book just didn't do it for me. I absolutely LOVE historical fiction, however, I felt that this back and forth from mother to child perspective was very hard to follow and fall in love with. I felt confused often, and spent time thinking about what part of the story I was in. I really liked the narrator. She read the book very well and clear.

TW, taken from Storygraph: Adult/minor relationship/molestation, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental Illness, Misogyny, Physical Abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual Assault, Sexual Content, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder.

This book really took me for a ride that I did not expect. Find Me in Havana is traumatic from the get-go; my mouth fell open and I was stunned every time I remembered it this was based off real life events. It is a difficult (though very well-executed & impactful) read; I cringed at so many parts and had to stop reading to catch my breath. The story of Estelita Rodriguez and her daughter Nina Lopez is heartbreaking, and it will definitely stick with me for a very long time. The trials and tribulations these women go through is incomprehensible. It's hard to say I enjoyed reading this book, considering the content is so upsetting and disturbing; however, I came away having learned so much. It definitely made me confront and contemplate a lot of harsh realities. The theme of men using and abusing women is what really stuck out to me, a disgusting reality. The complexity of family relationships and the importance of communication in the face of trauma was another message I took away from this book. Find Me in Havana will make you feel so many emotions as it is a dark story, though the ending filled me with a surprising amount of hope.

Find Me in Havana was stunningly written, the author clearly having done her research and also taking her time to weave chapters and craft sentences in an impactful way. She actually worked closely with the daughter, Nina Lopez (I'm pretty sure Nina Lopez commissioned her to write the piece?), and you can tell. Serena Burdick is an incredible writer. If you are up for it, I definitely recommend this book! However, I would definitely take into consideration that this book is painful and the content is unsettling, so I would pick it up when you're ready to ready something heavy and dark.

This was a really good read/listen.

This is Estelita and her daughter Nina and their story of their lives spanning several years and over several countries and for Estelita several marriages.

There are some parts that were hard to read/listen to, it deals with rape and molestation, but other than that the story was really good, the back and forth between the mother and daughter was easy to follow and the story flowed nicely.

I really wish there would have been an epilogue saying where Nina is now