The Last Train to Key West

With bits of romance and tension this was a novel I couldn't put down!! The Last Train to Key West was enriched in history, descriptive, and beautifully written. Chanel Cleeton takes you back in time to 1935 Key West, Florida during The Great Depression. Told through the perspective of three women; Helen, Mirta, and Elizabeth, each woman coming from a different background. Soon their lives become entwined and they each must survive one of the most perilous hurricanes to hit in history! From that moment on as each woman meets, their connections are formed and the story truly begins. As the reader, you can feel the emotions as disaster stricks the small island, witnessing the devastation from multiple points of view. Fast-paced and enthralling, I was left on the edge of my seat!! I loved how Chanel tied fact with fiction, creating such a mesmerizing story. I received a complimentary copy of this book from the Berkley through Edelweiss. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

LAST TRAIN TO KEY WEST by Chanel Cleeton follows the lives of three women, in a fictional account of the 1935 Hurricane that swept through Key West, Florida on Labor Day weekend. Told from three first person perspectives (Helen Berber, Marta Perez, Elizabeth Preston) LAST TRAIN TO KEY WEST focuses on the journey of three women whose lives are about to cross paths and intersect with the approach of a deadly hurricane in the Florida Keys. Helen Berner is a young, pregnant woman who is desperate to escape her abusive husband when a stranger, a military veteran offers Helen a way to escape, an escape that will bring Helen in the direct line of the impending storm where our couple will find themselves washed away along with so many of the Florida residents. Marta Perez is a newlywed -married to a New York crime lord, whose enemies have followed the couple to the Florida Keys but the storm is about to bring more danger than anyone could have expected in the form of a stranger demanding everything including the lives of our story line couple. New Yorker, Elizabeth Preston is desperate to find her brother, who has been missing for several months but Elizabeth is also on the run from a marriage of convenience to a dangerous man, a man who bought our heroine as payment for a loan. An undercover FBI agent offers to help Elizabeth find her brother John but said agent is currently on assignment, an assignment that involves our story line heroine. LAST TRAIN TO KEY WEST is an intriguing, brilliant and wonderfully fictional story line set against the real-life disaster of the 1935 hurricane that destroyed much of the Florida Keys. With the world struggling to survive in the aftermath of the stock market crash, and ensuing Great Depression, Key West Florida is about to suffer like never before. Chanel Cleeton delves into the lives of three women, all facing an uncertain future but a future that will intersect and converge in more way than one.

I was relatively new to Chanel Cleeton when I started this series featuring a fascinating family of Cuban sisters and had generally avoided historical fiction prior to this as being a strong feminist, I bristle at the limitations placed on women and how poorly they were treated, even by their families. The Cuban sister featured in this installment was Mirta, who had been forced into marrying a man of questionable ethics and criminal ties and whom she did not personally know, to clear her father’s mistakes in judgment. Meanwhile, the same situation had also occurred to a former New York socialite named Elizabeth. Both women crossed paths in Key West during Mirta’s honeymoon and were served by the same heavily pregnant waitress who, for me, had the most compelling storylines featured in this dynamic tale. The three women could not have been more diverse yet they were sharing an overlapping experience during the most challenging period in their lives. All of this drama happened to occur during hurricane season, and it got a bit breezy when the worst storm ever hit the area. The storylines were slowly and craftily constructed with a writing style that was stunningly emotive, compelling, and mesmerizingly immersive. I fell right into each woman’s anxious vortex and enjoyed their various journeys and travails as their lives briefly intersected. I had no idea it wasn’t just women and minorities who were so devastatingly maltreated and was appalled by the shameful and horrific conduct and attitude of the US government toward the returning Veterans of WWI. I mean no slur to the brave souls currently serving but why anyone still bothers to join the military given their heinous history of atrocities boggles my tiny brain and scorches the little pea lying therein.