Next Year in Havana

(3.5, rounding up) Better than The Summer Wives, not as good as The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, if we're placing this on a scale of historical fiction I've read this year. This feels like a book that should be made into a movie (or miniseries, especially considering there are more books coming) - that's not an insult at all, but this is so sweeping and decade-spanning and full of beautiful scenery and dresses and mansions that it feels like something for a prestige cable channel to air. As usual in things like this, I found the historical characters more interesting than the present-day ones, though as the stories started to converge near the end, I found myself getting more invested in Marisol. The history of Cuba was also interesting, and not something I knew very much about before reading this. As beach-style reads go, this is a solid choice and it will probably make you want to eat ropa vieja. Or have a rum cocktail.