Labor Day 1935: The three main characters in this book are:
- Cubana Mirta has come to Key West with her new husband for their honeymoon
- Helen, a Key West native, is very pregnant and who wants to get away from her abusive husband
- Elizabeth travels from New York City to Key West to find a WW2 veteran who is said to be working on the railroad.
Mirta’s trying to get to know her new husband. All she really knows is that he is rather handsome and very rich. He came to Cuba for business, and her father was quite pleased he wanted to marry Mirta. Even though they’d just met, Mirta agreed to the marriage to help her family.
Helen is working as a waitress and briefly meets Mirta and her new husband as well as Elizabeth who has just arrived. When she is about to set off to go home, she is attacked by two men who are after her wages. One of her regulars saves her and then walks her home. Her husband hears the voice of the man and beats her for speaking to someone other than him. She decides to leave him after this because she wants a different future for her child.
Elizabeth is looking for a veteran, her brother, and is followed by an undercover FBI agent because her mafioso fiancé wants to keep an eye on her.
Then a hurricane hits, Helen is in labour during this while the house she’s in with her protector (who happened to be a doctor) is moved elsewhere during the storm. Mirta and her husband try to flee from Key West, as do Elizabeth and her FBI agent. By chance they all end up in the same hospital after the storm.
I liked this book, it was difficult to see what these three women have in common in the beginning. But as the story progresses you will start to see what links them. (Not as good as Next Year in Havana though)
Read for The 52 Book Club Reading Challenge 2026
Prompt 9: Featuring a natural disaster
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️