The Last Train to Key West
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4.3 • 762 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Instant New York Times bestseller
One of Bustle’s Most Anticipated Books of Summer 2020
“The perfect riveting summer read!”—BookBub
In 1935 three women are forever changed when one of the most powerful hurricanes in history barrels toward the Florida Keys.
For the tourists traveling on Henry Flagler’s legendary Overseas Railroad, Labor Day weekend is an opportunity to forget the economic depression gripping the nation. But one person’s paradise can be another’s prison, and Key West-native Helen Berner yearns to escape.
After the Cuban Revolution of 1933 leaves Mirta Perez’s family in a precarious position, she agrees to an arranged marriage with a notorious American. Following her wedding in Havana, Mirta arrives in the Keys on her honeymoon. While she can’t deny the growing attraction to her new husband, his illicit business interests may threaten not only her relationship, but her life.
Elizabeth Preston's trip to Key West is a chance to save her once-wealthy family from their troubles after the Wall Street crash. Her quest takes her to the camps occupied by veterans of the Great War and pairs her with an unlikely ally on a treacherous hunt of his own.
Over the course of the holiday weekend, the women’s paths cross unexpectedly, and the danger swirling around them is matched only by the terrifying force of the deadly storm threatening the Keys.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Elizabeth Preston, one of three spunky heroines in Cleeton's loosely braided historical (after When We Left Cuba), finds herself caught in a killer hurricane in the Florida Keys over Labor Day weekend in 1935, having fled New York City to avoid marrying gangster Frank Morgan and instead search for a WWI vet who wrote her a letter. Elizabeth's train stops in Key West, where she meets the heavily pregnant Helen Berner, a waitress at Ruby's restaurant. Married for nine years to Tom, an abusive alcoholic fisherman, Helen fantasizes about a new life. Also at Ruby's is newlywed Mirta Perez Cordero, who is on the way to joining her husband, Anthony, at their honeymoon beach house. After Tom threatens Helen, she flees up the Keys to Islamorada, determined to protect her unborn child. Elizabeth, worried she might be tailed by one of Frank's lackeys, allows a man she met on the train to accompany her. During a terrifying ordeal at the height of the hurricane, after Mirta discovers what business her husband is in, she is forced to confront the limits of her loyalty. The author neatly ties up the trio of plotlines, revealing the slender and very convenient threads connecting the women. Cleeton finds the right balance of historical detail and suspense, making this a riveting curl-up-on-the-couch affair.
Customer Reviews
Enjoyable Read
The intertwining lives of 3 spunky women converge in the horrific Labor Day hurricane in the Florida Keys. Lots of lucky coincidences bring the ladies and their men together in a predictable but charming love story. I have to admit that I enjoyed the book and the historical period in a dark and daunting American era.
Last Train to Key West
This book is a story of the lives of people who struggle with the situations in their lives in the best way they know how. Then nature-a hurricane disrupts all of their lives in unimaginable ways. It’s a story true to the historical events of the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. I highly recommend this book as it weaves these lives and events seamlessly with surprises you won’t see coming.
The Last Train To Key West
The story was predictable, the historical events with the train and the storm that hit Key West made me research the event more.