This historical novel, set in the Florida Keys around the 1935 Labour Day Weekend, is light on history and heavy on romance and, to quote lyrics from a former student, “That don’t impress me much.”

The narrative alternates among the perspectives of three women. Helen Berner is poor and pregnant and married to an abusive alcoholic. Working as a waitress at a diner, she meets Mirta Perez Cordero, a Cuban woman travelling with her husband Anthony to a beach house for their honeymoon. Helen also meets Elizabeth Preston who has fled New York to avoid marrying a gangster and is looking for a World War I veteran who last wrote to her from Key West. As a hurricane makes landfall, the three women cross paths more than once.

The historical elements are the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, the plan to connect the Keys via railroad using WWI veterans for labour, the deplorable treatment of those vets, the Cuban Revolution of 1933, and the impact of the Great Depression. The discussion of these elements is rather superficial, though I was inspired to do some further research so that’s certainly a positive.

I think we are supposed to think of the women as strong characters, but I was not convinced. Each of them is a damsel in distress needing to be rescued by a handsome, rugged hero. All are beholden to or threatened by “bad” men and redeemed or rescued by “good” men who swoop in immediately and take them into their arms. Helen is married to Tom who is abusive; Elizabeth is engaged to a gangster because of her father’s choices; and Mirta is in a marriage arranged to help her family in Cuba. Helen meets John, Elizabeth meets Sam, and Mirta gets to know Anthony. The women seem to need a man to complete their lives, and fortunately all are able to immediately charm the men they meet. I have difficulty with the love-at-first-sight trope, and it’s used twice here.

The reader must be willing to suspend disbelief too often. The three plotlines connect in very convenient and improbable ways. Then the bad guys are disposed of in contrived ways which I would classify as examples of deus ex machina. Everyone’s problems are nicely resolved so there’s a feel-good ending.

There is suspense because of the danger of the deadly storm threatening the Keys, but it’s not difficult to predict that, though people will die, none of the important characters will.

The short chapters move the narrative at a good pace so this is a quick read – perfect for a summer holiday. It entertains and doesn’t demand much of the reader. It is just not the type of book I prefer.

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My lunchtime book club discussed The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton this month. We really enjoyed it. It has a lot to recommend it — 3 strong female voices, a tropical location, rich historical detail, and the tension of a monstrous hurricane bearing down on all. The three main characters — Helen, Mirta, and Elizabeth — were products of their time and culture. Each is facing decisions regarding their marital relationships and seek resolutions very different from each other. We liked all the women, but Elizabeth especially grew on us. Not a sympathetic character at first, she probably was our favorite. As for the men, they ranged from a despicable abuser, to a dashing devil, a loyal companion, and a true hero. It was no question that John won the best male character category. 😉 The autonomy of women is a strong theme, with each female character navigating her own situation with determination and conviction. There were a number of twists and turns we did not see coming, and that just added to the suspense of the oncoming hurricane. We knew what history told us, but not if or how the fictional characters would survive. This is a general market novel, but very clean with bedroom scenes taking place behind closed doors. There is some domestic abuse that may be troubling to some readers. Specific to the audiobook — 3 narrators are used to bring the women’s stories to life. I loved each voice. This is the perfect book/audiobook to pack in the pool bag.

Recommended.

Audience: adults.

(I borrowed the audiobook from my local library through Libby. All opinions expressed are mine alone.) ( )

Three women. Each one searching. Will they seek what they want most before the Great Labor Day Hurricane drowns their dreams?

Helen, a kind-hearted Key West waitress, pregnant with her first child, desperately wishes a better life for herself and her unborn baby, far away from her abusive husband. Does the quiet, regular, restaurant patron, John, hold the surprising answer to her escape?

New York socialite, Elizabeth, who has fallen on hard times, travels on Flager's famous East Coast Railway all the way from New York to Key West, only to find that the man she is looking for is no longer in the island town, but may be further north in Islamorada. Unsure what to do next, Elizabeth stumbles into a fellow train passenger, and Florida native, who is on his way north himself and offers to escort her along the way.

Mirta Perez, a Cuban beauty, and predecessor to the Perezes appearing in "Next Year in Havana" and "When We Left Cuba", stops in Key West on her way to Islamorada with her new husband, Anthony, for a brief honeymoon before returning to their home in New York. She is quickly falling in love with her new husband, whom she barely knows, even though she is increasingly concerned with rumors she hears of his business activities.

The fast-moving, electric story moves from Key West to Islamorada, Islamorada to Miami, as one of the worst storms in history bears down on the string of paradisaic islands. Characters so real they sit right beside you as the story unfolds. You find yourself rooting for them unceasingly, as one obstacle after another tries to belay their dreams. Get yourself a beach chair, a pina colada, and enjoy the ride! Thank you, Chanel Cleeton.

#TheLastTrainToKeyWest #ChanelCleeton ( )

What a great book! I am so glad that I finally got around to tackling this book. I had a feeling that I would like this book and boy was I right! It was easy to lose myself in the story and I felt myself caught up in the characters’ lives more and more as I worked my way through the book. I am so glad that I decided to grab the audiobook since the narrators really took this book to the next level.

This book is told from three points of view. All three of the women at the heart of the story were strong women facing a pivotal moment in their lives. Throw in a natural disaster and you have the makings of a fantastic story. I really liked all three of the women in this book but I have to admit that Helen held a special place in my heart in this story. The paths of these women cross at a small diner in Key West and I couldn’t wait to see how they would meet again.

I loved the characters in this book. Helen is a waitress at the restaurant where she meets the other women. She is heavily pregnant and married to an abusive husband. Mirta stops in the restaurant fresh from Cuba with her new husband and is just trying to make sense of her new life. Elizabeth makes her way to Key West to find a man only to learn that he is most likely to be found at one of the veteran’s camps. These three women are all facing major challenges and I really enjoyed seeing them find their own inner strength.

The story was really exciting. There were some pretty scary moments for these women and there were times that I wasn’t sure how things would work out. I loved that there was a bit of romance worked in because I think it added a lot to the story. There was a bit of a puzzle as to how these three lives would come together and as the pieces snapped into place, I was sometimes quite surprised.

Kyla Garcia, Rachel L. Jacobs, and Karissa Vacker did a wonderful job with the narration of this book. I liked the fact that their voices were all very different because that made it very easy to tell whose point of view the story had moved to. I think that they all were able to voice multiple characters quite well and I loved how much emotion and excitement they were able to add to their reading. I believe that their narration added to my overall enjoyment of the story.

I would recommend this book to others. This was a very well-told story that featured some remarkable characters. I love that some events from the past that I had never heard of were woven into the story. I will definitely be looking out for futures books by Chanel Cleeton.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Berkley Publishing Group via Edelweiss and purchased a copy of the audiobook. ( )

*Realistic
*Action-packed
*Page-turner
*Great world building
*Informative
*Wonderful Characters
Wow, what a fabulous book. From page one I was drawn into the lives of the 3 female characters and could not put this one down. Even though I have visited Key West I did not know much at all about the hurricane of 1935. Very strong characters that I immediately connected to. This is definitely a great book for Summer reading. ( )