Chanel Cleeton: Our last days in Barcelona, Berkeley 9780593197820, paperback

( she is published by Heyne in German)

Sometimes it has to be pure entertainment after a more serious novel, particularly when the sun is out and it feels like summer. 

Throw in a family dynasty of the Perez women,  who fled Cuba for Palm Beach during Castro's revolution  and narrate switching between two timelines, 1936 Barcelona when Franco's nationalists started  a devastating war  and were still in power in 1964 and you have a story which ticks all boxes for a great womens summer read: love story, strong female characters, historical novel, exotic settings and a bit of mystery. 

In 1964 Barcelona Isabel goes in search of her missing sister Beatrix and ends up discovering a family secret her mother Alicia harbors, hence the 1936 timeline. It ended a little too smaltzy for my taste but otherwise had me thoroughy entertained ... 

Chanel Cleeton has written 3 other novels around the women of the Perez family but they can all be read indepently.