Spotlight & Giveaway: Our Last Days in Barcelona by Chanel Cleeton

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Chanel Cleeton to HJ!

Hi Chanel and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Our Last Days in Barcelona!

 
Thank you so much for having me today! I’m so thrilled to chat with all of you about Our Last Days in Barcelona.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Our Last Days in Barcelona is the story of Isabel Perez who travels to Barcelona in 1964 in search of her sister Beatriz who has disappeared, and that of their mother Alicia who journeys to Barcelona in 1936 at the start of the Spanish Civil War with her young daughter Isabel in tow. In 1964, Isabel is thrust into the past as she learns an unexpected family secret and embarks on an unforgettable journey of her own.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

The night before my wedding, while my youngest sister Maria slept in the bedroom next to me, Elisa in her new home with her husband and child, Beatriz off somewhere saving the world, I painted.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

I never considered telling Isabel’s story until I began receiving reader messages asking for me to tell the other Perez sisters’ stories following the publication of Next Year in Havana and When We Left Cuba. At first, I was hesitant because I hadn’t connected with Isabel as much as I had with her sisters Elisa and Beatriz, but the enthusiasm and support I received from readers really inspired me to write this novel, and along the way I fell in love with Isabel’s character. I dedicated Our Last Days in Barcelona to the readers who have embraced the Perez family and this book wouldn’t exist without them!

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book. As you wrote your protagonist was there anything about them that surprised you?

There was! I was initially reluctant to tell Isabel’s story because having spent so much time in her sister Beatriz’s head when writing When We Left Cuba, it was difficult for me to see Isabel on her own without the lens of her sister’s perception of her. Since Isabel and Beatriz were often lovingly at odds in When We Left Cuba, I struggled to connect with Isabel a bit. But once I started writing Our Last Days in Barcelona I absolutely fell in love with Isabel’s character, and I can happily say that she is now my favorite Perez sister.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why? (Please include a Snippet of this scene)

I would choose this scene below when Isabel arrives in Barcelona in search of her sister Beatriz and first meets someone who becomes an integral part of her journey through Spain.

I scribble a note for Beatriz letting her know I am in town, that I’m desperate to see her, and I leave the name of the hotel where the waiter suggested I stay. I rip the paper from the notepad and fold it over once, twice, until it is a neat square.
As I nudge the folded piece of paper under the door, I push against the wood, and where I expect to meet resistance, there is a give as the door opens, exposing a sliver of Beatriz’s apartment.
Could she have been here the whole time?
“Beatriz,” I call out through the crack in the doorway, peering through the opening. A pair of shoes is discarded near what looks to be a dark green velvet couch, a sequined dress draped over the arm. “Are you home? It’s Isabel.”
Beatriz’s bright and cluttered apartment comes into full view as I nudge the door open the rest of the way. The room is eerily quiet when I cross the threshold, only the faintest scent of Beatriz’s favorite perfume lingering in the air.
I shut the door behind me gently and lock it.
Clothes are strewn about the room, books discarded on tabletops, a cabinet ajar. The familiarity of Beatriz in all her chaos transports me to our teenage years when she used to tease me over the fact that I color coordinated my closet and I—
I haven’t seen them in years, but those are definitely my sandals.
There’s a noise behind me, a rustling, a creak, and—
“Beatriz?”
I whirl around.
When I entered the apartment I turned the lock, but now the door is open again, and a tall, lean, dark-haired man in a trench coat stands in the doorway.
There’s a gun in his hand.
“You’re not Beatriz,” he says.

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

Most of all, I hope readers enjoy this novel. Revisiting these characters was a family reunion of sorts for me, and I hope readers love getting to spend time with this cast of characters and following them on this amazing adventure.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I just finished drafting my 2023 book release. It’s set in the 1930s and inspired by the true story of the Morro Castle, an American luxury cruise liner that sailed on a week-long round voyage between New York and Havana before a tragic event changed everything.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Print copy of Our Last Days in Barcelona by Chanel Cleeton

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Book Info:

When Isabel Perez travels to Barcelona to save her sister Beatriz, she discovers a shocking family secret in New York Times bestselling author Chanel Cleeton’s new novel.

Barcelona, 1964. Exiled from Cuba after the revolution, Isabel Perez has learned to guard her heart and protect her family at all costs. After Isabel’s sister Beatriz disappears in Barcelona, Isabel goes to Spain in search of her. Joining forces with an unlikely ally thrusts Isabel into her sister’s dangerous world of espionage, but it’s an unearthed piece of family history that transforms Isabel’s life.

Barcelona, 1936. Alicia Perez arrives in Barcelona after a difficult voyage from Cuba, her marriage in jeopardy and her young daughter Isabel in tow. Violence brews in Spain, the country on the brink of civil war, the rise of fascism threatening the world. When Cubans journey to Spain to join the International Brigades, Alicia’s past comes back to haunt her as she is unexpectedly reunited with the man who once held her heart.

Alicia and Isabel’s lives intertwine, and the past and present collide, as a mother and daughter are forced to choose between their family’s expectations and following their hearts.