Spotlight & Giveaway: The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes 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, The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes is my love letter to books and the powerful impact they have on our lives. It’s the story of three incredible women spread across continents and over a century of time whose lives are linked by one unforgettable book. In 1900, Eva travels from Havana to Harvard to attend a summer school for Cuban teachers at a pivotal time in Cuba’s bid for independence. The novel she pens while she’s there touches the lives of Pilar, a Cuban librarian living in post-revolutionary 1960s Havana who is entrusted with safeguarding the book, and Margo an American expat in modern-day London who is hired to track down the book despite the danger surrounding it.
 

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

“Who could predict the strange alchemy that matched a reader to a book other than to say that perhaps fate had a role to play in it, that some books were meant to find some readers at the exact moments when they needed them most?”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

I love incorporating Cuban-American history in my books, and the summer school my heroine Eva Fuentes attends in the novel is a real-life event when over 1,200 Cuban teachers traveled to Harvard in 1900 to study in a cultural exchange that was the largest of its kind at the time. I first came across mention of the summer school when I was working on one of my earlier books, The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba, and I knew that it was an event I’d love to write about.
 

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

My heroine Margo is tasked with finding a mysterious book with only one copy left in existence. As she begins tracking down the novel, she’s thrust into a deadly situation that puts her in direct contact with her ex-husband Luke who she has never completely gotten over. They have a lot of history together and unresolved feelings and it was so fun and emotional writing their story as I was able to explore both their past relationship and them finding each other again in different places in their lives. I love a second-chance romance! They’re both career-driven and passionate about what they do, and their shared interests create a special connection between them.
 

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

I consider The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes to be my love letter to books, and it was really special for me to write about what reading has meant for me. Here’s an excerpt from the scene where my heroine Pilar first picks up the book that will resonate with her as she embarks on an unforgettable literary journey.

When she settled into bed, Pilar turned her attention to the novel Zenaida had left in her care.

A Time for Forgetting by Eva Fuentes.

There was a pact that existed between an author and a reader. An agreement that began when the reader picked up the book, studied the cover, and saw the author’s name on the front, and then finally in that moment when their fingers flipped to the first few pages as a bargain was sealed.

Read me and I will tell you all my secrets.

The reader was promised the possibility of sinking into another world, of escaping their problems, the weight of life subsiding for minutes, hours, days at a time. They were promised a story, a fiction, a sleight of hand, a shuffling of letters that altered reality. And yet, in that make-believe world the reader looked for truth—for the words on the page to resonate, for the characters in the scene to make them feel seen, for a thread that they could hold on to, for the book to sink its hooks into them and carry them on an unforgettable adventure.

Pilar began to read.

Readers should read this book….

If they love romance, suspense, interesting settings, fascinating heroines, history, and celebrating the impact books have on our lives.
 

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

I am currently copyediting what will be my summer 2026 release. It is a bit of a new adventure for me, and I cannot wait to share more about it soon!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway:  One copy of THE LOST STORY OF EVA FUENTES by Chanel Cleeton for a U. S. only winner.

To enter Giveaway: Leave a comment to this Q: Is there a special book that has changed your life?

 
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Book Info:

A mysterious book with a legacy spanning from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day unites three women—and their secrets—in this unforgettable novel from New York Times bestselling author Chanel Cleeton.

London, 2024: American expat Margo Reynolds is renowned for her talent at sourcing rare antiques for her clients, but she’s never had a request quite like this one. She’s been hired to find a mysterious book published over a century ago. With a single copy left in existence, it has a storied past shrouded in secrecy—and her client isn’t the only person determined to procure it at any cost.

Havana, 1966: Librarian Pilar Castillo has devoted her life to books, and in the chaotic days following her husband’s unjust imprisonment by Fidel Castro, reading is her only source of solace. So when a neighbor fleeing Cuba asks her to return a valuable book to its rightful owner, Pilar will risk everything to protect the literary work entrusted to her care. It’s a dangerous mission that reveals to her the power of one book to change a life.

Boston, 1900: For Cuban school teacher and aspiring author Eva Fuentes, traveling from Havana to Harvard to study for the summer is the opportunity of a lifetime. It’s a whirlwind adventure that leaves her little time to write, but a moonlit encounter with an enigmatic stranger changes everything. The story that pours out of her is one of forbidden love, secrets, and lies… and though Eva cannot yet see it, the book will be a danger and salvation for the lives it touches.
 
 

Meet the Author:

Chanel Cleeton is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Cuban Heiress, Our Last Days in Barcelona, The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba, The Last Train to Key West, When We Left Cuba, and Reese’s Book Club pick Next Year in Havana. She received a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Richmond, The American International University in London and a master’s degree in Global Politics from the London School of Economics & Political Science. Chanel also received her Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law. She loves to travel and has lived in the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia.