The Cat King of Havana

June 27, 2016
Cat video entrepreneur Rick Gutiérrez seeks change after his girlfriend dumps him on his 16th birthday. Rick joins a salsa band and meets dancer and filmmaker Ana, who is dealing with complicated family problems. Eager to spend more time with Ana and to explore his deceased mother’s Cuban heritage, Rick invites Ana for a summer of salsa lessons in Havana. Living with his aunt and two cousins, Rick and Ana learn that communism is not as equitable as Aunt Juanita believes. When cousin Yolanda asks the two to help a kidnapped blogger, they are threatened, endangering themselves and Rick’s family, even as Rick attempts to search for his mother’s first love and uncover the truth behind her defection during the 1980 Mariel boatlift. Breaking the fourth wall, Rick speaks directly and engagingly to readers, infusing Crosshill’s first YA novel with wry, self-effacing humor. The breezy pace and descriptions of Cuban culture soften the serious issues at hand—supply shortages, imprisonment, and secret police. Despite an improbable ending worthy of a viral video itself, Crosshill’s big-hearted novel shines. Ages 13–up. Agent: Ammi-Joan Paquette, Erin Murphy Literary.

July 15, 2016
"Geeky loner" Rick Gutierrez convinces his romantically uninterested crush to spend a summer perfecting their salsa-dancing skills in Cuba. When motherless Rick's first-and-only girlfriend dumps him on his 16th birthday, the lolcat-video entrepreneur dubbed "That Cat Guy" by his classmates decides to take more risks. He meets the beautiful, salsa-dancing Ana Cabrera and joins her at a New York City salsa school in hopes of scoring a date. A few months later, half-Cuban, half-German Rick has progressed to a mediocre casino dancer but is still just friends with Ana. When Ana suffers a tragedy, Rick impulsively suggests they visit his dead mother's relatives in Havana in order to reconnect to his roots and immerse themselves in dancing salsa. Improbably, off Rick and Ana go to Cuba, where living conditions are quite different than they imagined. Rick's teen cousin Yosvany is a player who keeps flirting with Ana and pointing out the ways Rick lacks game, but at least he introduces them to Pablo, an accomplished dance instructor. The debut author is a veteran salsa teacher, so it's unsurprising the dance descriptions and detailed music references are authentic, but several of the plot points prove beyond belief, such as how the teens are allowed to go to Cuba to begin with, not to mention eventually involve themselves in dangerous Communist-subverting activities. As a dance-filled coming-of-age tale, the story keeps the beat, but as a romance, it stumbles. (Fiction. 13-17)

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.