Books by Chantel Acevedo

Muse Squad: The Cassandra Curse (Muse Squad, 1)

by Chantel Acevedo

The first in an action-packed debut middle grade fantasy duology about a Cuban American girl who discovers that she’s one of the nine Muses of Greek mythology. Perfect for fans of The Serpent’s Secret, the Aru Shah series, and the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.
Callie Martinez-Silva didn’t mean to turn her best friend into a pop star. But when a simple pep talk leads to miraculous results, Callie learns she’s the newest muse of epic poetry, one of the nine Muses of Greek mythology tasked with protecting humanity’s fate in secret.
Whisked away to Muse Headquarters, she joins three recruits her age, who call themselves the Muse Squad. Together, the junior muses are tasked with using their magic to inspire and empower—not an easy feat when you’re eleven and still figuring out the goddess within.
When their first assignment turns out to be Callie’s exceptionally nerdy classmate, Maya Rivero, the squad comes to Miami to stay with Callie and her Cuban family. There, they discover that Maya doesn’t just need inspiration, she needs saving from vicious Sirens out to unleash a curse that will corrupt her destiny.
As chaos erupts, will the Muse Squad be able to master their newfound powers in time to thwart the Cassandra Curse . . . or will it undo them all?

The Living Infinite: A Novel

by Chantel Acevedo

A nineteenth century Spanish princess is determined to publish her tell-all memoir in this “fresh, fast-moving historical fiction from a master storyteller” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

After her cloistered childhood at the Spanish court, her youth spent in exile, and a loveless marriage, the Bourbon infanta Eulalia gladly departs Europe for the New World. In the company of Thomas Aragon, a small-town bookseller and the son of her childhood wet nurse, she travels first to a Cuba bubbling with revolutionary fervor, and then to the 1893 Chicago World Fair. As far as the public is concerned, she is there as an emissary of the Bourbon dynasty. But secretly, she is in America to find a publisher for her scandalous autobiography, a book that might well turn the old world order on its head.
Latino International Book Award winner Chantel Acevedo brings Bourbon Spain, Revolutionary Cuba, and fin de siècle America vividly to life in her new novel based on a true story.
The Living Infinite is a timeless tale of love, adventure, power and the quest to take control of one’s destiny.

The Distant Marvels: A Novel

by Chantel Acevedo

The acclaimed Cuban American author of Love and Ghost Letters delivers “a wonderful story about the stories we tell each other” set in 1960s Cuba (San Francisco Chronicle).

Cuba, 1963. Hurricane Flora, one of the deadliest in recorded history, is bearing down on the island. Seven women have been forcibly evacuated from their homes and herded into the former governor’s mansion. There they are watched over by another woman―Ofelia, a young soldier of Castro’s new Cuba. As the storm rages and the floodwaters rise, a cigar factory lector named Maria Sirena tells the incredible story of her childhood during Cuba’s Third War of Independence; of her father Augustin, a ferocious rebel; of her mother, Lulu, an astonishing woman who fought, loved, dreamed, and suffered as fiercely as her husband. But stories have a way of taking on a life of their own, and soon Maria will reveal more about herself than she or anyone ever expected.
Chantel Acevedo’s The Distant Marvels is an epic adventure tale, a family saga, a love story, a stunning historical account of armed struggle against oppressors, and a long tender plea for forgiveness. It is, finally, a life-affirming novel about the kind of love that lasts a lifetime and the very art of storytelling itself.

The Distant Marvels: A Novel

by Chantel Acevedo

None

Pa'Que Tu lo Sepas

by Chantel Acevedo, David Bowles, Alex Segura, Angel Luis Colón, Hector Acosta, Hector Duarte Jr., Carmen Jaramillo, Jessica Laine, Richie Narvaez, Christopher Novas

On September 20th, 2017, Hurricane Maria made landfall on the island of Puerto Rico as a Category 4—a devastatingly powerful storm that left immense suffering in its wake.

The island still hasn’t recovered completely; a victim of continued neglect and the continued efforts of many to demean and frame Puerto Ricans as “other” or “lesser” even though they are citizens of the United States.

Net proceeds from ¡Pa’Que Tu Lo Sepas! will benefit The Hispanic Federation: UNIDOS Disaster Relief & Recovery Program to Support Puerto Rico, a program working to help those still affected by the disaster and ensure continued safety in the face of continued weather-related events that can and will happen again.

With a foreword by editor Angel Luis Colón and 11 stories from veteran and newcomer Latinx authors who need to be on your radar, ¡Pa’Que Tu Lo Sepas! is a loud and proud celebration of Latinx writing, joy, trauma, and most of all, love.

Contributors: Chantel Acevedo, Hector Acosta, David Bowles, Hector Duarte Jr., Carmen Jaramillo, Jessica Laine, Richie Narvaez, Christopher Novas, Cina Pelayo, Alex Segura, and Désirée Zamorano.

Praise for ¡PA’QUE TU LO SEPAS!

“While cause-related anthologies aren’t unusual, what clearly separates Pa’Que Tu Lo Sepas from the pack is the diligence and care the contributors obviously put into their work, and how deftly Angel Luis Colón curated the writers and their stories. This is an important, necessary, lovely collection, one that plunges the reader into the variety of cultures and beauty within the LatinX community. Truly, Sepas is magical, and filled with magical writing. A must-read, now and always.” —E.A. Aymar, author of The Unrepentant

When the Cages Fall Open

by Chantel Acevedo

Cages is a sweeping, polyphonic portrait of a man seen through the eyes of those who loved him, feared him, and betrayed him. At its center is Felix--a zookeeper in 1960s Cuba, an exile in London, and finally a dying man in Miami. His story is pieced together like a puzzle that can never fully be solved by one who knew him only as an absence and seeks to know him before it is too late.

In Cuba, during the Missile Crisis, Felix risks everything for an illicit love affair with René, a fellow keeper. In a society where homosexuality is branded "counterrevolutionary," their tenderness unfolds in the shadow of danger, betrayal, and political oppression. In London, Felix and his wife Anabel navigate exile and reinvention, while an aspiring actress named Claudia finds herself drawn into their orbit, her ambitions and desires colliding with Felix's own hunger for connection. Years later, Virgilio--Anabel's devoted brother--recounts the disintegration of Felix's marriage and the exile that follows, even as he steps in to protect the family Felix abandoned.

From Anabel, long silent about her complicity in the events that forced Felix's flight from Cuba, to Rita, the daughter who knew him differently, each voice brings a sliver of truth. Together, these testimonies form a mosaic of longing, deception, survival, and reconciliation.

Spanning Havana, London, and Miami, Acevedo's luminous, formally inventive novel explores exile, forbidden love, fractured families, the nature of truth, and the stories we tell to make sense of the people we cannot forget.