Chantel Acevedo Books In Order

Publication Order of Muse Squad Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Chantel Acevedo is an American author. She has written the novels Love and Ghost Letters, which was published by St. Martin’s Press. It was a finalist for Connecticut Book of the Year and won the Latino International Book Award.

Acevedo is also the author of Song of the Red Cloak, which is a historical young adult fiction book. She has also written A Falling Star, published by Carolina Wren Press in 2014. This book won the Doris Bakwin Award.

Chantel Acevedo is also the author of The Distant Marvels, which was published in 2014 by Edizioni EO as well as Europa Editions in 2015. Acevedo wrote a collection of poems that was published in 2016 that was titled En Otro Oz and is the author of the fictional novel The Living Infinite, published in 2017.

In Love and Ghost Letters, Josefina Navarro is the main character. He life is okay, as she lives with her father and Regla, who is her nursemaid. Regla raises Josefina after her mother passed away and acts as a surrogate mother. They all live together in one of the wealthiest districts in Cuba called Vedado. There they live in a beautiful home that displays all of the luxury and the wealth of their class.

Josefina is groomed to be a young lady and be socially amenable from a young age. It’s one of the expectations for girls like her, who are raised in the upper crust levels of society. She goes to the society dances and in the meantime, all of the elite bachelors in Havana are scrambling over themselves to have the honor of courting her. With a few exceptions, Josefina’s life is interesting and even charmed– and certainly, she lives a life that most who live in her country would define as privileged.

Josefina loves watching the rituals of her nursemaid, but she also learns that their is magic present in the most boring things. Even though she grew up with privilege and having everything that she needs (except perhaps the presence of her biological mother), Josefina feels deep down that her life is quite boring. Even though she is part of high society, she thinks that her life lacks passion or excitement.

Her father is a stern man with a past that he keeps quiet and is a Spaniard by birth. His name is Sergeant Antonio Navarro. This Spaniard is a demanding man that tells his daughter when she meets a man named Lorenzo that by choosing him, she will be miserable and hungry all of her life. Pretty typical and in character for him.

But Josefina loves Lorenzo Concepcion. Even though he is poor and reckless, they tie the knot and then move to El Cotorro. The town is nothing like what she is used to and it is stricken by poverty. It is fairly far from the plazas of Vedado. It is lacking the wealth and the gardens that Josefina is used to. Their marriage is put to the test when Lorenzo starts leaving her for weeks at a time under the premise of searching for work.

Even though her husband says that he is looking for a job, he is gone for months. What should be searching for a way to provide for his wife turns into a man that is womanizing and partying just about everywhere in Cuba. Josefina gives birth to two healthy children but is still not satisfied or anything close to happy. When she married her husband, she definitely envisioned a far different future.

When a political storm brings the sergeant to El Cotorro to deal with a riot, he is near his daughter once more But when dealing with the riot he is attacked and is injured so severely that he is thought to be dead. When perception is the reality on an island where things are both good and bad and magic and truth coexist, things get strange. Josefina starts getting letters that she believes are heaven’s missives– ghost letters sent from beyond.

Through these words, she gets to know her father really well. She thinks of him as a guardian and ghost. Through the letters, she is able to discover what her father’s life really was like and through communicating with him, she finds the happiness and fulfillment and the love that will fill up what she is missing.

Love and Ghost Letters covers tradition, family, social status, and what we really need to be happy. Spanning Miami and Cuba, with the permutations of memories and real magic, check out this book for yourself to see what happens!

Song of the Red Cloak is another magical book written by Chantel Acevedo. Julianna Baggott calls this book a tale about loyalty, love, and friendship with a ripping storyline and twists and turns. Red Cloak focuses on two boys that have grown up together. Knowing each other from a very young age, they become the best of friends, even though they are quite different.

One of the boys is the prince of Sparta. His ranking means that he will be the one to rule this Greek state. The other boy is a helot, also known as a slave. He is the one who serves the prince. In Sparta, the harsh training camps are where the boys toughen up. They are trained to become tough and turn into the great warriors that the state is known for all over the world.

In these camps, their skills are tested and honed, but it is only citizens that may become warriors. They are the ones who strive for that Red Cloak. One of the tests involved in the rituals is the hunting of the helots, also referred to as the crypteia. It happens every year.

When a mysterious young woman warns of the slaves rising up, people are stunned. The woman is Sibyl and the oracles agree that there will be a conflict between the two factions. Evil forces will test the loyalties of the boys and see what they really are made of while threatening to tear their relationship apart. What will happen to them? Pick up this intriguing novel to find out for yourself.