FANTASTIC. Diverse, accurate, inspiring, funny & holy crap. A YA book about Cuban salsa. This is needed. Review to come next week.

This is a cute story about Rick, who is known for making cat videos. When Rick decides to take on salsa dancing as a new hobby, his world changes around him. He is part Cuban, but has never known that part of his heritage. When he gets a chance to go to Cuba and learn to dance everything changes.I enjoyed this book because of the culture. I love learning about new places and this book exposed me to a place I know very little about. I enjoyed the romance in the plot line, but also how much self-d...

This book was actually pretty good. I almost didn't pick it up when I got the chance to get some advanced-copy books from my library but it called out to me a bit. It makes me really wish I could spend a summer in a foreign country learning about love and life and all that. This book surpassed my expectations and I pretty much read it all in one day. It really does transport you to a whole other place, which is more than I can say for some books.All in all, I would recommend reading this book

What a beautiful, brilliant book about two things I knew very little about (Cuba and Salsa) and now know a little more about. While I think TCKOH may have tried to tackle a few too many things in its salsa-brisk pages, I think everything was handled with great grayness... things that seemed black and white evolved into that true gray mess of politics and humanity... but all that's secondary to the characters... richly developed, painfully human... a beautiful romance that goes in a more realisti...

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.Ever since his mom died, Rick discovered a cache of cat videos on his mother’s laptop. Now Rick runs a popular website that is all about cats to honor his mom. He is even known at “THAT CAT GUY” at school. When Rick is dumped by his girlfriend, Rick decides it’s time for a change. That “change” leads him to meeting Ana. Next thing he knows, Rick is on a plane to Havana, Cuba with Ana attempting to not only conn...

This book raises a lot of questions. Will it be a cute, snarky story about a guy who posts lolcat videos? An escapist summer romance with a salsa beat? A serious issue book about the current state of Cuba? Answer: It's some of each of those things, and the combination works like magic.Initially, I thought Rick's self-aware, borderline-cocky voice might wear on me. If you feel that way, I encourage you to read on, because Rick soon gets pushed way out of his comfort zone. And then even further ou...

This is a fun, and timely, YA novel. NYC teenager Rick is the son of a German father and a (deceased) Cuban mother. Rick is a geeky computer nerd who has made a bit of name, and some money, creating a website of cat videos. Rick is challenged to try salsa dancing where he meets Ana - another NY teen, this one actually talented in the salsa department, who also has a complicated life. The two end up on a summer trip to Cuba to meet Rick's relatives and get better at salsa dancing. The pair learn

Just finished an amazing YA book, THE CAT KING OF HAVANA by Tom Crosshill, Katherine Tegen Books, my publisher. Its main protagonist, Rick Gutierrez, is awkward and geeky and spends his time in his room on his computer with his website, CatoTrope.com. His Mom has died, his first girlfriend has dumped him and the room is so much easier than being out in the world-that is, until he meets Ana Cabrera and salsa dancing. He invites Ana to his mother's native Cuba for the summer with the hopes of impr...

THE CAT KING OF HAVANA is a thoroughly charming, funny, and thoughtful coming-of-age novel. With a unique setting, and a plot that takes a number of welcome and unexpected turns, it reads like John Green meets Strictly Ballroom by way of Joseph Kanon - a fascinating blend of self-exploration, the art of dance, and even some political intrigue thrown in for good measure. It's an ambitious array of themes, and it's a credit to Tom Crosshill's talent that he is able to balance them so well in a rea...

The title promised me cats and failed to really deliver. Once I got over that and into the dance competition aspect it was alright.

A saucy, compelling, altogether satisfying read that will appeal to teens and adults. Rick is a cat-video enthusiast who just can't seem to catch a break, until he starts salsa dancing and meets Ana. This is a fast-paced, often very funny book with dark undertones about politics, grief, and heartbreak.

I received this book as part of a Goodreads Giveaway, although I don't think that has affected my review.From the beginning, I wasn't sure if I would like this book: I'm not a big follower of LOLCats, and, well I'm really just not a fan of LOLCats.The Cat King of Havana is far from immature. It is full of life, joy, humor, and reality. I find myself thinking about it and smiling at the memories created by Rick and Ana. Rick's thoughts run from "typical teenager" to witty hero to profound truths

With the hype that’s been surrounding Cuba lately, I was interested in the book primarily because I wanted to see how Cuba would be represented, because: A) it’s not a topic of interest in the YA book world B) I am Cuban. Born there and raised in Miami Anyway, I had some reservations seeing that the writer was anything but Cuban, but those reservations drifted away as I read the story. Crosshill did a phenomenal job of representing today’s Cuba with all it’s beauties and imperfections, but he c...

Such a fun, vivid, and fresh novel. I can honestly say that I never expected to read a novel about salsa dancing, Cuba, and funny cat videos (and I didn't know how much I wanted that until I started reading!). My favorite books are the ones that blend humor and sadness, and this book does that so skillfully. This is a book that reads like a really great vacation, with a few disasters and surprises along the way. Highly recommended!

3.5 starsI picked up The Cat King of Havana for one simple and perhaps shallow reason: I'm going to Cuba in November. And I know basically nothing about the island, the culture, the history, and only bits and pieces about the political situation. What better way to get a taste of all of that than through fiction? Well, The Cat King of Havana, while for the rest not being a typically me story, did deliver on that.The Cat King of Havana is about Rick, a Cuban American webmaster of a cat video site...

A nonstop celebration of life, love, family, Cuba...and dance!I read this quirky, hilarious, moving and perceptive book on an ARC tour, and now I find that I'm extremely reluctant to send the book to the next person on the list. I just don't want to let it go. I want to delve again and again into its pages, to re-read my favorite scenes. Some of them made me laugh so hard, I had to read them aloud to my amused (and probably annoyed) family. Others were chilling. Still others made me stop and thi...

Sixteen-year-old Rick Gutierrez joins a salsa class to impress his crush Ana Cabrera. Even though she makes it clear that she has no romantic interest in her, Rick plans a trip to Cuba with Ana ostensibly so that they can visit his family and experience 'authentic salsa.' He is hoping to change her mind about him. What Rick does not expect is that they would wind up embroiled in dangerous political machinations. This enjoyable book is rich in cultural details and romantic entanglements. Such fun...

Originally posted over at Lekeisha the Booknerd. Stop by and enter the giveaway! US onlyThe Cat King of Havana is full of fun, dance, culture, and love. I love the characters, and the settings of New York and Cuba just added so much to the story. Rick is one of the coolest, geekiest teens I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading about. His love for cat videos is just the icing on the cake. He starts out with the plan of getting the girl, but he learns so much more about his mother’s history and the...

Rick is good at one thing: posting lolcats on the internet.But when his girlfriend breaks up with him, he realizes that maybe he needs other things in his life. Salsa dancing seems to be the solution, even if maybe he came to that decision after meeting Ana and seeing her dance.To impress her, he invites her to Cuba for the summer, hoping he can get closer to her, but also hoping he can learn more about his late mother's family and why she left Cuba.But getting close to Ana is as hard as prying

That moment when you're kind of stuck to a wall where your books is plugged into the charger (I read on my phone and the screen devours battery).Author mentions salsa and Cuba as his two passions he tried to put in this book and I feel it's really apt, as those were the main things I got from reading it. I had to keep reminding myself I don't actually care for the dance, I don't quite get it when I watch it. Then again, maybe I just haven't seen my Ana dance.The one thing that I got a bit mixed