"García-Lapuerta captures the reader's imagination with vivid details of Mercedes's life in Cuba, Madrid, and Paris. García-Lapuerta's beautifully written account of La Belle Créole illuminates lesser-known aspects of 19th-century transatlantic culture and the roles powerful women were able to play in it."
Publishers Weekly " La Belle Créole is an extraordinary tale of a beautiful, warm-hearted woman born ... Read moreinto the fabulous wealth of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Cuban aristocracy. Mercedes Santa Cruz y Montalvo (later Countess Merlin) nevertheless found the strength to assert her independence and carve out her own place in the world. In this meticulously researched, fascinating book, Alina García-Lapuerta not only introduces us to an inspiring heroine but shows us what biography at its best can do."
Jehanne Wake, author of Princess Louise: Queen Victoria's Unconventional Daughter and Sisters of Fortune: America's Caton Sisters at Home and Abroad "A fascinating book about a charming personality who deserves to be remembered."
Hugh Thomas, author of The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1440-1870 and Conquest: Cortes, Montezuma, and the Fall of Old Mexico "This work marks the first full-length English-language biography of the countess and draws upon her letters, memoirs, and contemporary news accounts to make a highly readable story. An influential biography that will captivate readers of all types."
Library Journal "Garcia provides a comprehensive and critical account of the life, work and environment of a singular woman whose impact reverberated on both sides of the Atlantic."
EFE "Alina Garcia-Lapuerta has pulled the most interesting times out of Mercedes varied past and brought to life a captivating woman who was ahead of her time."
Stephanie's Book Reviews "Garcia-Lapuerta' passion for the subject is palpable. After I read her marvelous La Belle Créole I can admit, Mercedes reached across time and seduced me too

her story reads like a great romance novel." LostPastRemembered "La Belle Créole" is a welcome book, one that adds a colorful brush stroke or two to our image of the early and mid-19th century." The Wall Street Journal "[LaPuerta] makes both the Cuba of old and her heroine feel hauntingly familiar, breathtakingly real." New Books in Biography Show Less