HAVANA GIRLS
BOOK 3 OF THE QUEENPIN CHRONICLES
COMING JUNE 2025
Some revolutions start with a whisper
Miami, 1978. Sam Fontana, a university research assistant whose life has been turned upside down from her recent divorce, uncovers a trail of clues left by her mother, the late investigative reporter Imogene Fuchs. What begins as a personal quest soon plunges Sam into a dangerous world where the glamour of 1940s Havana collides with the gritty reality of 1970s Miami.
L.L. Kirchner's gripping third installment of The Queenpin Chronicles, Havana Girls, weaves dual timeline tapestry of intrigue spanning four decades:
A daughter's search for truth about her mother's mysterious past
Old friends reunited by circumstances they never could have imagined
The far-reaching consequences of choices made in the heat of revolution
As Sally delves deeper, she finds herself entangled with:
Thelma Miles Wright, a woman with a shadowy present and a tumultuous history
Kathleen Young, the puppet master who holds the key to long-buried secrets
A politician on a crusade against vice
The organized crime network that brings them all together on a path of justice and redemption
Unlikely romance
Havana Girls delivers a potent blend of:
Meticulously researched historical detail from Cuba to Florida
Strong women navigating personal demons and societal upheaval
A twisting plot that connects Cold War intrigue to the modern War on Drugs
Havana Girls reveals how echoes of the past reverberate through generations. As Sally unravels a mystery decades in the making, she must confront powerful enemies and her own fears to bring long-buried truths to light.
my MEMOIRS: BUY HERE
I HOPED MOVING TO QATAR WOULD CHANGE EVERYTHING. UNTIL IT DID.
LL Kirchner was excited for change. The thirty-eight-year-old American journalist to Qatar for work, hoping to improve education for Muslim women while building a nest egg to start a family. But after months of struggling with Middle Eastern patriarchy, communication problems, and constant heat exhaustion, the intrepid ex-pat was stunned to discover she’d entered early menopause.
Devastated when the diagnosis meant she could never have children, Kirchner and her spouse sought fertility treatments to fight nature’s cruel blow. But after a vacation to Turkey convinced them to return to the U.S., she suffered another emotional gut-punch when he decided he wanted a divorce.
Abandoned in the Persian Gulf, would this woman reeling from loss find a way to recover?
In this darkly comedic memoir, LL Kirchner recounts her extraordinary transformation in a daunting crucible. And as she journeys from hope to betrayal to peace, you’ll laugh and cry at her remarkable redirection from seeking approval to loving herself.
American Lady Creature is a fascinating account of one woman’s experience of hard-earned redemption. If you like moving narratives, honest confessions, and emerging triumphant from darkness, then you’ll adore LL Kirchner’s unforgettable reinvention.
Never give up, especially on yourself
Before my marriage ended over the telephone — from another country — I thought I knew from wellness. My parents owned a gym, and I’d already spent more than a decade in substance abuse recovery.
After that soul-crushing phone call, I feared a return to my substance addiction if I didn’t make a radical departure from life as I knew it. It wouldn’t have been the first time heartbreak sent me down that shame spiral. I turned toward the only answer I knew, one her sobriety mentor had shared — “the answer is always more spirituality.”
But when is more enough?
Desperate for answers, I tested out every spiritual journey imaginable—yoga, silent meditation retreats, gurus — but I kept returning to toxic relationships.
Driven to a sex cult where I was finally forced to confront unresolved family dynamics, I discovered I’d been asking the wrong question. Ultimately, I recognized my mother’s lasting gift—hope.
In a memoir that’s both rapturous and page-turning, Kirchner captures the terrors and joys of searching for radical honesty — and a second date.
“Saucy and funny and unflinchingly honest. A picaresque tale of a woman lost—and found—in the Persian Gulf.”
— Eric Weiner, author of the best-selling The Geography of Bliss
“Lisa is bold, genuine, hilarious. It's so satisfying to read a great story told by a great writer."
— Ophira Eisenberg, host of NPR's "Ask Me Another"
Blissful Thinking, THE book trailer
A long, strange trip…
Book trailer for L.L. Kirchner’s American Lady Creature
American Lady Creature, THE book trailer
I re-cut the original book trailer to music from the FIFA World Cup. Why not?
Book trailer for L.L. Kirchner’s American Lady Creature