The Waves Take You Home is one of the best debut novels I read this year. A poignant story that mixes love and loss, this novel blends relatable characters with fantastic location descriptions. I loved reading about Violet, her doubts and struggles, and, above all, I appreciated the real character growth. The story is captivating enough to make you want to visit Colombia. Overall, it was a fast and immersive read I undoubtedly recommend.

Thank you María Alejandra Barrios Vélez, Lake Union Publishing, and NetGalley for the advance reader copy.

I won’t rate this book yet because I have a lot of thoughts about this book and I felt a lot of things were unresolved.

I have issues with the fact that Vi could understand where her grandmother was coming from. She could empathize with why her grandmother was the way she way, yet she judged her mother. It’s different, I know. One is your mother and the other one is your grandmother but both where the way they were because of the way they grew up, and I do think by the end Vi forgave her mother yet she still judged her mother.

I guess the romantic in me or the romance reader in me hated both relationships because I don’t think we got a second chance romance because Vi and Rafa don’t get to fall in love as the adults that they are now, she kept romanticizing the kids they were and the past.

I think Vi treated Liam like she and she kept comparing him to her “true love” and I think the way he turned into a villain was uncalled for because they both grew up in different cultures. Her as a Latine was waiting for a white man to understand why the restaurant meant to much to her. She kept resenting him and saying that Rafa (a man that is also Latine) would understand why she wants to save the restaurant so much.

I also think that the pacing/time jumps in this book were confusing. Like every time Vi reads a passage of her grandmothers life she quickly compares it to her current situation in her life and it just confused me.

I think the only part I liked was the magical realism. Her seeing her grandmother and how the people that mean the world to us are still with us after they pass away. I liked the description of the Caribbean. It’s something special and you have to be there to get it.

Maybe I’ll give more thoughts about this later. I just finished it and I wanted to vent.

I got an e-arc of this book on NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Waves Take You Home by María Alejandra Barrios Vélez was a captivating and beautiful story.
Not only is the cover art gorgeous the story was just phenomenal.
For this to be a debut title I’m honestly impressed.
The message is inspiring and the characters were entertaining.
The Waves Take You Home is an absolute delight. It's so layered and beautiful. I loved so, so much about this story.

Thank You NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Violeta has always been told what to do in her life. Which includes leaving behind her lover Rafa behind in Colombia so she could move to New York for college. Now many years later, Violeta is living in New York with her American boyfriend Liam and seemingly seem to have a happy life until she gets the news that her abuela is dead. Violeta returns back to Colombia and finds that she, her mother and Anton are left in charge to run abuela's restaurant. And while in Colombia, she experiences heartbreaks, emotions and of course meeting her ex-boyfriend Rafa who is now a doctor.

This book is one of the realistic novels that I have read. The overall story has a whole was well written and I find myself touring in Colombia while reading the novel. Violeta seems to be a very realistic character as she struggles with dealing with abuela's death, her emotions as well as her decisions to carry on abuela's restaurant. The book in my opinion was quiet unputdownable and I was actually enjoying reading this book. All the characters in this book re likable and this is a book that something you would want to check out. If you have read Kennedy Ryan's Before I Let You Go, then this book is one for you. Worth 4.5 stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the advance reader copy.

The cover of this book is beautiful and really drew me into wanting to read the book but I don’t feel like it was enough for the story to be interesting.

There’s a lot of repetition within the story and key elements don’t feel fleshed out enough. Most of the characters are fine; they don’t seem to have redeeming qualities even if you pretend they’re not apart of a book.

The story is very slow and you can feel a lot of the drag especially if you’re reading on a device that shows how much tou have read.

I think this needs a lot of editing but for a debut was ok.

I want to start of by saying that the cover is absolutely gorgeous and that the author did a great job of making you feel like you're in Colombia.
I also really liked the premise, the descriptions of the food, the bond between Anton and Vi, and the progression of the relationship between Vi and her mother.
However, I was sometimes confused by Vi's contradicting thoughts (eg. Liam being understanding vs him suddenly not being understanding, being sent away to the US vs running away to the US) and the story felt a bit repetitive in the middle and a bit too slow for my liking.

Thank you to Netgalley for letting me read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful book in many ways.
A book that speaks to us a lot about finding our place in the world.
It was a read that I enjoyed from beginning to end. It is a book that has a very nice story about family, about knowing ourselves and learning to let go.
This story is written in a very beautiful way, the way the author writes, with so much passion and how she transmits her love for these characters and for Colombia is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read.
The way the author writes makes you connect with the people and live the story through their eyes.
The main character, Vi, has an incredible character development. We see her as she grows through this journey trying to save her family's legacy and find her place in the world at the same time.
It's a story that grabs you, is enjoyable and reads very quickly and is definitely worth everyone's time to read. It grabbed me from the first page and I couldn't put it down.

Sweet Vi, an illustrator and brave woman, leaving her community and family behind in Colombia as she is encouraged to pursue her dreams in New York City. Even though this is a tale as old as time, I enjoyed the cozy nature and the likability of Vi’s character. The story does a good job of building upon itself and creating a character you would want to root for. The dialogue and storytelling was a little too obvious and cheesy at times and repetitive, that it made me crave a little more innovation from the storyteller. If you are looking for a sweet, slow paced story, this could be a good fit for you.

The Waves Take You Home, Maria Alejandra Barrios Velez

I have to say that the cover was gorgeous! The cover and its premise made me first pick up The Waves Take You Home. I really wanted to love this book about a young woman who leaves her country, Columbia, in order to fulfill her grandmother’s wishes for her to have a brighter future. Great set up for an exploration of the things one gains and loses when one chooses to immigrate to another country. However, I am sad to say, I had to DNF this one. I made it to the 63% mark, but I just couldn’t continue. The main character’s actions and motivations were not consistent and hard to believe. I love a book that uses magical realism as a literary device and not for the convenience of the storyline, I was also a bit confused on the logic behind when she chose to use Spanish and when she did and didn’t “translate” its meaning.

I love supporting debut and Latine authors and I am hopeful that Barrios Velez’s next novel will bring me back.

I loved this book so much. From start to finish, the story was so beautiful and captivating. The immersive Colombian setting and culture is so rich with description, it really sets a vibe. Throughout a plot of a failing restaurant we get love, loss, family, magical realism and so much character development. This was truly heartwarming and almost cozy read like.

Thanks to NetGalley, Amazon Publishing, and Lake Union for this copy of "The Waves Take You Home."

Even though her heart was with her family, her grandmother's restaurant and her boyfriend Rafa, she obeys her grandmother's wishes and travels to school in the US.

After her grandmother's passing, she returns home for the funeral to receive some surprising news... and to be guided by her grandmother's ghost and the journals she left behind.

This is a tough book for me to rate because I did relate to a lot of it and wanted to love it so much yet I had a very hard time staying engaged with it. It was too slow and repetitive which just took me out of the story too much. The magical realism aspect of it wasn’t done particularly well for me either. The setting was lovely and I felt like it really captured Colombia and the feeling of being an immigrant well. That longing for 2 different lives and the what if’s of our choices was really well done and it’s the part of the story I connected to the most. I just think it needed a bit of editing and restructuring to have a bigger impact for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for granting me access to ebook in exchange for honest review.

I really wanted to love this book because the story was so promising but there were too many issues for me to be able to settle into a reading rhythm.

This book needed several more rounds of edits. It is so repetitive. We are given information that we already know several times over. Sometimes sentences are repeated almost verbatim one after the other. Vi and Rafa’s age difference changes frequently

Another issue I had was that both Liam and Paula were incredibly wishy washy in their support. One minute Liam believes in Vi wholeheartedly and the next minute he’s acting like she’s incapable of tying her own shoes. Same with Paula. One minute she could not care less about the restaurant and then the next minute she’s losing her mind accusing Vi of not caring enough. I just needed them both to choose a lane.

I also really needed Vi to grow a backbone. It’s almost as if she’s being shepherded through life by her loved ones and she’s an obedient sheep that goes where ever she’s told and then when she’s blamed for following their commands she just takes that too. Her abuela and mom insist she must go to America so she doesn’t repeat family history but then her mom shits on her nonstop for never being in Barranquilla and she just takes it and feels guilty for it. She never says a word. She never even thinks about how absurd it all is. She even goes as far as to say multiple times that she ran away from her life in Barranquilla which is wild because she was clearly forced to leave. Her abuela never wanted her in the kitchen even though she desperately wanted to learn but when she moves away she doesn’t even attempt to teach herself. She’s obedient from a thousand miles away. And at no point does she question why she stays living in NYC. Every time she talks about the city she acts like she’s in a marriage she hates.

Even though saving the restaurant was one of the main plot points of the book, Vi does almost nothing to make that happen. They change the menu a tiny bit and Paula posts on social media. That’s it. There are no flyers around town, no go fund me with social media support, no call to action for the town where supposedly everyone cares about everyone. Vi could have painted murals for cash or done an art auction or literally anything. She could’ve played the freaking lottery even.

I know it sounds like I’m shitting on this book but I’m just critiquing it because I know it could be a really wonderful story. It just really fell short for me and I’m so disappointed.

A deep and stirring, emotional story of the complexity of life and the pull of home confuse and confound a young woman. On the death of her beloved grandmother, she returns to her home in Colombia to face an enormous problem and her teenage love. Pulled by both her home in Colombia and the ghost of her grandmother and her home and boyfriend in New York, she must find the courage and determination to make a choice.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I had high hopes for this book as the premise sounded so good; however, I was not at all captivated by this story. It took me nearly 2 weeks to read and I was easily distracted while reading, but I wanted to finish to fulfill my NetGalley obligations. Vi seems very wishy-washy, which I can somewhat tolerate since it's a bit of a coming-of-age story. However, her connection to Rafa did not feel as deep as she kept saying it was. I saw more connection and love with Liam. I didn't believe her connection to Rafa but I totally believed it with Liam. Classic case of show me, don't tell me. The author interspersed a lot of Spanish words and phrases throughout the book, and while most of the time they were explained or figured out by context clues, the ones that weren't became annoying so I skipped over them. Then there was a totally unnecessary revelation about Anton that either should have been alluded to earlier in the book or left out altogether because it truly had no bearing on the story as a whole other than to throw in there that he had a hard time as a young man as well. It's not an awful book and the author certainly did a decent job for her debut; it just didn't blow me away like some other debuts recently have.

I thought this book was beautifully written and almost poetic in nature. It dealt with serious topics but made it accessible to those who may not understand. I think she is a very talented writer, and I look forward to reading more from her in the future!

The Waves Take You Home is a beautiful story about the bond between family and a place you call home. I loved the characters in this book and the deep connection with food and family. I was getting hungry reading page after page of delicious Colombia recipes. No bad guys, no hidden lies, just a story about love and family….and food!
Violeta has dreams of one day leaving her hometown and attending college in the states, and that dream is coming true. The decision to leave is not an easy one because Vi will be leaving her true love Rafa behind. Rafa has his own dreams and he cannot follow Vi if he hopes to achieve them.
Vi leaves and years go by with no visit home, but right before her trip home her Abuela passes. Anyone would be sad to lose a grandparent but Vi was closer to her Abuela than her own mother. Abuela’s restaurant Caminito not only supports the family but its dishes are a direct reflection on Abuela herself. The trip home will open Vi’s eyes to things that are most important, what she’s meant to do in life, and the people she wants around her. She’ll also be reunited with her past and the man she lost ten years ago.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

So… this book was very frustrating to me. But let’s start from the beginning: 18-year-old Violeta Sanoguera prepares to leave her home in Barranquilla, Colombia, broken-hearted, to go to college in the US, following her grandmother’s wishes.

Ten years later, when her strict but beloved grandmother passes away, Violeta goes back home for the funeral and decides to stay and try to save the family’s restaurant from bankruptcy with the help of her mother and Anton, her friend and grandmother’s protegé. But home brings up a lot of feelings for Vi, in particular for the boy whose proposal she rejected: Rafa. Problem is, both of them have moved on with other partners… or have they?

I liked the main plot of Vi wanting to save the restaurant and in the process finding out more about her grandmother, repairing family bonds, and discovering more about herself. But, frankly, I found that the addition of her grandmother’s *ghost* cheapened the story unnecessarily. So did the love triangle.

I understand that Vi and Rafa are ~star-crossed lovers~, but they were 18, and Vi is shown to be in a healthy relationship with someone who met her as an adult. Yet the moment she steps in Barranquilla, Rafa is all she can think about. I felt like the author didn’t want to paint Vi’s current partner as a bad guy, but then she also had to make him less appealing somehow, but did so in ways I just didn’t buy. For example, in one conversation, Liam is 100% behind Vi’s decision to save the restaurant, he believes she can do it… until somehow *she* voices the idea that he doesn’t think she can do it, and then it’s like “gotcha! I think you’re crazy and you won’t do it”. Or he sees the ghost and believes is a ghost, until Vi is like “ay he doesn’t believe in ghosts!” and then he doesn’t. Suddenly he “doesn’t understand her”… but Rafa does? The guy who doesn’t know her as an adult?

I just… this was an insane plot line done badly for me. It would have worked better if Vi and Rafa had reconnected as friends and then slowly realized that they also clicked as adults, but instead it felt like two people who’d never been able to move on and clung to a high school relationship. And it muddied Vi’s intentions of going back to Colombia.

I also took issue with this: most of the story is set in Colombia, a Spanish-speaking country, and features many characters who are presumably speaking in Spanish to each other, translated to English for the benefit of the book’s audience. Except… the dialogue is actually done in Spanglish, *heavily*. I love it when authors include some of their native language in their books, but this was a lot, it made no logical sense, and it didn’t have consistent rules for when to use Spanish and when to include a translation. Vi was bilingual; every other character she spoke to while in Colombia was not. I underlined so many examples of why this was done so poorly, so here are some:

“Ni sé. I don’t think I’m made para este calor anymore.” - The character is bilingual but talking to a native Spanish-speaker who isn’t bilingual, and they’re in Colombia.
”In Colombia, we took care of our muertos quickly.” - Muertos isn’t really a word that has reason to be in its native language.
”I could still hear Mami: Por qué couldn’t I stay for more than two weeks? Was I alérgica to Barranquilla?” - See examples 1 and 2 above.
”'Claro. Y quién más?' Who else? he said” - It repeats the sentence in English here and in a few other places even when it’s unnecessary, and not in other places where the translation might not be as clear.

I’m a native Spanish-speaker and this lack of logic was off-putting to me. I also thought it could have done with more edits, as parts of it felt repetitive, some *were* actual repeated facts that didn’t need to be, and there were issues with the timelines - at one point, Vi is 18 when Rafa is 21, but then it says they’re the same age; Vi’s mother remarried ten years ago, but Vi was 13 when she was actually 18.

Overall, I just couldn’t connect with the story or the characters because those things bugged me too much, and I considered DNF’ing several times - even though the main premise was interesting.

I’m honestly unsure how I feel about this book! I’ve gone for 3 stars (3.5 if I could!!) - not because it was bad by any means, but I think there was something that didn’t grab me. The prose was beautiful, and Maria has a gift of bringing places (and food) to life. The descriptions of the kitchen, the food being prepared all really came to life, and I loved seeing Vi’s struggle between her two homes, which I think is something so many people can relate to, myself included. However, I think the love triangle element really threw me, as I didn’t expect it at all, and I did find myself skimming over the middle. I found it really moving when Vi said goodbye to Liam, and found him to be a really sympathetic character even if he didn’t align with what she wanted for her life. I felt frustrated with Vi for how she treated him quite a few times, and I think this meant I wasn’t as happy for her as I would have liked to have been! I liked seeing the development of her relationship with her mum, and intriguingly her abuela, through a ghost and a diary. This is much more what I was expecting and looking forward to than the romance elements.
Thank you to NetGalley & Lake Union for this ARC copy.

My three words for this novel are: charming, stirring, and liberating. An excellent debut! Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the ARC.