My review and playlist for this book has been posted on my Goodreads

🌺This is a stunning book inside and out. The cover immediately captured my attention. Then I read the synopsis and I immediately had to read this book.🌺

Brief Summary:
The Waves Take You Home introduces you to 18 year old Violeta also know as Vi she is living in Columbia with her Abuela and Mami. Her family owns a small restaurant in town. Her Abuela not wanting her granddaughter to end up living the same life as her forces Vi to leave Columbia and to go to school in American to become and artist. Vi always doing what she is told. Packs her bags and leaves the love of her life behind , Rafa, to start a new life and fulfill her Abuela wishes.

The book jumps forward 10 years where Vi has started an art career and has a charming boyfriend. Sadly her Abuela passes away which forced Vi to go back to Columbia to grieve her grandmother. When she gets there she realizes the family restaurant is in debt so she decides she needs to stay for a month to help save the restaurant… being back in her hometown brings backs a lot of memories. She gets to reunite with a lot of of old friends and a certain old flame. 👀

My Thoughts:
I throughly enjoyed this book. I loved learning about Columbia and the culture of the beautiful people that call Barranquilla their home. I love books that can teach you a thing or two.

The writing in this book was so beautiful. I was whisked away to Columbia. I could see the beautiful beach. I could bury my toes in the warm sand and see the full moon above me. I could envision the characters and myself dancing and eating in the streets of Barranquilla. I could smell the cooking. I could almost taste the flan and the arroz de coco. I felt like I was in the restaurant watching everything unfold while enjoying some Sancocho. I would like to mention there is a lot of sentences and phrases in Spanish. But the author translates what is being said in English so smoothly. I really enjoyed the added magical realism. It was woven perfectly into the storyline.

“Abuela’s cooking: butter, saffron, garlic and olive oil. A smell that could guide anyone who was lost home.”

I fell in love with every character. The supporting characters were very enjoyable to read. Everyone intertwined flawlessly.
🏝️Vi character develop was so beautifully done. I loved her resilience. Her strength. She was so determined it was very admirable.
🏝️I loved the character of Abuela—who is very much alive in the story despite having passed away. Her story was written in a way that I felt like she was every readers Abuela. She was a wise women who had so much love for her family.
🏝️Oh my heart goes out to Liam. I feel for him. He loved Vi but I didn’t like how unsupportive him was being towards her. All she wants is to save the restaurant and he was just being discouraging.
🏝️I have the hots for Rafa. Omg what a heartthrob 🥵 a perfect gentleman. I was rooting for him since the very first page. Omg I just wanted to dance the night away with him. 💃💋

🌊The Waves Take You Home was such a cozy read. The story is filled with so much heart and wisdom. I laughed. I cried. I felt an array of emotions as the reader. I was captives by this story. There was so many different elements that kept you engaged. I definitely recommend this book. This was an amazing debut novel. This book held several powerful message one being, believe in yourself and never give up…I can’t wait to follow this author in the future.

✨Thanks to NetGalley and The Author & Lake Union Publishing for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ✨

From the colorful and beautiful cover art to the rich descriptive writing. This book is a door waiting to take you to the beautiful streets of Barranquilla.

Vi is sent off to college in the US by her Abuela. Forcing her to leave behind her home, family, Rafa (who her mom and abuela never approved of). Ten years later she is living in NYC with a new love (Liam) and trying to make ends meet with her artwork when she gets the call that abuela has passed away. Vi returns to Colombia to find that abuela left her their struggling family restaurant from which she was kicked out on multiple occasions by abuela herself. Vi is left to to figure things out and reconnect with family, friends, and Rafa who she had been forced to leave behind.

I wholeheartedly loved this book so much that I am preordering a physical copy. The complicated and intense familial relationships. The delicious (AND I MEAN DELICIOUS) descriptions of the food. Processing through the grief of loosing the matriarch of the family. Finding love. And most importantly, finding your own path. I see myself in Vi, in the way she tries to do what's right for her family while also trying to find her happiness and what's right for her.

But what I had ignored was that life always had a way of pushing you toward the center of the caracol, where you belonged. Life always found a way of making you return.

They didn't understand that there were things and obligations that tied you to the world when you were an immigrant woman of color.


This was an ARC read, thank you to Lake Union Publishing and to the author.

A great debut for Maria Alejandra Barrios Velez. A wonderful portrayal of being true to one's destiny, regardless of being pointed in an opposite direction. Vi experienced loss, love and hardships but knew to come home. The story coming full circle leaves the reader feeling that the story is complete.

I was initially intrigued by the beautiful cover of this book. I love the hispanic culture and will read a book which includes anything regarding the culture at any chance I get. The setting alternates between Columbia and NYC. The author does a great job at portraying the culture of Colombia. The importance of abuela in our main character's life was palpable. I loved all the Spanish phrases that were intertwined into the story. Sometimes when this is done it makes it hard for me to follow the story, but the way the author does it here makes it easy to understand what is being said. I am always a sucker for second chance romance stories and this did not disappoint! There was also so much more to this book such as the importance of family, choosing what you truly want, finding where home is, and of course, food. This is a great debut novel and look forward to further books by the author.

Thanks to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

*3.75 stars

"Time comes and goes, it passes and it comes back and then it repeats the same cycle, everything growing and connecting to a center where our ancestors are in front of us and our future stands behind us."

The Waves Take You Home by María Alejandra Barrios Velez, a debut Colombian author, planning to be released on March 19, 2024. In this coming-of-age, magical realism story we follow our main character Violeta, a 28-year-old woman who left her home of Colombia at a young age to pursue an education in art in New York City. We follow her journey as she is called back to Colombia due to the passing of her Abuela. Upon her arrival, Violeta is faced with the ghost of her grandmother and a large portion of her grandmother's failing restaurant, a place that her abuela had always tried keeping her away from. As Violeta faces these challenges, we see her rediscover her home, stories of her abuela, and herself.

This book was incredibly impactful as an immigrant whose family lives in another country while living life in the United States. There was a constant tugging of identities and direction that Violeta contemplated as she traveled to and from her home in Colombia and the life that she had created in New York City. There are parts of myself that live here in Washington, but my roots have always been planted in India and they play a huge role in my identity as a person.

There was also an emphasis on family, how we're connected to our ancestors and how their stories live within us as they pass on to the next life. I found Violeta's journey of self-discovery empowering. The relationships that she used to have with her mom slowly evolved as they reached a common goal to save Abuela's restaurant, a place that gave them a chance to redefine what their relationship looks and feels like. It takes a lot of empathy and understanding to hold one's feelings and decisions at the forefront while still making space to care about others. This is something that I've been practicing in therapy because oftentimes I experience dissociation when these two things don't align perfectly. I have to remind myself that my feelings are valid, while also knowing that my parents love and care about me, but have a way of showing it that might not have been what I needed growing up.

All in all, this book is beautifully flowing with Colombian culture and food and it holds a bumpy and uncertain atmosphere as our main character paves her path for herself as she discovers her identity on her terms, while still remembering where her roots are. I highly recommend keeping a look out for this book when it comes out this year.

A beautiful intergenerational novel. "They didn't understand that there were things and obligations that tied you to the world when you were an immigrant woman of color." A moving story about family and ancestry, love, and the cultures we come from.

Beautiful story reminiscent of Like Water for Chocolate . The author stayed true and authentic to the core cultural Hispanic themes of family, food, and future. A beautiful love story, within the family, as well as romantically made this story easy to dive into and enjoy one bite at a time. The recipes and imagery of delicious, authentic Colombian meals made the book an even greater delight! A Definite recommend!

Intriguing story I must say. This one makes me sentimental for what I may have been if I follow my grandmother too. Everything is so relatable. Young love and second chance. The loneliness in her Abuela's diary. And when Gabriel shows up, goosebumps is real. I felt every sadness and happiness over success. The way Doña Emilia chose her family over anything in this world.

You don't control the wave or know how it will turn out. But sometimes you learned how to ride the waves of life. A lot of detour and wrong decisions. This story tell us that you always have roots that will keep coming back to take you home, where you truly belong. Unputdownable!

This is a stunning book, inside and out! The novel follows Vi as she struggles to help save her family's restaurant, Caminito. There are big themes here regarding fear, toxic generational patterns, love, regret. But it never feels heavy handed or bogged down--the prose is light and lovely. Something is always happening; the characters are distinct and memorable. I especially loved the grandma, her coldness, and her simultaneously sweet yet bitter, judgmental ghost. The setting descriptions are vivid and all the food parts will make you hungry. The romance is very well-rendered with depth and nuance. When this book is out, I expect to hear people discussing whether they are Team Liam or Team Rafa!

I was so captivated by the lush world and engaging characters in this novel, I read it in less than 48 hours. I found myself immediately invested in the story of Violeta Sanoguera, a 28-year-old artist struggling to find her place in New York City, who gets called back to her Columbian hometown after her grandmother's death. As Vi grapples with the meaning of home and the weight of family obligations, she's also trying to decide what kind of life she wants to live—and who she wants to share that life with.

I especially loved the character of Abuela—who is very much alive in the story despite having passed away—and all the mouth-watering descriptions of the Columbian food! A thread of magical realism is woven expertly throughout the novel, as are questions of what a woman—daughter, mother, grandmother—owes to her family versus herself. I can tell these characters are going to stick with me for a long time, and I can't wait to have this gorgeous book on my shelf! (Thanks to NetGalley for an early electronic version).

This was an amazing debut novel about a woman understanding her place in the world and finding her way home ever under a wave of self-doubt and past trauma.

The focus on the women of the family was amazing. I am a huge fan of the dynamics between mothers and daughters as they can be one of the most complex parts of a story. Seeing Vi coming home and connecting with her mother for quite possibly the first time in her life was so satisfying. Also seeing Vi finally understand her grandmother and all the reasons why she raised her the way she did just made me feel warm.

I was not a huge fan of the romantic entanglements in the story. I felt like Liam was a burden to Vi even when she claimed that he was her safe place because moments later she would say something which would make me thing otherwise. On the flip side, Vi's passion towards her first love Rafa didn't really convince me. I wanted more about them, more reasons to think that they were this huge all-encompassing love which was still haunting her ten years later.

This is a great debut novel from María Alejandra Barrios Vélez that enchanted me from the first chapter. From its vivid descriptions of the food and landscapes of Columbia to its prose on first love and family love, the whole story engrossed me instantly.

Plot: I came for the second chance romance and stayed for the character growth, family relationships and journey to self-acceptance.

Pacing: I found the pacing to be a little slow at times for such a short novel (which may have been due to my own ignorance of Spanish words and phrases that are interwoven in the text that kept throwing me off) but other than that I loved it.

Thanks to Lake Union publishing for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. If romance and domestic fic are your thing, this needs to be on your radar for March 2024.

Through no fault of this book's project the story I was most interested in hearing is not the one told but the little glimpses we got of her grandmother's diary. That, to me, is a more compelling narrative, and the only reason I finished this book because before that point I was bored and seriously considering giving up.

CW: emotional cheating.

I read this book through NetGalley.
It was such a beautiful story about loss and grief, about coming home and finding yourself. This was a debut novel for Maria Alejandra Barrios Velez and you can tell that she really put her heart into telling this story! I would definitely recommend this book!

This debut novel was inspired by the strong and resilient women from the city of Barranquilla, Columbia that the author grew up in. Violeta “Vi” was primarily raised by her strict yet loving Abuela, grandmother, who owned Caminito, a focal point restaurant of the community. Throughout Vi’s childhood, her relationship with her mother was fraught with turmoil and at the age of 18, Abuela sends Vi to study art at a university in Vermont, as a way to separate her from her Colombian boyfriend, Rafa. But when tragedy strikes , Vi must return home to fulfill her familial responsibilities. The story has strong themes of family relationships, the love of home and the discovery of oneself and the reader is taken on a journey through the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the beautiful Caribbean culture.

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for my honest opinion. Publication date: March 19, 2024

Thank you to netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for allowing to read this book. This was such a beautiful story. I enjoyed this book.

The Waves Take You Home by Maria Alejandra Barrios Vélez. was by far one of my favorite reads of 2023. It was easy to feel immersed in Barranquilla. Vélez writes in such a way you feel as if you are there in Columbia with her, your toes in the cool sand. The warm breeze against your skin. Vi is such a relatable character. I felt her grief. Her pull towards two different worlds. There are books you read where you forget the main characters immediately. This is not one of them.

The Waves Take you Home by @mariaalebvelezwrites cannot come out soon enough! I was able to read the ARC vía @netgalley, and quite honestly, if life didn't get in the way, I would have finished it in one day!
I can't even bring myself to explain just how much I loved this one! There was not one character that I didn't love. They're ingrained in my mind visually, and no one can change them! Also, all I want to do is go eat at El Caminito! You will, too, as the cultural aspects were painted so as to allow the reader to enjoy the dishes that were prepared!
Violeta is the epitome of many immigrants that, with the sacrifice of her abuela and mother, is able to come to the US to study. Ten years later, she must go back to Colombia to say goodbye to her abuelita, who has now passed. Now, let me just say that abuelitas for me are a bit of a trigger. I miss mine so much every single day and to read about their connection...well, it brought about the feels! Enters the magical realism....and so to not spoil the novel, I'll just say I wish! I SO WISH!
Violeta is not only facing returning home where she left her family and first love behind, but she's leaving behind her boyfriend Liam with whom she has built a life in the US. What will she do? Will things change? Well, these are things that come into play once she learns that she has inherited part of her grandmother's restaurant, sees her first love and has to work together with her mom who she was really not that close to. This novel takes us on a journal of magic, resilience, love, and growth, all the while facing generational trauma and learning to forgive and trust in yourself. If this isn't on your radar, let this be the sign that it should be! For a debut novel, this novel was exquisite!

The Waves Take You Home by María Alejandra Barrios Vélez is a beautifully written and emotional journey through the lives of three women connected by the sea.

I was captivated from page one and it will be with me for a long time to come. Loved it.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher

All thoughts and opinions are my own and aren't influenced by anyone else

I truly saved the best for last because this ARC just became one of my top reads of 2023. There was a certain point where I could not stop crying. This book was filled with so many love - through family, second chance romance, and community. It taught you the power of love over fear, learning to let go, and how valuable your intuition is in guiding you to the place where you belong. Such a beautiful and eloquent debut novel by a POC author. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC. I cannot wait for the official release 💗