This story of three generations of women is told in non-linear timelines spanning 53 years. It starts and ends with the youngest, Daisy, in a horrible accident during a hurricane in Puerto Rico in 2023. But it’s not about a hurricane-ravaged island, or even Daisy herself. It’s a story about identity: losing it, hiding it, searching for it, re-discovering it.

Rafaela has minor misgivings when she marries an American serviceman in Puerto Rico in 1968, but they are both swept off their feet by the romance of it all. But adjusting to life in St. Louis is harder than she imagined. Her daughter Ruth spends her life trying to find her place in a community that isn’t quite ready to accept her heritage, and she tells herself she is only protecting Daisy from the same hurt. But Daisy longs for more than the once-a-year visit to the beautiful island where her family began and to which she feels so connected.

As Rafaela and Ruth hold vigil at Daisy’s bedside, we travel back through their memories with them, experiencing the joys, pains, triumphs, and failures that make a life. As with every life, there are sometimes secrets – some big, some small. And some that leave you wondering where, and if, you belong.

It’s not a fast-paced book, but it was wonderful to take my time and enjoy their story.

This audiobook was perfectly narrated by Almarie Guerra!

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, NetGalley, and author Jeanine Cummins for the complimentary advance copy. It was my pleasure to write this candid review.

First off, there is no reason this book needed to be this long. I think a third of it could have been edited out and it would have been better. That said, it was a fine book. Nothing spectacular but worth reading.

2.5 stars rounded up.

I read American Dirt when it debuted, and even though it was not PC, since the author is a white woman who wrote about a Mexican immigrant and her son, I loved it. The searing love the mother felt for her son and her desperation to save him kept me on the edge of my seat and compelled me to keep reading until I knew their outcome. Unfortunately, Speak to Me of Home did not resonate with me the same way.

This is a long and rather ambitious family saga that spans three generations of women across multiple timelines: Rafaela, her daughter Ruth, and her granddaughter Daisy. The family is from Puerto Rico, but immigrate to St. Louis and then New Year. I felt the plot was too meandering at times and became bogged down in details. I also found it odd that after the critique of American Dirt, the author chose to write another novel from the perspective of Latina immigrants. Had it not been for the audiobook, I'm not sure I would have finished this novel. I seem to be the outlier here, though, as this book has many good reviews.

Thank you to NetGalley, Henry Holt & Company, and Macmillan Audio for audiobook and ebook ARCs in exchange for my honest feedback.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

This was a fascinating read, and I enjoyed getting to know the three generations. The back and forth of time lines wasn't too confusing, but was slightly jarring at times. Overall a beautifully written story.

“𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵?”

Thank you Macmillan Audio for this advanced listeners copy via Netgalley; this one is out now! I love the UK cover art, and the US is eye-catching too! I really enjoyed the narration for this one.

When I requested this one I hadn’t realized that she is the author of American Dirt, which I haven’t read; I just recall there was a lot of talk on booksta about it when it released. This one, I’m surprised, hasn’t blown up my feed! It’s good and I enjoyed the writing. The dynamics of mixed race families, generational differences, mother-daughter relationships, identity and choices are done beautifully, and I appreciated the themes of home, belonging, and family ties. Each woman - Rafaela, Ruth, and Daisy - are all strong, distinct ladies and their stories were so relatable despite how different they each were. I didn’t connect with any one specifically but I was compelled and wanted to see the best occur for each of them.

“𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.”

The only things that didn’t work well for me was the bouncing all over timelines (maybe this wouldn’t have been like that had I physically read), a late element that felt like a last minute attempt at a “hook & twist”, (which in my opinion wasn’t necessary) and the ending seemed rushed. Otherwise, I enjoyed it overall and would recommend. Content includes a traumatic accident, tragic loss of loved ones, minimal profanity, and mentions of infidelity.

I loved the image of the banyan tree in this book - a metaphor for the way the branches become the roots in families.

The story follows three generations of women with Puerto Rican roots as they find their way through life and love. A terrible accident involving the youngest woman ties the book together, but it’s not about the accident. It’s about who and where is home to you, and the process of figuring that out. I felt like this book was a bit long, but really enjoyed the atmosphere created in the audiobook.

3.5 stars
I enjoyed the narration of this multi-generational Puerto Rican/Irish American family. Each of the POVs appealed to me on their own, but it was distracting to have the book scramble back and forth across the timeline. Just when you’d get into one part of the story, it would jump forward or back to another place and time. I know lots of people enjoy the piecemeal nature of contemporary storytelling but I feel like it’s overdone.

This is a multi-generational story about Puerto Rican mothers and daughters, culture and heritage, and how we define "home." The book follows Rafaela, her daughter Ruth and granddaughter Daisy and through their childhoods and adult years, from Puerto Rico to Missouri to New York and finally back to Puerto Rico. I enjoyed the narration and while I usually enjoy multiple timelines and POVs, this time I had a really hard time following all of the timelines. Each MC had multiple timelines so we were hopping back and forth within the same POV and it got super confusing. I think I'd have enjoyed it more if the book was written in chronological order or if, at minimum, the POVs had stuck to a chronological timeline. Still recommend the book.

The novel spans three generations of women between 1960 - 2023. It moves back and forth in time, giving a more personal look at each of their lives, their sacrifices and how they've come to acceptance and healing.
A big part of the story explores themes like understanding your roots, dealing with racism and the experience of migrating to the U.S. It touches on what it feels like to lose parts of your native culture and the struggle to balance the expectations of fitting in while holding onto who you really are.

The timelines are clearly labeled in the novel so even though it is nonlinear you are not lost, which was very important because there was a lot of back and forth.

CW:
Racism
Mention of memory loss

Narration Review:
This book was beautifully narrated, the narrator really brought all the characters to life.

Thank you Macmillan for the ALC.

I will never get over this romantic novel about family and identity. I loved learning more about Puerto Rico and following the loves our three protagonists.
Each character is perfectly fleshed out. They're life like.
Wonderful work.
The narration was wonderful as well!.

🇵🇷🌺🎧AUDIOBOOK REVIEW🎧🌺🇵🇷

⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

🥰Huge thank you to @macmillan.audio and @henryholtbooks for the gifted audiobook and book! #macaudio2025

📖Title: Speak To Me of Home
✍️Author: Jeanine Cummins
📅Pub date: May 13, 2025
🗣️Narrator: Almarie Guerra
⏳Audiobook length: 15hrs, 27mins

🌺This book had me Googling flight prices to Puerto Rico!

🇵🇷At its heart, this is a multi-generational family drama full of secrets and questions regarding identity and how it shapes us. I am ALWAYS looking for a good family drama and love when there's even a deeper underlying theme, so this was totally for me!

🌺From the very first chapter, I was deeply invested in these characters. I don't know how Jeanine Cummins managed to captivate me so quickly and keep my attention locked in for the full 15.5 hours, but I never wanted to put this down.

🇵🇷The more I read, the more I cared about every single one of these characters. By the end, I was nothing but a puddle of emotions 🥹

🌺If you're looking for a moving, emotional book, please add this to your TBR today!

🎧This audiobook was perfectly cast with Almarie Guerra as the narrator! She was so easy to listen to and really made the characters come alive for me! Highly recommend this format, especially since this book is a chonker!!

Thanks to NetGalley for an ALC. I loved the storytelling in this and the back-and-forth between timelines. I loved the struggles with identity and family relationships. It was really really good. No notes.

Thank you to Henry Holt, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for early copies in exchange for my honest opinion. I highly recommend checking this book out - I could not put this book down once I started it, listening to the audiobook while I went for a walk by this river near where I used to live and then switching to reading on the bus on my way back to my current neighborhood. I listened some more the next morning, and it nearly killed me to wait until the end of the school day to be able to finish. If you like multi-generational family sagas (like I do), this book is for you!
Set partially in Puerto Rico and in the US, this book transported me back to my travels in PR. I was recently there, but only on the tarmac/airport to fuel up en route back to Boston from the USVI, so I am very aware of how close St Thomas and San Juan are, which plays a part in one plot point of the story.
What does “home” mean to you? This book investigates how a sense of home can be defined and passed between generations, much more than a single physical location. I know some people define home by the people they want to be surrounded by or the places they want to be surrounded by or even the feelings they want to be surrounded by. I really enjoyed reading about the different “home” feelings for the characters in this book and think it will make other readers stop and think about what home means to them, too.

*4.5 Stars On My Instagram Account*

"...If they hold into one another very tightly... eventually the storm will lift...and that's where hope lives."

Listening to the heartfelt Speak To Me Of Home, by stellar storyteller, author Jeanine Cummins, was a whirlwind of emotions.

It's 1968, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Rafaela marries American Peter, and within a few years, and a couple of kids, Peter relocates them to St. Louis, Missouri. Rafaela, a proud woman, finds herself off kelter, dealing with the passive aggressive prejudices she encounters in her all white neighborhood.

In 1980, her daughter, Ruth wanted nothing more than to belong, so she lost her Spanish accent, and language. She forfeits her cultural traditions and raises her children with little regard for their birth rite.

But in current times, Ruth's daughter, Daisy, longs to be in San Juan. To learn of her ancestry and walk the sands of her ancestors. Despite her mother's arguments and the growing divide between them, Daisy begins a new life in San Juan; but without her family.

There are marriages, births, affairs, divorces, fights, celebrations, and all the events that make a life through this family saga of three women, held together by blood, but separated by multigenerational differences. It all culminates in Puerto Rico with a catastrophic hurricane, a daughter fighting for her life, and a family coming together, as we tend to do, to salvage the love and heritage they too easily threw away.

I'm in awe of voice actress Almarie Guerra and her ability to not only vividly portray such distinct women, but to enhance the nuances in their personalities crafted by this gifted writer. Once you experience Speak To Me Of Home you will be talking about it.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from Macmillan Audio via #Netgalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

As a first-generation Nigerian American, Speak to Me of Home struck a deep chord with me. I didn’t grow up speaking my parents’ language or learning much about their culture. My parents, like many immigrants, wanted us to be “Americanized”, to fit in…to succeed. But as I got older, I started to feel the weight of that distance and the quiet longing to reconnect with the parts of myself I had never been given space to understand.

This book felt like both a mirror and a window. Through the nonlinear timeline and the voices of three generations of women: Rafaela, Ruth, and Daisy, I found myself especially drawn to Daisy’s journey. Her longing for identity, her questions about belonging and where “home” truly is, echoed my own. I appreciated how Jeanine Cummins captured the nuance of navigating inherited trauma, cultural memory, and generational silence with such tenderness and clarity.

And I loved the narrator! Her voice had such warmth and emotional depth. Her pacing, her tone shifts, even her silences felt intentional. She gave each character subtle but distinct vocal nuances that made it feel like I was sitting across from these women, listening to their stories unfold over time. It’s one of those audiobook performances that stays with you.

This wasn’t just a family story. It was also a reflection on love, identity, prejudice, and the invisible strings that tie us to places we’ve never lived but still call home. I was moved, I was seen, and I was changed by this book.

Rafaela, Ruth, and Daisy. The story of three generations of women spanning the 1950s to present day. This story of mothers and daughters and their journey of finding a sense of identity and belonging.

Overall, 4.5 stars and will round up. The reason that I deducted the half star for was the back and forth between timelines, it was a bit confusing until I figured out who everyone was. This book hit me so hard and hit so close to home, I related to Rafaela and Ruth so much. I think a lot of mixed kids or immigrants can relate to this book and this book will give everyone else a good sense of how multicultural people and immigrants feel in addition to all the other stuff life can throw at you. I absolutely loved American Dirt and Jeanine Cummins did not disappoint with this book. Cummins did an amazing job exploring the women's sense of identity, family, culture, racism, classism, community, and belonging.

Format: audiobook

Thank you so much NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced audiobook!

I enjoyed this multi-generational family drama about three Puerto Rican women trying to find their identity in a place they question where is home? I love mother-daughter stories which are so relatable to me as a daughter and mother of three girls. If you enjoy stories about family, roots, belonging and resiliency, don’t miss out on this one!

I was not previously familiar with narrator Almarie Guerra until this novel. She did a wonderful job of narrating the story. I listened at 1.75 speed.

Speak to Me of Home is a touching exploration of what it means to find one's place in the world told from three generations of women across Puerto Rico, Missouri and New York.
It’s achingly beautiful, deeply moving and even humorous at times.
It’s about identity and belonging, portraying the women’s struggles, dreams and fears throughout their personal journeys.
It was interesting to see how each of them navigated cultural differences, impacting their relationships while searching for a sense of belonging.
The characters are well-developed and the narration is authentic and fluid, which allowed me to get lost in this incredible story. I loved Rafaela’s humor and spunk, Ruth’s heart and strong moral compass and Daisy’s love for heritage and relics of the past.
Thank you to the publisher/author for the opportunity to listen to this complimentary advanced copy. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I enjoyed this, but not nearly as much as the author's other two that I've read. I liked some parts more than others - Ruth's childhood was the most interesting to me. But I still don't understand why she became so rude later in life?

Lack of research pet peeve: Ruth was using Facebook in 1999, but it wasn’t even created until 2003.

I didn’t want this book to end. This story follows three generations of women and the journey of Identity, belonging, racism, love, and assimilation as a Latina. Although this story takes place in three different timelines, it is absolutely devastating how relatable their experiences are existing as Puerto Rican women. Please read this book. I listened to the audiobook and it was truly incredible.

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this 🎧 ARC.