3.5 stars

This book sounded great to me on paper, 3 generations of Puerto Rican women, story told over all of their lifetimes, themes of identity etc. Ultimately though, I had to push myself to get through it because the story didn't grab me, instead feeling like a stack of cliches of this genre. Nothing really connected me to any of the characters except for the youngest daughter. I don't want to give a ton more detail because I think I could give away spoilers, and many people have loved this book, so it might just be me.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio for an advance listening copy for unbiased review.

Beautifully written story about generations in one family and their longing to find home. It’s the story of all immigrants, not quite fitting in your new country but also not fitting where you came from. The writing kept me enthralled and, while I may not have liked the choices they made, they laid the groundwork for future generations. There are a lot of names thrown at you throughout and it can get confusing but it call comes together in the end.

A multiple generation family saga, highlighting how everyone's experience and choices impact those around them.

While at the root of the story, I enjoyed it. But I felt it was far too long and meandering at times. I can handle multiple timelines- when they are chronological within themselves. So I could have handled a timeline for each Daisy, Ruth, and Rafaela. Or rather, two each- a present day and a historical one in chronological order. But, nope. This bounced all over in time. I get it was to give the story maximum impact, but for very logical, left brained people such as myself, this is actually distracting and takes away from the story.

I did truly enjoy the familial nature of it- they all loved one another and had reasons for their decisions. But those decisions often influenced the other person's life.

Almarie Guerra narrates the audio book.

I received an advance audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

Speak to Me of Home by Jeanine Cummins (book cover is in image) describes how three generations of Puerto Rican women struggled with finding their identity and place living in two worlds. This is a great depiction of the unique diaspora Puerto Ricans experience, being born as an American and never being accepted as Americans, and also being Puerto Rican, and never being seen as truly Puerto Rican by those born and raised on the island. Puerto Rican myself, I can identify with some of the struggles depicted in this book.

The narration by Almarie Guerra was expertly done giving a unique voice to each character. I highly recommend this book for those who enjoyed Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez, When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago, or Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas. This is an amazing addition to the Puerto Rican diaspora cannon. Being

Thank you, Henry Holt & Company | Henry Holt and Co. and Macmillan Audio, for the opportunity to read this ARC and listen to this ALC. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 5 Stars
Book and Audio Release Date: May 13 2025

Tags:
#HenryHoltandCo
#MacmillanAudio
#SpeaktoMeofHome
#JeanineCummins
#AlmarieGuerra
#WomensFiction
#PuertoRicanDisapora
#yarisbooknook
#netgalley

I absolutely LOVED this book!!!

As I am reading it, I'm thinking that the author’s name sounds familiar, and is it the same person who wrote 'American Dirt" which I loved? And, yes it is. And yes, I loved this one too!

Again, emotionally gripping on so many levels.
This one spans three generation of women from Puerto Rico (men too...but hey, it's mostly about the women...) 😁

We see how things have changed over the years for them, but then again, some things seem to never change... and that is very disheartening.

We explore love and school and family and friends... again, on so many levels!

You will LAUGH. You will CRY. You will find that your heart has been destroyed... And then you will find that it is fuller than you could've ever imagined.

This is the result of finding a very gifted writer... and if you pick this one up, well then, you have!

AND... when she speaks the name of the book... in the context it is in... Well, it just broke me. Open waterworks as it just... hit... home...

#SpeakToMeOfHome by #JeanineCummins and narrated stunningly by #AlmarieGuerra.

*** RELEASE DATE IS TOMORROW, 5/13/25... SO LOOK 👀 FOR IT ON SHELVES THEN!!! ***

5+++ 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟💫💫💫💫💫✨✨✨✨✨ for me!!!

Thanks so much to #NetGalley and #MacmillanAudio for an ARC of the audiobook, in exchange for an honest review.

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Speak to Me of Home, is a multi-generational family drama. Your examines, marriage, family and identity.
The audiobook was great and easy to listen to.

Loved loved loved. Three women, three generations—spanning from the 60s to present time in Puerto Rico and St. Louis, Missouri. Touching on themes of family, racial identity, class and belonging, Cummings has once again written a beautiful and heartfelt character-based novel of secrets, consequences, hardships and challenges all faced by women. She clearly understands her characters thoughts, feelings and lives giving readers the ability to relate to them. The story, the culture, the characters; Daisy, Ruth and Rafaela.. all felt real.. loved it all. American Dirt also a favorite. Cummings is such a clever storyteller ✨ (& now an auto-buy for me). 5 stars — Pub. 5/13/25 🎧

Much thanks to Macmillan Audio via NetGalley for the advanced audio copy. All opinions are my own.

Jeanine Cummins has a way with language. There were some passages in this book that were simply gorgeous. Example: "Their marriage had become a battleground of minimal effort, littered with the corpses of their better selves." Short, but so powerful. There is not a writer in existence who would not give their eye teeth to write like this.
This book was also one where I had to wait a little while before I could write a review. The book needed to percolate in my head before I could elaborate my thoughts and so, I increased my rating from four stars to 4.5 (rounded up).
This novel spans a period of time, from 1968 until the present. Rafaela marries Peter, a white man, and they relocate to the midwest. Rafaela is isolated in St. Louis, which, of course impacts her marriage. She and Peter have a daughter, Ruth, who is, for lack of a better word, Americanized and lets go of her Puerto Rican heritage. Her daughter, Daisy, rebels against this and instead of taking the traditional route to college and a career, Daisy goes to Puerto Rico to live. This is against the backdrop of the real life hurricanes that have been in the news. Then, at the end, something happens to Daisy that brings all of the generations of women together.
The beautiful writing and the characterization gripped me. The reason for 4.5 and not 5 stars has more to do with the novel being a little confusing because of the back and forth between different time periods and the event at the end which just felt a tad forced and like a device to bring everything together as opposed to more naturally occurring. That said, it was a great read. I listened to the audiobook for the first half and read the text for the second half. I think, for me, while the narration was fine, it was easier for me to keep track of what was going on when I read the text.
Thanks to NetGalley and to Henry Holt & Co. and MacMillan Audio for providing me with a the advanced readers' copy and audio of this text in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was such a beautifully written story of a multigenerational family of women, identity, agency and home. I did struggle a bit with the non-linear timeline, but I loved the character development and emotion.

I will also mention that the audiobook narration was very well done, and the performance was delivered with depth and emotion.

This one has definitely lingered. Recommend.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

As a fan of Jeanine Cummins' American Dirt, I had high hopes as I read Speak to Me of Home and this book did not disappoint!

I found no lulls in this book; it caught my attention in the first chapter and never let me go. And the characters were so very well formed that I think I will actually miss them for a little while. I also found the ending to be charming.

The one thing I really didn't care for was the structure of the novel. The story focuses on a grandmother, a mother and a daughter, all of them with compelling story lines. But each chapter, I found myself spending the first couple minutes trying to piece together the background for whichever woman we were focusing on, her marital status, what she has so far been through, who her siblings are.... The timeline, as one may imagine, jumps all over the place. I'm not sure how it should have been structured to avoid all the confusion, but dropping the reader in and out of various phases of the different POV characters'' lives was both confusing at times and disruptive.

As much as I disliked the structure, though, it was still a worthwhile read, both because I loved getting to know these three women, and because I found learning about their struggles important. I hope this story is made into a movie or limited series; seeing the characters could help alleviate some of the potential confusion.

I listened to the audiobook and found Almarie Guerra to be a very effective narrator. I would listen to other works she reads.

NetGalley and Macmillan Audio gave me access to the audiobook in advance of the publication in exchange for my honest review.

Speak to Me of Home is a sweeping family saga spanning several generations. The novel starting in Puerto Rico takes us to the US and back again. All of the characters are well written and the book is engaging. It touches on a multitude of issues confronting people today such as racism and micro aggressions, how to be your own true self, and the meaning of what it is to be family. It even touches on the broken US healthcare system. I loved American Dirt and really liked Sepak of Me of Home as well. Read or listen to this for your book group. The discussion will be great.

𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 ~ 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐊 𝐓𝐎 𝐌𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐄 ~ by Jeanine Cummins ~ A thanks to Henry Holt & Co Publishing, Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for an ALC of this novel to be released next week on May 13th. This was an anticipated book for me this year as this author’s 𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐃𝐈𝐑𝐓, is up there as a favorite and impactful novel. Sadly, this book did not have the same effect. This story is told in a nonlinear format which can be fine, but I did not care for it here. I would become invested and then be pulled away and each change of POV I had to readjust to the major players in the plot line while still recalling their connection in the present. I value and appreciate this novel’s exploration of cultural displacement and how an identity is truly connected to a homeland/place of origin. It also is strong in its illustration of how generations of a family are affected by decisions made across time. The descriptions of Puerto Rico were lyrical and inviting and overall the writing is well done. However, I never connected to these women and did not enjoy their personalities. I found it hard to empathize with them regarding the well illustrated troubles they experience because of this. The themes in this novel carry an important message and I hope that is what readers can glean from it. To sum up: zero character connection, a disjointed format and a slow plot make this one disappointingly, forgettable for me.
⭐⭐⭐.... just getting there because of the writing...
𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐥𝐥! 📚♥️

I really enjoyed SPEAK TO ME OF HOME by Jeanine Cummins. It’s a heartfelt, moving story about three generations of women navigating family, identity, and belonging. The characters felt so real, and the way their lives connected across time and place really drew me in. I switched back and forth between the physical book and the audiobook and enjoyed both formats. Almarie Guerra’s narration added such warmth and depth—she really brought the story to life.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

4+ stars
“She experienced this forgetting and remembering, this rolling amnesia, as a kind of spiritual atrophy. Each time she returned she had to face the sharpening truth that she could no longer access the simple concept of home. She both belonged and did not belong at all, no matter where she was.”

I’ve never read a novel that so clearly addresses the subject of third culture kids, a sociological phenomenon I learned about when my (then) young family were expats in the late 1990s. The moniker was penned to address those who develop a unique and complex identity, separate from national or cultural boundaries. The addition of a deeply emotional multi generational family story made this a compelling read.

Three plus generations of a growing family centered in Puerto Rico, travel and expand to St. Louis and Palisades, New York in the Hudson Valley. The drama of the late 1960s to the present day may seem predictable at face value but under the surface, secrets and trauma live large.

In our world of growing multiculturalism, this feels like the perfect time to explore the big themes of ethnicity, identity and inclusion and study how it can enrich all our lives.

Narrator Almarie Guerra is outstanding in her portrayal of the voices of vastly different ages and accents, and I will be on the lookout for her performances in the future.


Many thanks to Macmillan Audio and Henry Holt for the advance audio copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an early audiobook edition of “Speak to Me of Home” by Jeanine Cummins, narrated by Almarie Guerra, for an honest review. Almarie is a strong narrator and did a great job with the narration.

This is the ordinary story of families who make mistakes and keep secrets. The story jumps from one time frame to another, describing three generations of strong women, starting with a Puerto Rican woman who marries an Irish American in Puerto Rico and has to move with him to St. Louis, Missouri, as the custom at the time was that the women followed the man. They had two children, one Ruth, the other Benney. Ruth, the other strong woman of the story, marries and has three children, one of whom is Daisy, the third strong woman of the story.

The story tells of the history of Puerto Rico, the racism felt in Puerto Rico for individuals who are not considered full Puerto Rican, because of an American Irish father, and the racism in America for being Puerto Rican. It is not a compelling story, but just a good, normal life story. There is a genealogy test involved, where secrets are revealed. Having recently done my genealogy, where I learned that my grandfather was not my blood grandfather, this story hit home. In this story, there was a living relative to reveal the truth, but I do not have the luxury.

The important thing to take away is that the person who loves you like a parent and/or grandparent is your parent and/or grandparent, and blood DOES NOT change that.

I listened to the audio version of this book narrated by Almarie Guerra. The narration was superb. Her voice is easy to listen to.

I did not read American Dirt, so I had no expectations going into this book. The story is about three generations of women who originally came from Puerto Rico. I had a little trouble keeping up with the back and forth between women and locations. The non-linear timeline might have been easier to keep up with if you were reading it instead of listening to it (?).

The story is about their heritage, their loves, their successes and failures and family expectations. It's also about secrets in the family and things never said.

I feel like I could get more out of this book if I went back and listened to it again or if I read it in print so that flipping back to verify characters and locations was easier. It was probably better than I think at this point.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the audio copy. All thoughts are my own.

This is the story of three generations of Puerto Rican women, and how they feel about home. Genetics come into question, when Rafaela and her daughter Ruth both bear children as the product of their marriages to men of Irish decent. They each have children who feel strong ties to their Puerto Rican heritage and when they become adults choose to reside there rather than stay in America.

Even though *technically* Puerto Rico is a United States territory, it is not a state and maintains its own autonomy even though Puerto Ricans hold U.S. citizenship. This was examined from many angles in this book when Peter and Rafaela moved from Puerto Rico to St. Louis, Missouri, she was perceived as a foreigner. And when her granddaughter Daisy, was in a hospital in Puerto Rico and she was not covered by her American health insurance.

I enjoyed learning about the Puerto Rican culture, and I think the narrator, @almarieguerra did a wonderful job with the unique personalities and expressions of the various characters.

Speak to Me of Home is a sweeping family saga that follows three generations of women - mothers and daughters- as they contend with their place in society, issues within their marriages and families, economic ups and downs, and where they fit within their own heritage. I enjoyed the writing style and the beautiful imagery the author employs. I also enjoyed the addition of Puerto Rican culture and history.

The audio narrator did a wonderful job, and I enjoyed her voice. I did struggle following the storyline and characters in places as the timeline alternates between generations as the chapters focus on the different characters. I would have probably done better to read this book with my eyes. I did enjoy it and would recommend it.

Thank you Macmillan Audio, Jeanine Cummins, and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this ALC. What a stunning story of generational trauma, challenges, and overcoming of deep obstacles. The incredible love that was felt in every separate piece of this book within each segmented timeline. The characters, while they didn't always like each other, were so very clearly a loving and caring family. I really enjoyed this book, even the hard parts, and the narration was quite well done as well.

<u><b>Speak to Me of Home</b></u>
Jeanine Cummins
Narrator: Almarie Guerra
Release Date: May 13, 2025

ALC courtesy of Macmillan Audio and NetGalley.

<i>Speak to Me of Home</i>, the latest novel by Jeanine Cummins, author of bestseller<i>American Dirt</i>is a family saga told across the points of view of three generations: Rafaela, her daughter Ruth, and granddaughter Daisy. It is the story of migration and displacement, of belonging, and of what is “home.” The narrative is complex and emotional, although it had a tendency to become predictable, conforming to immigrant tropes. Nonetheless, it is a rich and thought provoking novel of the immigrant experience, particularly relevant in the current political climate, when “home” becomes a carpet that can abruptly be yanked from under the feet of the vocal few.

4 stars
4 stars for the narration