I really like Catherine Ryan Hyde books. For me, there is always a moral to her stories. This book is no exception. It makes the reader aware that there are still good people in the world and if you find one you're lucky. This story is all about the good ways we can help one another. It's not my favourite Catherine Ryan Hyde novel, that's Allie and Bea, which is very similar, but it's a good read.

Thank you NetGalley for my copy.

What a joy this story is to read! So many lessons for us all, but also just a solid story about characters who are believable and about whom the reader really cares.
I had no idea what the premise of this book was, so I won’t summarize the storyline, in hopes you’re able to read this and find the magic in it too.
Thank you Netgalley for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Another heart warmer from Catherine Ryan Hyde, who knows how to both tell a story and pull at heartstrings. Here, Raymond, odd teen out in his blended family (and with his step mother) finds purpose when he assists his 92 year old blind neighbor Mrs G, whose helper, Luis Velez, has gone missing. What Raymond finds out about Luis is tragic but he also discovers a wider community of positive and helpful people. There are some very nice scenes here. My quibble is that the realities of NYC are sugar coated but that's ok, especially if you're looking for a read to make you feel good. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is a perfect YA book- a little questioning, a little family stuff, helping others, a little taste of the criminal justice system, and a village.

This is the story of a ninety two year old blind woman who relies upon Luis Velez, a good samaritan who takes Mrs. G to the bank and grocery store on a weekly basis. Suddenly, after years of his visits, he stops coming. Seventeen year old Raymond who lives in the same building is made aware of her dilemma. She is concerned about Luis’s well-being and she is almost out of food. Raymond and she develop a bond as he takes over for Luis, and also vows to find out what happened to him.

It’s a book full of life lessons about the tribalism in society; about the “us vs. them” mentality that Mrs. G. experienced first hand in Nazi Germany, and today where certain ethnic groups are “them,” and white people are “us;” that the justice system has flaws; that there are good people in this world, and some not-so-good.

The “teaching moments” are fine, but I was mystified by Raymond’s seemingly robotic personality. His speech patterns seemed very stilted. And he was apparently an asexual seventeen year old boy who had absolutely no interest in either sex. Mrs. G. informed him not to feel odd, that there are some people in this world who are that way. I guess that’s true(?), but it just seemed strange and not particularly realistic.

It was a decent read, but I’ve read better from this author. Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review.

Raymond feels like a stranger in his family - he is a mixed race child living with his white mother and stepfather and three sisters. His dad is black, but his new wife detests Raymond. On top of it all his best friend, actually his own friend is moving away from New York to California.
An unlikely encounter in his building on his friend's last school day finds him faced with the question: "Have you seen Luis Velez?". The asker, an old, blind lady stays in his thoughts and later he goes back to her to find out more. He discovers Luis Velez was her aide, who helped her to the bank and the shops and who suddenly stopped coming three weeks ago leaving Millie almost on the point of starvation. Something makes Raymond take the time to help her to the bank and the shops. When she later agrees to take in a stray cat he was caring for to protect her from some boys who want to harm her, he finds himself drawn to finding out what happened to Luis Velez and why he stopped coming and is uncontactable.
Deciding to go seek each of the names on his list in person instead of phoning them - mainly to avoid his stepfather's ire at any extra phone costs - he sets out on a journey through New York City meeting various Luis Velez's. And he starts to discover that there are good people all around when you really start looking. His search leads him to finding "the" Luis Velez. The subsequent events take us on a journey through our perceived differences. How we judge someone based on how they fit in with what we are - they're an "us" if they fit and a "them" if they don't.
A truly beautiful read that will stay with a person a long time. Raymond goes through such a personal growth and seems to find where he fits in. That his journey to find Luis Velez opens up a world where people do care about others despite their differences. A world where it takes a blind 92-year old lady to make someone really see.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this truly thought-provoking book.

This was a beautiful and extraordinary novel. My mother always taught me to “look for the good in everything” and this story reminds me of that. We need more Raymonds and Mildreds in the world. There are compelling messages to be found in this story.
Many thanks to Lake Union Publishing And to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

"Have You Seen Luis Velez" will encourage you to look outside of yourself and see what is really around you, who is really around you. To try to put yourself into the shoes of those not like yourself, so you can understand how others might think and feel. This book is full of heart and feeling and left me knowing there is always something I can do to make this world a better place.

Raymond is a 16 year old black young man who feels like he belongs nowhere. His lives with his white mom, white step father and 3 step sisters (the only one he feels like he connect with is the four year old) and knows he doesn't fit into this family. His father is married to a woman just eight years older than Raymond, who resents Raymond's presence and makes it hard for Raymond to spend time with is dad.

One day Raymond meets 92 year old Mildred, a blind woman living alone, in Raymond's apartment building. Luis Velez had been watching over Mildred for the last four years, taking her to the bank and the grocery store three times a week but he suddenly stopped coming three weeks earlier and Mildred is worried about him and has no way to find out what happened to him. Not only that, she is down to her last half can of soup.

Raymond wants to and does help Mildred, not only stepping into the shoes of Luis, to make sure Mildred is cared for but also Raymond wants to find Luis for Mildred, despite the fact that Raymond is extremely shy and uncomfortable with people. Despite his discomfort, Raymond is willing to call strangers and even travel to dangerous areas of town, to talk to strangers, all for Mildred, a woman who he respects not only for her age but for her knowledge, wisdom, and kindness.

This is a story full of love, kindness, and compassion, despite the very sad things that happen in the lives of the characters in the story. We see everything through Raymond's eyes, as he learns to see things through Mildred's blind eyes and the eyes of others. We need more Raymonds in the world and more Mildreds in the world, people who are willing to reach out to others and share in ways that matter.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC.

Catherine Ryan Hyde has given us another wonderful book. Have You Seen Luis Velez? was insightful, meaningful, and thought provoking. Everyone should have a Raymond in their lives - I wish I did.

I received an ARC of Have You Seen Luis Velez from NetGalley. Here's my review: When an old woman, hearing footsteps, opens the door of her New York City apartment and queries, "Have you seen Luis Velez?", she enters the life of Raymond Jaffe. Raymond is an outcast. A bit nerdy, he is of mixed race and lives with his mother and her new all white family. His father's new wife resents him. His only friend is moving. But Raymond is special. He cares for and protects a feral cat. And he begins to care for and protect Millie, taking the place of the missing Luis Velez. Then he attempts to find her Luis Velez simply because he knows she worries about him. And when he discovers the awful truth, he attempts to show her that the world, for all its horrors and cruelties is also a place of love and kindness. This is a truly special book.

Catherine Ryan Hyde never disappoints. This is a story of a teenage boy and a very senior woman who has no family or friends left. Her only attachment is to a man who takes her to the bank and for groceries. One day the man never shows up to help her again. Her new found young friend does more than take her to the bank and the store. He makes it his mission to find out what happened to the gentleman who was helping her. This begins the journey of this book and the things he learns from this senior woman and the people he meets along the way. A lot of people say, what is this world coming to, in this story you will find out what this world is coming to!!! A very thought provoking story.

I received an E-ARC from NetGalleyou.

I truly loved the characters in this story. I have no other words than to say that this story and these characters will stay with me.

What a beautiful book! Hyde definitely knows how to grab her readers by the heartstrings and not let go. Her characters are flawlessly written and come alive on the page. Uplifting, and thought provoking, this book while heartbreaking in spots, was completely heartwarming throughout. A book that once started you will not be able to walk away from and will hate to see that last page turned. Fall in love with 92 year old Millie and 17 year old Raymond as they journey to find Luis Velez.

Wow! Just wow! I absolutely loved this book! Catherine Ryan Hyde never disappoints!
What a beautiful story of love, friendship, and the human spirit!
I absolutely enjoyed the main characters, Raymond and Mrs. G! They created a beautiful friendship where each person filled a void for the other. Reading and “seeing” Raymond come out of his shell throughout the events in the novel was so gratifying and inspiring!
I’m rating this book 5 gold stars, it was an uplifting and wonderfully told story!

I received and ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

My "feel good meter" is moved to the max side by reading this heartwarming book. It's another wonderfully touching story written so well that I couldn't put it down except for when I HAD to.

This is the story of an unlikely friendship between, Raymond, a 17 year old teenage boy who doesn't feel he fits in anywhere, and a 92 year old blind lady he calls Mrs. G. Raymond has a family that doesn't understand him. Mrs. G has no one except Luis Velez but he has disappeared and she doesn't know why or what happened to him. Raymond and Mrs. G live in the same apartment building and as he is going out to school, she is in her doorway asking if anyone has seen Luis Velez. This plea touches Raymond and he forms a friendship with Mrs. G. Raymond has a giving and compassionate heart. He wants to help Mrs. G and ease her loneliness by finding her friend, Luis Velez.

Raymond's quest took me along with him. He's a young man who has acute self awareness and also to those around him. I felt connected to him in his search and the struggles he endured because of self doubt but his desire to ease Mrs. G's mind compelled him to keep looking. Along the way he met so many people who made a difference in his life, which in turn made a difference in Mrs. G's life. I loved the pure friendship, trust and love Raymond and Mrs. G formed with each other. They became a "family" that filled the empty places in their hearts and minds.

CRH writes such in depth characters. In this book, I found that the dialogue was so honest and meaningful. Raymond's thoughts were perfectly expressed and I knew who he was, how he felt, and what touched his heart. Mrs. G has such wisdom from life but also she has so much hurt and guilt inside that she has carried for most of her years. This was what Raymond tapped into. His heart to bring his special friend out of despair and to have a life of happiness.

This set of passages gave me so much to think about of how to respond to despair and look at it differently:

"What would you do if you had a friend who had just fallen into total despair about the world?"...….
"Well, then I'd say you have to do wonderful things."...…
"So if I do wonderful things.....".....
"The world will still be a place where people do terrible things. But here's the thing about despair. We fall into despair when the terrible gangs up on us and we forget the world can also be wonderful. We just see terrible everywhere we look. So what you do for your friend is you bring up the wonderful, so both are side by side. The world is terrible and wonderful at the same time. One doesn't negate the other, but the wonderful keeps us in the game. It keeps us moving forward. And, I'm sorry to have to tell you this, Raymond, but that's as good as the world is going to get."

I love this story about the love and friendship Raymond and Mrs. G have with each other. They are there for the other in the trials each is going through and the ones they experience together. This book had my heart strings tugged from one extreme to the other but always came back to the core of the relationship between Raymond and Mrs. G. This story is inspirational!

I want to thank Netgalley, Lake Union Publishing and Ms. Hyde for the absolute honor of an ARC copy of this book. It's another CRH "top of the list" book for me! I am so happy to write this review of my own thoughts and feelings.

You need to read this book! Catherine Ryan Hyde has done it again. Have you seen Luis Velez is not the first book I’ve read by this author and I doubt it will be the last! From beginning to end this book kept me turning the pages!
The books starts with Raymond, a young man who is 17 and his best friend is moving away. He forms this friendship with Mrs G, even tho she he said he can call her Millie he continues to call her Mrs. G. Mrs G is looking for Luis Velez and while no one seems to know she’d be is Raymond sets out to find him. While searching for him he finds and forms friendships with many others. Learning a lot along the way, he also encounters good and bad, but there is always a lesson to be learned. Life isn’t always the way we want it to be.
As I said such a good book, you will just have to read it to find out the rest. i promise it will keep you engrossed to the very end! Thank you netgalley and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this early in exchange for a honest review. Release date May 21,2019

"Have You Seen Luis Velez?" is such a beautiful and wonderful read! Millie, her wise and powerful words, and her patient and kind personality, is very similar to that of Ove in "A Man Called Ove", which I also loved. I absolutely adore this woman and I really took the time to let her words sink in and think about them for a while. She truly is the type of person I would love to be like, and hope that I can impact others lives such as she has and does. Yes, I do understand that she is a fictional character, but I would rather think of her as real. While reading this book, which I did in one single day, I grew to really become fond of her, and of Raymond, and I hated for the book to end because I did not want to stop reading about them! She had a way about her and with the words she said and the ones that were unsaid, that affected Raymond in the deepest way, and had him thinking differently about himself, about life, and about those around him. There were so many scenes throughout this book that were so insightful, that were so profound, and so telling about how people think, react, and speak, both consciously and subconsciously. THIS IS A MUST READ FOR EVERYONE! I think this will be a book that will receive multiple awards and will be discussed all over the globe. Please read this book.

HOW IS THIS THE FIRST BOOK I HAVE READ BY CATHERINE RYAN?? After I finished Have You Seen Luis Velez? I one clicked all her books on amazon! 

This book was amazing. The characters were amazing, I literally feel in love with them and wow this story! Most good books have me glued to my kindle but Catherine Ryan had me glued to the story, the people and the heartbreak. 

Have You Seen Luis Velez? is not just my favorite book of 2019 but hands down on of my favorite books ever!

Raymond was on his way to school when an old woman stops him to ask if he has seen Luis Velez. Since he was late he just kept going , but that afternoon he went back to her apartment to see if he could help. She said she is ninth-four and blind and Luis would come and help her to to the bank and get groceries and he has been over in a while. Raymond took her to the bank and the store. So begins the story of Raymond and Millie. I have read several books by Ms. Hyde and have enjoyed them all. This was no exception. Loved this story shows not all young people are just thinking of themselves. Loved Raymond he was likeable and Millie was just the kind of person to you want to be your grandmother. Great story. I want to thank Netgalley for the chance to read this wonderful book for an honest opinion.

This book was so refreshing about a relationship with an elderly woman and a teenager!! Just loved how the relationship grew! Highly recommend

When seventeen-year-old Raymond Jaffe’s best friend moves away, he loses the only friend he has. They plan to Skype but it will never be the same as walking to school together and chatting whenever they want to. Raymond is a loner, an outcast in school, misunderstood by his jealous step-mother and by his mother’s new husband and their new family. He’s ‘different’ and there’s no hiding for poor Raymond. All he has left in his life is a feral cat he’s tamed and now feeds in a derelict building a little way away.
Then there’s his ‘new’ friend, ninety-two-year-old Mildred Gutermann, a blind widow who lives in the same block as him, although not on the same floor. He meets Mildred the day his best friend left town, when she was desperately searching for her usual carer who hasn’t visited her in weeks. She is so worried about this Luis Velez, her erstwhile carer, and is fast running out of food, driven by desperation to wandering about asking her wary neighbours 'Have You Seen Luis Velez?' But what may come of that friendship, Raymond reasoned, feeling very despondent. He has to intervene, just as his heart and mind is telling him to.
That reasonable question forms the centre of this novel, for Raymond makes it his mission to find out where Luis is and why he has stopped travelling across the city to escort Mildred to the bank and then making sure she had provisions regularly; all this, out of the goodness of his heart. He’d embraced this responsibility for well over four years, even teaching the old lady his native tongue, Spanish. Raymond steps up with compassion for her predicament, looking after her, helping her and trying to boost her up; all in his spare time. She is very worried about Luis and feeling increasingly isolated. Meanwhile he forms a very close bond with the fascinating, intelligent and very wise old lady. They simply ‘get’ each other and Raymond at last feels happy, settled and valued.
This is a very beautiful and profound story about companionship, loyalty, friendship and caring. Catherine Ryan Hyde has envisaged a real cracker of a story and delivered it with her usual superb style of understanding, vivid descriptions and compassionate heart. It’s a very clever story, examining tribalism, bigotry, prejudice and the difference between various classes of society. Catherine does this so well, backing up her story with meticulous research used intelligently in the courtroom scenes. I always enjoy her characterisation. She reaches deep into her heart and soul, describing emotions, giving her characters a conscience and always being very aware of different points of view. I loved both of the main character most of all. They were truly inspiring. This very simple (but hugely enjoyable) story is greatly enriched and enhanced by her insight and understanding of worldly matters and people. I would have loved an ‘Epilogue’ from Catherine at the very end of the story, one that rounded off the ‘Luis Velez’ story more fully. But I know how I would end it and that’s enough for soft-hearted me really.
Thank you for my complimentary copy of this novel received through my membership of NetGalley and from Lake Union Publishing, sent to me in return for an honest unbiased review. I thoroughly enjoyed it and my review reflects this. It’s a 4.5* from me and a very happy recommendation that this is an excellent novel for you to read. Catherine always delivers and this is amongst one of my favourites. Thank goodness she is a prolific author and there’s never very long to wait for another little gem from her ‘pen’. Thank you Catherine.