So glad to see that Jeanine Cummins has recovered from the American Dirt debacle. She's written a wonderfully moving story about three generations of Puerto Rican women. The characters and stories ring true; you won't be able to put this one down!

Perhaps I expected the speedy runaway feeling of American Dirt the very popular much discussed yet much loved novel. So I wasn't prepared for the sweet, meandering, multi-generational historical fiction novel Speak to Me of Home.

This novel touched my heart as I came to know all the family members and their ties to Puerto Rico. With wonderful character development I became involved with this quite complicated family. There were times when I found myself quite disgusted with one of the key females Raefela.

This book also allows the reader to feel the sting of prejudice people often experience when they are half and half not claimed by one of their races or the other especially in their formative years. It certainly tugged hard on my heart.

There were strings that tethered each character to the island of Puerto Rico and the author consantly tugged on the strings. It reminded me often of the child's game played with string between fingers Cat's Cradle…often complicated. Often I longed for one sweeping story rather than the chapters jumping back and forth with family members grasping at their strings.

All in all I was glad to spend my time this family and to understand what pulled them always toward Puerto Rico.

Special thanks to Jeanine Cummins, Henry Holt & Company and NetGalley for this copy for review.

Have you ever wished for a window into the past—one that lets you quietly observe your family’s younger selves without altering a thing? That quiet longing to understand, to witness, and to connect across generations is at the heart of this beautifully written novel. Through a time-bending narrative, the reader journeys alongside three generations of women, witnessing their lives unfold from youth to present day with depth, nuance, and compassion.

As a Puerto Rican who grew up on the island and later moved to the mainland, I felt deeply seen by Rafaela and Ruth’s experiences. The emotional truth of this story—how some feelings defy direct translation, how culture shapes memory and identity, and how generational bonds carry both love and complexity—resonated powerfully. This book is a moving testament to the richness of lived experience and the quiet strength of intergenerational connection. A heartfelt, thought-provoking read, I highly recommend.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5 stars)

Speak to Me of Home is a beautifully written, intergenerational story that explores race, ethnicity, and identity in deeply moving ways. I was especially drawn to how the book wove together the experiences of different generations, highlighting how family history and cultural roots shape who we become. The themes of belonging and self-discovery are handled with care and nuance, making the story resonate long after the final page.

One of the most compelling aspects of the book is its honest and layered exploration of identity—how it’s formed, challenged, and reclaimed over time. I loved how the author gave voice to multiple perspectives, allowing the characters’ diverse backgrounds and emotional experiences to shine.

That said, I did find the number of characters a bit overwhelming at times. The frequent shifts between timelines and perspectives made it hard to keep track, especially in the beginning. I sometimes found myself flipping back to remind myself who was who, particularly with Ruth and Rafaela; I wasn't sure if it was the R thing or what, but I struggled with that.

Despite that, the book builds toward its central plot with a strong emotional undercurrent and a satisfying momentum. The second half delivers a powerful payoff, bringing together the threads of each character’s journey in a meaningful way.

Overall, Speak to Me of Home is a compelling read with rich themes and emotional depth. I’d definitely recommend it to readers who enjoy stories about family, identity, and the ties that bind us across generations. Four stars!

Three generations of women try to define themselves and their identity through different circumstances. First there is Rafaela, born in Puerto Rico into a wealthy family that falls upon hard times. Meeting a handsome American at a US base, she marries and finds herself in St. Louis in the 1950s. The culture and social aspects are not welcoming, and Rafaela does not wish to change to fit in. Her daughter Ruth struggles with being a child of two cultures and her mother’s abrasiveness. Daisy, Ruth’s daughter, decides to seek a future by going to Puerto Rico and reclaiming her heritage. The three women grapple with their own choices as well as the ones made by each other. The strength of the book is how the past sometimes thwarts or rallies one’s ambitions and determines one’s choices. By having three points of view, readers will likely form attachments to one of these leading ladies, but Cummins skillfully keeps the story moving so readers may change allegiances and gain greater understanding. Recommended. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this title.

Speak to Me of Home is a sweeping multigenerational story about identity, belonging, and the emotional toll of displacement. Spanning from the sun-drenched elegance of San Juan to the unfamiliar chill of the American Midwest, Jeanine Cummins once again gives voice to the complexities of the immigrant experience.

Raefala Acuña y Daubón grows up in privilege as part of San Juan’s social elite. She and her sister Lola want for nothing—until a sudden scandal topples their world. At seventeen, Raefala is forced to leave Puerto Rico. Eventually she must learn to rebuild her life in a small, unwelcoming Midwestern town. It’s a jarring shift, one that strips her of certainty and confidence, and marks the beginning of a lifelong struggle with identity and belonging.

Years later, her daughter Ruth Brennan grapples with a different kind of dissonance. The daughter of a Puerto Rican mother and an Irish American father, Ruth has never quite known where she fits. In college, her internal tug-of-war is externalized in two romantic interests—one Irish, one at least partly Puerto Rican. Ruth makes her choice but is forever haunted by the unchosen path and the price she paid for assimilation.

Then there is Daisy Hayes, Ruth’s daughter, whose longing takes her in the opposite direction. A quiet old soul, Daisy is pulled toward the island her family left behind. Her desire to return to Puerto Rico confounds her mother, who fought hard to build a “better” life in the States. But Daisy is part of a generation more focused on roots than reinvention, and her journey sparks a reckoning the entire family must face.

Though slow to start, Speak to Me of Home eventually pulls readers in with its intimate portrayal of these three women—each navigating the fractures between culture, language, and expectation. While Raefala and Daisy’s narratives feel especially vivid and emotionally rich, Ruth’s story felt less compelling by comparison. Still, the novel as a whole offers a poignant consideration on what it means to straddle two worlds.

Thank you to NetGalley, Henry Holt & Co, and of course the author Jeanine Cummins for the advanced copy of the book. Speak to Me of Home is out now. All opinions are my own.

I highly recommend this well written saga of three generations of Puerto Rican women, searching for their identity and happiness. Rafaela is the grandmother, born of a wealthy family, and after losing their wealth, Rafaela is sent to Trinidad to find employment in a US base. Meeting her future husband, Rafaela never forgets Candido, a boy from her youth. Ruth, Rafaela’s daughter, has always felt uncomfortable with her place, not White, not fully Puerto Rican, but often left out from both. Daisy is Ruth’s daughter, moving to Puerto Rico after spending summers there with her Uncle and cousin, and feeling most at home. Ruth and Daisy do not see eye to eye. The family relationships, the search for inclusion, identity and family enhance the story. This is a must read. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I was a big fan of Cummins early book American Dirt and very much looking forward to this book. I enjoyed the story telling and the dilemma faced by many of the individuals in the story as they explored and were confronted with prejudice from others. Interesting family dynamics as different generations chose to either ignore or embrace their heritage. I did think there were too many stories integrated into this. Two story lines is pretty common in many novels. This had at least 3 and I found it a bit confusing at times to keep track of everyone.

Cummins switches between three different narrators, Rafaela, Ruth, and Daisy. It is a story about where one fits in. Rafaela, a Puerto Rican, marries an Irish American and after five years moves to St. Louis. She and her children struggle with a racist society, considering them anything but white. Ruth grows up, avoiding confronting Puerto Rican heritage. She marries an Irish man as well, so she finds herself very entrenched in an Anglo world. Her daughter Daisy tries to embrace it much to her mother’s dismay.

The story is a wonderful tale of love and acceptance through the various generations. Cummins does not avoid the uncomfortable moments and the disagreement between mother and daughter. She crafts a Heartland tale that makes you sympathetic to both mother and daughter, regardless of which generation the story is focused on.

First off, thanks for giving me an arc of this title. It was excellent... Five Stars, can't recommend it enough. When I first heard about this title, I wasn’t sure I would read it, but I really got an. arc and was encouraged to read it right away. This is muti-generational family story that follow three generations of women, Puerto Rican women Mother, daughter and grandmother. There is great character development, and the reader is instantly drawn into the story from the beginning. The author does an excellent job of switching between past and present throughout the story. This is something that I find is hard to do but can enhance a story when down right. The author also does a great job of weaving in the ethnic factor and showing how that affects each character differently. I don't want to give any spoilers, but I need to feel the ending was perfect for this story

I loved this multigenerational story of a Puerto Rican family told through the lens of three women: the matriarch, Rafaella, who marries Peter in 1968, despite misgivings. They move to St. Louis, Missouri in the 80s. Their daughter Ruth struggles to fit in at her new school and strives to find her footing, in the process giving up her connections to Puerto Rico. In 2023 Ruth’s daughter Daisy decides to return to Puerto Rico and is critically injured in a tragic accident.
I loved the humor expertly woven into the characters stories. I loved the tragedy that highlighted what really mattered. I loved the relationships, particularly between the mother Ruth and the daughter Daisy. And I loved learning about their challenges living in different cultures and the prejudice experienced in these 3 timelines that are so visceral you feel like you’re experiencing it with them. This was a beautifully written and thoroughly enjoyed book.

3.5
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.

SPEAK TO ME OF HOME by Jeanine Cummins (American Dirt) is worth a read, but beware that the story is told out of sequence and from multiple viewpoints. The focus is on the lives of a Puerto Rican-Irish family across four generations from the 1950s to present day. The patriarch, Papamio loses his job in disgrace and the family is forced to modify its lavish lifestyle, with daughter Rafaela (Rafa) leaving private school and becoming a secretary on a Naval base. There, she meets her future husband, a white Irish Catholic, choosing security over her romantic interest in the son of the family's former housekeeper. After several years of marriage (and accompanying tension) Rafa and Peter Brennan move to the States with their two children, Benny and Ruth. Benny is older and struggles to acclimate, but Ruth establishes friendships and begins speaking only English, thinking of herself as white. As an adult, Ruth also has a choice between a Puerto Rican man and an Irish one. Eventually she raises three children, Vic, Daisy, and Carlos, largely on her own. Ruth "wanted them to feel the kind of belonging she had always learned for and could never achieve. But she hadn't told them that. She had never explained." The family members struggle with questions of class, ethnicity, and where to call home with Daisy moving to Puerto Rico where she is seriously injured in a storm, prompting a family reunion and revelation of a long-suspected secret. Book groups may enjoy this title, especially the emphasis on mother-daughter relationships.

I was hooked at the first sentence when Ruth a call that's every parents worst nightmare. The story shifts between three generations of women in Puerto Rico and the United States slowly revealing family secrets and information about Ruth’s daughter in present day. There is romance, family drama and themes on immigration, belonging and racism. I highly recommend this book!

How is this book not everywhere? Cummins latest had its fair share of commentary, but she is worth another chance here. I was on the edge of my seat and deeply moved.

Speak to Me of Home was an interesting read. I liked the character exploration and the writing felt propulsive.

Speak to Me of Home is a well-written and moving multi-linear, multi-generational novel. Cummins dissects the lives of three generation of Puerto Rican women - Rafaela, Ruth, and Daisy - each of whom must confront issues of race, class and identity. The novel starts a bit slow and the non-linear structure takes some getting used to but then it picks up steam as all the story lines converge and characters learn things about each other and others that had been previously unacknowledged or unknown. Thank you to Henry Holt & Co and NetGalley for the DRC.

🇵🇷🌺🎧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!!

I am rating this book a 3.5, rounded up from a 3.0. I love generational sagas and family dramas, but the story has to connect with me, and this one didn't really. I was very engaged for parts of this book and disconnected and bored for other parts. The book could have been edited down a bit. There were a lot of characters and jumping timelines, which interfered with the emotional depth of the book. To me, this book is about a search for identity and the impact on the women, based on the timeline of the story. Rafaela grows up very wealthy in Puerto Rico, but due to family misfortune, has to take secretarial work in Trinidad. She feels the other workers are beneath her, and ends up marrying a man because he is handsome and white and someone she thinks can take her back to a life of comfort. That doesn't happen. He is a typical 1950s husband, and they move to a typical 1950s city, where she is treated like a third class citizen. Her son grows up longing to move back to Puerto Rico. Her daughter Ruth tries to ignore her background and blend in, by also trying to ignore the feeling of being alien and not belonging. She marries and has children who want to identify with their Puerto Rican heritage. Ruth's daughter Daisy moves back to Puerto Rico and opens a store. She is involved in a bad accident. The family comes together, secrets are revealed, and everything is wrapped up way too quickly and neatly. I couldn't believe the secret that came out in the end and how blasé' everyone was about it. I wish I could have had a story about one mother and one daughter and had more story developed about them.

I was very skeptical about this book because I remember all the controversy surrounding [book:American Dirt|45046527]. I don't necessarily think that someone can never write about experiences that aren't theirs and do justice to other races and ethnicities and cultures, but my memory of that situation was that people felt Cummins didn't do her due diligence and employed a lot of racist stereotypes (and also that the writing was bad). But I wanted to give this a chance because the synopsis sounded really interesting. And I'm glad I did, because this is a really enjoyable story.

This book follows three generations of women from the same family. In present-day Puerto Rico, Daisy gets caught in a bad hurricane and ends up in critical condition at the hospital. Her family deals with the fallout, and we flash back to her mother Ruth, who was raised in St. Louis with a white father and Puerto-Rican mother and has an extremely complicated relationship with her heritage. We also flash to her mother Rafaela, who lived in Puerto Rico until her white husband moved them to St. Louis. Rafaela also reminisces on her own childhood and the racism her mother was subjected to because she had darker skin.

I found this story really touching. It delves deep into many different facets of racism and classism: Rafaela is subjected to explicit racism from her husband's family and everyone in their community, but she also has immense financial privilege and is extremely naive about the differences between how she navigates the world and how their housekeeper's son navigates the world. Ruth feels unable to access her heritage because of a lifetime of trying to fit in and conforming to whiteness, and Daisy wants to reconnect with her ethnicity that she's never known. A lot of this resonated with me - my mother is Puerto Rican, but I've never lived there and I wasn't raised speaking Spanish, and I don't feel like I have the right to identify strongly with that heritage. This book also really depicts how difficult parent-child relationships are and how you always learn things new about each other as you grow up. I thought the writing was great, and the parallel timelines worked well. I enjoyed it a lot.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an advanced reader's copy!