Book Description

Finding home. Falling in love. Fighting to belong.

The Santos Vista neighborhood of San Antonio, Texas, is all Ander Martínez has ever known. The smell of pan dulce. The mixture of Spanish and English filling the streets. And, especially their job at their family’s taquería. It’s the place that has inspired Ander as a muralist, and, as they get ready to leave for art school, it’s all of these things that give them hesitancy. That give them the thought, are they ready to leave it all behind?

To keep Ander from becoming complacent during their gap year, their family “fires” them so they can transition from restaurant life to focusing on their murals and prepare for college. That is, until they meet Santiago López Alvarado, the hot new waiter. Falling for each other becomes as natural as breathing. Through Santi’s eyes, Ander starts to understand who they are and want to be as an artist, and Ander becomes Santi’s first steps toward making Santos Vista and the United States feel like home.

Until ICE agents come for Santi, and Ander realizes how fragile that sense of home is. How love can only hold on so long when the whole world is against them. And when, eventually, the world starts to win.

My Review

I adored Jonny Garza Villa’s first book, so I was excited to see what they were going to do with their sophomore effort. If you don’t want to read my whole review, all you need to know is that they absolutely knocked it out of the park with this one.

Ander is a nonbinary teen working at their family’s restaurant and biding their time before starting prestigious art school in Chicago. They have a plan, and they’re going to fulfill their dream, but all that changes when Ander meets Santi. Okay, technically, Ander has been “fired” so they can focus on their art before the fall semester, but once Santi starts working at the restaurant, Ander finds excuses to visit all the time.

This book captivated me from start to finish. Ander is a compelling protagonist with such a clear and genuine voice. They frequently switch from English to Spanish, so keep up, friends. This book broke my heart—I’m not giving away the ending, but I also don’t want to imply that everything is doom and gloom for our star-crossed lovers. Where there is sorrow, there can also be joy, and this book is full of joy, eked out in portions that vary from drops to heaping spoonfuls.

This book made me hungry. The characters in this book like to eat, and everything they eat sounds good. This poor author lives in a land where taquerias are few and far between, so the yearning is REAL. Seriously though, not everyone can write food descriptions, but Jonny Garza Villa has the gift.

I would absolutely recommend Ander and Santi Were Here. As much as I loved Fifteen Hundred Miles From the Sun and thought it was 10/10, I have to say that Ander and Santi manages to score an incredible 12/10. I’m already looking forward to Jonny Garza Villa’s third book.

I received a digital ARC of this book from Wednesday Books/NetGalley.