Cover Crush: Ander & Santi Were Here by Jonny Garza Villa
Ander & Santi Were Here is the sophomore novel by Jonny Garza Villa and their brand is latine and queer and I am so excited to read this book! The cover is just so swoony, the art style is realistic, soft, and absolutely stunning! I am really looking forward to reading this queer romance that gets deeper into the meaning of what home means for the queer and the undocumented – releases May 2nd.
Preorder from the authors local bookstore: Nowhere Bookshop
Cover Artist: Max Reed; Cover Design: Kerri Resnick
Many thanks to Wednesday Books for the advance copy!
Ander & Santi Were Here
by Jonny Garza VillaPublished by: Wednesday Books
on May 2, 2023
Genres: Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA+, Young Adult
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Goodreads
Aristotle and Dante meets The Hate U Give meets The Sun Is Also A Star: A stunning YA contemporary love story about a Mexican-American teen who falls in love with an undocumented Mexican boy.
Finding home. Falling in love. Fighting to belong.
The Santos Vista neighborhood of San Antonio, Texas, is all Ander Lopez 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 Garcia, 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.
