A beautifully written, compelling memoir. I was hooked from the first chapter! It's filled with difficult topics and emotions that need to be spoken about. Sara takes us on her journey to Mexico, to find herself and find inner peace. She goes into detail on her sobriety journey, her journey to healing traumas, and her journey to being a wife and a mother. I went into reading the book not really knowing what to expect but I loved it. Her writing style is engaging and she has a wonderful way of really reaching and connecting with you and taking you on this journey with her.
Some difficult topics are touched, so reach with discretion.

I don‘t think this book was for me so take this review with a grain of salt.

1. this woman experienced so many things a lot of them quite dramatic (Check trigger warnings) which makes her story very emotional and touching.
2. I am sure that there is a lot to learn from her actions and it did make me feel better about still figuring life out.
3. god was almost always present and that was just really not for me and made me appreciate the book less. At times it felt like advertisement for the church. But to be fair the author does talk about her connection to god and how it is not bound to a religion or institution and even acknowledges the bad things the church represents.

If I could I would give it 3,5 stars. It’s a solid book but it didn’t make me want to read more.

Dreaming in Spanish is a memoir of a woman's early twenties as she tries to get a new start in Mexico. We are similar in age, so this book resonated with me as I understood her experiences as a peer. As this memoir was published twenty years after the time period, the author has had time to reflect and analyze her experiences. I appreciate that Sara was willing to be honest about who she was in her twenties, even though some of her choices as a young adult make her cringe now. I think everyone has things that they would do differently now and the book is made stronger by her not revising history. In general, this book is well-written. Occasionally, it veers a little too much into self-help making-more-meaning-than-may-actually-exist territory, but those moments are few. I would recommend this book.

"Owning my alcoholism was one thing, but understanding it was another."

Dreaming in Spanish is about the healing journey of a woman who struggled with the pain and trauma of sexual abuse and her fight to reclaim herself instead of running away. Sara Alvarado is so vulnerably honest about her struggles to stay sober and the ways she would run from her problems through travel or numbing the pain with substances and sex. Eventually she decides to move to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico at the age of 24 and immerse herself in a new way of life. This openness to new people, experiences, and a new culture are what helped her find her way back to herself.

Through her journey as an English teacher, falling in love with a man who earned her trust, and a strong support system back home including a mother who never lost hope, Sara was able to create a new life for herself. She shares her unexpected motherhood journey where she falls in love with life again after giving birth to a beautiful baby boy, her Alex. Throughout the book, Sara asks herself many questions and through her journey of self-healing and meeting the demands of motherhood with openness, she accepts the grace that comes with not needing to have all the answers. She accepts that most answers to life's biggest questions are revealed through time.

Thank you to the author and publisher for the e-arc copy!