The Agüero Sisters received far less critical attention than Garcia's universally praised first novel, Dreaming in Cuban. Some seemed to prefer the early novel, although almost all felt that her second novel confirmed Garcia's place as an important talent. In the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani said, "Although The Agüero Sisters lacks the compelling organic unity of Ms. Garcia's remarkable debut novel, Dreaming in Cuban (1992), it should ratify Ms. Garcia's reputation as a highly original, highly gifted young writer. It also attests, like that earlier book, to Ms. Garcia's intuitive understanding of families and the fierce, enduring connections that bind one generation to another."

The reviews for her second novel were, with a few exceptions, favorable. Pico Iyer, writing in Time, called The Agüero Sisters a "beautifully rounded work of art, as warm and wry and sensuous as the island...