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Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos |
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Belong to Me: A Novelby Marisa De Los Santos |
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Everyone has secrets. Some we keep to protect ourselves, others we keep to protect those we love.
A devoted city dweller, Cornelia Brown surprised no one more than herself when she was gripped by the sudden, inescapable desire to leave urban life behind and head for an idyllic suburb. Though she knows she and her beloved husband, Teo, have made the right move, she approaches her new life with trepidation and struggles to forge friendships in her new home. Cornelia's mettle is quickly tested by judgmental neighbor Piper Truitt. Perfectly manicured, impeccably dressed, and possessing impossible standards, Piper is the embodiment of everything Cornelia feared she would find in suburbia. A saving grace soon appears in the form of Lake. Over a shared love of literature and old movies, Cornelia develops an instant bond with this warm yet elusive woman who has also recently arrived in town, ostensibly to send her perceptive and brilliant son, Dev, to a school for the gifted.
Marisa de los Santos's literary talents shine in the complex interactions she creates between these three women. She deftly explores the life-altering roller coaster of emotions Piper faces as she cares for two households, her own and that of her cancer-stricken best friend, Elizabeth. Skillfully, de los Santos creates an enigmatic and beguiling character in Lake, who draws Cornelia closer even as she harbors a shocking secret. And from the first page until the exhilarating conclusion, de los Santos engages readers with Cornelia, who, while trying to adapt to her new surroundings, must remain true to herself. As their individual stories unfold, the women become entangled in a web of trust, betrayal, love, and loss that challenges them in ways they never imagined, and that ultimately teaches them what it means for one human being to belong to another.
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Smarter than most ChickLit ... but not as good as "Love Walked In" - |
Belong to Me: A Novel Review |
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I absolutely adored "Love Walked In" because it was a bit smarter than most Chick Lit. No, it was a LOT smarter than most chick lit. Marisa de los Santos is a beautifully talented writer. She has a way of stopping the dialogue so that you know why the character thinks/behaves the way she does. Plus, her stories have so much depth.
As I loved her first novel so much I was excited to read "Belong to Me", but it was a bit of a disappointment. It is still a beautifully written novel, however it seemed like de los Santos was trying to fit too much into one story. I liked Piper's story and would have wanted to hear more about her life. There could have been a novel about Piper and Elizabeth's lives before Elizabeth got sick, and how Piper's life changed so dramatically after Elizabeth died. There were some disconnects between the first novel and the second, specifically Ollie's relationship with Teo. In summary, I did enjoy this book but it didn't quite meet my expectations. Still, I'll read her next novel! |
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Complex personal relationships -  |
Belong to Me: A Novel Review |
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Belong to Me was a book I had been looking forward to reading for some time.
It was worth the wait! Human relationships are complex; this author addresses many of them in a way that fills the reader with anticipation. The characters are diverse and the relationships unique.Tolerance,compassion and friendship(where you least expect it)keep the reader fixated on the book. I often stayed in the driveway listening to the book. |
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November 2008 -  |
Belong to Me: A Novel Review |
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Allow me to state that just because I did not like this book, I did recognize that some passages were beautifully written. Some phrases were quite lovely, as well. Example, "confetti of noise." I liked the manner in which this was first utilized. Later on in this book, however, we had more "confetti" on snow, etc. Editors should have picked up on this. Another annoyance, for this reader, was the improbability of characterizations. When Lake meets Piper, she exclaims, "My real name is Piper, can you imagine?" Okay, I may not have gotten this verbatim, but the point is clear. One is easily drawn to Cornelia. She is so likeable. The romance between husband and wife was nice to read, as well. However, the book just did not work for this reader. I, too, like some other reviewers did not understand the sudden bond between Piper & Cornelia. I felt that this book became a contrivance. Basically, this genre is not my taste. However, readers who enjoy this genre will, most likely, be drawn to this book. I'm not sure if this is "Chick-Lit" or not. I did like "Good In Bed." That was well written, funny and heart warming. "Belong To Me" was like a rather bad fairy tale. Not recommended for serious readers -- sorry folks!! |
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Always fun to reconnect with a favorite character - |
Belong to Me: A Novel Review |
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I was drawn to de los Santos' first book, Love Walked In, because of the cover. (still one of my favorite covers). This cover speaks to me too, but I got this one because my friend, Jan, who knows me well, emailed to say, "this is a Kathie book." It is. I didn't want to put it down and I cried in parts (always a good sign...as my husband says, "if you don't cry, it's not a great book or movie." I loved reconnecting with Cornelia and Clare and Theo. I especially love all the references and life comparisons to movies and movie characters. I'd give her first book, Love Walked In, a 5 star plus. Somehow I connected a bit more with that one than this one. I think the side-stories here got a bit confusing at times and some of them seemed a bit too contrived and inevitable to me. That said, I'd still recommend it to any girlfriend who likes books about women's relationships with other women, but I'd definitely recommend she read Love Walked In first.
--Kathie Hightower, co-author of Help! I'm a Military Spouse -- I Get a Life Too! |
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From S. Krishna's Books - |
Belong to Me: A Novel Review |
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Belong to Me picks up the story of Cornelia Brown from de los Santos's debut bestseller Love Walked In, a book that is still on The New York Times paperback list. The book opens with Cornelia and Teo's recent move to the suburbs, where Cornelia is finding that it may be harder for her to fit in than she first believed. She has several run-ins with the local queen bee, Piper, who takes an instant dislike to Cornelia. But Piper is not as heartless as she first appears - her best friend, Elizabeth, is dying of cancer, and Piper feels like she's dying right along with her. Then there's Dev, an incredibly intelligent, sweet thirteen-year-old who has just relocated from California along with his mother, Lake, who quickly becomes friends with Cornelia. Belong to Me is the story of how these lives intertwine and how trusting someone unexpectedly can lead to great things (and conversely, how lying to someone can lead to ruin).
The most appealing characteristic of de los Santos's writing is its sheer beauty. She was originally a poet, which explains how she can string together such compellingly gorgeous sentences. Even if the subject of the story was horrid, merely her writing would make anything worth reading. Luckily, the story of Belong to Me lives up to the splendor of de los Santos's writing style. Though many of the characters in Belong to Me were introduced in de los Santos' previous novel, it is not necessary to read Love Walked In first (though I highly recommend it, just for sheer enjoyment). They are two, separate parts of a complete whole. However, reading Love Walked In first does give further depth to Cornelia, Teo, and Clare, if only to be able to see how Cornelia has grown up so much yet stayed exactly the same. This is an accomplishment that seems effortless to de los Santos, and it is repeated throughout Belong to Me. The characters are written superbly and they draw you in from the second you open the novel. The fact that it is told from three different viewpoints (Cornelia, Piper, and Dev) only adds to the pleasure of reading the book. In many cases, when a book is told from multiple perspectives, it seems that at least one is inferior to the others. By the end of the book, the reader dreads these particular perspectives and races through them in order to get to the more interesting stories. However, that is not the case in Belong to Me. Each perspective is unique and interesting, and while the reader may pick a definite favorite (in my case, Cornelia because I am biased by Love Walked In), all three are a delight to read. The difficult thing about Belong to Me is where to put it with regards to genre. Obviously, it is fiction. But what about subcategories? The most obvious would be chick lit. However, I would argue that Belong to Me runs a deeper than the typical chick lit book. It isn't really women's fiction either. Though the readers of Belong to Me will likely be overwhelmingly female, I would think that a man could pick up this book and be as delighted with it as any woman. Marisa de los Santos' appeal is universal - it is too difficult to define by any genre limits. In the end, Belong to Me is a story about the connections between people. Why do we connect with some, yet shut ourselves off for others? And why do we seem to depend on the people we least expect? It's all about reaching out to others, trust, love, and what it really means to belong. |
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