Wednesday, July 9, 2008

"Belong to Me" Marisa de los Santos

Well, guys, my blog has been gathering a little dust lately. I checked on it today and realized that I hadn't posted anything in over a month, but I have a good excuse, I promise!!! Excuse number one: I have three small boys, all of which require quite constant attention (and if I don't give said attention, they get into my things and destroy them. Quite thoroughly). Excuse number two: In less than two weeks I will be marrying my best friend. Which is great, really. Except for the planning the wedding part. Which I'm sick to death of. In two blessed weeks I will be married, and I will never again consent to planning a wedding, which is a surprising amount of work! So, there are my excuses, and now that I've dusted off the 'ol blog, I can continue to write about the wonderful (and not-so-wonderful) books that I've been reading.

First on the list of books that I want to blog about is "Belong to Me" by Marisa de los Santos. I've read it twice since I first obtained it, and it has earned the title of my favourite read for this year (so far!) "Belong to Me" is the follow-up novel to de los Santos' first novel "Love Walked In", which I also blogged about, and loved just as much.

Cornelia, the hero of "Love Walked In" has succeeded in marrying the man of her dreams, her childhood friend Teo. Together they have decided to move to a suburban area just like the one they were raised in. On the outside they do it so that they would be closer to Teo's work, but secretly they harbour hopes of beginning to rasie a family together.

Once they move to their new home, the meet Piper, a neighbor who appears to be made of (rather rude) steel, but who is actually standing close to her best friend as she battles terminal cancer. They also meet Lake, a carefree, friendly individual who befriends Cornelia, but who we later find out has ulterior motives.

I think the reason that this became my favourite read of the year so far is because of the depth of de los Santos' characters. I loved that this was a continuation of her last novel, because I couldn't bear to think that we would never hear more about Cornelia, and Teo, and Clare. I loved the new characters that de los Santos brought in, and I liked the new things that they brought to the table. You really want to become friends with these characters. You almost want to dive into the novel and forget to come out for a while. Her storylines and characters are compelling and touching, I cried several times while reading this (my fiance thinks I'm a sap!) and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys well-written fiction.

For anyone who would like to find out more about this novel, here's the link:
http://harpercollins.ca/global_scripts/product_catalog/book_xml.asp?isbn=0061240273

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