Love Walked In

Love Walked In
by Marisa de los Santos

Love Walked In
List Price: $14.00
Our Price: $0.48
You Save: $13.52 (97%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Marisa de los Santos
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-11-28
ISBN: 0452287898
Number of pages: 307
Publisher: Plume
Product features:
  • ISBN13: 9780452287891
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Book Reviews of Love Walked In

Book Review: Promise walked out....
Summary: 3 Stars

Marisa De Los Santos is blessed with a writer's voice that renders her protagonist a witty, passionate personality whose observations and dialogue lines jump off the page. Cornelia is spicy, clever and caring woman who, at thirty, is still searching for herself when the perfect man walks into the café she manages. But when the sheen wears off Martin's "perfection," what he leaves behind is his eleven-year-old daughter, Clare. The bond forged between Cornelia and Clare is touching. Their needs mesh well--Cornelia's to nurture, and Clare's to be mothered following the disappearance of her unstable mother.

What a great premise for a novel. What a great promise to the reader for hours of indulgence in a simply good book. And indeed, the wonderful prose kept me going. It kept me turning the pages seeking more.

But that's where the novel fizzled. In terms of plot development, it took almost one third of the novel before the two main characters first came face to face. And in that span of time, the relationship between Cornelia and Martin never got far. The cracks in the potential for the great romance were gaping long before the reader became fully invested--along with Cornelia, who genuinely tried to fall in love with him--in the blooming of this love story.

Reading on, though, the plot turned into pure schmaltz. The last third of the book introduced a new cast of characters unessential to the story; tacking them on into the plot seemed forced. And the unfolding events were no more than a sweetened version of a Hallmark card. Clare breezes through the most horrific traumas a child can experience with little scars. I would have considered discussing this section of the book a SPOILER had it had some credibility, but every aspect of the story simply lay flat. The prose that De Los Santos used until now to keep me going was overused to try to create excitement where none existed.

Take the death of Mrs. Goldberg. A character mentioned in passing before, an Alzheimer patient that Cornelia never even visited in the many weeks of the first part of the novel, was suddenly mourned with depth that was hard to empathize with. No matter how much prose De Los Santos compiled postmortem on Mrs. Goldberg, the old woman never became a real person, nor could her house so "full of treasures" be visualized. I wish the author had given the reader one important such item to understand "the stories" that suddenly so captivated Cornelia to hijack her full attention and emotions, but which the reader could not take a part. The obscurity of Mrs. Goldberg became more so as I wondered why name a character by a distinctly Jewish name yet strip her of any cultural or religious background that would have made her life and death authentic? (e.g. No mention of who officiated her funeral, which the heart-broken Cornelia attended with the reader.) As Cornelia devoted herself to documenting Mrs. Goldberg's stories, the reader learned none of them other than the not particularly interesting way Mrs. G. had met her husband fifty years before.

Not to spoil the story for those readers who want to learn what happened to Clare's mother and how Cornelia's commitment to the frightened girl held up, I will not delve into my disappointment of the non-plot on these fronts.

A good editor could have pointed these out as well as some others. (e.g., Why must each leading man in this novel be so over-the-top outstandingly handsome? And why must everyone talk about these men's looks at every opportunity?) I am certain that, with some guidance, this capable author could have streamlined the story to make this book the kind of satisfying experience it first promised but failed to deliver.

Talia Carner, author,
Puppet Child and China Doll

Summary of Love Walked In

Make this your next book club selection and everyone saves.
Get 15% off when you order 5 or more of this title for your book club.
Simply enter the coupon code DELOSSANTOSLOVE at checkout.
This offer does not apply to eBook purchases. This offer applies to only one downloadable audio per purchase.

When Martin Grace enters the hip Philadelphia coffee shop Cornelia Brown manages, her life changes forever. But little does she know that her newfound love is only the harbinger of greater changes to come. Meanwhile, across town, Clare Hobbs?eleven years old and abandoned by her erratic mother?goes looking for her lost father. She crosses paths with Cornelia while meeting with him at the café, and the two women form an improbable friendship that carries them through the unpredictable currents of love and life.

Love Walked In, the first novel by award-winning poet Marisa de los Santos, is bursting with keen insight and beautifully rendered prose. Invoking classic movies to illuminate the mystery and wonder of love in all its permutations, Love Walked In is an uplifting debut that marks the entrance of an enchanting literary voice.

United States Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in United States Books
Mirth of a Nation: The Best Contemporary Humor ImageMirth of a Nation: The Best Contemporary Humor
by Michael J. Rosen
Harper Paperbacks; Published: 2000-02-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: $15.95
The Gifts of the Body ImageThe Gifts of the Body
by Rebecca Brown
Harper Perennial; Published: 1995-08-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.93
Price in other shops: $12.00
Love and Lies ImageLove and Lies
by Kimberla Lawson Roby
William Morrow; Published: 2007-01-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.96
Price in other shops: $23.95
Blues Dancing: A Novel ImageBlues Dancing: A Novel
by Diane Mckinney-Whetstone
HarperTorch; Published: 2005-03-29; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Red, White & Liberal: How Left Is Right & Right Is Wrong ImageRed, White & Liberal: How Left Is Right & Right Is Wrong
by Alan Colmes
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2004-10-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: $14.95
Hunger Point: A Novel ImageHunger Point: A Novel
by Jillian Medoff
Harpercollins; Published: 1997-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops: $24.00
The Price of Blood ImageThe Price of Blood
by Chuck Logan
Harpercollins; Published: 1997-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $25.99
Blue Hour: Poems ImageBlue Hour: Poems
by Carolyn Forche
Harper Perennial; Published: 2004-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.93
Price in other shops: $13.99
Blue Suburbia: Almost a Memoir ImageBlue Suburbia: Almost a Memoir
by Laurie Albanese
Harper Perennial; Published: 2004-03-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: $12.99
The Kindness of Strangers: A Novel ImageThe Kindness of Strangers: A Novel
by Katrina Kittle
William Morrow; Published: 2006-01-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops: $24.95
Similar Books and other products
Deep Down True: A Novel ImageDeep Down True: A Novel
by Juliette Fay
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2011-01-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.99
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Violets of March: A Novel ImageThe Violets of March: A Novel
by Sarah Jio
Plume; Published: 2011-04-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.38
Price in other shops: $15.00
On Folly Beach ImageOn Folly Beach
by Karen White
New American Library; Published: 2010-05-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Taste of Salt ImageThe Taste of Salt
by Martha Southgate
Algonquin Books; Published: 2011-09-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.60
Price in other shops: $13.95
Nice to Come Home To ImageNice to Come Home To
by Rebecca Flowers
Riverhead Trade; Published: 2009-02-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.05
Price in other shops: $15.00
Falling Home ImageFalling Home
by Karen White
NAL Trade; Published: 2010-11-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.91
Price in other shops: $15.00
Belong to Me ImageBelong to Me
by Marisa de los Santos
Avon; Published: 2011-06-28; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops: $7.99
Belong to Me: A Novel ImageBelong to Me: A Novel
by Marisa de los Santos
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2009-03-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.17
Price in other shops: $14.99
Belong to Me: A Novel ImageBelong to Me: A Novel
by Marisa De Los Santos
William Morrow; Published: 2008-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.63
Price in other shops: $24.95
Falling Together: A Novel ImageFalling Together: A Novel
by Marisa de los Santos
William Morrow; Published: 2011-10-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.19
Price in other shops: $25.99