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Belong to Me: A Novel
Belong to Me: A Novel
Belong to Me: A Novel
Audiobook15 hours

Belong to Me: A Novel

Written by Marisa de los Santos

Narrated by Julia Gibson

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

“Marisa de los Santos’s Belong to Me is my favorite discovery of the past years: a terrific page-turner that’s also poignant, funny, surprising and deeply heartfelt.”
—Harlan Coben
 
“Complex, engaging, and surprisingly moving.”
Boston Globe

The sensational New York Times bestseller from Marisa de los Santos, Belong to Me is a gift for readers, an enchanting, luminous novel about the accidents, both big and small, that affect our choice of friend, lover, and spouse. A story centered around three very different suburban neighbors and what it truly means to “belong” to someone, this eye-opening, unforgettable book is the perfect book club selection—beautifully written, smart and sophisticated women’s fiction that invites discussion as it touches the heart—and the ideal companion to de los Santos’s previous blockbuster, Love Walked In.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperAudio
Release dateApr 1, 2008
ISBN9780061632471
Author

Marisa de los Santos

Marisa de los Santos is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning poet with a PhD in literature and creative writing. She lives in Wilmington, Delaware, with her family.

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Reviews for Belong to Me

Rating: 4.011904829206349 out of 5 stars
4/5

630 ratings67 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Three new friends, some easy to love, some easy to hate - all human. Great story.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    women's fiction at its best. good writing. my book club enjoyed it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I really loved this book - the depth of character that she gave each person - Dev's thought process in particular was "thought provoking". My only dislike was that after spending so much time on each character, she dashed through the ending. Seemed like she was in a hurry to finish.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When I learned Love Walked In had a sequel, I knew I would devour it.In Belong to Me, Marisa de los Santos continues the story of Cornelia, Clare, and Teo. The newly introduced characters who enter their lives add depth and widen the audience who will enjoy this book. Piper, Cornelia's next door neighbor, is a controlling socialite who surprises herself with her need for unusual frienships. Lake, the free-spirited mom, is new to town with (sometimes disastrous) decisions made all for her son Devin. Finally, Lake's son is the character I most enjoyed, an intellectual muser who learns how falling in love can actually ground a person. The poetic style of Love Walked In carried over to this work too. The main character Cornelia (speaking from the writer's heart?) admits her mind is always making metaphors, connections through which to see the world. It is this figurative style at work that makes Marisa de los Santos' work so appealing, helping the reader belong precisely to her characters' feelings at each crucial moment.Although I saw the climax coming long before it hit, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would love to see another with these characters.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book continues where Love Walked In leaves off, but would be enjoyable on its own. I like the author's style and use of language although sometimes the 'cute' asides before getting to the point wear a bit thin. All in all a good read with good characters.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Adult fiction. Tangled stories of love and family. I see why de los Santos is such a popular author.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When I learned that Belong to Me was a continuation of Cornelia Brown’s story from Love Walked In I knew I had to read it, but I wondered if Marisa de los Santos could do it again: could make me feel so full, so satisfied, so in love with her beautiful writing and wonderful characters. Well, she did not disappoint. I would have been happy if Belong to Me was 1,000 pages or went on forever so I would never have to leave this marvelous world the author has created. Old favorite characters were back, new ones introduced. Once again I was surprised by the behavior of some characters and had my faith in others validated. The setting and atmosphere made me feel I was part of the story, and there was just enough uncertainty and surprise in the plot to keep my interest until the very last page. Another very satisfying read from Marisa de los Santos that I highly recommend.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A bit reminiscent of Liane Moriarity's work, this delicious, chewy novel about relationships among residents of a small suburb outside Philadelphia covers life and death, secrets and lies, friendship, love, trust, betrayal, and -- ultimately -- healing. What more can you want?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Cornelia Brown surprises many, including herself, when she moves from the bustling city to a peaceful suburb. She has trouble making friends upon her arrival, instead finding herself tested by the nearly perfect Piper Truitt. Cornelia does find a friend in Lake, a warm yet mysterious woman who has also recently moved into the neighborhood.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Cornelia Brown decides to leave her cherished urban life and seeks a new one in the suburbs. What she find there is the dreaded typical suburban woman in Piper Truitt, her neighbor across the street. Yet, in her quest to make new relationships, she meets elusive Lake and their shared love of literature and old movies, there is an instant bond between them. Although he resolution is rather contrive, it is still a good story of friendship with the most unlikely people.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In between chick-lit and Literature? Maybe slightly more creative & complex than Elizabeth Berg? Anyway, I love her books and want more!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Really, really liked this one. Liked it so much that I added the author's first book to my reading list. Characters were well-developed, stories were believable. It was a pleasure to read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Audio book narrated by Julia Gibson

    This is a sequel to de los Santos’s first novel - Love Walked In - continuing the story of Cornelia and Teo. However, if you have not read the first book (and I haven’t), you can still enjoy Belong to Me.

    Set in a trendy Philadelphia suburb, the novel focuses on three women whose paths cross and the unlikely friendships they form. Cornelia is a petite city girl who has left New York for the suburban life when her husband, hunky doctor Teo Sandoval, gets a new job. Piper Truitt is the Queen Bee of the neighborhood, perfectly dressed and coifed, the self-proclaimed arbiter of taste and appropriate behavior among her set, the perfect mother with perfect children and a perfect home. Lake Tremain, like Cornelia, is a newcomer, but she is a single mother working as a waitress and trying her best to provide an enriched education for her genius son, Dev.

    De los Santos alternates point of view among three characters, and does a reasonably good job of this. I did think that some of the plot elements were rather like a soap opera, and the competing story lines resulted in some plot elements not getting sufficient exposition. I would really have liked to read Piper’s story in more depth – that would be an interesting novel all on its own. I did enjoy the writing; occasional phrases really caught my attention (“a confetti of noise” for example). I was engaged and interested from the beginning, though I did think the ending was a bit rushed. I do plan to read her first novel, and would read other works by her.

    Julia Gibson does a credible job on the audio performance. She was able to sufficiently differentiate the characters, tricky when you have so many conversations between two or more women. I thought her pacing was good as well.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The sequel to the Cornelia and Teo story, where they move to the suburbs and try again for a baby after a miscarriage at 14 weeks. There are three narrative points of view: Cornelia's (in the first person) and then those of Piper and Dev. Piper lives opposite and seems at first to be going to make Cornelia's life a misery in a kind of Mean Girls way. However, Piper's best friend is dying, her marriage is suffering and Piper by the end of the book has changed a lot. Dev is a very bright 13 year old boy who has recently moved to the area with his mother Lake to attend a charter school. Lake and Cornelia become friends and Dev falls for Clare.The Cornelia chapters were OK, I loved the Piper chapters and the Dev ones were a bit boring. I skimmed the last 100 pages when it became clear where the story was going. I am angry with the author, because I do not like what she did with Cornelia's life, although I feel vindicated for never trusting Lake.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    loved this book! It has everything: love, sex, romance, death, birth, mystery, betrayal, even a Star Trek reference...! The novel demonstrates that first impressions are not always lasting ones. At fist meeting, Cornelia thinks Piper is too perfect, too judgmental, too suburbia. Lake, on the other hand, is warm, open and comfortable. As this story progresses, we learn that things, and people, are not always as they seem.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book hung around my TBR shelf forever and I just plucked it off the other day and delved into it. Good thing, the book was well written, had some mystery thrown in when least expected, and very well developed characters. Not just your typical families of saga book, an enjoyable one with some profound thoughts to think about also! I will read more of this author now.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I liked this from the start. It is a great story about love and life and what is most important.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was something. I didn't expect a twist. The characters were so vivid, i wish i knew them. I didn't think it was perfect, but it was enjoyable.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm still processing the book. One thing about Marisa's books...she sort of weaves everything together in a very unconventional way. You get a Happily Ever After, but it's kind of bittersweet. She doesn't give something without having something first sacrificed for the happiness. Just like with the first book, Love Walked In, the idea of a "typical" family is blown out of the water, and Marisa just kind of MAKES you accept how things can happen.

    I felt very much the same in this book as I did with Love Walked In. I didn't WANT things to happen like they did. The truths that she revealed weren't what I hoped for. In fact, I was in denial for a great majority of this book (and the last, to be honest).

    It sort of left me with a...longing, I guess. A regret, maybe? Of how I wished things could have gone, even though she made them all work out in the end. Just not perfectly.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The perfect bookclub selection. Cornelia Brown moves from the city to life in the suburbs. At first overwhelmed and not knowing how to navigate the complexities of suburban life, Cornelia finds friendship in the oddest places. I listened to this audiobook. Julia Gibson does a fantastic job on the narration. Heartwarming!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    3 stars? 4 stars? I'm not sure. Some of the writing is terrific. I mean really stop-you-in-your-tracks wonderful. Many lines struck me as so lovely I had to read them over and over.

    And yet I'm just not sure how I felt about it overall.

    The story is told in 3 different voices and I don't like that. Cornelia, a woman who has just moved from NYC to the suburbs, Piper, a woman of roughly the same age who lives in the neighborhood Cornelia moves to, and Deveraux, a 13-year-old genius boy who moves to the same town from California with his single mom. (those are some names, huh?) Cornelia's voice, for no apparent reason, is in the first person. I suppose she's supposed to be the protagonist but we aren't treated to more of her intimate thoughts than the other voices, nor did I relate to her perspective any better. If anything, the first person voice is the least honest and intimate of the three. So maybe I don't understand the point of writing in first person. Perhaps there was some reason that went over my head. Or else maybe the author was just having trouble separating the 2 female perspectives. If it was the latter, I think she should have just scrapped the idea.

    There is some serious woman-on-woman meanness in this book and, as a rule, that pisses me off. It perpetuates the notion that women are awful to each other. (You may say that's true and literature merely reflects it. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.) By the end you get to know the women better and understand why they're so catty. Sort of. Not really. You grow to like them in spite of their shitty behavior, let's say. A little. OK I didn't grow to like them but I think I was supposed to.

    One of the subplots is a young mother of two who's dying of cancer. Some of those chapters I skimmed over, peeking out between my fingers, singing "La La La I Can't Hear You" in my head. Partly because I didn't want to cry on an airplane, which is where I read it, but mostly because it was just too close to home and I'm more of a head-in-the-sand type when it comes to horrible things I can't control.

    It was a page-turner for sure. The story is compelling as hell and takes some very interesting twists and turns. Unfortunately, everything is tied up way too neatly in the end. I mean come on. It's one thing to say "everyone lived happily ever after" and another thing entirely to show them all romping around together at a picnic loving each other in spite of all logic.

    Jesus. Where am I going with this!?I only finished it late last night so maybe I'll come back in a week and adjust my rating.

    I'm back already. Four stars. Definitely. I don't need a week. I think the fact that those things up there made me mad just proves that I cared and was invested and really liked it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It was very sweet. There were some funny bits, some poignant bits, you know, a good mix. I wished I were reading it on the beach instead of on a train. But seriously, I got a lot of reading done on that train ride.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Originally posted on A Reader of Fictions.

    Though, for some reason, Belong to Me is treated as a standalone, it's really not. I'm not sure why the publisher decided not to market them as a series, since they are directly linked. Oh well. I read the first book, Love Walked In, a few years ago, and I was really impressed. Ever since, I've recommended it to people, but, with my memory and the way my taste in books can change and grow over time, I wondered if it was really as good as I remember it being. Well, if Belong to Me is any sort of reliable indicator, then yes. I highly recommend reading Love Walked In first, then moving to Belong to Me.

    All the same characters from Love Walked In are back. On the surface, de los Santos' books look like chick lit, like girly, light, fluff books, at least that's what I get from the covers and the titles. While her books do, admittedly, have way more female appeal, I would in no way mark them as 'chick lit,' though the boundaries between 'chick lit' and 'women's fiction' and 'literary fiction' are hazy to me at best. De los Santos' novels are packed full of emotion and wit and hope, and are incredibly beautifully written. There are authors whose prose I just glory in, immersing myself in their words as though they were the perfect temperature pool, and de los Santos belongs on that list.

    Belong to Me may be a bit of a cheesy title, but it speaks directly to the main thrust of the novel: belonging. Each of the main characters struggle with finding a place to belong, and, perhaps even more, with finding a place where they belong that doesn't fit their initial expectations. These themes move me so much, because, really, aren't we all looking for that place where we belong, that person that makes us feel at home wherever we are? This is one of those books that makes me want to believe so hard that happy endings are possible, not so much because 'true love' is real, but because a more basic, more enduring, more real love is out there and that people will work to preserve it.

    De los Santos writes from multiple perspectives, a common, though still daring, writerly move. Not only that, but she writes with one first person perspective and the others in third person limited. In both books, the reader lives in Cornelia's head, follows her around in first person, feels directly with her. In Love Walked In, the other perspective is that of Clare, a girl whose connection to Cornelia is not immediately apparent. In Belong to Me, we have Cornelia's and two more: Piper, the queen bee of Cornelia and Teo's new suburban neighborhood, and Dev, a brilliant young teen.

    Cornelia and Teo have just moved into a house in the suburbs for his new job. She's a city girl, and doesn't like the sniping of the local women; she feels lost without friends, without the buzzing of the city. I may be biased by the storytelling methods, but Cornelia is my favorite character. In fact, for the first hundred pages or so, my mind wandered a bit when the story went to the other perspectives, because I just didn't care as much about the others. A wholly forthright person, she protects people, loves poetry and sometimes lets her temper get the better of her. Cornelia has a unique way of phrasing thing and a brutal honesty about the selfishness of her emotions that makes me relate to her so much.

    I hated Piper so much at first. You're supposed to, of course, but that doesn't make her any less awful. She's one of those people: perky, bitchy, obsessed with being the best, etc. As I read her perspective, I just kept fantasizing about stabbing her with a nail file. Then, though, she changed, rather suddenly, but not unbelievably. Her very best friend, possibly her only true friend, is dying of cancer. She throws herself into caring for Elizabeth, and, for the first time in her life almost, gives no thought to her image. Her struggle is to discover that she doesn't belong where she thought she did, as the queen of society, but as a person with wants and desires, even if they don't make her popular. It's amazing to me that de los Santos made me care for her character.

    One of my very favorite over-used characters is the genius child. Yeah, I know there are far more genius children in fiction than in real life, but I just don't care. If I have to read about children, they damn well ought to be clever. Dev fits that perfectly. He has such a thirst for knowledge, about poetry, string theory, friendship, and his father, who he doesn't know. His mother left his father because she knew he couldn't take care of the baby, but Dev resents the man for not coming to find him, while also hating himself for still clinging to that fantasy.

    So, yes, the characters are marvelous. You know what's even better? Their relationships with one another. It's one thing to have great characters, and another thing entirely to make their friendships and romances ring authentic and awkward and painful and true, but de los Santos hits those notes just right. I'm not a big crier, but my eyes did get a bit teary, both from sadness and happiness, more than once. Friendship isn't often enough of a focus, but each of these characters have friends who feel real, and who will have their backs.

    The one last thing I feel that I must say about this novel before I wrap the review: de los Santos surprised me. Finding a book that can really sweep a rug out from under your feet is a rare thing, at least for me. She has this way of weaving story lines together in such a way that I think I know where things are going, but then BAM! they go somewhere else. I may have yelled at the book a bit in frustration when I got to the twist, because I didn't want the characters to be unhappy at all.

    Obviously, I just love this book. I'm honestly not entirely certain who to recommend this book to, because I'm having trouble sticking it in a box. Basically, if you enjoy beautiful writing, pop culture references, and women's issues, then you should really read Marisa de los Santos.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Not my kind of thing at all, as it turns out. Dull, shallow suburbanites going on for way too long doing a lot of dull, shallow suburban nothing. Baby worship and cult of motherhood, ad nauseum. The only mildly interesting developments came in the last 10-15% of the story, and had primarily to do with the brainy adolescent boy who was the only major character that I did not find insufferable. If this is "chick lit," it's further proof (if any was needed) that I'm just not much of a chick.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I liked this one. It's a good combination of bitter and sweet and reminded me a bit of Tom Perrotta.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really really enjoyed the story and characters in this book! Even the mean ones had a personality of their own! By the end of the book I felt like all the characters were my neighbors! The only down side to this lo9vely novel is the complete lack of action! I mean nothing! The whole book was very sweet and poetic, but the reader has to wait until the very end to feel any excitement. As a whole though I truely loved this book! I will be looking out for more from this author!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I adored this sequel to Love Walked In.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Follow up to Love Walked In! Another must! Marisa did a wonderful job building on the existing characters and keep the reader interested. I laughed and I cried!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Can I just say, I love the cover of Belong to Me? I love the cover. It is beautiful, it conveys the heart of the story with great efficiency and grace, and it has no human figures on it. Practically perfect.Belong to Me is the sort-of sequel to Love Walked In, and if it is not quite the equal of its predecessor, it has strengths of its own; I'm pretty sure you could read it with pleasure even if you had not read Love Walked In. (But do read Love Walked In, because it is lovely). Cornelia Brown and her husband have left their urban joys to try a life in the suburbs - a life on a street like the one they grew up on. Their new home may be charming, but new neighbor Piper is not. In fact, tight-wound Piper is a Mean Girl grown up...and arty, free-spirited Cornelia is not really Piper's cup of tea.I've said before that Marisa de los Santos won my heart by loving her characters, and I was delighted with the evolution of Piper, whose steely, evil-tempered courage in the face of overwhelming grief made her, in the end, my favorite character. Honestly, Piper's edginess almost made Cornelia too sweet by contrast - and Cornelia has a bit of edge herself. Belong to Me has two major story arcs - Piper's and Cornelia's - and although both are interesting and well-developed, they don't truly intersect, and I thought the book suffered because of that. But de los Santos's trademark witty dialogue and masterful word-wrangling made me lick my chops over every chapter.Despite some flaws in construction, I would have given this novel four and a half stars if I could have. I can't say enough about this author's way with characterization - she just can't seem to write a one-note character. There are no villains or heroes in Belong to Me - just real people, warts and all, angry and loving and good and bad and longing to find a a situation, or a place, or a person, to whom they can truly belong.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really enjoyed this - good story, interesting characters