Belong to Me

Publisher's Summary

Everyone has secrets. Some we keep to protect ourselves, others to protect those we love.

A devoted city dweller, Cornelia Brown surprised herself when she was gripped by the sudden desire to head for an idyllic suburb. Though she knows she's made the right move, she approaches her new life with trepidation and struggles to forge friendships. Cornelia's mettle is quickly tested by judgmental neighbor Piper Truitt, the embodiment of everything Cornelia feared she would find in suburbia. A saving grace soon appears in the form of Lake, and Cornelia develops an instant bond with this warm yet elusive woman.

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.

©2008 Marisa de los Santos (P)2008 HarperCollins Publishers

Entertaining but shallow

This book reads like the audio version of "Desperate Housewives", with its benign suburban setting, the musical, gossipy tone of the narrator and the intermittent soundtrack that transitioned the scenes. The story was pleasant enough but everything was just too perfect and the author never really effected the transition of the shallow, loathsome Piper Truitt into a caring individual with any real depth. In short, everything in this book was just too "beautiful and wondrous", with its fairy tale narrator, to be believed.

12 of 13 people found this review helpful

Readable

Make no mistake, this is not chick lit! Shes a great fiction writer, and it is not a cheesy sequel. Corniela and Teo have moved to the suburbs and me some interesting people, definitely interesting characters, there is some reference to Claire from the last book, but this is a great book from a more mature author!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

heh,

it was ok. a little cheesy. sort of Pollyanna. not sure that I will get anymore of here books. in think it was the reader's voice. kind of fake aristocrat voice that started to grate after a while.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

BORING!!!!!

What disappointed you about Belong to Me?

This book had no plot whatsoever. It was so painful to listen to because it went absolutely nowhere. I found it impossible to even remotely care about any of the characters. Whatever you do save 15 hours of your life and don't bother with this book.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Nope this book was the most painful thing I have attempted in a long time and with 5 hours left I decided those are 5 hours I will never get back if I try and press on.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Overall good

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I enjoyed the story, but did not always agree with the narrators interpretation of the characters' feelings within the dialogue. Unfortunately, the music at certain chapters of the book was beyond annoying. Especially when the music played while the narrator read the story. I probably would not have finished the book if I did not have the paper version of the book as well.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

no

Any additional comments?

no music in books, please, especially in such a loud volume compared to the reading.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great Story!

This was a story with believable characters. I felt I knew every person in the book. The narration was very well done. The only distracting part was the music that seemed to be randomly inserted.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

I'd rather not

Sorry, but this book was really very strange. One part was a comment on life in the suburbs, another part chronicled a dying woman's last days, and yet another section was about a 12 year old boy. Then the author tried to fit all the pieces together at the end - just did not work. It seemed as if the author was trying to write 3 novels and then got lazy and just combined them into one. No thanks.

4 of 6 people found this review helpful

How can you not love Cornelia?!

I am writing this review after reading this book for the second time (several years apart). I would like to start out by saying if you have not read the first book in this series, "Love Walked In," start with that one!! While I love "Belong to Me" so, so much more, to truly understand the story, you need to meet the characters first in book one of the trilogy.

This is one of the books that I think is just better on audio. Cornelia in and of herself is a lovable character who can smooth out any wrinkly situation and who is impossible not to love. But Julia Gibson brings her to life in the best way possible. After Cornelia, Dev has my heart. A 14 year old science nerd? I mean, what is not to love? I would love to be inside Dev's head to try to understand how his brain works. And when Cornelia and Dev start to build a relationship, their banter is so sweet and funny, I just love them together.

If you are someone who loves books most for the development of strong characters, this is definitely one for you. But the best part of all is the story is one that you will want to read again and again, it is just that good.

A Cozy Sequel

When I originally read this book, I read the hard copy because I couldn't handle the change of readers from the first book. As much as I still adore the first book and the PERFECT readers, coming back to re-read I realized that Julia Gibson also does a great job with all the characters. The first book, Love Walked In, is so charming and almost too picture perfect. This one has a bit more meat on its bones, dealing with slightly darker and harder subjects, but still retains all the charms and unique, lovely characters. Some people might be bothered by the scope: the book bounces between 3 or 4 different main characters, and though all the stories are interwoven, it might be too choppy a style for some. I liked it, though. Marisa de los Santos does tend to be a little frivelous... her characters are almost universally TOO something to be real (too cute, too smart, too clever, too prim...) but that's sort of the point of this kind of lit. Warm and fuzzy, like a mug of good hot chocolate.
#QuirkyFamilies #HappyEnding #heartfelt #ChildProtagonist #FemaleProtagonist #charming #suburbia #chicklit #wittychicklit #Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes

So good!

Deliciously satisfying sequel to Love Walked In! Characters so real and the story is alternately heart rending and comical. I found it deeply touching and satisfying.