Belong to Me

De: Marisa de los Santos

Narrado por: Julia Gibson

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

Solid 14 stars

I prefer my stories without 'F' bombs. This one would have received straight 5's without them !

an interesting story

Any additional comments?

This is an engaging family drama, that maintained my interest throughout. There were a few plot twists I did not see coming. Worth the listen.

Good Listen

Good story, well narrated! Unexpected happenings, but not over the top and unbelieveable. Nice story and enjoyed the authors writing?

Great book!

I love the way it was told! Voices well done
Well written, story with meaning

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!

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.

Loved this book.

The book and the narrator made for a very enjoyable listen. I was very sorry when it ended! I will be looking for more books by this author as well as the narrator.

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.

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.

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.
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