Belong to Me

By: Marisa de los Santos

Narrated by: Julia Gibson

Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Good Listen

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

Solid 14 stars

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

Great book!

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