books:

	Love Walked In Marisa de los Santos Plume, 2006 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 123 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

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. BACKCOVER: ?Love indeed walks in, and with it, a breath of fresh air.?
?Marie Claire

?This is a book that will be passed from friend to friend with the words, ?You have to read this.??
?Richmond Times Dispatch

?Love Walked In, by Marisa de los Santos, is the kind of book that makes you want to hunker down on a chilly day in a comfy chair and read straight through ?til dark. . . .This [is a] poignant, heart-tugging story about a single woman and a little girl who develop an unlikely bond.?
?The Washington Post Book World

?A bewitching, warmhearted grown-up fairy tale about old movies, charming princes, and finding happily ever after in the place where you?d least expect it.?
?Jennifer Weiner, author of Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, and Little Earthquakes

?Marisa de los Santos?s funny and beautifully written love story is as luminous as the silver screen.?
?Lolly Winston, author of Good Grief

?A touching, triumphant story of the power and variety and responsibility of love. A joy to read, filled with characters you wish you knew in real life. Love Walked In is every bit as engaging as the classic movies Marisa de los Santos lovingly invokes.?
?Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club

?Exquisite and stylish, Love Walked In proves that love in all of its forms?romantic, friendship, familial?is all around us.?
?Sarah Jessica Parker

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Luminous yet annoying

I've never read a book that was both luminous & annoying at the same time. It is a smart, beautifully descriptive story, yet I found myself thinking there was something very 'designerly' about the characters that I found very two dimensional. They could have been called Prada, or Chloe, or Dior,so perfect and even their flaws cherished and polished to a high sheen. Every heartbreak has a perfect save, and though I love happy endings, it was all a bit too tied up with shining bows & ribbons and too perfect a world, despite it's contrived tragedies, for me to find deeply satisfying.I look forward to this writer's works with another 15 years of life behind her.

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Good plot points, not so much for the characters

I liked this book, but I wanted more from it. The characters felt... plastic? At times my heart just screamed for them and the situations they were in, but the characters themselves... it was an odd read for me in that respect. The writing and the situations were wonderful, but the characters felt hollow and, well, made up. Yes, it's a fiction book, but I like to forget that while I'm reading.

It's definitely worth a read and might make a good Summer read for a book club. There was a lot of different issues you could talk about, just ignore the characters - they needed something more...

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Angieville: LOVE WALKED IN

This is de los Santos' first novel. She is an accomplished poet and her way with words is evident throughout this charming debut. When I read the dedication, I knew this book and I would get on together. The book is dedicated to her significant other, with the lines, "You're the Nile, You're the Tower of Pisa." Ah, Cole Porter. What follows is essentially an homage to the films and film stars of the 1930s and 40s, particularly The Philadelphia Story. Not far in Cornelia, our protagonist, notes, "Jimmy Stewart is always and indisputably the best man in the world, unless Cary Grant should happen to show up." I nod my head, Yes, this is true. I liked Cornelia and the way she viewed her life as a film, waiting for Cary Grant to walk through her door. I liked Teo and his wonderful, warm Jimmy Stewart. I even liked Martin's flawed Cary Grant and the choice Cornelia makes between the two. In this book, refreshingly, the adults manage to take control of things at the right point, so that 10-year-old Clare is not forced to make it all come together herself. Cornelia's tiny hands held onto them all so tightly, how could they not come to love each other? I did.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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walked

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