Marisa de los Santos

There are many ways to describe the person you love. Love of your life. Soul mate. True love. The peanut butter to your jelly. Your home and your heart. Or you could call them, like Marisa de los Santos does in her newest novel, your blue sky. This third novel in a trilogy, albeit one that stands alone just fine, is an examination of love and family, sanctuary and doing right.

Opening in 1950 on Edith and Joseph Herron's wedding day, Edith remembers walking into the warmth and comfort of the show more beautiful home that her new husband has bought for the two of them in a small Delaware beach town. Joseph is Edith's soul mate, her comfort, and her anchor. He is her blue sky and their home is appropriately called Blue Sky House. In the present day, Clare Hobbes is preparing for her wedding to fiance Zach when she confides her unease about their future to her mother and dear family friend. But it isn't until the actual day of her wedding when she meets and talks to Edith, now an elderly woman, that she finds the courage to call off the wedding. Several weeks later, she discovers that Edith has passed away and left Clare a lovely home in Delaware. Why Edith left a perfect stranger her home and the mystery that Clare, helped by her best friend and old boyfriend Dev, starts to uncover thanks to a both a ledger of guests of the former guesthouse and to a cryptic shadow ledger for the same time period drive the narrative.

The narrative moves back and forth between Clare's and Edith's stories. The reader discovers things before Clare does so there's some repetition in the telling as Clare and Dev slowly uncover Edith's life. De los Santos does hold back a few details from the 1950s story line so that not everything is revealed twice. Edith is definitely an intriguing character, presented as warm and understanding, and even before she meets Clare in the twilight of her life, she is drawn with a strong moral compass. Clare is very forgiving and compassionate but almost to the point of being infuriating. She not only allows Zach to isolate and suffocate her because she knows how hard he is trying to rise above his family, but she continues to try and placate him even as she occasionally fears his ability to keep his tightly controlled emotions and anger in a healthy place. Dev is magical and the reader wonders how Clare has ever forgotten this. The mystery is not terribly difficult to unravel but Edith's life is fascinating enough that this doesn't matter much. Despite the darkness of abuse captured in this story, ultimately it is one of courage and warmth, uplift and love, always and forever real love. Women's fiction fans, especially those who like a thread of historical fiction running through their stories, will appreciate this warmhearted and satisfying novel. show less

I had no idea this was part of a series when I picked it up. It can definitely be read as a stand-alone.

A chance meeting with an elderly woman named Edith sends Clare's life careening in a new direction on her wedding day. I loved the layered portrayal of the two women, one present day and the other decades earlier. The Blue Sky House had a personality of its own. The pacing was excellent, unfolding pieces of info in the long-ago mystery just a bit at a time. I was glad the ex-boyfriend show more didn't steal the show in the final third of the book. show less

Cornelia is a thirty-something owner of a small coffeehouse on the east coast. She is nestled sweetly into the boring lull of monotony and searching for the right man to love. Her standards are quite high – he pretty much has to be Cary Grant. This is when Martin Grace appears at her register. After some polite flirting, he leaves his number with her, offering to whisk her away to Europe with him on his business trip. Cornelia toys with this idea, enamored with his strong appeal and show more demeanor. They later cross paths again, and the flirting continues. The two start up a movie-style romance, barely separable except for when Martin must travel. Martin is a god in Cornelia’s mind. He is perfect in every way and just might be the man she will spend her life with. Who Martin is to Cornelia becomes a huge façade when out of nowhere he shows up at her coffeehouse with Clare – his daughter. Martin had been estranged from his ex-wife and Clare for many years, so he felt justified in never sharing that part of his life with Cornelia. Clare’s mother has suffered a mental breakdown and disappeared, leaving Clare to fend for herself. Scared, she turns to he father who ignored her pleas until she sought him out directly.
Cornelia’s world is spinning. The man she loves isn’t who she thought he was at all. In an instant, the glimmer and shine of Martin screeches to a halt and Cornelia must learn how to adjust to seeing Martin as a human being, just like anyone else. His faults and errs with Clare stun Cornelia, who becomes attached almost instantly to her. Her maternal instincts take over and she falls in love with little Clare, who wants nothing more than someone to protect her and be a real mother. The three try to locate Clare’s mother so that she can be home for Christmas, but have little to no luck. Clare becomes quite comfortable living with Cornelia, writing in her diary that she hopes to never leave, even if her mother comes back.
Somewhere in all of this, Cornelia’s unhappy brother-in-law, Tao, shows up. Tao is on the run form himself and his unhappy marriage, and becomes the object of affection for Clare who develops a very strong crush on the dashing young man. She is upset to find out that his affections lie else where; with Cornelia.
As if things couldn’t get more mixed up, Cornelia has a fall out with Martin, tragedy strikes, Vivian (Clare’s mother) returns, and a slew of other unforeseen events billow out of the mixed up world Cornelia has found herself in. Cornelia realizes in the end that love is not always what you seek out, but what seeks out you.

Favorite Passages/Quotes
"There's a kind of holiness to love, requited or not, and those people who do not receive it with gratitude are arrogant beyond saving."

"I felt like the kid at the party who whacks open the piñata. Victorious and with treasures raining down on me."

"The trouble with your face is that it's ruining me for other faces. It's making me rethink every face I ever liked."

"At least the term 'underachiever' hints that I'm capable of ever so much more."

"I've never known anyone like you. And because there isn't anyone like you, I've never wanted anyone the way I want you."

Opinion

I was first upset with this book when I saw de los Santos using a cult classic’s listing technique (re: High Fidelity). Determined not to snub my nose at something without giving it a decent chance, I pressed on… And I’m glad I did.

This book is told first person by Cornelia and third person by Clare in every other chapter. While this style has been done before, it really helped keep interest with the reader as to how their two lives would eventually entwine. Not much was said about Martin in Clare’s story, so when he arrives with her to see Cornelia, the two plots finally align. I thought this was a creative way to keep bits of plot secluded, but hinted at.

De los Santos did a great job with deciding how to characterize her main women. Since Clare is younger and still at a volatile stage in life, having her point of view be narrated from the third person added a great juvenile tone and honesty to her character. Cornelia’s inner monologue was great. You felt what she said and couldn’t help by laugh and cry right along side of her. De los Santos is a lover of poetry and you can tell in her wordings. They are colorful and descriptive in very creative ways, but stay far away from being overbearing and overdramatic like Sparks.

The story itself had sort of a quick pace to it. I felt is rushed a bit and was dreadfully slow in places, but the majority of the book handled itself well. I think it only took me three days to read, and I found myself rooting for Cornelia and feeling oddly sympathetic toward Martin. I think the development of Tao and Cornelia’s sister could have been indulged on more. Their story is sort of dynamic to how things end up, so perhaps de los Santos should have really focused on them in more than just a handful of pages through out.

Overall, I added this to my favorites pretty easily. I didn’t expect to like this book, and was pleasantly surprised.

Rating: On a scale of 1-5 stars, this book is a 4.5. I honestly bought this book accidentally. True story… And I loved the style I found inside. A great book for hopeless romantics, chick lit lovers, or anyone who wants a heart-warming story with some good twists in it. show less

Marisa de los Santos' writing is so magical to me. Not everyone will appreciate or notice it, but those who care about words will, because her brand of magic is the kind where the right word is used at the exact right time, over and over again. And Cornelia continues to be one of my favorite literary characters ever because she is both relatable in a kindred spirit kind of way, while also embodying the traits I most admire (I myself am more of an Ollie). Without the writing this book show more wouldn't stand out from the many other dual-timeline novels out there, but with it it shines brighter than the others. Sorry for the corny pun. show less