Love Walked In

I finished this one awhile ago, but Valentine's Day seems like a good time to enter it. de los Santos is not writing about the sappy hearts and flowers that go with this holiday, though. She is all about the hard work of love - when it isn't easy, when it isn't pretty, when it isn't romantic. She does it all eloquently and with an insight into human nature that warms your heart, if it doesn't make it go pitter-pat. I want to be in the friend circle (and better yet, the family!) of her characters. Cornelia Brown is literary, perky, and self-assured and an old-time-movie romantic, going about her 30-something life managing a coffee shop when destiny walks in the door in the form of swoon-worthy Martin Grace. He could've stepped out of a show more classic film and like Cornelia's favorite stories, their attraction is instant and grows quickly, heading toward happily-ever-after. Admittedly kind of a sappy start, but very intellectual and erudite. And then plot twist as another potential for love also shows up at Cafe Dora - eleven-year-old Clare Hobbs whose mother is in the midst of a mental health crisis and leaves her to fend for herself. Clare's father has never been in the picture, but Clare is on a quest, and tender-hearted Cornelia is willing to help. Both relationships, while fulfilling, are not compatible, and Cornelia must choose between two very different loves. The Brown family is amazing - Cornelia turns to them for wisdom, returning to her suburban Philly family home for meals and support - an anchor in her life, along with the family she grew up with next door, stalwart Teo, and her flamboyant best friend Linney. de los Santos prowess as a poet is in evidence constantly: “There’s a kind of holiness to love, requited or not, and those people who don’t receive it with gratitude are arrogant beyond saving.” There are two more books that follow (I actually read #2 Belong to Me first -doh! though it stood alone valiantly) and #3 I'll Be Your Blue Sky still awaits. show less

The writing in Love Walked In is so beautiful that you almost forget there is a story in there. You just want to keep reading the words. Being a long time Cary Grant fan I was initially drawn in by Cornelia meeting a dreamy man who looked exactly like Cary Grant and seemed just as suave. But the story is so much more than that. It’s about friends and family, both the good and the bad. And about neglect, whether it’s intention or benign. And how things – and people – are not always what you think they are and wish they would be. And how sometimes they are more than you would ever have expected. The bottom line is that this is a spellbinding love story that you will become completely immersed in. Not just romantic love but all show more kinds of love, and all kinds of characters you can’t get enough of. Love Walked In is full of beautiful phrases and movie references and humor and is a great read that I highly recommend. show less

It's taken me a while to review Love Walked In, but I remember this from my first reading: it was my very favorite book of 2006. It is one of those books that I have 2 copies of - a hardback (because I want it to last forever and I live in Louisiana where paperbacks tend to rot) and a paperback (for convenience when I am on the run and need something smaller to read at the dentist's office and in coffee shops.)

Love Walked In begins with an over-the-top scene: a man who looks like Cary Grant walks into Cornelia Brown's coffee shop and begins a Cary Grant-worthy flirtation, all charm, clever word-play, and witty allusions. It just so happens that Cornelia Brown loves Cary Grant, charm, word-play and clever allusions (and really, who show more doesn't?) But things become more complicated when charming Martin produces an unsuspected eleven-year-old daughter, a fierce, bitter adolescent who has a clearer idea than all the adults around her of what love REALLY means.

Marisa de los Santos has a Dorothy-Sayers-like mastery of scintillating wordplay - Cornelia's narration and character dialogues sparkle even in their darkest moments. But she also has a rare and altogether lovely tenderness for her characters - even for characters who turn out to be deeply flawed. I love an author who loves her characters, because she makes me love them too. The truth is, I want to borrow de los Santos's witty, vibrant heroine and bring her home with me. She can tell me disarmingly self-deprecating stories and make me laugh and we can watch The Philadelphia Story together for the millionth time. In return, I will give her my best parenting tips and we can talk about the tragedy of mental illness. I loved this book. I'm betting you would too. show less

De los Santos strikes an amazing balance in telling the very difficult story of a child on her own as her mother decompensates in front of her. The pathos of her brave journey is balanced by the wonderful and wacky spirit of the woman who steps in to befriend her in the crisis. I loved the passion and humanity on all sides in this story, and knew it was a wonderful feat when the author could still make me laugh out loud at the same time that so much tragedy was unfolding.

At first, I didn't think I would like this book. The chapters alternate -- one in Cornelia's voice and one in observation of Claire. The Cornelia chapters seemed to ramble, almost like she had adult ADD. Don't get me wrong, I love the old movie and Shakespearean references, but they just seemed very randomly placed. However, as the book progressed, Cornelia's chapters began to settle down with the introduction of Claire and Tao. Marisa de los Santos developed really interesting relationships between the characters and gave each their own distinct voice. A light read that makes the reader think of love in unconventional ways.

I thought "Belong to Me," - the sequel to this book - was one of the best books I read all year. So I felt I had to read the “prequel” even though ordinarily I hate reading books out of order. And I wondered, would it be possible for me to be objective about these characters that I already loved, described by a writer who already showed me her impressive talent? I can’t actually answer that hypothetical. All I can say is that I found the first book a bit less polished and some of the characters not as roundly drawn, but these are quibbles in degrees, not inches or yards. In short, I found the prequel almost as enchanting as the sequel, and am happy to say it was not “ruined” at all by having read the second book first. In show more fact, after I finished Love Walked In, I went back and read Belong to Me again, just because it was so good, and I wanted to see how the books flowed in order!

Cornelia Brown, a thirty-one year old underachieving café manager, came to Philadelphia because her favorite movie was “The Philadelphia Story” with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. She spends her time watching old movie romances and developing her talent for quick and witty repartee. She tells us that her life – her “real” life – began when a Cary Grant-look-alike named Martin Grace walked into the café one day, and she handed him her telephone number.

In alternate chapters, we hear from Clare, a precocious eleven-year old who lives alone with her ethereally beautiful but mentally unbalanced mother. When the mother abandons Clare, Clare seeks out her estranged father, who coincidentally happens to be Martin Grace. Martin comes to the cafe with Clare and asks Cornelia for help with caretaking, especially since he goes out of town a lot.

At the same time, Cornelia's brother-in-law, Teo Sandoval, shows up at the cafe. Teo, great looking and kind, is a doctor, and seems to know just how to handle children.

Clare is even more instantly drawn to Teo than she is to Clare, although there’s a bit of girlhood crush in the mix. But she bonds with them both, and while she wants her mother back, she can’t conceive of a life without Cornelia and Teo.

How does it all come out? Well, of course I can’t tell you, but I can be fairly sure you will fall in love with Clare as much as Cornelia did, and that you will want to get to know this “good and brave” little girl and learn the effect she has on all of those around her.

Evaluation: This is an intelligent, entertaining, well-written story about all kinds of love – from platonic to romantic to lustful to maternal to the love between two good friends. I highly recommend this as well as the sequel, Belong to Me. show less

Love Walked In is the story of Cordelia, a café manager who has a habit of turning moments of her life into movie moments; Martin, the man who walked into her café and changed her life (and who just happens to bear an uncanny resemblance to Cary Grant); and 11-year-old Clare. The novel is told from the alternating points of view of Cordelia and Clare. Cordelia’s segments are written in the first person and she occasionally addresses the reader directly, a device I generally find annoying but which only serves to create a feeling of intimacy here, as if one were having a conversation with a close friend.

I find it hard to articulate exactly why I loved this book so much—it’s the writing of course, which is fresh, original, show more marvellous. I want to quote reams of it in this review (but you'll have to read the review on my blog if you want to read the quotes).

Sure, some of the story is wildly improbable but I didn’t care. In this way, Love Walked In reminded me of The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and Before Women Had Wings by Connie May Fowler. All three are about girls in difficult family situations and all three contain plot elements that are unbelievable, yet as a reader I accept these stories because I wish they were true. They are fables of sorts, or, as Jennifer Weiner said about Love Walked In, “grown-up fairy tale[s].” They are stories about love in all its permutations and, despite the improbable aspects of these books, the characters are flesh and blood, human, complex. In the case of Love Walked In, the best part (once I was done reading it) is that there’s a sequel to look forward to: Belong to Me.

A slightly different version of this review can be found on my blog, she reads and reads. show less