Belong to Me: A Novel

By Marisa de los Santos

Having enjoyed Marisa de los Santos’ last novel Love Walked In, I was truly looking forward to Belong to Me. Ms. de los Santos’ books are just a pleasure to read, with her beautiful writing style, true to life characters and unpredictable plot twists. Her work definitely rises above most of the mediocre chick lit published these days and surprisingly, her second book exceeded my admittedly high expectations.
Readers familiar with the characters of Love Walked In will be happy to revisit Cornelia, Teo and Clare, (but you don’t need to have read the previous book to appreciate this one.) Belong to Me begins with tiny, quirky Cornelia recently transplanted from city life and adjusting to the world of suburbia. She and her amazingly attractive husband Teo are also trying to conceive their first child after a recent miscarriage.
Cornelia finds her polar opposite when she meets her neighbor Piper, a beautiful blonde housewife obsessed with her gorgeous home and perfect children. Cornelia finds Piper judgemental, shallow and self centered, but has better luck finding friendship with a local waitress named Lake, who recently moved to town with her teenage son Dev.
As these characters interact, Marisa de los Santos slowly reveals their pasts and personalities, somehow making each person likeable and sympathetic by the end of the book, which is no easy feat. We watch Piper endure the death of her best friend and the end of her idyllic marriage. We see Lake struggle with single parenthood and the shocking secret she’s hidden for years, while her son adjusts to a new school and falls in love for the first time.
My only minor criticism of this great book concerns Teo. He is just too perfect – he has the perfect job (doctor, of course!), a down to earth and extremely likeable personality, he is not just handsome but amazing looking. My initial reaction was that this guy is completely unbelievable. Men like this simply do not exist. But then I reconsidered. Who is to say someone like Teo doesn’t exist? And what’s so terrible about wanting to believe that men like Teo are possible? Don’t we all want to believe in fairy tales just a little bit?
Regardless of Teo, Belong to Me is a wonderful story about soul mates, about finding a love so powerful that it changes you forever and keeping that love alive no matter what life throws your way. A love story beautifully written by a talented writer. I’m already looking forward to Marisa de los Santos’ next book!