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Nov 17, 2011

Rosemary rated it:

Falling Together is a love story of friendship. It is about three friends who are so close to each other that even when they are not together, they are together. Marisa de los Santos writes with a poets soul, bringing the reader into the lives of the characters with her beautiful descriptions of their lives and the world they live in.

I give this book five stars, up there with my favorite books of all time, because I love an author who can write so beautifully that your life is made More...

5 comments like (5 people liked it)

Oct 07, 2011

Chris rated it:

I won this book from Goodreads and was excited since I rarely win anything. A new author to me with good reveiws from her two prevoius books, I couldn't wait to read it. I really wanted to like this book, and I tried to like this book. I feel bad that it just didn't happen for me. The author has a lovely command of language to the point of being poetic; however, as the book progressed its beauty turned tedious for me and I just wanted her to get to the point she was trying to make.

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2 comments like (10 people liked it)

Dec 29, 2011

Laura rated it:

Many of us had incredibly intense friendships when we were in college and felt that those friends would remain the most important people we knew beyond college - it didn't always work out that way. Pen, Cat and Will were an inseparable trio until a few years after college, when they separate. Cat goes off to get married to a man neither Pen nor Will like (or liked back in college), and Will and Penn discover that without Cat they don't quite know how to be friends.

Just before their More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 06, 2011

Eileen rated it:

We begin with three college friends, two young women and a man. It sounds like the set up for a typical love triangle romance, don't worry. There's far more going on with this group of characters.

Marisa De Los Santos takes these three young people, Pen, Will, and Cat, and gives then conversational quirks, deep beliefs, human errors, and the hardship of losing a parent. They love one another as friends until they don't.

The blow-up among them leaves each adrift. A college reun More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Nov 29, 2011

bookczuk rated it:

Normally I steer away from "friendship stories", the kind where old friends in a) college b) growing up c) a book club find themselves in some situation that an author is inspired to write about. I find them confusing and contrived, and for the most part, very irritating, trying to keep the characters straight and who love/hates/yearns for/inspires who. But this story of college friends, starkly separated, but rejoining around a reunion had only three main characters, and two of them More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 25, 2011

Sal rated it:

This was her best novel yet and I've thoroughly enjoyed them all. I think she could write on any topic and I would still enjoy reading her due to the absolutely delicious use of language - witty, lush, eloquent, poetic. In this case, though, the subject matter is a timeless one viewed from several angles and showing how we humans so rarely know ourselves well.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 08, 2011

Beth rated it:

I enjoyed this book (I reviewed it for BookBrowse, but it felt like a sequel. There is a backstory to the friendship between Penelope (Pen), Will Wadsworth, and Catarina (Cat) that doesn't completely clue the reader into their relationship. As the book begins, that friendship has been apart for six years - during which time they have neither seen nor spoken to each other. Pen is now the single mother of a five-year old daughter. Will is a successful author of children's books and Cat has left he More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 04, 2012

Stephanie rated it:

Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos has the kind of characters who either make you wish you were close friends with in real life or feel so familiar because they remind you of your bestest, closest friends – you know; the ones who you go way back with, the ones who knew you when you were a crazy mess and still loved you, the ones who no matter how long it's been between get togethers, you still pick up the conversation as if no time had passed at all.

Cat, Pen, and Will remind me More...

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Dec 27, 2011

CC rated it:

I gave it my all for the first 150 pages or so and then... I skimmed. Not sure if I should even rate it since I skimmed, but I'm here, so there you have it.

Three best friends from college -- Pen, Will, and Cat -- have gone their separate ways since graduation. But then, lo, Will and Pen get an email from Cat saying they should all meet again at their ten year college reunion. This sends everyone into a tissy. Will and Pen go to the reunion and find the email wasn't from Cat but from More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 14, 2011

Jill rated it:

I picked up a free ARC of this at work after hearing good things about her other books, and with the store closing sales, picked up one of her other books cheap. Sounds like most people preferred her other books, and I liked this enough to read the other...but maybe only because I already own it! I was a little confused about the friends decision to never talk again after college, and several other decisions they made throughout the book. But the characters were fairly well developed and it w More...

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Dec 03, 2011

Sandie rated it:

Can it be that the talented writer of poetry and all things lyrical, Marisa de los Santos has taken a statement made by none other than Marilyn Monroe and has expanded on Marilyn' observations to create her most recent offering, FALLING TOGETHER? Marilyn said, "I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and More...

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Nov 18, 2011

Amy rated it:

I love the way Marisa de los Santos writes! She is one of my favorite authors. This book spoke to me on a few levels. I like the way that she descibed loneliness. It was like she was reading my mind. I read this book while on vacation and I loved the advice that one of the grandmothers/aunts (one of the lola's i think)gave Pen...to really BE in the moment and culture and let that soak in, not to let the confusion of life take away from the experience of the moment. I really applied that to my va More...

1 comment like

Nov 14, 2011

Maria rated it:

Falling Together: A Novel by Marisa de los Santos is a story that manages to be funny and heartbreaking at the same time, a story that will show us that "love is imperative", and the power of true friendship.

This is Marisa de los Santos' third book. Her first two, Love Walked In and Belong to Me made me fall in love with her writing and her characters. I have been anxiously waiting for her third book release for what seems like forever. And it was well worth the wait!
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2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 23, 2011

Denise rated it:

Will, Cat and Pen are the best of friends in college, secure in the fact that their threesome is perfect and complete. After graduation their lives begin to change and, largely due to Cat marrying a man Will and Pen don't like, the friendship ends. 10 years later Pen is struggling with single motherhood and the sudden death of her dad when she gets an urgent email from Cat requesting her presence at their 10 yr reunion. But when she and Will arrive they find Cat's belligerent and forlorn husband More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Oct 23, 2011

Patty rated it:

First of all, thank you to HarperCollins and GoodReads for this book. I had not ever read Marisa de los Santos and if this book had not come for free, I might not have ever picked up her books. That would have been a shame.

I am not sure why I had not read de los Santos. This book was my kind of book. I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Cat, Will and Pen met the first week of college and were inseparable for more than four years. Their friendship would color the rest of their l More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 18, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

Book Overview

Pen, Will and Cat meet during their first year of college and are immediately drawn to each other after “meeting cute/terrifying/hostile” (according to Cat, Pen and Will respectively). Forming a close-knit triad who finish each other’s sentences and know each other inside and out, the three are as close as friends can be. Until one day, they part ways abruptly and painfully.

Although Pen (short for Penelope) has moved on with her life—becoming a single mother to h More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 15, 2011

Kat rated it:

It's been six years since Pen Calloway watched her best friends walk out of her life. And through the birth of her daughter, the death of her father, and the vicissitudes of single motherhood, she has never stopped missing them.

Pen, Cat and Will met on their first day of college and formed what seemed like a magical and lifelong bond, only to see their friendship break apart amid the realities of adulthood. When, after years of silence, Cat - the bewitching, charismatic center of their More...

1 comment like

Oct 06, 2011

Lara rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 04, 2011

Savi rated it:

Cat, Will and Pen. Friends till the end, or something along those lines. This is the story of three eccentrics who found one another while attending college, held on for dear life and then suddenly let go. Cat the uber cool chick with flowing skirts, bangle bracelets and a fierce love of all things kitsch. Will the typical man's man with a side sensitive enough to be bound to these two women for years. Pen (Penelope) the good girl with pristine hair, tall limbs and a love of her family that tran More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 27, 2011

Rose rated it:

I haven't read a good chick lit book in a while & I loved this one. This author, whom I'd never read before, succeeded in writing a story about friendship & love & loss & life lessons without making it too dramatic or cheesy & over the top, and most importantly, the characters were all pretty likable. Even Jason who was sometimes like a grown up annoying boy made me smile & want to pat his head in sympathy for what he goes through. I liked the friendship between Pen, Cat & Will which is at the c More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 29, 2011

Larry rated it:

The irony isn't lost on me that Marisa de los Santos' new book, Falling Together, centers around three once-inseparable college friends who come back into each other's lives several years later, because the return of Marisa de los Santos with a new novel felt a little like a reunion to me. Like her earlier novels, Love Walked In and Belong to Me, there's so much more to this book than meets the eye, and as I tore my way through it, I felt many of the same emotions her characters did.

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 06, 2011

Meg - A Bookish Affair rated it:

The premise of the book was intriguing; I always like a good friendship story. I've also liked Marisa de los Santos' previous books (Love Walked In and Belong to Me) so picking this one up from the library was a no brainer. Unfortunately, something didn't work for me. Okay, a couple somethings did not work for me. This book was really hard for me to rate (it was between a 2.5 and a 2 star rating).

Pen doesn't seemed to have moved on from missing her college friends. Cat decided that More...

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Oct 20, 2011

Nancy rated it:

I looked forward to this SO MUCH. And now I feel deflated, a victim of my high expectations. The story: Will, Pen and Cat were the closest of trios in college, but after college they deliberately went their separate ways. Now Cat has contacted Pen and Will, summoning them to a college reunion, and it's time for the three to confront the feelings for each other that they have had all along.

Well. That's kind of it, really. A fairly lengthy novel with a fairly slim (but slow moving) More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 10, 2011

Tracy B. (personal account) rated it:

It's getting galleys of books like this that make me glad to be a librarian. Oh, I haven't actually READ it yet. I don't have to have even started it to know it'll quickly become a favorite. It's Marisa de los Santos, for God's sake. What else do you need to know? The people at Harper Collins are now my new BFFs. At least, the print people at Harper Collins are. The e-book people, not so much. I can't wait to start this tonight.
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So I've come to the end of Pen and Will and More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 19, 2011

marg rated it:

I would like to dedicate this review to goodreads, the existence of which motivates me to finish unredeemable books so as to rip them mercilessly.

I picked this book up because I, unlike many others, was able to check my inner snob at the door and actually enjoy her previous books. Now don't get me wrong, they were shallow, silly and adolescent, but, like having ice cream for dinner, the experience was pleasant going down, even if it was sickly sweet and notsomething you'd want to br More...

8 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 06, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

I loved Marisa de los Santos first two books so I had high expectations coming into her third book. My expectations were a little blown away as I loved it even more than I expected. The emotions and conflicts of each character were so raw and she made you love every character (even Jason) despite their flaws. I felt like I was on the journey of learning to live, change, grow and see the world differently right along with Pen, Will and Cat. And the twists and turns they took to navigate life' More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 11, 2011

Diane rated it:

Pen, Will, and Cat were best friends in college -- inseparable, until Cat decided tomarry someone Will and Pen disapproved of and Will decides to move away. It's now been 6 long years in which there has been no contact. There lives have changed remarkably -- Will is a bestselling children's book author and Pen is a single mother of a 6 year old. Out of the blue, Will and Pen get an e-mail from Cat insisting that they meet her at their 10 year college reunion.

Told in alternating vo More...

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Feb 12, 2012

Leslie rated it:

I picked up this book because I had read her previous 2 books and remembered liking them. I forgot how much colorful language she uses and the way she imbeds parentheses (like this [seriously]) within parentheses. And a lot of her sentences are a paragraph long and I have to go back to the first to figure out what was going on at the first of the sentence. Still, my favorite character of this book was not either of the 2 main characters, but the secondary character, the volatile husband, who More...

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Dec 22, 2011

Jessica rated it:

Pen, Will, and Cat were inseperable throughout college. Their friendship was so tight-knit and special that Cat thought it would be better to end things after college instead of having their relationships slowly fade away. Cat got married and Pen and Will ended up in a huge fight and none of them spoke to each other for six years. Then Cat reaches out to both Pen and Will and says she wants to meet at their college reunion. Pen and Will reconnect at the reunion, but Cat doesn't show - her hu More...

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Oct 11, 2011

Debi rated it:

I read this a week or so ago and have been trying to think what I would say about it. In general, I liked it. It kept my attention and I liked the characters. But I think the characters were TOO good...they almost reminded me of old movies where the hero's teeth flash white. They were too smart, too beautiful, too witty, to the point of becoming unbelievable. I enjoyed their conversations but I didn't really believe that anyone ever actually talks like that. The plot was fine but a bit too pred More...

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