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Love Walked In

by Marisa de los Santos (Goodreads Author)

3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 · rating details · 19,952 ratings · 3,330 reviews

When Martin Grace enters the hip Philadelphia coffee shop Cornelia Brown manages, her life changes forever. But little does she know that her newfound love is only the harbinger of greater changes to come. Meanwhile, across town, Clare Hobbs—eleven years old and abandoned by her erratic mother—goes looking for her lost father. She crosses paths with Cornelia while meeting...more

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Published (first published December 29th 2005)

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Jun 13, 2012 Camille rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Love Walked In centers on an unlikely meeting between two narrators -- Cornelia, a 31-year-old cafe manager, and Clare, the 11-year-old daughter of Cornelia's current boyfriend. What unfolds is a strange and at times hopeful narrative of relationships, connections, and love.

Cornelia's narrative is chatty -- like a girlfriend catching up on a whopper of a story --, but it's often over the top. The author uses Cornelia as a place to indulge in being in love with her own precocity, and it is more o...more

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Mar 12, 2008 Sherese rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I would look at this book and read the back cover everytime I went to Borders. So, I recieved a gift card for Barnes & Noble so I went ahead and purchased this book. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I was a little disappointed with the development of the story of Cornelia and Claire. I found the frequent references to old romanticized movies and actors lame and completely over done. As someone who has a few film courses under her belt (but generally dislikes all romantic comedies with v...more I would look at this book and read the back cover everytime I went to Borders. So, I recieved a gift card for Barnes & Noble so I went ahead and purchased this book. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I was a little disappointed with the development of the story of Cornelia and Claire. I found the frequent references to old romanticized movies and actors lame and completely over done. As someone who has a few film courses under her belt (but generally dislikes all romantic comedies with very few exception ie "Bringing up Baby" and "How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days"), I still found that I mostly had no idea what Cornelia was referring when she mentioned these "classic movies". I felt like classic romantic films 101 should be have been a prerequisite for reading this fluffy novel.

I also had a problem with the fact that all storylines and character choices seemed to easy and predictable. You saw them coming a 10 miles away and all plans and hopes just happened to work out perfectly. All loose ends were tied up tightly into perfectly happy endings, and that's fine. Who doesn't want like to feel a sense of some resolution afetr reading a book or seeing a film? But this was just so forced and unnatural. When the guy your dating for three months "forgets" to tell you he has a daughter and then she all of a sudden shows up when her mentally ill mother leaves, do you immediately become her surrogate mother? Do you just decide one day that you are in love with your sister's husband( who just so happens to have been your great friend all your life but married your sis and it just so happens that your sister leaves for her husband for some other man) and find out he's loved you since you were kids and your families are both fully supportive of you and him hooking up within days of learning that your sister left him? I seriously doubt it.. so unbelievable. There are more examples of this nonsense but there is no need to elaborate. If you see this book on the shelf don't even bother to stop..keep on movin'! (less)

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May 18, 2009 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club

For the first two-thirds of this book, I was in love. The prose was so taut and engaging, I didn’t want to put the darn book down (even though I am technically supposed to be reading Emma). The cultural references alone (books, movies, music) were enough to keep me riveted. I loved the pert and unique language of the adult heroine: Cornelia. Also, the author was very adept at creating very different, very believable voices for the two protagonists: Cornelia and Clare.

So, when the last act came a...more

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May 25, 2007 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library

I was skeptical about this book at first - a former coworker at the bookstore told me I had to read it, but we tend to have different taste. I expected generic chick lit, and was extremely surprised: it wasn't that at all. It was amazing. I adored it. I carried it around for days so I could read every chance I got. I loved it so much that I'm having a hard time articulating why, exactly. The writing was captivating, and I identified with both of the main characters in various ways. The chapters...more

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Jun 10, 2008 Lisa Topp rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Lisa by: Therese

Shelves: book-club-reads, fiction

I finally met my match - an author that slowed me down! I'm a very fast reader - skimmer actually (you get more read that way), and the style and beauty of this book deserved to have every savory word read.
Clearly an accomplished writer in the craft of poetry, de los Santos conveys the flow and beauty of the written word in this novel.
In addition, she molds likeable, believable characters, and creates an intriging story.
I will read anything she writes!

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Jun 24, 2008 Christina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Romantics

Audio Version.

Written by a poet, Love Walked In described love, family, and womanhood in a beautiful heart-wrenching way.

I quote a section describing exactly, well almost exactly how I feel about my purpose as a mother. The main character's mother has just told her daughter about her life growing up with a mentally ill and alcoholic mother:

“I swore nothing like that would ever touch this family.” And her whole body tilted forward when she said it so great was her ferocity. It was the scene in Go ...more

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Jun 06, 2008 Abby rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lite-lit

After two semesters of doom and gloom novels, my soul needed verbal cuddling. I can see this book translating into a chick-flick, the type of movie mothers bring their daughters to and weep mercilessly halfway into the film. The title itself says it all.

I wasn't hooked immediately into this book, as I normally am with guilty pleasures...and here's why. The author didn't have a set voice she settled into. Her chapters alternated between Cornelia, a thirty-something cafe manager, and Clare, an ele...more After two semesters of doom and gloom novels, my soul needed verbal cuddling. I can see this book translating into a chick-flick, the type of movie mothers bring their daughters to and weep mercilessly halfway into the film. The title itself says it all.

I wasn't hooked immediately into this book, as I normally am with guilty pleasures...and here's why. The author didn't have a set voice she settled into. Her chapters alternated between Cornelia, a thirty-something cafe manager, and Clare, an eleven-year-old girl whose bipolar mom abandoned her. The Cornelia chapters were first-person POV, the Clare chapters were third-person. I think I understand why she did this--because getting into the mind of a child, and making it believable--is truly tricky. Hats off to her for trying it. The problem is, she didn't succeed. Clare is supposed to be a girl, ahead of her years, due to the turmoil at home, but I kept thinking of how even the most precocious eleven year old couldn't be THAT observant and insightful. Yes, children are more clever than we give them credit for, and do offer bits of wisdom we are surprised by...but I often doubted the authenticity of the Clare chapters.

The problem is, the Clare chapters were better written than the Cornelia ones. The description was more detailed, and quite beautiful at times; I'm sure that has to do with the fact it's third-person, not first, as it tends to be easier to write scenery in third person. But I found myself really enjoying the writing more in the Clare chapters, and the author's poetry background came through there. Although one thing I noticed--and this is a pet peeve of mine when an author chooses to tell the same story through different POV-- is that the chapters tended to be redundant. Clare would think something that Cornelia thought, and sure enough, next chapter, Cornelia would think it. Or Clare would assume something about Cornelia, or Cornelia would read something about Clare...there were no surprises between the two of them and their interactions. Everything was predicted for us, which, honestly, became boring after awhile.

I also felt like the author took the 'easy' way out of things at times. Things happened too conveniently--with Martin, with Mrs. Goldberg, with any character who existed only to make it 'easier' for Cornelia--that after awhile, I thought, "Of course. That WOULD happen."

Of course, these are all pretty harsh criticisms for an overall very sweet book. It did its trick and definitely gave me some warm fuzzies after I was done reading it. And the author is clearly sharp and well-versed on her old movies, and more than once, I wish I had Wikipedia next to me to look up her references. This is just a genre of book I don't normally read but I won't turn away from...and truth be told, I'll read another book of hers. Because who doesn't need warm fuzzies?

(less)

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Aug 24, 2008 Sera rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Sera by: Sarah

Shelves: literary-fiction, own

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I really enjoyed this book, because it was beautifully written, and the story was a unique one. I was a touch disappointed by the ending, but what else is new? And again, in reflecting upon what the ending was, I'm not sure that I could find a more suitable one. I just didn't think that Cornelia would give up the house she inherited to Viviana and Clare. It was a huge self-sacrifice. This may sound odd, but I would have felt better if they would agreed to exchange some form of payment. I'm not b...more

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Jun 09, 2008 Sydney rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who likes well crafted writing, mom, Jen A, Jen G, Sarah, Janice, Amy

Recommended to Sydney by: Therese

Shelves: book-club, favorites

This is one of the best-written books I've read in years. From the first paragraph, I was hooked. The writing style was just fantastic. It far exceeded my expectations in terms of a first novel.

Cornelia is someone I think I would be friends with in real life. I found myself in her world through the vivid descriptions. It was almost as if the main character was inviting you into her life.

I didn't want to read it too quickly (and I couldn't put it down) because I felt like I had to savor every sin...more

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Jun 22, 2008 Paula rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club

I'm going to be completely honest about this and hope that my own recent... bitterness isn't seeping in to my review at all.

First, let me talk about the format of the book. I've only read one other book (recently) that used a shifting perspective to tell the story. I thought the vacillation between Cornelia and Clare to be fascinating, as well as much more successfully rendered than The History of Love (as well as less-confusing than said other book, mainly because each chapter says which perspe...more I'm going to be completely honest about this and hope that my own recent... bitterness isn't seeping in to my review at all.

First, let me talk about the format of the book. I've only read one other book (recently) that used a shifting perspective to tell the story. I thought the vacillation between Cornelia and Clare to be fascinating, as well as much more successfully rendered than The History of Love (as well as less-confusing than said other book, mainly because each chapter says which perspective is telling that part of the story). It was also nice to read a book with an artistic framework (as in, told by the same person at the beginning and the end) and fresh language.

What I thought at times was disingenuous, however, was the dialog; at times, Cornelia just sounded a bit... off, especially when the dialog between characters went on for what felt like too long a stretch. Also, for the most part I enjoyed Cornelia's first-person account of how her life came to be what it is at the end of the novel, but (especially in the middle) I found she was too arch and witty for my liking, as though at that point it was inappropriate for her to be so.

Clare's traditional third-person perspective was more real to me, maybe because it's just more natural a story-telling trope in my literature-laden existence. Also, especially around the 1/3 point of the novel, I simply found Clare's story to be more interesting than Cornelia's (maybe because that's exactly the kind of story that I more often than not don't find myself reading), and only near the end was I beginning to pull for Cornelia again (and hope that her inevitable relationship with Teo would avoid typical chick-lit. conventions). Then again, about 1/3 of the way through the novel I had a better sense of where it was going.

Which leads me to my next point. I was both thrilled with and annoyed by not knowing what was coming next. On the one hand, I found the gradual unraveling of the story exciting and refreshing, and, even though I knew eventually Clare's mother would show up again to reclaim her daughter, I didn't know when it would happen until just before it did. On the other hand, it seemed odd that it took almost 100 pages for Cornelia and Clare to meet in the first place (considering that the narration alternated between them since the beginning of the novel), as well as that it took me so long to figure out that Martin was Clare's father. And not until about 2/3 of the way through the novel did I figure out why all the characters who had been introduced thus far at seemingly sporadic intervals were so important in the first place. The ending was neat and tidy, but maybe it took a little too long to set up that ending. Or maybe it just didn't need to be that... tidy.

I don't think I needed Cornelia to spell out for me that the "love" that "walked in" to her coffee shop was really about Clare and Teo and not about Martin, mainly because I got that about 225 pages in. But I was very, very pleased that the "love" Cornelia found again wasn't that typical, chick-lit. type that's become so popular these days. And I suppose that the ending really isn't all that "tidy" since I couldn't figure out how the complicated situation could possibly reconcile itself (except, now that I think about it more closely, I suppose there really was only one way in which it could happen, which is the one De Los Santos chose), but Cornelia just happening to inherit everything from Mrs. Goldberg was perhaps just a bit too convenient.

I also found myself, at times, confused with the setting of the book. Does it really only take an hour to get from Philadelphia to New York, for example? I don't live far from Philly, but it takes me well over two hours to hit just NYC... Plus, I had a really hard time placing Clare's mother's house in the relative area of Pennsylvania, as well as the general location of Cornelia's family's home. Not that the description was lacking at all, it just felt... not quite specific enough? I'm not sure what I mean exactly, just that my mental pictures were fuzzy at best when Clare and Cornelia walked around the city of Philadelphia, for example.

Overall, the book was pretty-well executed, not entirely predictable (yet satisfying in a happy-ending sort of way), and genuine enough to allow me to suspend my disbeliefs long enough to fall into the story De Los Santos was telling. I appreciated the literary references more than the film ones, I suppose, because I know the literary ones better, but I'm interested in going out and renting/buying those movies, so that's something! And, again, I'm all about endings that aren't exactly "happy" ones but feel resolved, and this book absolutely does that for me. Very glad I finally got around to reading it, and it makes me wonder where De Los Santos's newest book takes this story!(less)

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Oct 05, 2008 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Sarah by: Shana

After being disappointed by the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, this book became the savior of my faith in good writing. I loved the style in which it was written. I liked the changes between the two main characters. 1st person for Cornelia, 3rd person for Clare. I think it was smart to write Clare's point of view from 3rd person since after reading books in the 1st person point of view of a teenager was driving me crazy. Not that Clare isn't smart for her age, but the teenager was "supposed...more

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Nov 12, 2008 Annalisa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: chick-lit, romance, contemporary

The book starts out when a stranger walks into a store and asks the main character to come to London with him on a whim, which is somehow supposed to be romantic because he's handsome and elegant. I didn't find it romantic. At all. I found it creepy and loaded with red flags of instability. I spent the first hundred pages asking myself why I read modern fiction when I get so irked with stories about jumping from one bed to another until you hit the right one and somehow that is supposed to stick...more The book starts out when a stranger walks into a store and asks the main character to come to London with him on a whim, which is somehow supposed to be romantic because he's handsome and elegant. I didn't find it romantic. At all. I found it creepy and loaded with red flags of instability. I spent the first hundred pages asking myself why I read modern fiction when I get so irked with stories about jumping from one bed to another until you hit the right one and somehow that is supposed to stick despite a history of not staying put in a relationship. So I didn't like it at first. And I was confused with the intertwining story of a child that had nothing to do with the relationship.

And then, it snapped into place and I realized the love that walked in was not this swept off a movie screen moment. That love isn't about grand gestures that look great on film but in real life are emotionally shallow. That love is about what you do and are everyday. That love just is. And I liked that a lot better. The story is sweet, a little too convenient at times and a little too wrapped up at the end (view spoiler), but it was a nice story. And I was rooting for the characters, even the odd relationship that should have me turning my nose up is written well enough that I wanted to root for it. Maybe I was never intended to root for Martin in the first place and those doubts are planted for a reason.

But I still had issues. Most importantly I had trouble picturing an 85-pound 31-year-old woman whose brothers would pick up and throw back and forth, who loves her family to death but doesn't want to talk about them or see them. And her goodness and lovability, well it just didn't stick to me. Especially when she tells an 11-year-old girl (who is not her daughter or even related to her) that it's ok to have sex with someone you don't love as long as you decide you want to. Oh boy.

About the other characters: Linny was not someone I couldn't be mad at. I know she's supposed to be lovable in her quirkiness, but she was someone I could be irritated at a lot. I had trouble picturing a Greek god the combination of a Swedish model and a Polynesian. Even though I couldn't picture him, I liked him enough, except for that one major flaw (view spoiler). Clare is about the only character that I truly liked and didn't have any issues with. And of course she is the child. Everyone else is drop-dead gorgeous and rich and lovable in their Bohemian quirkiness. So I didn't. Too much of it I suppose. I enjoyed Cornelia's commentary and movie analogies and Clare's orphan lists.

The thing is despite major plot holes and contrived plot lines, de los Santos had me rooting for the characters and interested in the story and eating up her writing. Even when I didn't like the story, I wanted to. And I'm glad everyone got their happily ever after. I liked it, but in that tone that makes you say, "You liked it, but...?"(less)

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Jun 14, 2008 Kerri rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: chick-lit, notsomuch

Sorry, Anastasia, this book sucked.

This is your typical chick lit novel where the single girl (Cornelia) meets the guy of her dreams, hates the guy of her dreams, and loves the guy who has been under her nose the whole time. In addition to the single girl, there is also an 11 year old girl, Clare, whose mother leaves her on the side of the road and her father (who happens to be Cornelia's dream man) doesn't want to take responsibility of Clare. So Cornelia steps up and decides to take Clare in....more

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Feb 07, 2013 Heidi L. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bookclub-lake-stevens-2nd

Wow, I can't remember exactly how this book came to my attention. I think I fell in love with the cover and then listened to an interview with the author on Bordersmedia.com. It's hard to describe this book and how it's written -- crisp, elegant, gut-wrenching, lyrical, heartbreaking, then funny. At first it was hard to get used to the author's style and I had a hard time getting into it, but then after the first 80 pgs. or so (don't all great books take about that long??) I was so attached to t...more Wow, I can't remember exactly how this book came to my attention. I think I fell in love with the cover and then listened to an interview with the author on Bordersmedia.com. It's hard to describe this book and how it's written -- crisp, elegant, gut-wrenching, lyrical, heartbreaking, then funny. At first it was hard to get used to the author's style and I had a hard time getting into it, but then after the first 80 pgs. or so (don't all great books take about that long??) I was so attached to the characters and wanted to know how things were going to work out.

The book has two heroines as narrators, Cornelia and Clare. Each chapter alternates between the two, Cornelia written in the 1st person and Clare written in 3rd person. After you get used to it, it's so engaging. Cornelia's personality is witty and funny, sometimes obnoxious and rambles on (like I'm doing now) but in a cute, funny way, comparing life's moments to classic movies such as "The Philadelphia Story".
Clare, a young girl she meets in her coffee shop, and subsequently changes her life, you fall in love with. Her story and experiences are heart-wrenching and captured so well as she tries to make sense of the behavior of her increasingly unstable mother and deal with her disappearance. She is so lovable, you just want to reach in the book and hug her. I'm not sharing much about the plot in this review because it's hard to describe it, but you can read more about it.

I really enjoyed the book and the author's lyrical way of writing. Apparently she is an acclaimed poet and this is her first novel. A sequel to this has just come out as well called "Belong to Me" which I am going to read next. I also heard that a movie is being made about the book starring Sarah Jessica Parker.

I definitely recommend this book, but with a warning, there are occasional spouts of language which I could do without, but luckily it is not all through the book, just in parts. A very delightful book to read, and even to discuss. I would love to talk about it with anyone who reads it! Such a great book!! Read it!(less)

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Aug 27, 2007 Marissa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't think I have ever been more moved by a story then when I read Love Walked In. I saw so much of myself in Cornelia and as I read I felt like I had known her my entire life. It is a sweet, pure, story of finding out what you are made of. The story begins by saying "My life-my real life started when a man walked into it, a handsome stranger in a perfectly cut suit,and yes I know how that sounds". Love walked in that day but not in the way you would expect. Its not a story of man coming into...more

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Aug 17, 2008 Alison rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: romantics; anyone who ever wanted to marry Cary Grant

Recommended to Alison by: Sarah

"But in the months that followed Martin's gracing of Cafe Dora's doorway, I'd figured out that a real life didn't mean attaining my heart's desire, but knowing it, meant not the satisfaction, but the longing."

This is a sweet, sweet book with a great story about love in all of its forms, redemption, knowing what you want...and the privledge of having things that you're passionate about.

To re-tell any of the story would be to spoil its surprises.

Anyone who's heart is warmed by a cup of hot chocol...more

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Apr 02, 2008 Heather rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: womens-fiction

Reading, it is truly what I love to do. However, I do not like wordy books. By this I mean, when something can be essentially and beautifully written in say 10 words, why ruin it by writing it with 20. The story, its premise and its entirety are nice concepts which had the possibility of many things. Yet, I could not wait for it to end because the boos itself is so over-the-top wordy, I just wanted to scream. Perhaps it was just me, but some of the sentences were just painful because it was as i...more

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Jan 02, 2009 Donna Johnson rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Too many characters and the whole stream of consciousness-like prose made this book hard to enjoy. Cornelia is really hard to like because of her foolishness. She "falls in love" with Martin simply because he looks like Cary Grant!!?? I can slightly understand that, but her keeping the relationship going AFTER she realizes that he has no substance makes no sense. Cornelia's attempt to explain everything in her life according to old movies (much of them I have never seen) makes this a tedious rea...more

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Feb 20, 2009 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Love Walked In was a charming read. Usually in a book I am rooting for the love story between a man and a woman. To me a satisfying ending is one where everything is wrapped up nicely with a couple living happily every after. This book took that and sent me topsy turvy as I rooted, not for a man and a woman, but for a woman and the little girl who unexpectedly walked into her life. I loved the main characters- I identified with Clare's need to protect her mother and maintain the illusion that ev...more

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Jan 17, 2009 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So sometimes you think that love does conquer all.. But really. No. I still liked this book but had such mixed emotions about the Clare situation. All the adults including Cornelia are just free to make and break promises to this little girl. Although I aprreciate the relationship Clare and Viviana have/had, I have a hard time just letting her back into Clares life after such a episode. I still love Teo and completely uinderstand Linny-Cornielia relationship. Sometimes needing that one person ap...more

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Nov 28, 2008 Kendra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-occasional-chiklit-never-hurt-a

This is a little gem of a book. Not quite a diamond, but perhaps a perfect, tiny ruby.

Yes, it's likely classifiable as "chicklit" (not my typical read, although of late, I find my list of fluff growing ... bizarre). But, it lacks the syrupy, yet over-cynical, often obnoxious banter as is typical of that fairly new-to-the-scene genre.

This is simply a book about a woman who doesn't yet know where she belongs, and is perfectly happy in her transition place. She's managed to surround herself with a...more

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Sep 26, 2008 Lucy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I liked this book. I really did. But it's not going to sound like it.

Once I began reading, I couldn't put this book down because the writing is intimate - very conversational - so I felt like I was reading a lengthy, but funny and interesting, personal letter from my best friend. I admit that I was disappointed with de la Santos's too frequent and flippant use of the F bomb because the other language she uses is so enjoyable. She's a poet, after all, and can string together some really pretty wo...more I liked this book. I really did. But it's not going to sound like it.

Once I began reading, I couldn't put this book down because the writing is intimate - very conversational - so I felt like I was reading a lengthy, but funny and interesting, personal letter from my best friend. I admit that I was disappointed with de la Santos's too frequent and flippant use of the F bomb because the other language she uses is so enjoyable. She's a poet, after all, and can string together some really pretty words. I suppose her defense is that it went with Cornelia's conversational tone, and, like many people nowadays, Cornelia casually peppers her everyday language with vulgarities, but I felt like it took away from a book that was on track to be great.

If the unnecessary language was strike one, then the overly tidy ending was strike two. Love Walked In begins when Cornelia Brown, a pretty, 85 pound 31 year-old woman obsessed with old-style Hollywood romances and working in a Philadelphia coffee shop, meets Martin Grace, a Cary Grant look alike who changes her life forever after he walks into her cafe. Cornelia's story, told in a funny parenthetical filled first person narrative, alternates with eleven year-old Clare Hobb's, who describes her increasingly desperate situation as her mother succumbs to manic depression in a much more direct third person (I mention the different voices because the change really is noticeable and, at first, a little disconcerting). Cornelia and Clare cross paths halfway through the book.

It doesn't feel predictable until it is. There were so many plot twists throughout the first two-thirds of the story, things not going the way you'd expect them to, that its tied-up-in-a-pretty-bow ending didn't feel right. It's a good ending in that everyone's happy and everyone wins (at least the characters whose relevance still matters by the end) , but happily ever after isn't always the best way to end a story.

I AM glad I read it. It's charming and well written, interesting and funny. The criticism comes from it not being as great as it could have been.(less)

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May 03, 2008 Jen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: chick-lit

This story was adorable. Purely, simply adorable, and I wanted nothing more than that from it. It's told from the perspective of two characters - Cornelia, a tiny early-30s cafe manager in Philadelphia with a passion for old movies (especially screwball comedies with Cary Grant) and many other things, and Clare, a serious, sweet 11-year-old with a mother who has started behaving strangely (and this scares Clare) and a love of classic "girly" books (like Anne of Green Gables and Little Women), es...more

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Apr 14, 2008 Jennifer Berry rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

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Apr 09, 2008 Christi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: MaryAnn, Carrie, Carrie K, Lisa, Amy, Jennifer T.

Shelves: 2008-reads

LOVED this book. A not-so typical love story.

If you don't know classic movies or classic literature you may not enjoy or get all the references the characters make. But you really only need to know who Cary Grant is and have read Anne of Green Gables as a child to keep up with where the plot is going. Cornelia's first person narration reminds me of Lorelai on the Gilmore Girls - lots of pop culture references, lots of analogies, lots of asides, you just have to keep up with her because she's not...more

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Jan 27, 2009 Jenny rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

From the very start, this book captured me just from the way the characters write, talk to the reader as if they were someone, go off on tangents, come back with references to old movies, old songs, etc. And then the actual story that they tell is just so endearing. Loved all the book, except the last couple of pages that sounded like it was straight out of the end of a "Full House" episode.

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Feb 09, 2008 Anna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, chick-lit

All right... so I finally finished this book! I think it took me a good four months to get through the first 80 pages or so. The beginning DRAGS -- neither the characters nor the action are interesting. But then around page 80 or so, when you figure out what's really going on, it suddenly totally picks up momentum and it becomes a completely different book. the character development improves immensely and all of a sudden I couldn't put it down.

Overall, I liked it and would probably recommend it...more

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May 29, 2008 L.e. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: past-read

As I just finished the sequel to this book I realized that I had not added the first book. I loved this book although my mom did not like it as much as I did which always makes me question my judgement. But I feel like she writes so beautifully that the story could be just about anything and I would read it just to experience her lovely sentences. I also love the reference in to Philadelphia Story when the heroine is a young girl she is already able to identify that jimmy stewart is the best man...more

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Nov 20, 2007 Meeya Girl rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mytopshelf

any book that has "pancit" in it, automatically gets 5 stars from me, hehehe.

as a mom, this book talked to me. many of the passages hit my mommy-core and, since the book had a poetic delivery to it, it hit my consciousness on many different levels.

yes, i think marisa went somewhat overboard on writing - when cornelia blabbered, she really blabbered (albeit intelligently). but then again, i think her character called for that (she's smart but needs direction). as for clare, marisa was on point ab...more

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Oct 01, 2007 JP rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Must, must, must get past the title, which I would bet you a million trillion dollars is not what the author wanted to call this book, smacking as it does of some marketing gal with funky glasses but terrible taste in books' idea of a kicky funky and SELLABLE! title. Ugh. So gross.

But must get past it, for this book is wholly delightful and surprising and moving and lovely. I think it was on the "staff recommends" shelf at my bookstore; it's now a book that I recommend (and give to) others.

The...more

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About Marisa de los Santos

Marisa de los Santos was a poet for a very long time, with an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and a Ph.D. from the University of Houston. Her first book, FROM THE BONES OUT, a collection of poems, was published in 2000.

She and her husband, writer David Teague, lived in Center City, Philadelphia for a number of years before moving to Wilmington, Delaware in spring of 2003. That summer, Marisa bega...more

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Trivia About Love Walked In

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Quotes from Love Walked In

“No one is ever quite ready; everyone is always caught off guard. Parenthood chooses you. And you open your eyes, look at what you've got, say "Oh, my gosh," and recognize that of all the balls there ever were, this is the one you should not drop. It's not a question of choice.” — 85 people liked it

“Even if someone wasn't perfect or even especially good, you couldn't dismiss the love they felt. Love was always love; it had a rightness all its own, even if the person feeling the love was full of wrongness.” — 84 people liked it

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