Belong to Me

Belong to Me

by Marisa de los Santos
390 pages

“Everyone has secrets. Some we keep to protect ourselves, others we keep to protect those we love.”

That quote comes from the back of this book … and oh how true it is! Think about your own life, about the people you care most about. Are there things you have never told them? Things they don’t need to know about you? I know there are things like that in MY life.

About the Book

This is the story of three women: Cornelia, Piper, and Lake. Two are new in town and one is an established resident. The three are not necessarily friends but they do interact throughout the story. Each has her own set of issues to deal with, her own “secret” if you will. The heart of the book is how those secrets come out and the impact they have on each of the women and their families.

This is not a book I’d have picked up on my own, although the cover is very eye-catching. However an email from the publisher caught my attention with this: “Marisa de los Santos’ literary talents shine in the complex interactions she creates between these three women. As their individual stories unfold, the women become entangled in a web of trust, betrayal, love and loss that challenges them in ways they never imagined, and that ultimately teaches them what it means for one human being to belong to another.”

Relationships between female friends are often complicated and I was interested to see how the author handled this difficult subject, so I agreed to review the book.

My Thoughts

I’m glad to say that the author did an excellent job with the concept of female friendships/interactions. Two of the main characters, Cornelia and Piper, were my favorite characters in the entire book. They are so very different from each other and their initial interactions definitely do not bode well for a future relationship. Both of these characters were well written and seemed like they could walk right off the page – I could know these people in real life.

I really enjoyed the beginning and middle of this book but I wasn’t as pleased with the ending HOWEVER I think that many other people would love it. For me, everything ended a bit too neatly. I don’t want to say more than that as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but feel free to email me to discuss the ending if you’ve read it.

One Other Thing

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t often cry when reading but this book did make me cry. In the middle of the book a friend of one of the characters is dying of cancer. She has two small children and is spending as much time with them as possible. Reading this part of the story I had tears rolling down my cheeks – I could SEE the scene the author was describing and it was breaking my heart. It was VERY well written.

Your Reviews?

I’d love to include a link to your review here – post it in the comments and I’ll add it right away.