Erin's Book #45: Belong To Me by Marisa de los Santos

I have once again unknowingly bought the sequel to a book without reading the first one. Though in this case, I think it's less a continuation of the same story, and more just a different phase of a character's life. (Though I did just pick up the first book, Love Walked In, so I'll find out if that's really true).

From what I could tell, it really didn't matter if I read the other book first. Belong to Me follows three main characters in a suburban town - Cornelia, who recently gave up her city life for a quieter life with her gorgeous husband Teo; Piper, a frigid, snobby mother of two dealing with the impending death of her terminally ill best friend, as well as her own failing marriage; and Dev, the brilliant young son of single mom Lake, who has moved him from the east coast to, by Dev's best guess, find the father he's never met. Over the course of the story, these three characters' lives intertwine in unforgettable ways.

Although this wasn't a book that I couldn't put down, I did really enjoy it. I like de los Santos's style and I really enjoyed the characters, who are all more than meets the eye. There was a bit of mystery to it, and the cancer story hit me hard, as I lost a close mentor to cancer just before I started this book, and then my young upstairs neighbor died of it while I was reading it. Though the tragedy is just one aspect of it, and it serves to ultimately liberate Piper from the life she thought she needed. Belong to Me is full of heartbreak, victory, love, loss, and life.