This is the standalone sequel to Love Walked In, but go ahead and read them in order. (Belong to Me has higher ratings on Goodreads, but I enjoyed Love Walked In more. Though comfortably predictable and a little too feel-good for some people's taste, it's well-written, intelligent, and thoroughly readable. This would make a great beach read.

Cornelia is a hopeless romantic, obsessed with the epic love stories portrayed in classic films, but floundering in her own life. Everything changes the day a Cary Grant look-alike walks through the door of the coffee shop she manages. Of course she falls for him, and strikes up an unlikely friendship with his 11-year-old daughter. You can’t help but cheer for these characters as they navigate the tricky waters of friendship, heartbreak, and love. De los Santos is a poet by training, and it shows in her prose. If you love this, good news: there’s a sequel.

Taisy Cleary hasn't seen her father in 17 years. After he survives a heart attack, he summons her to write his biography (The Thirteenth Tale, anyone?), and Taisy is plunged back into her past, giving her the opportunity to write past (and current) crucial mistakes. Not my favorite de los Santos work, but the gorgeous writing and Middlemarch references keep it on my "worthwhile" list.

Pen, Will, and Cat met ("met cute," in fact) during their first week of college and were inseparable during their years on campus. After graduation, they hated the thought of their amazing friendship slowly fading, so they decided to end it. Years go by with no contact, until Pen receives a strange email from Cat begging her to meet her at their college reunion. She can't help but say yes, and that's when their journey begins.

I love Marisa de los Santos's adult work but haven't read this middle grade novel. From Kirkus: "the authors seamlessly incorporate heavy social-justice issues into a riveting time-travel adventure story."

Ginger says: One of two middle grade novels that de los Santos wrote with her husband David Teague. This is my favorite of the two, though Saving Lucas Biggs is also wonderful. Thirteen-year old Audrey can tell when people are lying—her friends at school, but also, awkwardly, people like grandmothers. This makes relationships tricky, so she pulls away from others until she meets Aaron at wilderness camp. Aaron has quirks of his own. Perhaps predictably for two outsiders, Audrey and Aaron become friends between hikes and trust exercises. When a fellow camper goes missing, they, along with their other winningly precocious (but not annoying) campmates band together. The poetry tucked in adds warmth and richness, making this a standout in the middle grade genre and in Marisa de los Santos’s oeuvre.

In trademark style, de los Santos presents a seemingly light story with hidden depths. Years ago, Ginny settled for marriage to a bland, dependable man. He’s the last man you would expect to get caught up in a scandal, but then he does. With his intern. The revelation shakes Ginny to her core, and fractures the seemingly perfect life she’s built for herself. Through an unexpected chain of events, one revelation leads to another, and Ginny is forced to re-examine—and finally reveal—a secret she’s been keeping for twenty years, one that broke precious relationships long ago. Her teenage daughter is also rocked by her father’s revelations, and sets out on a quest of her own. An absorbing tale of love, secrets, and forgiveness.

Once again, Marisa de los Santos delivers a series installment I didn't know I needed or wanted. Cornelia Brown (of Love Walked In) is still dealing with the fallout from a recent and terrifying near-miss involving her son when she learns her mother Ellie has been badly injured in a separate accident. During periods of cognitive struggle, Ellie begins asking for the northern lights. Desperate to do her family some good, Cornelia resolves to bring her mother what she asks—only she has no clue what it means. Her quest takes her deep into her family’s hidden history, and her discoveries force her to reckon with what it means to love our people well in a sometimes-terrifying world. The story stands alone, but the emotional impact will be stronger for those already acquainted with the family.  For fans of Sarah Addison Allen’s Other Birds and Jill McCorkle’s Hieroglyphics. 

de los Santos started her career writing poetry with this first published work in 1999. (Her colleagues still ask her when she’ll return to the genre.) When I decided to become a de los Santos completist, I tracked down a copy of this slim volume of contemporary poems. If you’re looking closely, you can see themes emerge in her broader work here: family history, knowing oneself, celebrations, love of place, and tea. Standouts in the collection for me are “October: One Year Later”, “Embodiment”, and “Heaven”. But what I love most of all about this is noticing how her poetic voice comes out even when writing prose (and the frequent allusions to poems).