Review: Love Walked In

Cornelia manages a coffee shop in Philadelphia.  She is happy with her life, but when a handsome stranger named Martin walks in one day she thinks it’s fate and desperately hopes to fall in love with him.

Clare is an eleven year old girl being raised by her mother.  Her mother has been acting strange lately and leaves Clare by the side of the road one day.  Desperate, Clare seeks out her mostly absentee father, Martin.

Not knowing what else to do, Martin brings Clare into the coffee shop that Cornelia manages, for breakfast.  Clare is so upset, she begins to cry and Cornelia comforts her without thinking.  At about the same time, Cornelia’s brother-in-law, Teo, walks in and Cornelia, Clare and Teo form an unlikely bond.

Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos is a wonderful story of love.  Chapters alternate between Cornelia’s point of view and Clare’s point of view.  Cornelia’s chapters are told from the first person and Clare’s are told from the third person, which I found a little confusing at first, but quickly adjusted to.  It didn’t take me long to become attached to Cornelia and Clare since the character development in this book is top notch.  The story line is fantastic too.  I found Love Walked In to be a delightful reminder that love is precious and comes in many different forms.  One of my favorite quotes from the book is:

A real life doesn’t mean getting what you want;  the achievement, the privilege is knowing what you love.

But getting what you love?  Having what you love love you back?  Oh, my friend, it’s a miracle: your one tiny life’s head-on collision with divinity.