Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos {book tour}

Falling Together

author: Marisa de los Santos
publisher: William Morrow
source: TLC Book Tours
"foodie" elements: No (but there are some tasty food descriptions sprinkled in for good measure).
soft cover: 360 pages

random excerpt:  As she bit into her second empanada, a golden half-moon studded with beef, raisins, potatoes, and heaven, she acknowledged that is was just possible that this central place was in the vicinity of her stomach. (p.286)

summary/synopsis:  It’s been six years since Pen Calloway watched Cat and Will, her best friends from college, walk out of her life. Through the birth of her daughter, the death of her father, and the vicissitudes of single motherhood, she has never stopped missing them. When, after years of silence, Cat—the bewitching, charismatic center of their group—urgently requests that the three meet at their college reunion, Pen can’t refuse. But instead of a happy reconciliation, what awaits is a collision of past and present that sends Pen and Will on a journey around the world, with Pen’s five-year-old daughter and Cat’s hostile husband in tow. And as Pen and Will struggle to uncover the truth about Cat, they find more than they bargained for: startling truths about who they were before and who they are now.

With her trademark wit, vivid prose, and gift for creating authentic, captivating characters, Marisa de los Santos returns with an emotionally resonant novel about our deepest human connections.

my thoughts/review:  I instantly fell for Marisa de los Santos's writing when I read her novel, Belong to Me.  This was a number of years back and immediately after finishing I rushed to the library to grab the book that preceded it, Love Walked In.  You can probably guess where I'm going with this.  When I was offered the chance to be on a tour for another of her books, I quickly said YES!  Falling Together did not disappoint.

I loved the character development, the explorations of relationships and love (familial, platonic, and romantic), and the story kept me intrigued the whole time.  There was a bit of mystery woven through the fabric of the story.  And though not a foodie novel, the descriptions of travel and food that made their way to the pages made my mouth water and the travel bug rear its head.

De los Santos has a way of imparting personality traits that are real, be them endearing or frustrating, they remind me of people I know.  I cringed, I cried, I laughed out loud.    A great read for fans of Contemporary Fiction or Women's Lit or those who like to read about relationships and travel with a bite of good food thrown in.

about the author:  Marisa de los Santos is a New York Times bestselling author and an award-winning poet with a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing.  She lives in Delaware with her husband, David Teague, and their son and daughter.

further info: website | facebook

*I received a free copy of this book to review from the publisher.  All thoughts and opinions stated in this post are 100% mine.