Eustacia "Taisy" Cleary can't understand it. Since her father Wilson abandoned her family sixteen years ago, she has seen him, his new trophy wife and his young daughter Willow only once; but now he wants her to move in with them for purpose or purposes unknown. Told alternately in the voices of the two stepsisters, this new novel by Marisa de los Santo (Falling Together; Love Walked In; Belong to Me) charts a fractured family as they reconfigure their relationship. Strong support from early readers.
Publishers Weekly
10/20/2014
Two sisters struggle to please their smart, manipulative, and narcissistic father, in bestseller de los Santos’s (Falling Together) newest family drama. For 17 years, Taisy Cleary (now 35), along with her mother and her brother, Marcus, have had minimal contact with her father, Wilson. When Wilson beckons after suffering a major heart attack, Taisy, who still yearns for his approval, requires little persuasion to come to his side. Sixteen-year-old Willow is Wilson’s other daughter (Wilson left Taisy’s family to be with Willow’s mother). Willow has been sheltered and controlled by her father her entire life—he forbade her from watching television or movies or reading books written later than the 19th century—but she’s jarred into the real world following his heart attack. To Taisy, Willow has always been the golden child—the one Wilson chose to love. To Willow, Taisy and Marcus are the seedy others, the “earlier ones.” The sisters’ shaky relationship is altered when Taisy learns of Willow’s inappropriate relationship with an older man. The slow fracturing of each sister’s perception of the other and the strong three-dimensional characters are exceptionally well crafted. And the predictability of the ending is more than made up for by the fact that de los Santos’s characters’ journeys are perfectly paced. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
Praise for The Precious One: “Emotionally potent, painfully honest, and, at times, delightfully funny, de los Santos’s latest is a must for fans of intelligent, thoughtful women’s fiction.” — Booklist (starred review)
“The slow fracturing of each sister’s perception of the other and the strong three-dimensional characters are exceptionally well crafted. ...de los Santos’s characters’ journeys are perfectly paced.” — Publishers Weekly on THE PRECIOUS ONE
“de los Santos offers a comfort-food story in which men are either predators or perfect and women are both beautiful and brilliant.” — Kirkus Reviews
“The author writes engagingly and creates complex and lovable characters who carry the story. Readers of character-based fiction with heartwarming, hopeful endings (e.g., books by authors such as Elizabeth Berg or Ann Hood) will love this one, too.” — Library Journal
“With talent as keen as a new razor and generosity born of a humane heart, de los Santos offers an affecting story, brilliantly conceived characters and arresting prose.” — Richmond Times-Dispatch
“You won’t be able to put this wonderful novel down....The Precious One is...a captivating tale with the deep characterization, piercing emotional resonance, and heartfelt insight that are the hallmarks of Marisa de los Santos’s beloved works.” — Fresh Fiction
Praise for Falling Together:“The mix of perfectly realized personalities and genuine emotion make this a winner.” — Publishers Weekly on FALLING TOGETHER
“A satisfying novel about friends rediscovering one another—and confronting unwelcome truths—at their college reunion.” — People on FALLING TOGETHER
“[FALLING TOGETHER] is a good, solid read that succeeds in being both funny and heartbreaking. De los Santos has a knack for best-friend banter and stays true to the emotions involved in letting go of treasured relationships.” — Booklist on FALLING TOGETHER
Praise for Belong to Me: “The novel reveals layers of rich patina—the story underneath is more complex, engaging, and surprisingly moving...de los Santos delivers an interconnected network of compelling little stories. Her writing is both vividly descriptive and surprisingly insightful.” — Boston Globe on BELONG TO ME
“By the book’s end, humanity is discovered in the unlikeliest places, and Cornelia learns that tempting as it is, you can’t always judge a woman by her hairstyle.” — New York Times on BELONG TO ME
“Witty and intelligent.” — Kirkus Reviews on BELONG TO ME
“Marisa de los Santos’s BELONG TO ME is my favorite discovery of the past years: a terrific page-turner that’s also poignant, funny, surprising and deeply heartfelt. BELONG TO ME is the kind of novel you can’t wait to share with your friends. The perfect book club pick.” — Harlan Coben on BELONG TO ME
Richmond Times-Dispatch
With talent as keen as a new razor and generosity born of a humane heart, de los Santos offers an affecting story, brilliantly conceived characters and arresting prose.
People on FALLING TOGETHER
A satisfying novel about friends rediscovering one another—and confronting unwelcome truths—at their college reunion.
Fresh Fiction
You won’t be able to put this wonderful novel down....The Precious One is...a captivating tale with the deep characterization, piercing emotional resonance, and heartfelt insight that are the hallmarks of Marisa de los Santos’s beloved works.
Booklist (starred review)
Praise for The Precious One: “Emotionally potent, painfully honest, and, at times, delightfully funny, de los Santos’s latest is a must for fans of intelligent, thoughtful women’s fiction.
Booklist on FALLING TOGETHER
[FALLING TOGETHER] is a good, solid read that succeeds in being both funny and heartbreaking. De los Santos has a knack for best-friend banter and stays true to the emotions involved in letting go of treasured relationships.
Boston Globe on BELONG TO ME
Praise for Belong to Me: “The novel reveals layers of rich patina—the story underneath is more complex, engaging, and surprisingly moving...de los Santos delivers an interconnected network of compelling little stories. Her writing is both vividly descriptive and surprisingly insightful.
New York Times on BELONG TO ME
By the book’s end, humanity is discovered in the unlikeliest places, and Cornelia learns that tempting as it is, you can’t always judge a woman by her hairstyle.
Harlan Coben on BELONG TO ME
Marisa de los Santos’s BELONG TO ME is my favorite discovery of the past years: a terrific page-turner that’s also poignant, funny, surprising and deeply heartfelt. BELONG TO ME is the kind of novel you can’t wait to share with your friends. The perfect book club pick.
Library Journal
02/01/2015
De los Santos's fourth novel (after Love Walked In; Belong to Me) unfolds in two voices: Eustacia "Taisy" Cleary, 35, and Willow Cleary, 16. The two are half sisters, though they've barely met—until Taisy's estranged father invites her back into his life after a health crisis, ostensibly to have her ghostwrite his memoir. Taisy, additionally pulled to her hometown by the presence of her old high school flame, is still able to forgive her father, and mentor and protect Willow. Her half sister has previously been homeschooled and although she's intelligent and beautiful, she's also socially naïve and is in over her head at the local high school. But even while being bullied by her peers and groomed by a predatory teacher, she encounters a saving grace: friendship with a handsome, popular classmate. VERDICT Despite some modern melodrama, the author writes engagingly and creates complex and lovable characters who carry the story. Readers of character-based fiction with heartwarming, hopeful endings (e.g., books by authors such as Elizabeth Berg or Ann Hood) will love this one, too. Also recommended for adult fans of John Green who enjoy preternaturally clever, sophisticated teens and witty banter between romantic leads. [See Prepub Alert, 9/22/14.]—Melanie Kindrachuk, Stratford P.L., Ont.
JUNE 2015 - AudioFile
Narrators Abby Craden and Arielle DeLisle are magnificent as the half-sisters who recount this heartrending family drama. Craden narrates from the point of view of Taisy, the 35-year-old sister who is involved with a broad array of characters, including her twin brother, her boyfriend, and her father. These characters are a tour de force on their own: funny, smart-alecky, and impassioned. Craden’s character transitions are flawless even when she shifts from one gender to the other. Her portrayal of Taisy’s father is impressive with its dual vocal personas, one for the man before his heart attack and the other for the man after. DeLisle perfectly captures the other sister, 16-year-old Willow, even delivering occasional minor mispronunciations that sound completely consistent with her character. As Willow’s love interest, DeLisle comes through flawlessly. This is a magical pair of performers. M.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2015-01-08
Half sisters who don't really know each other are brought together by their emotionally domineering father for reasons of his own.Inventor/professor/entrepreneur Wilson left his first wife and their adolescent twins, Taisy and Marcus, 17 years ago, and he hasn't seen them in 15 years, since the first birthday party for Willow, his daughter with his new, much younger wife, sculptor Caro. But when Wilson invites Taisy, now a successful ghostwriter in her 30s, to visit him after his heart surgery, she quickly agrees. As she travels, Taisy thinks about her high school boyfriend, Ben, and the way her father destroyed their relationship. What a coincidence that Ben turns up back in town, too. Realizing that her father wants her to ghostwrite his biography, Taisy decides to learn his real story. For all his genius, Wilson has warped almost all the lives he's touched. As Taisy starts her research, she also begins to re-establish a relationship with the unbelievably sensitive Ben as if neither has changed in almost two decades. Meanwhile, Willow—who considers herself Wilson's "true daughter"—is struggling. Despite appearing tall, beautiful and collected, she's intimidated by her older sister's visit. She's also judgmental, assuming Taisy did something horrific to alienate their father, who's shown his younger daughter nothing but affection. And she's having difficulty adjusting to the private high school she's begun attending while Wilson recuperates. Home-schooled by Wilson through her entire childhood, Willow has little experience of peer friendship or the outside world in general. Soon she has a dangerous crush on her English teacher, but waiting in the wings is a high school boy almost as perfect for her as Ben is for Taisy. Despite intellectual pretentions, including lots of references to Middlemarch, de los Santos (Falling Together, 2011, etc.) offers a comfort-food story in which men are either predators or perfect and women are both beautiful and brilliant.
