Top Ten Tuesday: Love Stories

I had a review all ready for today, but when I saw this week's Top Ten Tuesday I just couldn't resist. As a rule I don't read romance novels (of the Harlequin Romance variety) but I looove a good love story. Especially as a newly-wed in love. (When do you stop calling yourself a newly-wed? We'll be married six months on Thursday!) Anyway, I enjoyed reading everyone's lists so much this morning as I sat in my neuro lab (yes, I have senioritis) that I decided I had to make my own. :)

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and Bookish.

1. Karim and Raheen from Kartography by Kamila Shamsie. Karim's mom and Raheen's dad used to be engaged to each other, and Karim's dad and Raheen's mom used to be engaged to each other. Confusing, I know. Somehow they rearranged their romances and remained best friends. Karim and Raheen seem fated to fall in love, and their best-friendship is so sweet and perfect.
2. Jane and Mr. Bingley from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I love Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. Don't get me wrong. But I love the sweet innocence of Jane and Mr. Bingley, especially after watching the Keira Knightley film adaptation. I love Mr. Bingley's awkwardness and humility.
3. Marguerite and Sir Percy Blakeney from The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. I remember when I read this book for the first time, I was so blown away I checked it out from the library about a month later. Their romance is unique and so touching.
4. Lily Bart and Lawrence Selden from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. This story is so sad, but I love the affinity Lily and Selden have for each other. They are "kindred spirits" in the truest sense of the word.
5. Dorothea Brooke and Will Ladislaw from Middlemarch by George Eliot. Another example of kindred spirits. The first conversation Dorothea has with Will is one of my favorite passages in literature - just the way she is so surprised to find someone she can communicate with on the same level.
6. Stargirl and Leo from Stargirl and Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. A lot of people have told me they really don't enjoy the Stargirl books, which is so surprising to me. I love the way Stargirl completely rocks Leo's world and turns it upside down. She is so different from anyone he has ever met before, and even though he is a little too immature to handle her uniqueness at first, he can't forget about her.
7. Major Pettigrew and Mrs. Ali from Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonsen. Oh, how I loved this story and the way the exotic Mrs. Ali causes the stagnating Major Pettigrew to throw caution to the winds.
8. Alex and Lena from Delirium by Lauren Oliver. This is a recent one, of course, but it just blew my mind. I can't really say more, because the reason it was so meaningful for me happened on the last page, but trust me, this is a good one.
9. The lovers from The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan. This was the review I was going to post today. This story was so sweet and heart-wrenching, I felt as if I was just peering into the narrator's soul. The lovers are quirky, flawed, and completely believable.
10. Heathcliff and Catherine from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Ok, so their story is kind of messed up. But that one line, "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."

Love Walked In

This novel had me going back and forth between lukewarm delight and lukewarm annoyance (and, as I am learning in Dante, the lukewarm have no place in either heaven or hell. Reading Dante makes you crazy. More on that later). My book club friendly posted a review of this book on the joint blog that our book clubbers and friends write on (mer ungrammatical, just took endocrinology test, and am too brain-dead to fix it...) Anyway, I was instantly attracted to the book. I got a sample on my lovely Kindle and was even more excited. I went to the library to get a library card, so I could check it out. (I then waited several weeks for it to come in). Anyway, all things considered I was expecting to like this book quite a bit.

And I did like it quite a bit. In moments. I won't summarize too much because this book has several plot twists (some expected, some un-). But the basic premise is that Cornelia, an unsatisfied, educated barista at a trendy cafe, meets a man who looks like Cary Grant and her life begins to change.

Here's what I liked. I loved Cornelia's obsession with classic films, one I share, although I'm not as well-versed in the subject as she is. (The book gave me many ideas for some movies to look up! First on the list: Philadelphia Story).
I also really loved the characters. Cornelia is charming, Martin is human, (despite his apparent perfection), Clare is precocious and endearing and Teo is Teo (and possibly not human). The story is entertaining and definitely drew me in. All these things = lukewarm delight. Nothing overwhelming with wonder, but certainly a good read.

As for what I didn't like... I had a few problems with Cornelia's voice. I don't know exactly why, but sometimes she annoyed me. I think if she was a real person she would talk too fast and always expect you to know what she was talking about. However, I grew to like her. So maybe if she was a real person, she would be one of those people that, when you first meet them, annoy you to no end but then are charming and endearing and you end up loving them.

I also didn't love how convenient everything was. Whenever there was a huge, insurmountable problem (and there are several... I can't say what they are without giving away important plot twists, though) things just fell into place neatly around the main characters. Maybe I shouldn't complain too much, I have been known to say that I like to read novels for fun, not for a taste of realism. I do like happy endings, or at least endings that convey some ray of hope for the future (think "Tomorrow is another day!" versus "the fledgling family that cracked open"). But it is nice when they are believable.

All in all though, I liked this book. I would recommend it. It was a good escape (especially during this lovely week of many midterms). I liked it enough that I put de Los Santos' next book on hold at the library (which is also about Cornelia). 3 stars.