Love Walked In 
For thirty-one-year old Cornelia Brown, life is a series of movie moments, and “Jimmy Stewart is always and indisputably the best man in the world, unless Cary Grant should happen to show up.” So imagine Cornelia's delight when her very own Cary Grant walks through the door of the hip Philadelphia café she manages. Handsome and debonair, Martin Grace sweeps Cornelia off her feet, becoming Cary Grant to Cornelia's Katharine Hepburn, Clark Gable to her Joan Crawford. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, eleven-year-old Clare Hobbes must learn to fend for herself after her increasingly unstable mother has a breakdown and disappears. With no one to turn to, Clare seeks out her estranged father, and when the two of them show up at Cornelia's café, the lives of Cornelia and Clare are changed in drastic and unexpected ways. A cinematic and heartfelt debut that pays homage to the classic Cary Grant/Katharine Hepburn romantic comedy The Philadelphia Story, Love Walked In is sure to win over critics and readers of contemporary fiction.
"A touching, triumphant story of the power and variety and responsibility of love. A joy to read, filled with characters you wish you knew in real life. Love Walked In is every bit as engaging as the classic movies Marisa de los Santos lovingly invokes."
--Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club
"An impossibly warm, acute, romantic spree, with room in its heart for all of us. Marisa de los Santos offers us two fine young heroines, Cornelia and Clare, and she trains a rich, brimming, silver screen light on their sorrows and elations. Since Love Walked In borrows so magically from the spirit of a certain Frank Capra film, I'll second the motion: It's A Wonderful Novel."
--David Schickler, author of Sweet and Vicious and Kissing in Manahattan
“Love Walked In is a brilliant novel—beautiful, hilarious, rich in detail and cultural commentary. While an expose of our desires for old world romance, elegant leading men, and the perfect shoes, this novel is also a bone-deep examination of inner lives, the bonds between women, and the prospects of borderline madness.”
--Julianna Baggott, author of Girl Talk, The Miss America Family and The Madam
Reviews
I did get annoyed with the cutesiness of the writing, which primarily surfaces when Cornelia is narrating. And I did get the feeling that the book was essentially a movie-treatment, written in hopes of selling the filmmaking rights rather than being a stand-alone work of literature that exists solely for its own sake. It's true that all the characters were a bit too perfect -- either perfectly beautiful, or perfectly quirky, in just the right charmingly filmable way. Despite all of this, I found it effective. I cared what happened to the characters, and I wanted them to be happy in the end. I liked them. I would even read another book about them, if I could. I'd say that's the test of a successful book.
I'm not surprised to hear that a film is already in the works -- but Sarah Jessica Parker??? Please -- I can hardly think of anyone who looks less like Cornelia. Cornelia is repeatedly described as being tiny - the same height as Clare, weighing about 85 lbs, and having short dark hair. The only thing Cornelia & SJP have in common is their quippishness.