Love walked in : a novel / Marisa de los Santos.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A tribute to classic film and true romance, LOVE WALKED IN tells the story of two women – one older, one younger – and the unexpected ways in which their lives are forever changed by chance.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 Inis 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 Inis 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 Inborrows 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 Viciousand Kissing in Manahattan “Love Walked Inis 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 Familyand The Madam