BOOK REVIEW⎜Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren

Book Infos

The story of the heart can never be unwritten.

Macy Sorensen is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: work hard as a new pediatrics resident, plan her wedding to an older, financially secure man, keep her head down and heart tucked away.

But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos—the first and only love of her life—the careful bubble she’s constructed begins to dissolve. Once upon a time, Elliot was Macy’s entire world—growing from her gangly bookish friend into the man who coaxed her heart open again after the loss of her mother…only to break it on the very night he declared his love for her.

Told in alternating timelines between Then and Now, teenage Elliot and Macy grow from friends to much more—spending weekends and lazy summers together in a house outside of San Francisco devouring books, sharing favorite words, and talking through their growing pains and triumphs. As adults, they have become strangers to one another until their chance reunion. Although their memories are obscured by the agony of what happened that night so many years ago, Elliot will come to understand the truth behind Macy’s decade-long silence, and will have to overcome the past and himself to revive her faith in the possibility of an all-consuming love.

Author : Christina Laure
Title : Love and Other words
Series : 

Number of pages : 432
Publisher : Gallery books
Release Date :  April 10th, 2018
Genre : Woman’s fiction

MY RATING

I fell in love with the words and the characters effortlessly but unfortunately felt ripped of something I thought “special” near the end of the book.

My Review

There is no hiding the fact I’m a Christina Lauren enthusiast. They publish a book, I’m reading it. No matter the genre, no matter the blurb, no matter what, really.
I love their writing and pretty much loved all the characters carved out by the literary duo.
When I first heard about Love and Other Words I was over the moon, I had just finished Roomies and needed my next CLo fix. Woman’s fiction is not a genre I’m often turning to, but I believed Christina Lauren writing woman fiction would just be as interesting character and plot wise only with muted steam. Low key on the sexy times but with enough romantic elements to make it worth my romance reader heart while. In that aspect I’m glad to report I wasn’t disappointed!

Told alternatively between past and present , Love and Other Words remarkably portrays the unique and touching connection between Macy Sorensen and Elliot Petropoulos.

I never got to fall out of love. I just had to move on.

I started this book loving every word, every detail, all the small features making Christina Lauren‘s characters unique.

Every inch of your skin I made diligently; months I slaved over you. You are my masterpiece. I miss you. I love you.

Macy‘s letters from her mother. Macy‘s relationship with her dad. Macy‘s point of view, every single peculiarity, curiosity of her teenage mind. She was a lovely character to discover, to read about and it took very little time for me to fall in love with her. I want to put an emphasis on how much I adored the story Christina Lauren created for her. Her upbringing, her mom, her dad… It was a beautiful thing to read.

I remember the way he would hug her when he got home from work. He would wrap his arms all the way around her shoulders, press his face into her hair while his body curved over hers. His arms became a set of parentheses bracketing the sweetest secret phrase.

Present time, the “nowMacy is a brilliant new pediatric resident, and shares a comfortable and convenient but overall unhappy relationship with Sean.
One day she has the shock of her life when she meets again with Elliot. The one.
Any contact between her and Elliot, her best friend from “Then” has been severed eleven years ago and we have no idea why.

With a painstaking attention to details, Christina Lauren takes us on an excruciating journey through past and present and illustrates one of the sweetest tale of friendship I’ve had the pleasure to read. To give you an idea of the level of cuteness and the attachement I started to develop for the characters, I had “My Girl” vibes reading about Elliot and Macy‘s tender bonding. I needed this book to never end and I wanted to crawl in it and never leave.

I like your kind of quiet. Your heart isn’t quiet.

Painfully aware the back and forth between past and present was only slowly bringing heartache in its wake, I couldn’t help but read voraciously, lovingly, and with complete wonder every little idiosyncrasies, any small detail, whatever scraps of memories once shared by Macy and Elliot, the very fine points of their significant link. The core of their balance.
The past POV reeled me in, I wanted to stay in the past and bask in this feeling of love and innocence, of first times, of perfect summers and discoveries.
But also I wanted, needed to know what had happened to make Macy and Elliot’s world implode, to lead them apart and push Macy to choose conveniency and safety over love and happiness. The present POV felt dull and tasteless, but held hope when Macy accepted to give her relationship with Elliot a chance to start over. To be friends again.

Romance, emotional turmoil, loss, friendship and soul searing connections. This book had everything and until 80% I was sure of one thing, this was going to be a 5 stars read.
Until we finally learn the cause behind all the hurt. The reason leading soulmates apart for over a decade of time. I honestly had no tangible idea in mind, I could only speculate but any reason I came up with felt… impossibly lame. Whatever had caused them to grow apart must have been huge, that was the only possibility in my mind. And I guess here lies my disappointment. I came to expect something different, something extraordinary, something as original as the rest of the story.

The primary reason felt so… cliché. Absurd and so out of character for Elliot.
It’s hard to explain without giving away any spoilers. Let’s say it felt inadequate in regard to how special both Elliot and Macy treated each other. It felt so mundane suddenly. It made characters I had put so much esteem into, fall hard from their pedestal.
And then I felt such disappointment from the authors for taking the easy way out about this one fateful night. It felt so different and held so much contrast in comparison to the amount and care for small details delivered throughout the story, to keep whatever led to this one night mistake pretty vague and surrounded in shadows. Overlooked.
To me, this whole story stopped rather abruptly and ended in such an anticlimactic manner when all the building leading to it had been fascinating and spectacular.

I would still highly recommend Love and Other Words, I know many readers didn’t share my qualms regarding the ending, so it could be my own issue. In any case, the characters, the storyline and the writing deserve my highest praise. Christina Lauren proved once again how talented they are by delivering a tenderly poignant and moving story.

The Angry Reader's Review

This review is brought to you by Camille, a.k.a “The Angry Reader“.
I love her reviews and we seem to share a common taste for awesome books and blunt reviews. Check out her blog at The Angry Reader  where the motto is “Painfully Honest Book Reviews“!

MY RATING

This book has taken the duo to a new level for me.

He’s my person. He’s always been my person. My best friend, my confidant, probably the love of my life.

Told in elegant flashbacks and painful present tense – we build a story of completely pure love and then watch it shatter.

Macy and Elliot meet when Macy’s dad buys a vacation home in Northern California. A place for Macy and her dad to escape when Macy’s mom’s death becomes to devastating. Elliot and his boisterous family become Macy’s escape through high school. The reading-obsessed duo hangs out in Macy’s reading nook – falling perfectly in love over 4 achingly sweet years.

And then we have current Macy and Elliot – him confused – her locked up tight. Engaged to another man – Macy is sad and defensive and hiding a big fat secret.

I loved every single almost-crying moment. Macy and Elliot made me fall in love – and broke my heart – then brought me to the pinnacle before tossing me back down. Again. I love the perfect amount of angst. I don’t want a book just smashing my heart – punching me in the gut. But a book that intertwines the hurt and the happy like this? Perfectly bittersweet.

Why can’t everyone be like you?’ ‘I can be enough of your world that it feels like everyone is.

I have a love/hate with Christina Lauren. But this book has taken the duo to a new level for me. I’m gonna bask bask bask my smug little butt off tomorrow. Happy Reader.

Author Bio & Links

Christina Lauren is the combined pen name of long-time writing partners/besties/soulmates Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings. The #1 international bestselling coauthor duo writes both Young Adult and Adult Fiction, and together has produced fourteen New York Times bestselling novels. They are published in over 30 languages, have received starred reviews from Kirkus ReviewsLibrary Journal and Publishers Weekly, won both the Seal of Excellence and Book of the Year from RT Magazine, named Amazon and Audible Romance of the Year, and been nominated for several Goodreads Choice Awards. They have been featured in publications such as Forbes, The Washington Post, TimeEntertainment Weekly, People, O Magazine and more. Their third YA novel, Autoboyography was released in September, followed by a contemporary romance, Roomies in December, and their first Women’s Fiction, Love and Other Words in April.

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