Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren

Love and Other Words

by Christina Lauren

After a decade apart, childhood sweethearts reconnect by chance in New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren's touching, romantic novel Love and Other Words...how many words will it take for them to figure out where it all went wrong?

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.

Reviewed by Linda on

5 of 5 stars

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*I received a free copy of [title] from [publisher] via Edelweiss. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *Love and Other Words is one of the most poignantly beautiful stories I have ever read! My heart is still reeling, and I want to both laugh and cry at the same time.


Story:


Love and Other Words switches between Macy's childhood and the present, slowly unraveling all her secret thoughts, fears, loves, hopes, and heartaches. Christina Lauren's stories just get better and stronger with each book, and I can hardly even write because my feelings are all over the place.

The character development in Love and Other Words is nothing short of amazing. And the friendship between Elliot and Macy when they were children and teens is beautiful. There were just so many little details about them both that made sense to me.

Love and Other Words is also a devastatingly beautiful second-chance-at love story, and I was so immersed in Macy and Elliot's story I know I'm gong to re-visit them one day.

Characters:


Macy is successful, smart, witty, and lovable. However, she doesn't appear very happy in her present life. In her past, she was rather happy, though, even though her mom died when she was 10. And she gets even happier once she meets Elliot.

Elliot is my new favorite male lead. He's a bit nerdy, extremely smart, sensitive, funny and he has a favorite word for everything!

Elliot's whole family was awesome, the parents, the sisters and brothers, they all wanted only what was best for Elliot.

Writing style :


Love and Other Words is written in first person point of view from Macy's perspective. It switches between the past and the present, and that way, the readers got the full scope of Macy's story - even if some memories were kept until the very end.

Feels :


Love and Other Words brought all the feels. And this story is one of the most beautiful I have ever read.



I would disappear into the background when they touched like this, feeling like I was witnessing something sacred.

It's strange enough to see him from the back, and I'm watching him with such intensity that for a second, I convince myself that it's actually not him after all. Maybe it could be anyone - and after a decade apart, how well do I really know his body, anyway?

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 7 February, 2018: Finished reading
  • 7 February, 2018: Reviewed