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.
Two people with a past reunite in this angst-filled adult contemporary romance.
While I’ve enjoyed Christina Lauren’s other books, this one is a huge swing and a miss for me. Elliot and Macy’s connection felt unauthentic and unhealthy. Their relationship as adults needed more depth than their teenage relationship. They didn’t really know one another after eleven years despite the history between the two. It felt more like lust and nostalgia than actual love. Part of my problem might be the formatting. Rarely do I enjoyed stories with a narrative transitioning between the past and present, especially with a major secret in the wings (looking at you Ugly Love). It’s hard for me to connect with characters with such a secret. If I don’t know until the end of the book your road block, how can I properly understand and root for you?
I wish time had been spent developing Macy beyond her messed up past with Elliot. What are her thoughts and feeling toward her job? How did she handle rough days from her work? Hell, does she even read anymore? How does she relax from her job (other than sex and obsessing over Elliot)? I think I know more about Elliot than I do Macy at the end of the novel.
tl;dr An unhealthy romance, underdeveloped characters, and annoying time skip kept me from enjoying this Christina Lauren installment.
