I am slowly working my way through Christina Lauren's backlist, and I think I'm most ashamed of the fact that I didn't read ANY of their books until 2021! Now that I've discovered them, though, there's no stopping me! Love and Other Words is, hands down, one of my favorites of theirs. It ranks right up there with The Unhoneymooners (and if you know me at all, you know I LOVE The Unhoneymooners).
Format: Paperback
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Page Length: 432 pages
Publisher: Gallery (April 10, 2018)
Star Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mr. Darcy‘s Rating: “You have bewitched me, body and soul.”
A Chasing Mr. Darcy Review
Here’s a summary from GoodReads: 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.
There are so many reasons I enjoyed Love and Other Words. The emotion behind this book is raw and powerful, and it completely hooked me. The tears came out at several points in this book - sometimes because of sadness, sometimes because of happiness, but always because of some poignant moment that Christina Lauren managed to translate into a completely relatable event for me. In the story, Macy's mom passed away. Before her passing, her mom left a "to do" for Macy's dad along with some letters for special events. This really got me; I'm a sucker for anything like this in a book (a la Beach Read). It is especially triggering for me, the death of a loved one, but the way Christina Lauren wrote this part of the story just hit different with me than normal. I found Macy completely relatable, and I understood her desire to keep people at arm's length, especially when the depth of her relationship with Elliot was revealed. Sometimes it is easier to safeguard your heart than risk another heartbreak. My heart has felt "broken" twice in my life, and it's a feeling I not only wouldn't wish on anyone but also never want to feel again. Macy experienced two devastating heartbreaks within 24 hours, and she's kept everyone at arm's length since. I get that about her.
I'm insanely jealous of anyone who has met their soulmate, but I'm especially jealous of anyone who meets their soulmate at 13. Macy and Elliot meet and immediately click, bonding over their love for reading. As time progresses, though, they bond over the other shared experiences of life, and I like that their relationship grows almost in this bubble until...well, until that bubble bursts in a big way. The heartbreak is real and raw, and the reconnection between them is so sincere it almost hurts. I rooted for them to reconnect more than I think I ever have in a second-chance love book before. Also, can I just give a shout out to Macy's best friend? I want to high five that girl for giving Macy a kick in the pants when she needed it.
The steam in this book...boy, did I need a fan or what? Never have I ever enjoyed a dry hump as much as Macy and Elliot dry humping as teenagers (ok, that MAY be an exaggeration, but you get my drift). The sexual chemistry developed slowly, almost as Macy and Elliot grew, yet was present immediately in the "now" part of the story. I loved the competing chemistries of the past and the present, and I think the way the story was told (in alternating chapters between the past and the present) helped the connection between Macy and Elliot unfold really organically. I was hanging on every interaction, waiting for "the moment." Any romance reader will know what that moment is, and let me tell you, I was not disappointed. This book was A+ quality.
Love and Other Words is just good story telling with characters I not only identified with but also loved. Did I fall in love with Elliot the same way I fell in love with Ethan in The Unhoneymooners? No, but Elliot is a completely different character. Elliot is all ease and comfort whereas Ethan was like fireworks for me. Elliot would be my best friend, and Ethan is to this day my book husband. Love and Other Words will probably be one of my favorite books of 2022, I can already tell. That's how much I loved it!
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