BOOK REVIEW: Love and Other Words by Lauren Christina
A sweet love story that breaks your heart and then pieces it back together.
I love, love, love this book.
Before we start…what are your top five favorite words? Mine in no particular order:
Lackadaisical
Diaphanous
Cacophonous
Bamboozled
Melancholy
I feel better getting that out of the way, so now we can focus on this sweet yet heart- wrenching story.
Book Blurb: Macy Sorensen is working hard as a new pediatrics resident while planning her wedding to an older, financially secure man, and protecting her heart at all costs. 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.
One of my favorite aspects of the book is the alternating timelines. We get to see the how their become so close and important to each other throughout their teenage years with how they are both moving through life as adults. There are a lot of unanswered questions and painful secrets. So when the two timelines crash together in a highly emotional scene, it is all laid bare.
They spend time carefully trying to reconnect they begin to put the pieces together, and, ugh, I just loved it so much. It just all made so much sense when, as the reader, you learn the secrets. Not only does Macy keep them buried deep in her, the reader doesn’t have all the secrets either. Only when she shares them do we understand. That strategy made everything so much more powerful! It’s like a punch to the gut, that you learn these things about characters you have grown to love.
The character develop is perfect. As teenagers, the develop from those self-conscious, awkward, book buddy 14 year olds into young adults facing the challenges of their feelings, but their separation from each other exact on weekend when Macy and her dad go to their weekend home. But they grow up together, they share the hardships of high school pressures and share many first. But that careful character development carries into the now timeline. In the present, Macy is living what feels like a fake life, pretending and hiding in what she feels is a “safe” relationship.
We can see how something has changed, and the arc Macy follows to open up is difficult and challenging which forces he to look inside herself and admit to and let go of the past. But at the same time, Elliot develops into a more confident, caring, supportive version of his teenage self as he begins to understand the events of the past and who he needs to be today.
Simply magical! The style and structure brings the characters and story to life. Be aware that there are many triggers in the book.
The pacing is effective as it is really driven by the timelines. The side characters are effective, but out side of their family in the “then” timeline, they really aren’t super important. I really couldn’t care less about her fiancé even when we first meet him when the book starts, and while I typically hate stories where there is a love triangle aspect when someone innocent gets hurt, this wasn’t the case. I never really cared for him, and he was written to serve a purpose, and he served it well.
Tropes you will encounter:
Friends to lovers
Slow Burn romance
Second Chance love
Emotional scars & trauma
He falls first
Small town romance
Where does this land on my bookshelf?
Top shelf. It was sweet and heartwarming at the same time that it was heartbreaking and tragic. It was everything to me to see these character overcome the pain of their past to see the hope and happiness of their futures. If you are looking for an a summer beach read that you can just escape into, this is the one for your. Get it, read it, love it. (Just make sure you have a box of tissues as you wipe the tears away as your heart is put back together.)
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