Book Review: Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren

It’s been two years since I’ve last written a post, but have no fear…I am alive(!!) I’m mainly active on my Instagram if you’d like to follow me there, but for now, please enjoy this review of one of my favorite romance novels.

I love this book. If you asked me for my favorite romance novels, Love and Other Words would easily make the list.

I love how both characters are simply meant for each other and how our two main characters know each other better than anyone else in the world. I love how this book proves that once again childhood-friends-to-lovers and second-chance-romance are superior.

Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren

PUBLISHED BY Simon & Schuster on July 13th 2021

GENRE: Contemporary, Romance

PAGES: 403

ADD TO GOODREADS  

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.

Love, loss, friendship, and the betrayals of the past all collide in this first fiction novel from New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Christina Lauren (Autoboyography, Dating You / Hating You).

Macy and Elliot are nothing short of soulmates, and when you watch both characters grow up alongside each other, there’s no doubt that they would eventually fall in love.

I’ve devoured almost every Christina Lauren book out there, but something about this one makes it stand above the rest…the vivid writing, the yearning??, the found family that Macy and her dad deserve…there’s just so much to love.

The book alternates between “then” and “now”, where “then” showcases two young kids who quickly becomes friends and grow into their teenage years together and “now” starts with their accidental meeting 11 years later after their falling out.

The two timelines eventually converge to *that scene* which caused Macy to walk away from their relationship years prior, and despite all the buildup and tension leading towards the final reveal, I was let down by the execution and resolution…

which is why I can’t give this book 5 stars

**SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH** Elliot is essentially r*ped / manipulated to have sex with another girl, and it’s barely addressed as something other than a drunken mistake. I wish the authors had given better recognition to this fact because it’s truly the main reason why I can’t wholeheartedly 5-star this book.

Will I reread this book again? Very likely.

Am I further convinced that friends-to-lovers is *the best* trope? Absolutely.

Should you read this book and fangirl with me if you have read this book? Without a doubt.

Have you read Love and Other Words?

What were your thoughts?

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