Love and Other Words

There was a lot that I loved about this story, but there were a few issues that kept it from being a 5 star read for me.

First, what I loved: I loved the character development, and the characters themselves. Elliot and Macy were the sweetest friends that turned into more, and I so enjoyed seeing the evolution of their relationship and how it grew and strengthened over time. I just really liked both characters, Elliot especially. I also loved the setting for this story. As someone who also grew up in Northern CA, I was very familiar with all of the main settings (Berkeley, SF, and Healdsburg/the Russian River Valley), so that was a fun aspect of the story for me. I also liked the ending of the story, even though it felt like it took just a little too long to get there, and was slightly rushed once misunderstandings were cleared up.

Now, what I didn’t love: In general, I’m really not a fan of books that alternate between the past and present, especially every chapter. I just find this style somewhat distracting and disjointed, because every time you really want to know what happens next, it switches back to a different time. I mean, flashbacks are fine, but alternating tense every chapter was a bit much for me. That said, I also realize how important it was for Christina Lauren to establish Elliot and Macy’s friendship, and to SHOW readers how that friendship developed when they were younger… So, I sort of get it, even if I found the style slightly tedious to read. The other thing that bothered me was how Macy hung onto her relationship with Sean for so long. She was clearly not feeling it from the moment she saw Elliot again, and I don’t really understand why she settled & stayed with him when he was making her so unhappy, especially when she knew that Elliot was enthusiastically interested & ready to get back together. It just felt like it took a little too long for Macy to leave Sean, and for Elliot & Macy to finally talk and settle their misunderstandings.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this sweet story of friendship and love. Elliot and Macy are characters that will stick with me.

First off, I found both of our characters to be underdeveloped. I couldn’t get a handle on them or who they were, so it makes it hard to care about what they are going through. There is very little description regarding appearances, etc…so I had a hard time creating a mental picture of the characters as well.
Spoiler…
Elliot is meant to be this sweet guy, deeply in love with Macy. On two occasions in the story, he did things that completely altered that person. 1) he cheats. Ew. And he’s like…”I thought it was you baby”. Worst defense ever. I could never move past that character flaw and it completely altered the story for me. 2) when Macy and Elliot finally connect physically as adults, it’s cathartic for Macy…she’s working through her emotional trauma. And all the sudden Elliot does a 180 and acts like a total jerk. Like I’m done waiting for you, bleh bleh. 3) he allows his recently broken up with ex gf to attend a Thanksgiving dinner with his long lost love, and we find out they were together for 5 years and he’s like “well she wanted to come”. What?!
All the while, Macy is back and forth back and forth in her inner dialogue about should I love him or not. Will we ruin our friendship? Infuriating!

As far as writing styles go…I’m not a fan of the back and forth point of view. It created a quick story plot twist at the end of the book, but we have very little time up time…it felt rushed and forced.

Lastly, as far as character decisions go…Macy and Elliot were supposedly soul mates, but neither looked for each other. I will never understand that!

I decided to pick this up audiobook because so many of my fellow readers loved this book hard. I can see why LOVE AND OTHER WORDS connected with so many readers, but I didn’t entirely feel the same level of adoration to the story as a whole.

Through past/present storytelling, Christina Lauren takes the reader on a journey back to Elliot and Masie’s past from when they first met through when they fell in love and later fell apart. Eleven years after their breakup, the two meet again and Elliot is just as in love with her as he was as a teenager. But one problemMasie is engaged.

Christina Lauren almost always writes delicious red-hot chemistry with great banter and dreamy heroes. Those things are present in Love and Other Words. Even though Elliot’s character fell into the “too perfect to feel real” category, I still swooned hard over his intelligence, nerdiness, and sweetness. Lauren built up their love story as children so well, showing the reader how these two bookworm nerds fell hard for each other over the course of several years. I loved reading their past love story. In a way, we got a what I like to call a “double love story” because we got to see them fall in love twice. This book made me feel addicted to it because I kept needing to know what happens next. I love it when that happens!

This is Christina Lauren’s first foray into women’s fiction, so I was curious to see how their writing talents transferred into this new genre for them. My biggest question was how they were going to craft the conflict. In the past, the conflict in some of their stories hasn’t been the strongest, which causes the whole story to deflate when it should be exploding.

In an attempt to explain away some of the plot contrivances, Lauren asks the reader to believe a lot. Somehow, Elliot didn’t know that Masie’s dad had passed away. After being best friends for years and deeply in love, Elliot didn’t aggressively attempt to reach out to Masie. On the flip side, Masie didn’t want to talk over what she saw with Elliot? I don’t buy it. If she was that in love to drive hours to see him that night, that same girl would have been pounding at his door and shoving at his chest screaming, “WHAT THE HELL?!” Neither Elliot nor Masie ever met their mutual friends in nearly six years of friendship, until the night they broke up. Masie was engaged when she sees Elliot again. But it’s a little too convenient that her fianc is not really that in to her and was totally fine with her ending it.

Both characters felt like the same character type we’ve seen in other Christina Lauren type books. We have the really nerdy sensitive guy and the female professional whose profession didn’t really play a part in her character. Though, I did like see Lauren write a story with everyday people, instead of high-powered executives we’ve seen in the past. With this being billed as women’s fiction, I was expecting to see more of an interplay between Masie’s profession and her life as well as a more developed emotional arc for Masie’s character. Neither of those things really occurred here. To me, this felt like more of a contemporary romance and less like a women’s fiction novel. Also, Elliot’s life in the present isn’t really explored in any detail either. I couldn’t even tell you what he does or what he likes (aside from Masie and literature).

I really didn’t like that we find out that Elliot had been essentially raped, yet this trauma wasn’t explored or dealt with in any way whatsoever. Rather, the focus was on the breakup between him and Masie.

I did enjoy reading their love story as teens and seeing them reconnect in the future. If you’re a die hard women’s fiction reader, this book may leave you wanting more. But if you like second chance romance, then I’d recommend you give this one a go (with some reservations), especially to meet the adorable Elliot.

Truthfully, I didn’t know what to expect from this. I have had a bit of a bumpy relationship with Christina Lauren throughout the years and I think it speaks volumes for my growth as a person and as a reader overall. I started with their Beautiful Bastard series and absolutely adored it, and quickly gobbled up the rest of the series. But then I hit a wall wherein I simply didn’t want to read any romance novels whatsoever and I ended up abandoning the series at Beautiful Secret (thankfully I’m getting back into my romance mood now), and then I abandoned their other series (Sweet Filthy Boy?), because of the same reason. When they came out with Autoboyography, I was straight onto it and really liked it. I felt it knocked their dynamic out of whack a little bit, just because it was so different to what they usually did – but without comparing it to their other works, it really was a fantastic book and something that is very necessary in young adult literature. So, honestly, I was a little sceptical when this one emerged… But I couldn’t stop myself from buying it. When it arrived in the post, I picked it up and started reading.

I fell in love with this story immediately – there were no pauses to think and consider whether I liked what I was reading – the book just settled straight into my heart and it felt incredibly right in my soul. I absolutely adored this book, and it isn’t one that I’ll be forgetting any time soon. In fact, I would go as far to say that it is a book that I will go back to at some point in the very near future. I added a lot of sticky tabs throughout and I genuinely do look forward to going back to them and reading my favourite parts again.

There are some massively important topics covered in this one – and I think they definitely, 100% hit the mark on women’s fiction.

I wasnt sure if this would be my kind of book as I had gathered from previous reviews that it touched on topics that seemed rather sad and heartbreaking. But so many people highly praised it that I got curious, and Im glad I decided it to give it a chance. It is a beautiful love story. It is so well written that it captured my interest from the very beginning and I just couldnt stop reading. I wanted to know so badly what went wrong for them that they were no longer together in the present after having loved each other with such intensity. I kept wondering different scenarios but it was only at the end when realisation came seconds before the unexpected revelation. The book brought so many emotions and the ending with that very last sentence was so touching that it made me smile and cry at the same time.
I highly recommend this book. It is now one of my favourite stories that has stayed in my thoughts long after I finished reading it.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member