[KQM]⋙ Read Love and Other Words Christina Lauren 9781501190537 Books

Love and Other Words Christina Lauren 9781501190537 Books

Download As PDF : Love and Other Words Christina Lauren 9781501190537 Books

Love and Other Words Christina Lauren 9781501190537 Books

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 annoying, 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. It felt like it took a bit too long for Macy to leave him, and for Elliot & Macy to finally have their heart to heart 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.


Tags : Love and Other Words [Christina Lauren] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>Love, loss, friendship, and the betrayals of the past all collide in this first women’s fiction novel from New York Times</i> and #1 international bestselling author Christina Lauren ( Autoboyography,Christina Lauren,Love and Other Words,Gallery Books,1501190539,Contemporary Women,Family Life,Romance - Contemporary,Alienation (Social psychology),Alienation (Social psychology);Fiction.,First loves,First loves;Fiction.,Man-woman relationships,Physicians,Reunions,Reunions;Fiction.,Romance fiction,San Francisco (Calif.),AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY FICTION,AMERICAN LIGHT ROMANTIC FICTION,American Contemporary Fiction - Individual Authors +,FICTION Family Life General,FICTION Humorous General,FICTION Romance Contemporary,FICTION Romance Romantic Comedy,FICTION Women,Fiction,FictionFamily Life - General,FictionHumorous - General,FictionRomance - Contemporary,FictionRomance - Romantic Comedy,GENERAL,General Adult,United States,Romance; romantic comedy; romantic comedies; summer beach read; new york times bestselling authors; bestselling romance; bestselling romantic comedies; funny romance; indie authors; heartbreaking romance; second chance romance; tearjerker; beach read; childhood lovers; first love; emma chase; beautiful bastard; beautiful series; My Favorite-Half Night Stand; Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating; Love and Other Words; Roomies; Dating You Hating You; Surprise Me; Sophie Kinsella; The Hating Game; 99 Percent Mine; Sally Throne; The Proposal; Jasmine Guillory; The Kiss Quotient; Helen Hoang; When Life Gives You Lulu Lemons; Lauren Weisberger; The Wedding Date; To All the Boys I've Loved Before; Crazy Rich Asians; rom-com; rom com; Nora Roberts,indie authors; romantic comedies; beautiful bastard; dating you hating you; heartbreaking romance; My Favorite-Half Night Stand; Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating; Love and Other Words; Roomies; Surprise Me; Sophie Kinsella; The Hating Game; Sally Throne; The Kiss Quotient; Helen Hoang; The Wedding Date; To All the Boys I've Loved Before; Crazy Rich Asians; rom-com; rom com; Romance; romantic comedy; summer beach read; new york times bestselling authors; bestselling romance; bestselling romantic comedies; funny romance; second chance romance; tearjerker; beach read; childhood lovers; first love; emma chase; beautiful series; 99 Percent Mine; The Proposal; Jasmine Guillory; When Life Gives You Lulu Lemons; Lauren Weisberger; Nora Roberts

Love and Other Words Christina Lauren 9781501190537 Books Reviews

Macy Lea Sorensen leaned about loss at the tender age of ten when her mother died. But before her death, she left her husband a “roadmap” of how to raise their little girl knowing she was loved.
As fate would have it, this map leads them to a cabin in the small town of Healdsburg and down a path where nothing will ever be the same.

Elliot was the bookish sibling in the large Petropoulos brood. He could always be found hiding in a quite space with a book in his hand. And this is exactly how he meets his new neighbour.

Macy immediately forges a special bond with the lanky boy she discovers reading in her closet. Together they share a love of books, of words and soon, each other.

But life doesn’t always go according to plan. Almost eleven years without her true love has left Macy numb and just barely hanging on. Now that Elliot is back in her life, she’s going to have to decide if she’s willing to place what’s left of her soul back into the hands of the one who shattered it so long ago.

Love and Other Words is a Christina Lauren like we’ve never seen them before. They have somehow become deeper, more tender and far more heartbreakingly honest.

Yes, their signature swoon is still in full force, but it’s tempered with an ever-present undercurrent of sadness that only a great loss can inspire.

The result is a one-of-a-kind reading experience that will have you smiling through tears and believing that love is really worth risking it all…
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 problem—Masie 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 fiancé 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.
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 annoying, 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. It felt like it took a bit too long for Macy to leave him, and for Elliot & Macy to finally have their heart to heart 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.