Reviews with content warning for Rape - Love and Other Words

The reveal with her dad could be seen coming from a mile away, and I felt like it was such a contrived cop out to the story. I also wish we saw more of the time in-between their reunion, with like more information on how she chose medicine and her life as a doctor. I also wanted to know about him because if anything, his path seemed most likely to be medical. I also felt like Elliot was better only in comparison to Sean, but I failed to see his own appeal independently. I feel like to an extent, the characters despite being a "character driven" book, felt like half-realized carboard cut outs that tend to wax poetic. Although, all this said doesn't mean I dislike it, it was still written really well and certain passages stuck out and will stay with me for a long time. On the final note, I didn't like how quickly we glossed over Elliot literally being a victim and the associated trauma with that. It definitely needed to be addressed.

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daringreader13's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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kmduty's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This book is my least favorite of Christina Lauren’s books and to be honest for the same reason as everyone else. Elliot is RAPED and it is just brushed over. He’s made out to be the bad guy and he’s the one to blame but he is not. I’m so disappointed in the authors and how rushed the end of this is.

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faitherslibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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erinj_96's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

My first 5 star read in almost a full year!! This story literally picks you up and takes you along such a beautiful and emotional ride. Thank god for this book and thank god for Christina and Lauren. They have a way of writing such beautiful and poetic prose while also making their characters and the world of the novel so complete and realistic. Like, everything that happens in this book could have easily happened in real life. It felt like they told the full story and left no stone unturned yet I still want more of Elliot and Macy!!!

First, Elliot!!!! Omg you’re kidding. Like how can a man be so perfect? There’s a moment in this book when she tells him her birthday and then months later he remembers it when it’s coming up and she says “didnt I only tell you my birthday once like 5 months ago” and he says “shouldn’t you only have to tell me once” …. … …. ARE YOU KIDDING?!?! He’s just so perfect and considerate but also makes mistakes and is realistic. His infatuation and relentless love for Macy is really the heartbeat of this book.

Macy is also such an amazing character. So often female characters in romance novels are 1-2 dimensional. They never have a bad thought or an ill will toward anyone but MACY IS SO REAL! Like she is actually a full fledged character who isn’t always pretty and nice and perfect and she has awkward moments that aren’t always cute and she has actual thoughts that real women have. It seems so simple but it’s just appreciated.

The way that Christina and Lauren write Macy’s perspective of girlhood and sexuality is so honest and real it is literally like looking into a mirror. Like HOW DO THEY WRITE IT EXACTLY THE WAY IT HAPPENED?!?? It’s almost scary how good they are at taking such an impressionable and memorable and vulnerable and new and exciting time in life and lacing in these really beautiful raw moments and make it feel so much like you’re right back in that place.

What happens to Elliot is so sad and heartbreaking and it’s even more sad when you realize that’s the reason why everything happens at the end of the book. It’s also so important to have this story there and to bring recognition to it.

The way the alternating time lines interlace SO FLUENTLY AND SEAMLESSLY is so satisfying. IT IS LIKE REAL LIFE! I can’t say it enough. If in the ‘then’ timeline Macy gets her first period, then in the ‘now’ timeline her fiancé assumes she doesn’t want to have sex bc she’s on it. There are so many examples like this I could go on and on.

The story of Macy and her dad is what takes this book from sad love story to complete mascara down the face sobbing shattered heart wrenching novel. Once everything clicks together in the end you finally understand why Macy couldn’t go back..again making her seem completely real and like so many resilient women I know who would’ve done the same in the name of self preservation.

This book is incredible. I’ll probably reread and recry several times. I’m an Unhoneymooners fan and was expecting something a little deeper and go more than what I was asking for, in a good way. Read this as soon as you can.

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mikaylabooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This book was so beautiful and the only book I’ve read this month. But, I’ve never seen soulmatism so deeply and elegantly portrayed. When I say that the love between Macy and Elliot was so rare and complex, I felt their love intensely through the book. I wanted them to find eachother and write dragon porn together. I’ve never actively rooted so hard for a couple. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬. With it being said that this is second chance, i hated the conflict. Without spoilers it wasn’t written or depicted well.

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louise2000's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Okay I really enjoyed this book but it amazes me that I did not hear anyone talk about potential trigger warnings before I started it (since finishing, there are a lot on goodreads but I don't think they are the most popular reviews so I didn't find them until I started looking). TW: rape. Elliot was raped. Based on the information Christina Lauren provided in the book, he is traumatised and has not gone to therapy to help him process the fact that he was raped. It is not even clear that he or Macy understand that he was raped. If they do, it is certainly not mentioned. So that's a pretty major flaw in the book but up until then I was really enjoying the book and it was a big flaw, and now I'm thinking about it I have no idea why I ever rated this book so highly because that's a huge problem. Otherwise, I had a great time with this book.

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