Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Love and Other Words

This book was gifted to me by my friends for my birthday last year. Yes, I'm embarrassed with how long it took me to getting round to read this book. However, I usually enjoy Christina Lauren’s books, but I was just bored.

This book is based on Macy Sorensen, and she is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: word hard as a new paediatrics resident, planning her wedding to an older, financially secure man and keeps her head down and heart tucked away. But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulou – 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.

I enjoyed Sabrina and the fact that both of their friends and family basically called them on their shit and that they hadn’t gotten over each other so Rachel and Sean were just collateral damage. I loved the friends-to-lovers trope, and I would have liked it if it grew from childhood to adulthood without the eleven-year break.

The main issue I had was the switch between the past and present, like I would have loved to know what the conflict was before the back and forth. It was giving me a headache. I just think the passion could have been more as well. Like I get and liked the innocent childhood romance that was blossoming but as adults, I was just bored of them. Being in Macy’s thoughts was exhausting, how does that woman look after children because she was miserable and usually doctors who work with children have a talent of being caring and not boring. The whole conflict and resolution happened in three chapters, so this book could have been cut by 100 pages and it wouldn’t have made a different. There was just no character development between the two of them and they both needed to move on eleven years ago.

I think this is going to be the last book I read by Christina Lauren for a while because I struggled with this book and if it wasn’t for the case of me reading multiple books at a time this probably would have put me in a reading slump.

Content Warnings

julia_jojo17's review

Go to review page

emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

2.75

Content Warnings

lvidler's review

Go to review page

emotional reflective sad slow-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

5.0

I really enjoyed this book. Really enjoyed it. Loved the characters, I loved the friendships (more Sabrina please ).

I loved the authors use of suspense and foreshadowing but I tell you what I didn’t like.

Elliot was raped. His friend basically ruined his life on purpose. I could have used at least acknowledging what Emma did was not consensual and the effects of that on his life.

This could have used a separate book or a 1.5 showing them in college and the actual fallout from the night .

Elliott was also bloody awful to Macy after he talked about the night when she didn’t respond the exact way he wanted her to. Him being as cold as he was, was so off brand for him. How his brother didn’t say , uh , El maybe a minute to cool off ?

A man that wants forever ran off into the dark awful quick.

I wonder if we shouldn’t have explored a bit of Sabrina talking to Elliot at the picnic where it was alluded that there is far more to the story ? Put something in his mind that it wasn’t just about that ? The guy is smart and seemed to be really good picking up her cues all book and then when she broke down and counted to 10 he walks away? This part made me cry more than anything else in the book. This girl was alone. Really alone.

Aside from this , I loved the characters. It’s a great book but not exploring Elliot’s rape and Macy acknowledging the non consent missed the mark.

Content Warnings

readers_sea's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

I loved Macy and Elliot's story so much.

Macy and Elliot meet when Macy and her father buy a "vacation home" in the small town where Elliot lives. They're still young, but immediately hit it off and become inseparable. Since Elliot lives there full time and Macy doesn't, their time together is sporadic and unpredictable sometimes, but they always make the most of it when they are together. Growing up together, they saw each other grow a lot, and of course that led to first loves and other firsts.

This book is told in dual timelines. One timeline is the past when Macy and Elliot were younger and still getting to know each other. Throughout the book, we get to see them slowly grow up throughout this timeline. In the other timeline, we are in the present. The present starts a decade after Macy and Elliot last talked/saw each other. Their departure was abrupt and left a lot of questions for some characters. As the story unfolds we are leading up to the night ten years ago when they stop talking. We get to see what happened and what led them to where they are today.

This story was so well done and layered. I loved how it was told in dual timelines because I felt like both stories were unfolding perfectly. I was rooting for them in both timelines, but also so curious as to what led them to not talk for a decade after seeing how they were growing up together. This story had a lot going on, and I loved watching it all unfold. There were a lot of themes and subjects that were brought up that I wasn't expecting, but overall I really enjoyed it and these characters.

Content Warnings