Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - Love and Other Words

This book broke my heart. I will probably be thinking about it for a long time. However, without giving any spoilers, the reason why the main characters stopped talking was anticlimactic and actually almost ruined their love story for me to be honest. But the reality of Macy’s hardships and everything she’s been through just made me want to root for her and whatever made her happy. Macy’s dad was my favorite and the true MVP of this story.

Basically, their childhood best friends turned lovers then something happens and they don’t speak for 11 years until they run into each other, quiet literally, at a coffee shop but now their both in different relationships etc. The book switches back and forth between when they were kids and present day, both storylines heading toward what caused the fallout, until they converge with the night they stopped talking. While the reason they had a falling out is anticlimactic and predictable, everything else from that day is now and OUCH I really didn’t see that coming and Christina Lauren really didn’t need to do us like that.

Would have gotten 5 stars from me if it wasn’t for the cause of their falling out tainting their relationship for me. 🤷🏻‍♀️

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alexisgarcia's review

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

4.5

this book was so great up until the very end for me. i loved their friendship and the exploration of themselves and each other, it was super cute and authentic. however the “reveal” or ending was incredibly disappointing to me. also please please check trigger warnings!!!!

like why does nobody talk about how elliot was literally r*ped/sa’d??? while it definitely wasn’t wise of him to get drunk at a party with friends that weren’t good influences and with emma (not that it was his fault). it totally disregards how traumatizing that experience must’ve been for him, like it just glazed right over his pain. it didn’t sit right with me. i also don’t know how Macy could ever forgive him for the whole experience being the catalyst to her fathers death. idk maybe i just hold grudges. but the ending definitely kinda soured the book for me which was sad because the rest was amazing :(

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christinemcgoveran's review

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funny hopeful sad 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

4.5

This was a delightful and fun read. It was hard at points because it does deal with death and loss. I liked the idea of the two timelines, past and present. The story of Elliot and Macy going through their teenage years together and how they reconnected was really touching. I loved how books, reading, and words plays a role in the story. I will remember this books and recommend it to other people.

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thatswhatshanread's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

I think I can officially say that the duo of Christina Lauren has successfully infiltrated my heart into the deepest, most emotional parts.

I feel numb after finishing this one, because I felt everything else while reading it. It didn’t take me long at all to pour through it, but somehow I’m left thinking I’d been inside those words for years and years. It was so comforting, real, sweet, honest, deep, heartbreaking… and other words.

To say this is a ‘great romance’ is doing it a disservice—it is an overwhelming portrait of every pulsing vein that makes up a contemporary romance. The chemistry between Elliot and Macy, built up so naturally, stretched into an aching slow burn, the intensity of raw hurt and mixed signals, dialogue dripping with honesty, the painful passage of time lost. Short chapters switching between “then” and “now” made it all the more heart racing. Would love prevail?

This isn’t a romcom, like the other books by Lauren that I’ve read. I adore romcoms, but I adore real stories even more. Real characters, real emotions, real loss, real situations. And this is real, this is all-encompassing, this is love.

Lauren’s full-hearted leap with this romantic drama is an instant winner for me. Hard to believe it was their first foray into women’s lit. What a home run.

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cultbyproxy's review

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

What’s better than reading a book? Reading a book about characters who love reading books!

This slow-burn, ironically, left me at a loss for “other words”. As a 19 year old girl, reading about Macy and Elliot’s younger selves made me reflect on my adolescence and draw parallels to my own younger self, nose-deep in a book and disconnected from the world. And made me eternally grateful for the years I shared with my own guy best friend. I, too, hope to find an “everyfriend” with the capacity for love that these two shared.

“Favourite word?“ Infinite ❤️

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eligru's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I liked this, but at the same time it was so darn sad. Almost too sad for me. It's hard to rate a book that really hits you, when at the same time you wish several parts of the plot had played out differently.
I am also always kinda weary when characters fall for "their one and only true love" at 17/18. I believe it can happen, but maybe this book took it a tiny bit too far.

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