Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren

2 reviews

cady_sass's review

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

The quintessential friends to lovers trope, done very expertly for the most part. I loved both of the main characters and it was killing me to figure out what the big twist was. Somewhere around 3/4 it became obvious and the sadness I felt was deep, just waiting for the inevitable to happen. Honestly the only thing  bad i can say about this is a spoiler -
the scene at the wedding was infuriating. It left a horrible taste in my mouth, I had grown to love Elliot and for him to act like his drunken infidelity wasn’t “good enough” for her to decide to be done with him is INSANE. You pine over someone for 11 years, knowing you fucked up, and then when have her back and you guys try talk about it you rage about how her decision to leave effected YOU?! Come on bro. Take some responsibility. Her dad didn’t have to die for that. Side note, personally I think the dad dying story would’ve been more impactful if he had died on the way to see her after she forgot to call, but that has no impact in my rating. It’s just what I thought was going to happen and it would’ve been even easier for her to blame Elliot for what happened.

 /endrant
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hannalizzy's review

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emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.75

I loved this book. The romance was so wholesome and pure and I loved watching their friendship evolve as they grew up together. It felt really authentic to each age when it was a reflection chapter, it reminded me so much of my own firsts. 

I would defo categorize this one as a slow burn because it took foreverrrrr for them to finally admit feelings. Best friends to lovers. Second chance romance. 

I felt like
Macy breaking up with Sean was really anticlimactic. It felt too easy and not relatable. I also felt like Elliot gaslit Macy about Emma the whole time and he never really acknowledged or apologized for that. That’s my reason why I couldn’t give it five stars. And sometimes their arguments just circled back around and they repeated things unnecessarily. 


Other than that, this book was so incredibly cozy and cute. I loved the focus on family and holidays (I’m totally gonna reread this one around Christmas and Thanksgiving in the coming years) and the romance was adorable. Elliot is swoonworthy. 
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