*This is a book review of Love & Other Words by Christina Lauren.
“‘Punctuation is your friend.'”
– Elliot
Quick Facts
Author(s): Christina Lauren
Release Date: April 10, 2018
Genre: Contemporary romance, fiction
Main Characters: Macy Sorensen & Elliot Petropoulos
Number of Pages: 432
SJ Rating: 98%
The Synopsis
Macy Sorensen has grown content with her predictable life: a boyfriend who doesn’t actually love her, long hours at work, and being emotionally distant. Suddenly, her first everything Elliot Petropoulos enters the picture again, and Macy’s predictable, unsatisfying life is flipped turned upside down.
The Good
Whether the book is good or bad, Christina Lauren will always pull you in with an enticing cover.
From the jump, I love the size of the font. Books with bigger fonts are so much easier to read. Forty-three pages in, and I deemed it sooo much better than The Unhoneymooners.
I love how blunt and relentless Elliot is. He’s really working to dig deep into Macy’s mind and figure her out. Plus, he doesn’t shy away from his feelings, like when he straight up tells Macy he wants to be her boyfriend (several times) and sticks by his word despite her reservations. He’s so in tune with his feelings, and it makes him another book boyfriend I would love to have IRL.
I also love the list of rules from Macy’s mom and how much her dad honors them without hesitation. It’s incredibly heartwarming.
Something about Macy saying, “This throws me. As in I am a brick, and have been hurled at the window” had me laughing. Even writing this, I chuckled at that line.
Speaking of Macy, with sentences like “Just because he didn’t talk about it didn’t mean he wasn’t thinking about it,” I swear Macy and I share the same overthinking brain.
The Bad
Though I love how relentlessly straightforward Elliot is, there were moments when their blunt honesty made me cringe heavily.
When Elliot started consistently using the term of endearment “honey,” it started ruining moments, like the big confession that happens in every rom com.
The Overall
Considering this is about a couple of book nerds, I think Love & Other Words is the perfect title for this book; it’s very fitting since Elliot likes to ask Macy her favorite word. This book low key told me it’s time to improve my very basic vocabulary. Though I don’t know how to say it aloud, “limerence” is going to be with me forever.
This book is a beautiful combination of the first love and second chance love tropes (avid contemporary romance readers, fact check me). I was halfway through the book and realized it was a book I could easily read again and again.
Shawnaci Shroeder was definitely on to something when she recommended this one.
Next book to be read and reviewed: Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood
“That we are old enough now to be doing this—birthing children, breeding—is the weirdest feeling ever.”
– Macy
