FICTIONAL ━━ book reviews

OO1. Love & Other Words ／ favorite word? you.

⊹ ࣪ ˖୨ৎ‧₊˚ ⋅

written by CHRISTINA LAUREN ／ 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 & 𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐒

𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒. via goodreads : Macy Sorensen is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: work hard as a new pediatrics resident, plan her wedding to an older, financially secure man, keep her head down and heart tucked away.

But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos—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.

Told in alternating timelines between Then and Now, teenage Elliot and Macy grow from friends to much more—spending weekends and lazy summers together in a house outside of San Francisco devouring books, sharing favorite words, and talking through their growing pains and triumphs. As adults, they have become strangers to one another until their chance reunion. Although their memories are obscured by the agony of what happened that night so many years ago, Elliot will come to understand the truth behind Macy's decade-long silence, and will have to overcome the past and himself to revive her faith in the possibility of an all-consuming love.

𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒. alcohol use, grief, death of a family member, car accident, brief mention of a panic attack, infidelity, r*pe ( off page, implied ), working with sick children.

𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆. ★★☆☆☆

𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒. Unfortunately this was a much anticipated read that didn't quite live up to the hype in my opinion. The romance was definitely heavy on the physical attraction from Macy's perspective ( she is obsessed with elliot's jean zipper/button. ) When it comes to romance in books I personally don't want to read countless paragraphs only describing the physical ways in which one love interest is attracted to the other. Honestly, Elliot was the only reason I didn't dnf the book. Christina Lauren did a wonderful job of creating a male love interest who was in tune with his emotions and respectful of the boundaries the fmc set within their friendship/relationship. He's an absolute sweetheart who I wish I could spend an entire day cuddled up beside with a good book and an iced coffee. There are two explicit sēx scenes that I skipped entirely ─ I was aware of these two scenes going into this book. I don't feel like a missed anything important to the plot as there wasn't much dialogue in the scenes from what I could tell from a quick flip through. Overall, I likely won't find myself picking this book up for a reread but I'm glad that I gave it a try though it ended up not being a favorite of mine.