Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren - A Book Review
Synopsis:
The story of the heart can never be unwritten.
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.
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Tropes:
- Second Chance
- Misunderstanding
- Childhood Friends To Lovers
Kicking off June with my choice for the letter L of my reading challenge with Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren. I’m no stranger to the author, having read Josh and Hazel’s Guide To Not Dating for my letter J of the challenge, which I throughly enjoyed.
I had a nervous feeling about reading Love and Other Words because I’d seen so many people post that it was their favourite Christina Lauren book. I typically have the opposite feeling of a book when people claim it to be their favourite, so I was worried this book wouldn’t live up to those expectations.
Love and Other Words follows Macy Sorensen and Elliot Petropoulos in alternating chapters between past of 10 years and present. During the past, the story follows them in their adolescence where they initially meet, before forming a strong friendship which gradually strengthens over the 10 years they know each other. The present follows them the day they reunite, after falling out over 10 years ago, due to a reason that is left unexplained until the end.
As the pair become reacquainted, they begin navigating a new friendship, where they catch up on everything they missed during their absence. During their initial interaction, Elliot asks about Macy’s father and how he is doing, but is shocked when Macy reveals he died a few years ago. As the pair slip back into their friendship, they quickly learn that they still have the same feelings from their adolescence
Upon reuniting, Elliott returns home and ends the first relationship he has had since his teenage relationship with Macy, whereas Macy is left feeling confused with her feelings and continues her relationship with her fiancee.
In the past, the story follows a young Macy and Elliot as their friendship slowly develops over the years from strangers, to friends, before moving to first and teenage love.
During the past, the pair begin navigating their journey to adulthood and the changes they go through. Macy continues to move to and from their summer vacation home, which leaves her reeling at her absence from Elliot when she is at home and school.
Macy and Elliot’s friendship develops beyond friends which pushes the two to embark on a relationship, which they had refrained from doing, out of fear of loosing their friendship.
In the present, Elliot and Macy skirt around the reason for their departure from each other’s lives, but as they spend more time together, Macy realises that she can’t deny her feelings for Elliot and can’t go back to now knowing him – therefore, leading her to end her engagement.
At Elliots brother’s wedding, the pair finally delve into a relationship with one another, but are faced with the conversation of the night their friendship ended.
The story flashes back to the past, revealing the reason for their sudden estrangement. During a college party, Elliot calls Macy where he drunkenly confesses his love to her, before proceeding to ask her to marry him. Macy becomes concerned about this next step in their relationship and is concerned they are doing it on the phone, while Elliot is drunk. Macy attempts to divert the conservation to savour the moment, which upsets Elliot, leading him to end the call.
After ending the phone call, Macy becomes worried about him and pleads to her dad to allow her to drive to their vacation house. Macy dads allows her to, but with the condition she contacts him when she arrives safely. When Macy arrives at the vacation house, she calls Elliot, but is met with his friend Christian, who begins acting suspiciously on the phone, revealing that Elliot is not there despite his phone being there. This leads Macy to visit Christian’s house where the party is and upon arriving, is met with Christian who slyly encourages her to find Elliot upstairs, despite his other friends attempting to divert Macy away. When she goes upstairs, she sees Elliot past out naked on the bed with his ex girlfriend Emma, who Macy had concerns about.
Macy leave the party and rushes back to the vacation home alone, where she passes out after being heartbroken. Macy is awoken the next day by her father’s arrival, after he became worried when Macy failed to contact him about her arrival. After her father learns about her heartbreak, he consoles her and encourages her to go home. As the pair are driving home, her father takes his eyes off the road to sympathise with his heartbroken daughter, only doing so results in a horrific car accident, which claims his life.
Following the death of her father, young Macy ends all contact with Elliot after believing he is partly to blame for her father’s death, due to him being the reason her father was in the car.
In the present, Macy reveals to Elliot that she struggled to separate her heartbreak of his affair with the reason for her feathers death.
Elliot is torn apart over Macy’s revelation, who reassures him that it wasn’t his fault. Elliot reveals that during the night of her father’s accident, he was so drunk that he believed that Emma was Macy, therefore not realising he was cheating.
The story ends where Macy and Elliot finally embark on a relationship and begin starting their lives together in their new home.
My reading motivation whilst reading this book was minimal and it wasn’t to do with the content of this book. I felt like I had so much on my to do list (hello book reviews) that I felt like I couldn’t read this book until they were done. I also had too much excitement for attending the Taylor Swift Eras Tour in Edinburgh that I couldn’t focus on reading in the lead up and aftermath – I suffered and am still suffering with a big case of PETD (Post Eras Tour Depression).
From the very start, I had a feeling that this book was going to be emotional, but I didn’t anticipate on it wrecking me to pieces where I was bawling my eyes out and snotting all over the place with how much I was crying – I was crying so much, my kindle became blurry.
This book absolutely broke me to pieces by the end and I felt for Macy so much – she had lost so much, in such a close period of time. Reading about her story with Elliot was devastatingly beautiful and I’m not sure how I go on as normal after that heartbreak!
With my reading motivation at a zero, it took me 14 days to complete this book and because of the emotion I experienced in it, I wish I had of read it in a shorter time period. Due to how long it took me to finish this book, I felt like I wasn’t able to emotionally connect with Elliot and Macy – yes I still bawled at their story, but I do feel like I would’ve been struck harder if I were to read closer together.
I 100% loved this more than Josh and Hazel’s story because it had everything – the feelings and the emotions (I love a book that wrecks me!). Despite the high rating and loving it, I felt like there was something missing, which I’m putting down to my timeline of reading this book. I do wish we saw more of Elliot and Macy being together in the end – I wanted to see all of their moments together!
Elliot and Macy’s story reminded me a lot of It Ends With Us’ Lily and Atlas’ story of being childhood friends who loose contact, before reuniting. Both book couples are the definition of “right person, wrong time”.
I loved the alternating chapters which were reversed – how the chapters of the past built up to the future, whilst the present chapters built up backwards to the moment and reason they lost contact. I just wish we saw more of the night that Elliot had his drunken affair because it was never mentioned whether he was drugged. I felt like he potentially was because his friend Christian was acting very strange when interacting with Macy during that night. Almost like he was egging her on to find Elliot in that state and wanting her to believe the worst case scenario. I felt like Elliot’s reason was a bit of a cop out honestly and I’m not sure how much I believe it.
I wouldn’t say Elliot and Macy have my heart as a couple, I would say my rating solely goes to Macy and her trauma. If the cheating misunderstanding hadn’t of happened and they disconnected for another reason, then maybe the rating could’ve been for both of them.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Georgia
♥
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