BOOK REVIEW: Love and Other Words

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.

Spoiler Free:

Settling is easy when you have the career you’ve worked so hard for. When your new financially secure fiancée is a well-known artist with spectators gawking at each piece that flows from his fingertips. For Macy Sorensen, it’s easier to focus on the facts than lead with her bruised and beaten heart. Its easier protecting, than mending. That is until, Elliot Petropoulos- her childhood best friend and first/only love, walks into the coffee shop she visits with her college best friend and her heart surges forward without control. He was the boy that healed her heart after her mother died years ago only to break it again on the night he declared his love.

Told in alternating timelines, the story jumps back and forth between the building of their relationship as children and the rebuilding of their relationship (platonic or not) as adults. In the end, questions between them about that night, years ago, will finally be answered and worlds will be completely changed as a result.

This book was always on my TBR list, but I have to be honest it wasn’t on this month’s line-up. I have a copy of this novel and therefore know I should read it, but other books always seemed to grab my attention more. So, one night when a bad storm rolled through my town and knocked off the power completely leaving me with only a flash-light that emulated off blue light and the sounds of rushing wind against my rickety windows, reading was the only thing I could do. Did I mention my phone was on 5%, yeahhh lesson learned. So, I was left to find a predownloaded book on my kindle to fill in my time and low and behold, Love and Other Words sat there waiting for me. I’ll say this, I started this book at 9:30pm and finished at 4am. It isn’t a perfect book, that you can tell from my rating, but the writing was so easy to read and fall into until hours had passed and I found I couldn’t stop. In many alternating timeline pieces, I find myself liking one timeline more than the other, to the point that I’m skimming through to get to the one I like more. Often the writing feels different between the two. With these two timelines, I didn’t feel that way. And I think for mainly two reasons; 1) Both timelines were in Macy’s POV and 2) Both characters were unique and had depth. Throughout the book you’re able to watch the growth of these two individuals, but they always felt true to who the character was, as an adult and as a child.

If you’re looking for a quick and easy read for the beach or specifically the lake (wink wink) this should definitely be on your list. Its not world changing, but makes you feel immersed in a story and at the end leaves a smile on your face.

TW: Death, Grief, Sexual Assault

Spoilers Full:

Avert your eyes.

Well, avert them if you haven’t read yet and don’t want to spoil for yourself.

In this section I will have no self-control.

I’ll give you a minute to scroll by…

Everyone gone?

Are spoilers welcomed now?

Okay, here I go.

Read at your own risk.

This alternate timeline, best friends to lovers, slow burn novel quickly captivated my heart for reasons other readers may or may not agree with me; but nonetheless, there were some things I ended up not agreeing or liking. So, let’s get into it.

Right away the reader is given the information that Macy’s mother died from cancer at a young age. With that, her mother left her father a list of things to help him in raising her throughout her teenage and adult years. Only a few are listed here and some others pop up throughout the story, but what I will say is I loved this list. They weren’t cliché’s like “Make her each her veggies with dinner” or “Take lots of pictures” that I think we see a lot in other books. This list was filled with details and so realistic and relatable to who Macy is and what she would be going through. Like number 2, “tell her you love her. Girls need the words” its simple but so filled with meaning at the same time. Further, the story is built off of number 25. “When Macy looks so tired after school that she can’t even form a sentence, take her away from the stress of her life. Find a getaway that is easy and close that lets her breathe a little.” I think it is so beautifully and subtly done by Christina Lauren, by integrating her mother’s presence in her life after her passing. It’s simple things like this that deepen Macy’s character as well as her father’s.

So, after purchasing this lake house, Macy and her father, Duncan, retreat there when times get too busy and Macy quickly meets Elliot. I mean he’s in their house when they go and view the house and when they move in Elliot’s family from next door is waiting outside ready to help move in the furniture and boxes Duncan and Macy had packed. For me Elliot’s character and personality was very clear from the beginning. Macy and Elliot bond off of their love for reading and their knowledge of cool new words. But within in that, the specific books and words that both Macy and Elliot gravitate to are direct descriptors of their personalities and because there is the future and past timeline, there was a cohesiveness because of the early personality descriptors being shown in later years. Majority of the early year chapters are set in a closet within Macy’s house that her father had changed into a library. With glow in the dark stars pasted on the celling and shelves that lined the walls, that small closet became their portal to the worlds they read there and at the end when Elliot and Macy lay together they reflect on how small the room feels. Elliot makes the comment that he was saying goodbye to the room, that they had always lived within those walls, but he wanted to be together in the real world. Like ummm swoon? For people who live different lives, experience different characters and has such memories in a room, Elliot wants to be with her, in front of everyone, proud and happy. Isn’t that what every girl wants?

Okay, Okay I’m kinda getting ahead of myself. Let me touch on what I didn’t love. Slow burns can be frustrating. Like really really frustrating where the book seems like it’s going on and on and on. I had one of these moments. When Macy gets all her friends, her fiancée, and Elliot together for a park picnic. This scene was so clear to me, her, and her friends with how well Elliot fit into her life and how her fiancée Sean could careless in fitting into her life. At this picnic it was so clear. And at the end of it, Elliot invites her to his brothers wedding, not as a date (but we all know his motive there) but I think also because his family when they were younger also became hers. It seemed so clear and later that night when Sean makes an advance on her and she can't go through with it without wondering about Elliot I was screaming “Of course you can’t!” Sean never was a guy to metaphorically grip onto her tightly so her reservation about ending it always came from her. Like I said, it was frustrating, I get it, but ugh so frustrating. Even Sabrina was telling you how crazy you were, Macy. God, I love Sabrina.

Nevertheless, I continue. Macy eventually ends things with Sean, well they both do, and she moves out into a small bedroom. She goes to Elliot's Thanksgiving in his small apartment. His ex-girlfriend Rachel is there and alludes to the pain that Macy caused Elliot, but leaves it at that before she leaves. Macy asks for space to think about things in the next month before the wedding. At the wedding she realizes the family she has with the Petropouloses. During the ceremony she mouths the words “Yes, I’m yours. Yes, I’m ready, Yes, I love you.” to Elliot while he stands beside his brother at the front. During the reception she pulls him down to kiss her. He grabs her hand and takes her away, outside and into the gardens where they have sex for the first time since they were kids.

And after this is where things become real. All these details that have been swirling around throughout the novel all start coming together. Here Elliot explains to Macy that he didn’t know anything that happened that night when they were kids. He didn’t remember being intimate with Emma. He only thought Macy was upset with him and ignoring his calls for what he said on the phone. But when Christian told him that Macy had gone and found him with Emma, he couldn’t believe it because he was so drunk, he thought it was Macy, not Emma, climbing on him that night. This here is where I feel icky. Because it’s passed over. What is being explained here isn’t a drunk night to where Elliot consciously made a mistake, it’s a night when he wasn’t cognizant and was sexually assaulted by a girl who had always been involved and felt she was allowed to do something even without his consent. If the genders were reversed in this scenario, it would’ve been addressed. Sure, Macy didn’t know that at the time, but even here as adults he doesn’t say anything that alludes to sexual assault because he doesn’t feel he was. And Macy doesn’t make any comment like, “Elliot, you were sexually assaulted.” The separation and the distance between the two would make more sense on his end. How he was violated in a way he felt lesser. That he felt he didn’t deserve Macy anymore. His character arc would’ve been one filled with representation of male SA survivors and the rebuilding and healing after that. But it was only built from the anger for Macy that she left him.

I loved this book. And I loved the way it ended with Macy being reunited back with her extended family in the Petropoulos family. Which is why my score is so high. It such a sweet story that has you rooting for Macy and Elliot to figure out their history and end up together. I only wished the situation with Elliot that night would’ve been cradled more carefully and given representation to something that isn’t represented enough. After reading the complete book, it still felt off, and surface-level which definitely stuck out against the rest of the piece that had lots of depth and consideration.

“I’ve been waiting for you to come home for eleven years. I’ll go anywhere you go.”

Christina Lauren

Christina Lauren is a combined pen name of writing partners and best friends Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings. Together they write Young Adult and Adult fictions and has produced a combined nineteen New York Times Bestselling novels. They have won both the Seal of Excellence and Book of the Year from RT Magazine, been inducted into the Library Reads Hall of Fame, named Amazon and Audible Romance of the Year, a Lambda Literary Award finalist and been nominated for several Goodreads Choice Awards. They have also been featured in publications such as Forbes, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Time, Entertainment Weekly, People, O Magazine and more.

Lauren Billings has her doctorate in neuroscience from UC Irvine and prior to being a full-time writer spent her time researching neurodegeneration in aging. She now lives in California with her two teenagers and scientist husband.

Christina Hobbs spent her time in a junior high counseling office surrounded by teenagers. She currently lives in Utah with her husband and daughter.

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