Okay, there are a lot of things I liked about Love and Other Words and then there are some things I have questions about. This is a really sweet, romantic book with a lot of elements that I think readers in the romance/lighter fare women's fic genre will enjoy - but I do think that readers who are looking for a little more depth will see this as some sort of lightweight Nicholas Sparks novel - elements of The Best of Me come to mind.
I won't go too much into synopsis here - if you're reading this review you likely already know the premise of this book. You know that Macy and Elliot spent their adolescence together, they were best friends who became more than friends and then something happened that caused Macy to completely drop Elliot from her life. Eleven years after the thing they run into each other and it completely disrupts their lives.
Things I liked:
-Elliot obviously. What's not to like about the super sweet book boy who's always pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose or how he listens so intently to Macy and gives actual quality feedback. He's basically a unicorn and he's the sweetest.
-All the chapters that take place in the past. I really enjoyed Elliot and Macy's friendship, how comfortable they were with each other. I think that many aspects of their relationship will be relatable for people and this relationship is believable.
-Pacing and writing style. This book is about 400 pages and is a very quick read. I read the majority of it in a day. And that wasn't me sitting around all day long doing nothing. The writing is good, very accessible and didn't feel the need to roll my eyes.
The Things that don't work for me:
-Macy in the present. Okay, this might be an unpopular opinion - but come on girl, you can't go from zero to sixty in the matter of a week. Part of my issue with this is that we know that something really bad happened in the past, but we don't find out what it is until almost the last chapter of the book. So I get that it's been eleven years and she was heart broken all that time and couldn't get over the thing, but I feel like we should have had more internal conflict here or something because even though we get the back story in the end it felt really clichéd.
-Convenience. So let me explain. I felt that the supporting characters were a little flat and conveniently moved the story in one direction. Especially Sean. There's supposed to be conflict throughout this book, but everything happens so conveniently for the characters. I wanted there to be a little more conflict and emotional toil.
-THE THING Okay, it's not necessarily the thing itself (that was bad though) - it's that we don't know what exactly happened until the end of the book! And then I'm supposed to believe that after the air is cleared everything is just okay? Just like that? IDK. I have a hard time believing that after eleven years of holding onto the hurt and heartbreak she would just let it go so easily. But that's just me. Also this is the MAJOR CONFLICT of the book and it seemed resolved very easily with little processing on either party's behalf. In my opinion this would have been stronger if we would have been able to watch the characters work through this.
So, overall this isn't a perfect book in any way, but I did enjoy reading it. I think that there is a certain group of readers who will really love this - it'll be right in their wheelhouse and that is amazing. I enjoyed the book and would definitely pick up another Christina Lauren novel - but I can't overlook the areas that suffered in this one. If you're looking for something with a little more depth and emotional pull to it, I would probably pass on this. But if you're looking for something that is sweet and quick - check this out.
Bookgawker's Buy it or Borrow it Suggestion: Borrow It
Buy It
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