Love, loss, friendship, and the betrayals of the past all collide in this first women’s fiction novel from New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Christina Lauren (Autoboyography, Dating You / Hating You).

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.

I have conflicting feelings about this book. There were parts I liked. And other parts I didn’t necessarily enjoy or it made me feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Love and Other Words is a second chance romance type of story. Macy and Elliot met when they were teenagers. Develop a friendship. Become something else and then spend a decade apart only to randomly meet in a city one day and the fire within them about each other starts to burn again.

I think most of my issues with the book arise in the second half. The story is told in the sole POV of Macy; however, in the past and the present. So, as the book goes along, we get to see her and Elliot meeting and then their eventual departure.

Their relationship was fine. It was cute. And I like their early beginnings much better. Macy lost her mother at a young age and she had a loving and supportive father in her life. However, when she met Elliot, it was clear that she found something that she was missing.

I wish the book had been in the POV of Elliot as well. Macy and Elliot’s “breakup” was a traumatic experience for both of them. And we got to see how Macy dealt with it; however, Elliot’s POV regarding the situation in it was glossed over. And that left me feeling uncomfortable given the severity of the situation.

Final Analysis

Love and Other Words was fine. It’s a cute enough second chance romance book. However, the family subplot flows much better than the romance.

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