Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren Review

Disclaimer: I am reviewing these books from the way I felt about it and it's all my personal opinion love you guys!

Summary: 

This is a romance novel that stars Macy Sorensen who is very driven in her career and engaged to a man that has stability and is a dad. One day she went out with a friend for coffee and while they were enjoying their time, she saw her old friend Elliot Petropoulos. They haven’t seen each other in years and we don’t know why in the beginning. As the story goes on it switches POV’s between the past and the present of Macy and Elliot's friendship and finding out the mysteries of their relationship and why it ended so suddenly. In the present, you see them both understand each other more and maybe they can even rekindle something that was lost. 

Spoiler free: 

This book I gave a 3.75/5 stars. I personally would categorize not only friends to lovers but also a second chance romance. I love the switch between the past and the present because I just love reading their friendship as kids into their teenage years. He was there for her when she needed it when she was younger I feel like and it was a lot more emotional than I thought it was gonna be. Friends to lovers is one of my favorite genres and this one did not disappoint in that area.

I do really like Elliot's character and his family but I wish we got to see a little bit more of them personally. This is also kind of a spicy book so if you do read this book be cautious if you need to skip a chapter do so, I had to skip but I can’t remember the specific chapters. Although I enjoyed the story very much it just didn’t hit me as much as I thought it would. There are other grief triggers that some people might need so do your research on this book. Overall I did like it and would recommend it to people and it did touch my heartstrings. 

Spice warning!

If you want to try and read this without a lot of spice adult content these are some of the pages you can look out for are(it doesn’t include all of them just speaking about adult content there are some conversations they have sporadically throughout the book that may be hard to navigate skipping without me physically showing you, so read at your own risk and know what you want to skip.):

• 131-132

• 151-152

• 173-175

• 195-196 is just a kissing scene though

• 259-268

• 309-312

• 321-331

• 349-356

Spoilers!:

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

This book really shows you not to settle. The other man she was going to marry literally made me so bad but she did to begin with him. Just because it might be ‘stable’ doesn’t mean it is a good relationship. I really did like Elliot. I found him to be a really cool character and loved his personality. The thing I loved most about this book is the library he had at the getaway house. Because of this book I want to have one myself. Emma and Elliot later on though she got on my nerves like how could you take advantage of a man who is drunk but he never should have put himself in that position. I also feel that when he invited Macy over for thanksgiving, he shouldn't have invited Rachel.

I loved the relationship Macy had with her dad. I am very close to my dad and I felt that connection. I felt for her after learning about her moms death and her dads death later on. The pain that she must have been feeling makes my heart ache. I loved Macy's friends as well when they hang out because I think they help her and are there for her when she needs it. This picnic scene was interesting but I wondered why Sean did what he did. It seemed that the whole time he wasn’t jealous until that moment and the whole point was to meet her friends and he didn’t really want to have anything to do with him. THAT MADE ME SO MAD! Like bro she makes an effort with your friends, she deserved better. 

The thing that really ruined it for me was all of the overly sexual talk because personally I don’t read that too much. Kissing scenes and some jokes don’t bother me because I grew up in public school and because my humor is broken. I just don’t like it to go too far.  I skip it when I personally get uncomfortable but some of the scenes might be too much for others while being mild to someone else. This is one reason why I want to make content like this to help others who feel the same way I do with certain content. The friends to lovers plot and the relationships they had with themselves and others that weren't sexual was what saved it for me. I would recommend this book if you don’t care about spice or if you are prepared to skip scenes like I did.