SYNOPSIS
The heart may hide, but it never forgets.
The first women’s fiction novel from New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Christina Lauren (Autoboyography, Dating You / Hating You).
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 teen 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 reading 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.
*****Patty’s Review*****
*****4.5 STARS*****
{ARC Generously Provided by Publisher}
I give myself three more seconds to look at him, and it’s like another punch to the gut. He’s my person. He’s always been my person. My best friend, my confidant, probably the love of my life. And I’ve spent the last eleven years being angry and self-righteous. But at the end of the day, he tore a hole in us, and fate ripped it wide open.
LOVE AND OTHER WORDS is by far, different from any of the previous books I have read by Christina Lauren. I was expecting a funny and equally sexy romantic comedy but what I got was a slow building story of first love, lost love, deep sorrow, and ultimately a second chance at a once in a lifetime kind of love. I really didn’t know how to feel about this book. The first half, for me, was too slow. We get the entire story told in the Heroine’s, POV, and at times I wished that we could get inside the Hero’s head. The traveling from past to present helped to depict the depth of the feelings the main characters had for each other. Their shared connection through their mutual love of books made the story so painfully sweet. I’m not the biggest fan of the ”slow build”, but for authors I love, I will persevere and I’m so glad that I did because, by the time I got halfway through this one, I fell so hopelessly in love! This is a ”wait for it” type of story. It sneaks up on you slowly and then before you know it, you will have tears streaming down your cheeks and be overcome by overwhelming emotions!!
Macy and Elliot met when they were around twelve. After Macy’s mother passed away, she and her father were beyond grief-stricken, but her mother left a journal of instructions for her father to follow in order to help him raise and care for their beloved daughter. Her mother asked that if it looked like life was getting Macy down, that her father needed to take her somewhere to get her mind off of her sorrows and bring back the light of happiness in her eyes. So Macy’s dad buys a summer home about an hour’s drive away from San Francisco, and it’s during her first walk through her bedroom that she meets a boy with dark curly hair and soulful hazel eyes hanging out in her walk-in closet, engrossed in a book.
The two hit it off from day one and over the next several years they become the best of friends. Always waiting underneath the surface are feelings deeper than friendship and no matter how badly Macy wants to move to the next level past ”friends”, her fear of things going wrong and losing Elliot forever, keep the two from becoming more. Elliot wants to be more so desperately but is ever the patient friend because he too couldn’t imagine his life without Macy in it. Then something happens that tears them apart and eleven years go by before they come face to face again.
Macy and Elliot are almost thirty and it would seem that in all the time they’ve spent apart, neither have really been living their lives. They’ve been merely existing. Macy is a pediatric surgeon in her first year of residency. She’s engaged to a forty-two-year-old single father who she has at best, lukewarm feelings for. You will feel like shaking her when you realize that she seems to be content with a relationship that she could live with or without just as easily. The minute she and Elliot run into each other it’s like she’s waking up from an eleven-year coma. And it’s the same for Elliot too. I wanted them to go back to what they had but the wall made up of pain and incredible hurt still seems to exist between them. I was dying to find out what had happened all those years ago to cause such a terrible rift and still had such a hold on the two of them.
When everything is revealed, my heart split wide open and I had tears streaming down my face. What an emotional rollercoaster that I never expected to ride while reading a Christina Lauren book!! These two can write gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, and emotionally gripping stories just as amazing as their romantic comedies! I am a fan for life!
Here are my overall ratings:
Hero: 5
Heroine: 4.5
Plot: 5
Angst: 4.5
Steam: 4
Chemistry Between Hero & Heroine: 5
LOVE AND OTHER WORDS releases on April 10th!! I HIGHLY recommend it!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2GGrxkg
iBooks: https://apple.co/2q465P1
How to kick off a great summer in the Hamptons:
Happily married to her college sweetheart, Poppy lived a blessed life with the husband of her dreams. Then everything changed. She is no longer a wife. She is no longer the envy of her single friends. Now, people look at her with pity as they whisper a single word behind her back.
Behind his beautiful eyes
New York Times & USA Today bestselling author Nina Lane writes hot, sexy romances about professors, bad boys, candy makers, and protective alpha males who find themselves consumed with love for one woman alone. Originally from California, Nina holds a PhD in Art History and an MA in Library and Information Studies, which means she loves both research and organization. She also enjoys traveling and thinks St. Petersburg, Russia is a city everyone should visit at least once. Although Nina would go back to college for another degree because she’s that much of a bookworm and a perpetual student, she now lives the happy life of a full-time writer.
Retribution – Andrea Bills
Shakedown – Jen Talty
Scorched – Casey Hagen
Liar – LeTeisha Newton
Exfiltration – Jillian Anselmi
Invictus by Kylie Hillman 
UNWILLING by LK Collins 
One week. No future. No past. No more.
Aleatha Romig is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who lives in Indiana. She grew up in Mishawaka, graduated from Indiana University, and is currently living south of Indianapolis. Aleatha has raised three children with her high school sweetheart and husband of nearly thirty years. Before she became a full-time author, she worked days as a dental hygienist and spent her nights writing. Now, when she’s not imagining mind-blowing twists and turns, she likes to spend her time a with her family and friends. Her other pastimes include reading and creating heroes/anti-heroes who haunt your dreams!
Wrapped Up In Reading 