Elliott and Macy spent every summer together as teenagers and he became her best everything. Then something happened to change everything and they became strangers until a chance meeting brings them face to face. The story is told in alternating timelines between Then and Now. This is a great story with a twist that I didn't see coming.

I loved everything about this book from start to finish. I was a little bit wary after being so underwhelmed with Roomies but this story made me laugh and cry. It will absolutely be one of those book I will reread over and over again.

I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm so ashamed to admit that this is my first Lauren book and I can honestly say after finishing this, in almost one sitting mind you, what in the heck was I waiting for?

Romance books, heck the genre in general has so not been my thing lately but I saw the description for this and something resonated with me so I picked it up and consequently, barely set it down again.

I was completely and utterly captivated by it from the very first page.

This story. This friendship, this....everything.

I don't even have words to describe how much I am in love with Elliot and Macy. With this book. With their story. Their passion and friendship. Their love and heartache. Their loses and tragedies and their strength and resilience. I just want to thumb through the book again and absorb it all over. It experience it all over again, one emotion at a time.

It was so good. So meaningful and yes, romance and all, exactly and everything, I needed.

This looks like a new author. I love her writing style in this cute story about long childhood lovers; a bit anticlimatic to sit through the whole book to uncover what tore the two lovers apart, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was on pins and needles and was guessing my way through but liked how the story tied itself together.

This one pulled at my heartstrings in a way their last book didn't and I binge read it in a day. I do think this belongs more in a New Adult genre more so than women's fiction based on character age and life place. A couple of things itched at me, though, I felt what happened to Elliot in the past was a bit too glossed over (I mean..no spoilers but that was a pretty horrible thing!) and the ending wrapped up so quickly that it made me a little unsteady. I enjoyed reading their story though and wish there were more!

Christina Lauren, what have you done to me??? I am a hot mess right now. I’m talking about ALL the feels, ya’ll. Love and Other Words is an adult contemporary romance that is equal parts coming of age, friends becoming lovers, loss and heartache, and second chance romance—all combined in one potent fictional cocktail. It is 100% amazing!

You know you have a winner on your hands when you lose sight of the fact that you’re reading fiction because the story seems so real. The intricacies of the plot, as well as the complexity of the characters and their interactions with one another, make the story entirely absorbing and believable. I could not read the pages fast enough.

The fact that Elliott and Macy are fellow bibliophiles makes them kindred spirits. However, I have no words to describe my level of adoration of them. I can say the tale of their meeting as awkward tweens, followed by their transition to best friends and then to high school loves, is just as fascinating as the mystery of their fall-out, decade-long separation, and subsequent reunion.

Sporadic flashbacks in books can be a distraction if not handled with care. In this case, the timelines are purposeful and orderly; each chapter alternates between “now” and “then.” It creates a sense of honesty and perfect clarity to the depth of Macy and Elliott’s relationship. I can’t imagine the story unfolding any other way.

The writing duo of Christina Lauren has truly outdone themselves with this tender and deeply moving romance. I don’t have to think twice about giving Love and Other Words five enthusiastic stars.

Be prepared to be taken on emotional roller coaster. You will laugh, cry and everything in between. This story was so moving and beautiful!!

He's my person. He's always been my person. My best friend, my confidant, probably the love of my life.

When Macy was an awkward teenager, her father bought a vacation home in California wine country. The vibrant, noisy, entirely wonderful Petropolous family lived next door, and Macy and Elliot became instant friends. Over the years, their friendship slowly became more. Elliot became Macy’s first kiss. Her first love. Her first time. Then, in one horrific weekend, Macy’s life is ripped to shreds.

Ten years later, she’s a resident in critical care pediatrics. She’s engaged to an older man. She has a couple close friends, but she’s never really let anybody new into her life. Not for real, and not after what happened with Elliot. And then she sees him. It’s a total coincidence, and it completely shakes up her life. With Elliot back in her life, Macy must revisit those painful memories and determine for herself whether she’s truly satisfied with the way things turned out.

Wow. Just... wow. I did not expect to have such feelings. I could cry right now just thinking about it! The longing, the history, the tension. The flawed perfection that is Elliot. I can’t even form complete sentences right now because I am so blown away.

Christina Lauren are quickly becoming one of my favorite author duos. Roomies was one of my favorites of 2017 and I can see Love and Other Words easily sitting atop the list of my favorites of 2018. This book had everything I look for in a romance -- an emotional connection, a deep history, second chances, a few heartbreaking moments, and, most of all, a couple that just clearly belongs together.

I’d give this book all of the stars and every recommendation I possibly can.

I received a free advance copy of Love and Other Words from the publisher (via Netgalley) in exchange for my honest review. Thank you!

‘Love and Other Words’ by Christina Lauren is an adult contemporary romance. For those of you who are new to this author, as I was, Christina Lauren is the combined pen name of long-time writing partners Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings. While this is my first book by the coauthor duo, I had no idea that they have written fourteen books together.

This book is equal parts coming of age, best friends become lovers, heartache and loss, tragedy, and second chances all combines into one piece of fiction. The intricacies of the story and the depth of character in the protagonists make you forget you are reading a work of fiction. The storyline is very believable. Elliott and Macy are fellow bibliophiles which pulled me in right away. What continued to hold me was a story built on intellect and the love of words and books.

The coauthors do a wondrous job of flashbacks. The story is told from Macy, the female protagonist’s, point of view. In most novels, this can be a complete distraction. However, in this story, they have written the dueling time frames in clear and purposeful way. Each chapter alternates between ‘then’ and ‘now’. It is written so seamlessly that you lose sight of the fact that you are moving between the protagonists past and present.

Serendipity plays a huge role in this novel. In their meeting as teenagers and their meeting again as adults. The protagonists find themselves in each other’s orbits once again. I am a huge sucker for stories that believe fate would someday bring these two individuals back to together again. Once they meet in the ‘now’ you are inevitably waiting for the incident that separated them eleven years ago. My only complaint was that there was so much care in the writing of 90% of the book that the ending was short and abrupt.

The story is well written, heartbreaking, gorgeous, joyous and I loved it. You know a book is great when you lose track of the time and that you are reading a work of fiction. Kudos to Christina Lauren! Job well done. I can definitely see this making it to the bestseller list and onto the big screen.

I would like to thank Christina Lauren, Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books Gallery Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The story of Macy and Elliot's love unfolds in the most heart-wrenching yet beautiful way. You will laugh, cry, ache and yearn for more. Beautifully written characters that are believable, relatable and familiar. This book will pull you along and leave you breathless!

I received an advanced reader's copy for my honest review.

The set up of the book was well done in the prologue, and could have really interested me if not for the cursing and the sex scenes. Normally I enjoy a good romance, but for me personally when a book has too many curse words and descriptive sex scenes it distracts from the plot and the character development.

This is a story that alternates 15 years of Macy’s life “then” & “now” style. It walks through Macy and Elliot meeting as young teens, when Macy’s father buys a vacation house next door to where Elliot’s large, rambunctious family lives. Elliot is more sensitive and mature than his brothers, and soon he and Macy are inseparable whenever she’s there. Weekends and school vacations keep Macy and Elliot spending time together immersed in books – and each other. Macy lost her mother, and Elliot fills part of the void. Their friendship progresses into love as the years pass, and they find a connection that neither has had before. One night changes all that, and leads back to the beginning of the book where a chance encounter at a coffee shop brings them face to face again after 10 years.

Macy is a pediatric resident, keeping herself immersed in work and sort of engaged to a talented, stable guy. Elliot is an author and is engaged to his college girlfriend. Meeting again makes them both contemplate if what they have now is really what they want and need.

Overall, the book was fine and even some of the actions and conversations between the main characters were somewhat easy to overlook. Plenty of enjoyable prose, and good premise. Very easy to get caught up in it, and I read it in one day. The disappointing parts were towards the end in how the characters resolve things and in the reason that they had no contact for 10 years. The “twist” that caused the final rift was way too contrived, and didn’t feel sincere. Also, it was a little hard to believe that between all the connections Macy and Elliot had, no one would have any contact or knowledge of what had happened.

I received an ARC from NetGalley, and am sharing my honest opinion.

Thank you NetGalley, and Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books for a digital ARC of this book. I loved it! I enjoyed watching the relationship between Macy and Elliot develop and grow throughout the novel. The fact that the story was told from both their childhood and adult lives made it interesting and hard to put down!

Macy and Elliot were each other’s first loves. Destined to be together until Macy’s heart is broken. And neither is every the same again. This story is told as a dual narrative of teenage Macy & Elliot and what unfolds after an unexpected reunion as adults.
This book was not my cup of tea. It should have been, based on the cover copy. I enjoy dual narrative, and who doesn’t love a good soulmate story? But had I not received this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, I wouldn’t have made it past the first few chapters.
The story in and of itself is great. I love Macy and Elliot’s nerdy, book obsessed teenage friendship that turns into something more. I think Macy was a great, complex character in her motivations and choices. However…
The first thing that turned me off was all the foul language. It did taper off some as the book continued, but there was no need for it at all. It didn’t serve as character development in any way, shape, or form. And then there was so much sex in this book. Pages and pages of really descriptive sex that I skipped. I would turn a few pages, read a few words. Oooops. Nope. Still going at it. Skip a few more. Again, I felt this was completely unnecessary for the overall story. Especially the graphicness of it.
Another (could have been great) story ruined by excessive swearing and sex. A disappointment for sure.

"Elliot was kind of my Everyfriend." Macy and Elliott are the heart of this book. Their coming of age story is beautiful and carefully explored by creative and poetic storytellers, Christina Lauren.

"Favorite word?" he whispers.

I don't even hesitate: "You."

If Macy and Elliott are the heart of this engaging book, then words and thoughts are the soul of this story. Yes, we learn some facts about Macy- she is a pediatric resident, she is still close to her college roommate and she is engaged. But, the real story of Macy is how she deals with love and loss- with life.

Macy tells her own story in alternating chapters that cover "Now" and "Then". "Then" begins 15 years earlier when Macy meets Elliott on vacation. Macy tells us her thoughts and feelings in an honest and blunt way. The alternating timelines are easy to follow because even though the time period changes, Macy does not. Her voice remains crystal and pure, always somewhat child-like. I wonder if the authors intended this?

There are so many marvelous moments and descriptions in this book such as, "Getting a free Saturday feels like being ten years old and holding a twenty-dollar bill in a candy store." And the romantic yearnings and explorations of Macy and Elliot are real and enticing- wow, they affected me!

Readers will bond with Macy and Elliott and their secrets. I did wonder why Elliot, and did I say he's adorable, didn't do more to reach out to Macy- it wouldn't have been that hard!

The book ends with a moving emotional climax. I recommend this book. The author duo are bestsellers for a reason. I do question whether it is really Women's Fiction. To me, it is more a Young Adult or New Adult genre, which is the main reason I gave it 4 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and Threshold, Pocket books for the ARC.

I’ve loved Christina Lauren since they were writing fanfic back in the day, so I read absolutely everything they wrote. When I saw that they wrote something a little different than they normally do, of course I snatched it up. How could I not?

This book is beautifully written, told in flashbacks between now and Macy’s childhood. Meeting Elliott and falling in love. Favorite words (which was my favorite part of their friendship) and updates about happenings during their weekday life.

I kept wondering what happened that was so earth shattering that would keep them apart. They obviously loved each other when they were kids AND now. And when the big reveal happened... I ugly cried. I admit it.

I read this book during visits to the VA waiting for the doctor. It kept me sane and helped me deal with the endless waiting we do at the hospital. It was heartbreaking and beautiful and I loved every word.

I absolutely LOVED this book, so must that I finished and reread all over again. I have ready nearly 10 Christian Lauren and this by far is my favorite. I was so very excited at how much I thoroughly enjoyed this new spin from CL. Keep doing what you are doing and I will be a forever fan. Can't recommend this book enough.

Sweet, heartbreaking, romantic, funny, steamy, and books – the main characters fall in love while reading books together. Really loved this. It was honest and realistic.

Macy loses her mother when she's 10, and a few years later her father, heeding one of the suggestions left by his wife, buys a weekend home in Healdsburg, California. Macy immediately meets Elliot, the youngest son of the large Greek family next door. They bond over books in the closet-turned-library her dad creates for her and he becomes the only person she can talk to about everything.

Eleven years later, however, Macy is a pediatric resident, living with a fiancé she barely knows, when she sees the long-estranged Elliot. Something has happened in the intervening years that caused Macy to sever all ties with Elliot, but (obviously) now that they've reconnected, lots of emotions, memories, etc come back to the surface.

The past and present develop in alternating chapters.

When I got the ARC from NetGalley, I was worried this would be floppy, vapid, "chick lit," (sorry chick lit), but the characters are really well drawn, the writing is crisp and clever, and it was just a good story about love lost and found and being willing to be vulnerable.

***ARC received for an honest review***

<b>"He's my person. He's always been my person. My best friend, my confidant, probably the love of my life.</b>

Told in elegant flashbacks and painful present tense - we build a story of completely pure love and then watch it shatter.

Macy and Elliot meet when Macy's dad buys a vacation home in Northern California. A place for Macy and her dad to escape when Macy's mom's death becomes to devastating. Elliot and his boisterous family become Macy's escape through high school. The reading-obsessed duo hangs out in Macy's reading nook - falling perfectly in love over 4 achingly sweet years.

And then we have current Macy and Elliot - him confused - her locked up tight. Engaged to another man - Macy is sad and defensive and hiding a big fat secret.

I loved every single almost-crying moment. Macy and Elliot made me fall in love - and broke my heart - then brought me to the pinnacle before tossing me back down. Again. I love the perfect amount of angst. I don't want a book just smashing my heart - punching me in the gut. But a book that intertwines the hurt and the happy like this? Perfectly bittersweet.

<b>"'Why can't everyone be like you?' 'I can be enough of your world that it feels like everyone is.'"</b>

I have a love/hate with Christina Lauren. But this book has taken the duo to a new level for me. I'm gonna bask bask bask my smug little butt off tomorrow. Happy Reader.

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One thing I know after reading ‘Love and Other Words’ is that that’s Christina Lauren’s searing, literary-tinged writing is the book’s standout, more so because of a romance built on intellect, the love of words and books. Lauren takes on the second-chance romance with aplomb here and I’m grudgingly admitting that the unusual mix of circumstances and events do make this scenario more plausible than many others that I’ve come across, thereby making Elliot/Macy a pairing that aren’t back together just because they decided to give it a go once again.

Told with interspersed flashbacks but only in Macy’s POV, Elliot’s and Macy’s story is one of teenage love, love lost and then found again many years later, all because a mistake turns into a history of grief and tragedy that neither could have expected. In the present, serendipity—written as fate that would inevitably draw these one-time lovers back together again—forces an awkward reunion in a coffee shop and the moment Elliot and Macy are back in each other’s orbits, their coming back together despite the circumstances is written and seen as inevitability. If the timeline in the past is one of anticipatory dread to the moment where they are torn apart, the present crawls a little, almost moving backwards as it constantly points towards the upcoming revelation of what really happened before closing with a short (and rather abrupt) resolution thereafter.

Structurally, ‘Love and Other Words’ is well-balanced between past and present, as the measured but slow pacing of Elliot’s and Macy’s relationship builds to a point where you cannot—or would not—look away from the train wreck that’s coming. The rocky road back together isn’t necessarily an enjoyable a journey for every reader nonetheless; Macy’s engagement and Elliot’s quick breakup with his girlfriend mean that secondary characters do play a role here, and it could be argued that cheating (sort-of) had been a significant part of the whole mess.

There’s breadth and depth in the storytelling and insights given into the emotional damage they’ve both carried throughout the years, though it is harder to believe however, that they could gravitate towards each other again that easily and quickly after 11 years. I actually wanted to know if there was really any comeuppance for the guilty parties involved which felt glossed over, but Lauren does not get into the tic-for-tac business nonetheless. This is my own cynical and vindictive self speaking clearly, as the focus steadfastly remains on the idea of star-crossed lovers and soul mates who, after having established their belonging to each other in their teens, seem destined to always love and find each other again no matter the distance. Elliot/Macy are, by this time, above the mistakes of their past, though I would have been happier seeing a more concrete resolution that didn’t just span the last 2 or so chapters wrapping up their HEA that prioritised their moving on and moving in together.

‘Love and Other Words’ does however, suggest that there’s only ‘the one’ without whom the other can’t function properly—it’s an idea I’m vaguely uncomfortable with, despite the commonly-held romantic notion perpetuated in fiction that 2 people are simply biding time (with others) before they can get back to each other. Furthermore, Elliot's assumption that they could have waved the past away with an explanation of his drunken mistake without considering the ramifications of the betrayal felt overly optimistic as well; that it should be forgiven because he hadn't known he was making the mistake at the time just doesn't feel justified enough.

But maybe I’m grasping at straws for a pretty entertaining read; the all-is-right-with-the-world ending is what Elliot/Macy’s dreams are supposed to be made of after all, isn’t it?