Omg this is SUCH a lovely queer graphic novel romance!! The author did such a good job of capturing this budding romance and how the characters start to speak each others languages. I love how the illustrations give everyone such LIFE as well. Highly recommend!!

I loved the book.
From the characters as individuals, to the slow way they get to know each other, the spectacular way the speech bubbles were written and demonstrated and the story. I loved these details, they made the book and demonstrated the grow understanding between the to characters very well.
I liked that each character had their own things to deal with, but they still managed to not put it over the relationship they were creating. The development of the story was fantastic!!
Furthermore, the drawings with the line and the watercolors adapt perfectly to the story, create and give the story its own tone. And they highlight the characters and their feelings about the things they are dealing with.
I loved it and recommend it. Super fantastic!!

I loved this! The watercolor artwork was different and original. The story was good, and as someone who utterly failed to learn other languages it was relatable and interesting. I particularly liked some of the creative ways they used the speech bubbles to demonstrate how the characters were understanding the languages; at first you saw the original words and the translations beside it (indicating how the character was thinking) and over time they blended together until you could tell the character was simply speaking the language without the extra steps. I liked it a lot to be honest; graphic novels are at their best when the visual element is used to aid in the storytelling and this one was a perfect example of how to do that.

I always have a hard time giving graphic novels a rating. The story wasn’t the deepest or most compelling thing I have read, but that’s often the case with graphic novels. The artwork however was brilliant.

My Rating: “B”
Converted Rating: 4-Stars

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free ARC. This honest review was left voluntarily.

A beautiful cosy love story, with stunningly simple art work which stands outs.

The most simplest but beautiful love story between two character who find each other when they needed each other and it went from friendship to love.

The books I needed to help kick off my reading this year!

Special thanks to NetGalley and IDW publishing for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. It was incredibly sweet, the characters were relatable, and the romance was compelling (but a bit underdeveloped in my opinion). The story starts of with a layout that is hard to read, but I think the layout does a great job showing the difficulty the mc has with the multitude of languages around her.

This was an entertaining read! The characters were interesting, I enjoyed the art style and the ending was well done. My favourite part of the novel were the little speech bubbles that changed with the relationship that formed between the main characters.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for this Arc!

This graphic novel is very sweet and explores the relationship between two of the main characters. I’m a beginner in French and as I read I came to the realization I understood some of what was being said, which I felt as if I related to protagonists of this graphic novel.

I do wish it was longer and we could see how Ping felt as the story went, however it’s still such a beautiful piece.

Now the graphics were so pretty, you can definitely notice the shift in colors and it ties it very well with the story.

*very cute queer lesbian love story about Sarah in paris meeting ping
*loved the art style. A lot of colors when shes with ping and blue when at the office. Also the language when shes at the office is SO boring with technical words. Which is very purposeful and reflective of the job
*made me want to dive back into my spanish practice

This was so cute! I love the mix of languages through out but still in English for us to follow. I think my favorite though was when it became one language and you could tell it was the characters truly understanding each other, not just in language either. The art work was beautiful. I absolutely love this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and IDW Publishing for the e-arc!

Love Languages follows Sarah Huxley as she moves from London to Paris. Unexpectedly, she encounters Ping Loh, and these two form a connection through shared experiences. The artwork of this book was vibrant compared to the story's tone, which is interesting. The story was done well and the use of language was a great touch. I would recommend checking this out when it is published.

A very sweet romance between two foreigners living in Paris.
A fun and light art style, sweet characters. Loved the multi-lingual patchwork Sarah and Ping spoke to each other with.

Wish it was longer, really explored more of the relationship between them, but it was still a very soft and lovely read.

This was a cute and wholesome story that explored themes of love and friendship overcoming language barriers.

This was such a sweet quick read! This graphic novel follows two women who have moved to France for work, both learning French who dive in to a fast friendship. Ping was such a lovely character, she was so full of joy and smiles. I found Sarah, who is our main character, a bit dry at points but I felt that the struggles of moving to a country where you don't know much of the language came across well through her. I really related to the struggle to understand fluently - I often feel this with my Polish in-laws, picking up the odd few words but not understanding enough to engage!
The illustrations throughout were vibrant and full of life. I particularly liked how Albon managed to depict multiple languages in the same sentence while still making the text legible and engaging.
*Spoiler*
I felt that the romance sort of came from nowhere. I knew going in to the book that there was an element of sapphic romance but it took me by surprise and I think I would have rated this higher if it was easier to anticipate? It just didn't feel like it flowed with the narrative as easily as Ping & Sarah's friendship.

I enjoyed the book. I especially enjoyed the scenic pictures of Paris. Which reminds me fondly of my trips there.. I did find all the languages both intriguing and confusing and overwhelming.

Thank you, NetGalley for the digital arc of this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for me to review!

Wowowowowow I really enjoyed this one, it was beautifully made and the story is adorable!! I also relate to French being very difficult to learn. ;) The watercolour style of the art lent itself very well to the interwoven languages, and the overlapping speech bubbles was genius (although I did wish some of them were less overlapped so I could actually read the text).

(First Netgalley book finished this year!! How will any of the rest compare??)

The artwork was beautiful and vibrant, and the dialog in different languages was incredibly well blended.
The scene at the museum was so relatable!! The way the main character overthinks everything couldn't be better depicted. It felt very realistic, and it was like seeing someone's daily life through their eyes.

As someone who speaks French as a second language and lived in Paris for two short-ish stints, there was a lot about this book that was very relatable. The visual depictions of the animated Paris streets were probably my favourite part. I also appreciated the story this book told about how we experience language - I think that was the most masterful part of the book.

Where the story fell down for me was as in the character and relationship development. Even though we get more time with Sarah and her thoughts, it felt like it was shallowly circling around the same few things and the romance was not clearly seeded. Like I guess it's a friends-to-lovers, bi(gay?) awakening but the jump is awkward. I don't even think it would helped much to have more of Ping's POV, because some of Sarah's more banal interiority could been swapped out for some more insight.

That said, it's a quick read that is visually interesting and I think readers who know some French or can read written Chinese would enjoy the language component.

This graphic novel has my whole heart! Not only is it a sweet and soft sapphic romance, it's also gently but deeply introspective about love, languages and unlocking something profoundly intimate. Two strangers in a strange land, with no common fluent language, push through the communication barrier to foster a friendship that blooms into love. Being a multilingual person, who is addicted to Duolingo, and have moved continents in a lifetime, this premise is very close to my heart. But what's truly beautiful about the book is how the art itself gives texture to the role language and understanding plays in this relationship, in how the text bubbles of translation change as each of the characters' relationship with understanding each other and the world around them changes. I am in awe of how sneakily and beautifully the author/illustrator pulls off what could have been a very pretentious pondering about language and cognition. Knocking off a star because of how abruptly it ends though.

Love Languages is a graphic novel about making connections across language barriers in a sometimes lonely world. We follow Sarah, who is struggling at work in France when she's still learning the language. She runs into Ping, an au pair from Hong Kong, and the two are instantly drawn to each other. The women speak a mixture of French, English, and Cantonese while Sarah fights her insecurities. The romance aspect of the story is somewhat rushed at the end, but the overall themes hit the mark. This read like a graphic memoir, and I enjoyed the watercolor art style and the way the different languages were conveyed. Thanks to Top Shelf and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a unique watercolor style graphic novel telling the story of two foreigners who meet in Paris and fall in love, despite language barriers.

The depiction of the text translations was particularly interesting, as Ping and Sarah began to understand each other more, ending with the translations wrapped around and hiding the original text bubbles in a visually creative way.

As someone who's really pulled in by characters, I didn't feel particularly attached or invested in these two, but it was a sweet love story.

I received this ARC from @netgalley and publisher @idwpublishing. The opinions are my own.

Love Languages will be released on May 6, 2025.