5 stars for the artwork in Love Languages - beautifully illustrated and colored, the artwork is lively, the colors set the mood and there's a lot of energy and emotion in the lines and colors.

The story is 4 stars for me as the characters felt a bit flat and the supporting characters were a bit simplistic but I appreciate the depictions of awkward conversations using snippets of different languages and gestures as well as the evolution of language acquisition for both Sarah and Ping, the main characters.

I did enjoy this quick read, I loved seeing all the details of Parisian and Hong Kong life and I think fans of middle/high school graphic novels would enjoy Love Languages.

Many thanks to NetGalley and IDW Publishing for the e-arc.

*3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars*

This was a lushly colored adult graphic novel (but appropriate for YA, too, in my opinion) about a lonely FMC trying to find a connection while living and working abroad in France. Our FMC eventually does make a connection, and we get to follow their friendship that follows, both speaking different native languages and meeting in the middle with French. As someone who lived abroad in South Korea for three years, I really enjoyed the depiction of learning a new language and trying to keep up in a culture different than yours surrounded by a language you are trying to learn. It was very relatable and well done.

Things I really enjoyed:
- The use of color in various scenes to depict emotions and mental states
- The depiction of learning a second language and living in a country and culture different than your own
- The friendship the two fmcs developed over time

Things that weren't for me:
- There were a lot of expositional moments that didn't feel like they fit the graphic novel. Sometimes there was a lot of telling not showing.
- Things got quite descriptive of work and other things at time, when I felt they could have been shown a different way. These parts dragged for me.

Overall, this was an enjoyable experience. I appreciated the ending and the journey our main protagonist went through to get to the end. I definitely recommend this book to other expats! You will feel seen and understood through this graphic novel.

I didn't know what to expect from this book, but I am pleasantly surprised.
It was a beautiful, touching story about two women who did not understand each other's languages, but nevertheless understood everything about each other. This book does a great job of showing what conversations are like between people who speak multiple languages. I laughed, smiled and felt my heart grow. On top of all this, the art is beautiful. I recommend this if you want to read something quick that will make you feel better.

I enjoyed this graphic novel about language, friendship and finding a place to belong.

Though I liked the art and the story was sweet and a bit sad, the novel was a bit hard to read at times. There are a lot of word-things going on. But mixing English, French and Cantonese was an interesting choice and must have been hard to illustrate. Like I said, a bit difficult to read and takes longer time to get through than most graphic novels. But I would definitely recommend this one to anyone who likes to take their time and reflect on what they’re reading. And who likes languages.

It’s also a sweet story of a budding friendship, a sad one about not fitting in at work, in a language, in an community and a hopeful one about falling in love.

/ Denise

I decided to give this a try because I loved the idea of a romance where understanding and communication played such a role in the dynamic. This had a lot of sweet moments between Ping and Sarah, but also in some ways it was kind of a boring read, especially with Sarah’s work which I found hard to follow. Overall I enjoyed it, but it didn’t quite wow me or hit me in the emotions like I would have liked.

Love Languages is a heart-warming graphic novel that so perfectly describes the motion that goes from feeling lost and lonely in a foreign country to slowly, yet suddenly finding friendship, love, and home in that same foreign land.

We follow Sarah, an accomplished English consultant who works in Paris for an American multinational company. Her career's success, however, does not bring her happiness. Struggling with the French language and culture, her life is literally tinted blue. She feels quite lonely and unsatisfied, especially outside of her job, and even at work the eloquent language that she and her colleagues use seems void of any meaning, utter corporate gibberish.

It is Ping, a carefree girl from Hong Kong, that will suddenly bring color and meaning to her life and to the graphic novel. Starting as an awkward initial exchange - made difficult with the struggle to communicate across languages - a fortuitous encounter slowly evolves into a beautiful friendship that will make Sarah change her perspective on life. Ping, in her bright yellow jacket, turns out to be the bright sun that Sarah needed. And what started as choppy communication blossoms into a language that is beautifully and utterly theirs.

I seriously loved this graphic novel, both its story and its style, especially in the choice of colors and in the way emotions and language exchanges are represented. I found extremely ingenious the way speech bubbles were used to include the translation, and how the translation bubbles progressively came to overlap completely the original language bubbles, to represent Sarah's improving understanding of French and Cantonese. Color is also very important in the narration. Sarah's work life is literally blue and her colleagues almost grotesque, drawn in a style that reminded me of Toulouse-Lautrec's. In contrast, Paris turns bright and colorful when Sarah is with Ping, and the tone of the whole graphic novel suddenly becomes warmer.

Overall, I found Love Languages utterly original and enjoyable and I particularly related to this story given that I myself personally experienced living abroad and finding love and home there. James Albon was able to create a love song that celebrates the deep and transformative connection that one can feel for another person, and how that one special relationship can change your place in the world and the way you look at everything that surrounds you. In its depiction of both the excitements and fears that are common to all love stories and friendships, the graphic novel also reveals how hard it is sometimes to find the correct words to describe your emotions, and the irony of that happening when you are fluent in multiple languages, which is literally my everyday struggle.

This was a really cute graphic novel! I liked how much language was involved in the story itself and how big of a role it played in the relationship between the two main characters. The art style of this was also soso gorgeous.

My only complaint is that the writing itself felt a little choppy, which really took me out of the story.

Thank you Netgalley and Top Shelf Productions for the advanced copy!

First off, the are is lovely, and the representation of the multilingual communication is VERY cool, especially at the point where the conversations start to flow. I did like this graphic novel, but a couple of things kept me from loving it.

One, the text-heavy format of the narrative didn't always work for me. It's strange to read a graphic novel that tells as much as it shows. Maybe if the text had felt more necessary, I would have liked it more--a graphic/prose hybrid isn't inherently a problem for me--but it sometimes felt like the text overexplained things that could have been conveyed through more imagery. I'm also... not really sure what happened in the third act breakup? That part felt really rushed, and I wish we'd either spent more time on it or had it explained more. If you're going to make your graphic story text-heavy, why not use it to explain what's happening more clearly? I found that the higher volume of text blocks ended up distracting me from the flow of the story by drawing my attention back to its format, or drawing my eye to the text and away from the images. I'm sure that's a matter of personal taste, but I was aware of it the whole time I was reading.

Two, and maybe this is a result of what I describe above, the romance between the main characters felt rushed. I felt like I was told that they fell hard for each other, but it didn't quite fit with the pacing. A lot of time is spent on the development of their communication, which I really appreciated, but the romance element felt abrupt.

This is the kind of three-star rating that's the result of me really enjoying some aspects of the book and being lukewarm on others. The text blocks left me with the sense that I'd been told to think something, rather than witnessing those emotions unfold more naturally. Perhaps I'm being too rigid in my expectations regarding what makes a graphic novel, but I finished this book feeling emotionally distanced from the characters. On the other hand, I've only read a handful of fictional works that spend as much discussing language as this one does. It's not too esoteric, either. It captures the *feeling* of navigating communication barriers without getting too lost in the weeds of linguistic tomfoolery.

I received this book as an ARC through NetGalley. My thoughts are my own.

I mean it was fine, but I could come to like the art style. I did like the multilinguality and how the story showed the struggle to communicate in a foreign language. It was cery cool. I didn't exactly like the pacing tho. It seemed off – at times it was too slow, and then it was too fast...

I'd like to send my thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing a free pdf version of this comic in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely adored this graphic novel -- it's one of my absolute favorites that I've ever read at this point. The art was stunning and bursting with life and color. And I absolutely adored Ping and Sarah's characters and growth from strangers to friends to lovers. The language aspects of this book were so cool, I loved seeing so many represented here.

Thank you to James Albon, NetGalley and IDW Publishing for access to the digital ARC of this graphic novel in exchange for an unbiased review.

In the pandemic some of us took up making sourdough bread, I hopped on Duolingo and started to learn French. Not re-learn as in I had taken it in high school but as in learn, never having before taken a class or had a close relative speak in it or any other close connection to that language other than I thought why not?

This past history and if might flex here, very long streak, in Duolingo French learning was one of the reasons I was drawn into the story of Sarah and Ping, two "foreigners" living in Paris learning to acclimate to the culture and language. Sarah hailed from London and had a very soul-crushing corporate job. Ping comes from Hong Kong and after deciding not to teach to the test in schools there became an au pair for a rich Chinese family.

These two happen upon each other and thus begins a sweet if not awkward at first friendship where the two find themselves using English, French, Cantonese and even hand gestures to communicate with one another. I immediately related to the French slang that was not taught in Duolingo or as Sarah recalls nor in her college classes. The uncomfortable feeling of trying to comprehend and then make a statement that can be comprehended is conveyed beautifully in this story.

Sarah and Ping finding their own way to communicate was one speed bump to overcome but soon Sarah realizes that she may also be feeling more than friendship for Ping and when the realization that Ping is not just an amie but her amie, she jeopardizes the friendship and more.

The panels are beautiful, the translations are helpful and the very relatable uncomfortable human emotions of feeling foreign in a country and foreign in a relationship are worth the read.

This was short, cute and beautiful.
Not only the illustrations but also the language and the incredible visual representation.
Kudos for not discussing sexuality but showing love. My heart for Ping

I absolutely adored this story. It was sweet and had me rooting for them to get together and I was very happy with how it ended :)<3

“When I speak another language, I can almost catch a glimpse, an entrevoit, of myself as another person, and this new person can be described with new, exciting, scintillating words. The barrier between language and thought seems to melt away…of course, this lucidity is only fleeting.”

As a cultural and linguistic mediation student, this graphic novel was the cutest and best way to describe so many of these linguistic related feelings.
I loved the watercolours and the different shades used to express a certain mood. It’s definitely a light read, but there are also important messages and topics, such as the feeling of loneliness in a new city, the emptiness, the work-burnout, the academic path considered as the best and only one…and of course, languages and love.

I love the way dialogues are translated and how, as the chemistry between the main characters grows, they become clearer and wrapped in ribbons. There’s a very interesting work around the linguistic area, and I definitely appreciate it!

Thanks to Net Galley, who gave me a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel, which captures the brain numbing confusion and open-hearted wonder of learning a new language in a place foreign to you. Using language as a sort of lens, the author explores a budding relationship and all of its related assumptions, delights, epiphanies, and misunderstandings.

Our two main characters, one an English woman and the other a woman from Hong Kong, meet while living abroad in Paris. Each is studying French, and ends up teaching and learning each other's native tounge. They speak in a mix of French, Cantonese, and a English that will tickle the brain of fellow polyglots with its visual representation.

Their growing friendship spans different classes (one a nanny, the other a business woman) and experiences, but they connect over a shared desire to communicate and know one another.

The art, especially the use of color to portray mood and denote different characters, is excellent and unique. Although I read a digital copy on my phone, I might have to invest in the print version just to be able to really soak up the gorgeous imagery and detail.

Recommended for anyone who appreciates good comics and for speakers of multiple languages who miss that special spark of finding someone whose brain can joyously flit and dart between lexicons with your own.

Review also posted on Goodreads.

A chance encounter in Paris between two foreigners in a friends to lovers/queer awakening graphic novel different than any I’ve ever read.

Sarah is from England, living in Paris in a managerial position full of pompous men (a$$holes). She hasn’t made any friends, so when a woman asks to buy her coffee, she wants to run away and hide. That could also have to do with the fact that said woman saw her fall flat on her face the day before…

Ping is working as an au pair for a wealthy family. She’s from Hong Kong and while her French isn’t great, she’s learning. Her love for the baby that she takes care of is really beautiful. Honestly, she’s just a really caring thoughtful person.

Their friendship starts out a little broken, since neither speaks or understands much of the other’s first language, but over time (a year, I think it was), they learn how to interact. Sarah learns Cantonese and you can see their friendship get even better.

The language barrier being conquered was one of my favorite parts of this story, because throughout, the author uses each of the languages in the book and as one of them starts to understand the other, the original language is covered by English (which is what I’m reading it in, but my assumption is it would be changed into whatever language it’s printed in).

The artwork is wholly original. I don’t see or read many books that use the same style, so I felt it made the story pop so much more. On top of that, the book is painted entirely with watercolors (I think?), which makes it so incredibly beautiful. Another thing with the coloring that I loved is that when the characters are sad, the colors are in blue shades and when they are really happy, they’re in yellows. The time they spend together are in every color. The whole thing is incredibly vibrant.

'Love Languages' is a graphic novel that follows Sarah Huxley, a Londoner living in Paris trying to find her place within new work and life environments. A chance encounter with the excitable Ping Loh, an au pair from Hong Kong, sets off a sequence of events that leads Sarah out from the isolation bubble she's struggling with and into the sometimes-tense negotiations of newfound love.

Language plays a huge role in this budding romance. The book opens with beautiful watercolor scenes of Paris, a metropolitan city brimming with diverse cultures. Bits of words from many languages float in the air and through crowds. As you stroll, you might just pick up a familiar word or two. The author/artist did a fantastic job at representing the immersion of languages in a way that's visually charming on the page. And this style carries beautifully throughout the main storyline.

As Sarah keeps up with learning two new languages - French and Cantonese - so she can communicate with Ping, she shows us how this is changing her. These scenes were illustrated so beautifully. As Sarah and Ping catch up with each other's spoken languages, they find the space to get to know each other with an emotional intimacy that dazzles on the page.

This was a wholesome, queer-affirming, light-hearted read with beautiful art that utilized careful use of colors and lines. I enjoyed it, especially as a Valentine's read! I would have liked to see more depth with the characters' acceptance of their queerness though, since it came up in a tense situation but fizzled out abruptly. It just felt like the story ended too quickly for me.

But it was a happy ending, which I wholeheartedly appreciated! Recommended for a quick, feel-good read.

Thank you to the publisher, IDW Publishing, and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review

truly a gift on the eyes - i love watercolour and how it speaks to the mood, especially in a setting like this one. an inspiring and invigorating story about finding yourself and finding where you belong. the library will love this one!

This graphic novel had a unique art style. I liked the colors. The way the three languages, English, French, and Cantonese, were twined together was quite interesting. I could see that it was going the romance route, but I also would have liked it as a friendship story. The fall out seemed sudden and overdramatic, but it is nice that everything worked out.

Love Languages by James Albon is a sweet sapphic romance about two very different women far from home, united by their feelings of disconnect in a foreign country. They happen upon one another and strike up a friendship as they desire to master multiple languages and ultimately learn that love surpasses all other languages. As they spend time together, Sarah realizes she has strong feelings for Ping and may not be as straight as she thought.
This romcom was interesting and had me chuckling several times. The characters are likable, and the relationship feels completely organic.
The art works extremely well for the content. The watercolors and the way the images flow emphasize their feelings of being carried along through their experiences, almost passively.
I am impressed at the depth and completeness of this story in such a small amount of space. I recommend this graphic novel.
#fishoutofwater #Paris #English #Cantonese #French #HongKong #sapphic #oppositesattract #toasterover #multilingual #interracial