Christina Lauren is a one-click author whose stories I absolutely adore reading. This is another 5 star read written by this writing duo with such a fun storyline. They have once again written a story that has angst, drama, romance, hot moment and laugh out loud moments. This creates the perfect combination for a romance story.

*5 Stars*

Copy kindly received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was awesome. I devoured it and was hanging onto every word. The story is told both through the eyes of the past and the present, and progresses along side each other quite nicely. We start with when Elliot and Macy first meet as children, alongside when they run into each other after 11 years of no contact.

As we get to know each of them as adults, and see the connection that never really went away, we begin to wonder what happened when they were younger. As that story is progressing in the past chapters, you kind of start to piece together bits and pieces, but when you get to the big reveal, I was only half expecting what had happened.

I loved both of these characters and I truly loved Elliot's family. Sabrina, Macy's best friend, was another great secondary character too.

This one is a roller coaster of emotions, and I was hanging to find out what would happen. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and can't wait to get around to catching up on more of this duo's work.

My Thoughts

“It never occurred to me that love could be anything other than all-consuming. Even as a child, I knew I never wanted anything less”

There is just so much to love about this book. I could simply state that the fact that the two main characters love books and reading ... well that would suffice any bibliophile! Their passion not only for each other, but also books and their ‘favourite word’, should just about make you want to go grab a copy right now! And that is only the beginning.

“Favorite word?” he whispers. I don’t even hesitate: “You.”

This is a story about a second chance at a life time love and what a winner it is! Told in alternating time periods - their teenage years and then eleven years later - it recalls the budding childhood friendship that evolved into so much more. There is an underlying unknown until the very end about what drove them apart all those years ago, but for me, it was the journey they both went on - together and separately - that is the real winner here. Still, questions persist - can Macy let her guard down? What tore them apart eleven years ago? I cannot encourage you strongly enough to go read this book and let yourself be swept away through magical prose and a journey into the lives of some remarkable characters.

‘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.’

It’s about best friends, kindred spirits, who became something more and then lost it all. Without doubt it is heartfelt, sexy, sad, dramatic and totally appealing to readers of this genre. I just loved all the characters - Macy and her Dad, Elliot and his family, Macy’s best friend - this is a tale full of emotion, I could not devour it quick enough. It is not a simple romance, oh no, it is so much more. I challenge you not to be captivated, not to fall in love yourself with what you are reading. This is a book that will make you feel.

‘I honestly don’t even know how to translate this heavy emotion in my chest. Is it that I relate so intensely to what he’s saying.’

There is not much more to say, but read it. It’s sweet, it will own you and let you lose yourself in some magical writing. As it states in the introduction, ‘Love and Other Words is a celebration of the fragility of love, the beauty of literature, and the strength of true friendship to overcome anything.’

“Why can’t everyone be like you?”
“I can be enough of your world that it feels like everyone is.”



This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ out of 5
I’m not sure what I hated most about this book- how much I loved both characters (but especially nerdy Elliot- seriously where can I get me one of these?), how jealous I was over their relationship (it was everything), how jealous I was of the wardrobe library, how much I laughed and I cried or how much I didn’t hate this book at all. I am wrecked.
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Following 2 parallel stories of Macy and Elliot growing up as teenagers to 11 years later as adults running into each other again after a decade long separation. At the age of 14 Macy and her dad move into a holiday house and next door is this large boisterous family. They move in to find the youngest boy from next door reading a book in the closet of what was to be Macy’s room and the rest is history. To say they become best friends is understating the relationship and connection that they have. They are each other’s person so you wonder what happened to tear a decade wide hole in it. 11 years later they meet by chance at a cafe with Elliot in a relationship and Macy engaged yet somehow the connection they had isn’t diminished in the slightest and what follows is an amazing story.
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This book had hallmarks of everything I don’t like a book- written in first person, in present tense (always weird) and only from one POV and yet it got my first 6❤️ review. The love story that develops is so strong and all consuming it had me questioning whether I myself would ever find anything that powerful and still has me crying while writing this. It’s an incredible journey of growing up and also somehow finding yourself lost and adrift in your life. I was so hesitant to read this because in my opinion there were just too many good reviews that I wondered if it would live up to the hype. Well it certainly did and I am totally 100% wrecked, but 100% recommend it to everyone!
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Love and Other Words took me on a magical and literary journey that had me experiencing all of the emotions.

It's a beautiful telling of Macy and Elliott's love story that starts when they are kids and evolves to the present when they are in their late 20s. I enjoyed the see-sawing of the timeline with the chapters. You would get a taste of what Macy is feeling now and then the next chapter brings you back in time to explain the reasoning behind it all.

This is a slow-burn romance which will leave you feeling the effects of a true love story.

4.5 stars!

I loved this one! A beautiful, slow-burning friends-to-lovers YA love story that becomes a swoony and emotional second-chance romance. Something different from CLo, but they nailed it!

This book is labelled ‘Women’s Fiction’, but have no fear, romance lovers, this is romance through and through! Not as steamy as we have come expect from these authors, but it definitely touched my romance-junkie heart, and I loved it.

Macy is a woman who, on the surface, seems to have her life together. She is engaged to be married to a successful older man who has a young daughter, and she is working her pediatric residency, a job that she loves and is wholly committed to. But in reality, she is a woman who is mostly closed off. She keeps her heart safely to herself, never really opening herself up to anybody and never really living, and she’s content with that. Until she unexpectedly runs into a ghost from her past.

Elliott was the boy who lived next door to Macy’s weekend/summer retreat home. Following the death of her mother when she was a child, Macy withdrew, and her father and her books were her whole world. Until she met Elliott. He was the boy who joined her in her world of books and words, bringing her back to life and becoming the rock she could lean on through her teenage years. They shared everything with each other as they grew up and experienced life, and they fell in love – soul-deep, life-changing, together-forever kind of love. But it fell apart, and now he’s back in her life and, no matter what happened between them in the past, he’s determined to stay.

“I loved you … You loved me, too, you know,” he says quietly. “It was everything.”
I feel as though I’ve been shoved, and push away from the table a little, but he leans in. “Sorry. This is too intense. I’m just terrified of not getting a chance to say it.”


The story is split into two parts, moving between the past and the present. The story of Macy and Elliott’s past is a beautiful YA friends-to-lovers romance that absolutely owned me. It’s sweet, funny, real and emotional, and it’s YA romance heaven! I could feel the connection between them, I loved watching them fall so hard and so completely for each other, and I wanted forever for them.

“So maybe your best everything should be your boyfriend.”
I stared at him and he stared at me.
I spoke without thinking. “Maybe.”
“Maybe,” he agreed in a whisper.


In the present, Elliott’s reappearance in Macy’s life opens up old wounds. Though they have both seemingly moved on, neither of them got over their separation, and there’s a whole lot of hurt and pain between them which brings a world of feels to their emotionally charged reunion.

“I never got to fall out of love. I just had to move on.”


I fell in instant love with Elliot. From the moment Macy re-entered his life, he made it clear that he still loved her and that he still wanted her, and the way he wore his heart on his sleeve for her was just beautiful. But Macy is a mess. Tragedy has left her emotionally scarred, and her separation from Elliot is a big part of that. There’s a lot for them to deal with, and though she has spent the last few years of her life holding everybody at arms’ length, Elliot being back forces her to examine her life and what she wants from it, and I thought that part of the story was really beautifully written.

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.


The cause of their separation is a big mystery throughout the book, and while I was reading I kept developing theories as to what could have possibly torn these two apart. It’s an issue that a lot of other readers have had problems with, and I can absolutely understand why. It did seem completely out of character, but there’s a part of me that could buy into it. I could certainly understand the fallout and how everything became twisted the way it did. But, to me, the cause of their break wasn’t that big of an issue, I was more interested in watching them fall in love in the first place, and then watching them find their way back to each other as they worked through it all and rediscovered the magic that is them together, and that part of the story had me a swooning, emotional puddle of goo on the floor.

“I’ve been waiting for you to come home for eleven years.”


I loved it! I laughed, I cried and I swooned, and though I would have love an epilogue, I finished this book with a big grin on my face.

4.5 stars

This is Christina Lauren's first foray into the women's lit genre, and whilst I an not a huge fan of the genre, this duo could write the telephone book and I would read it.

And I was not disappointed. Elliott and Macy's story is a beautiful second chance romance, full of love, heartbreak, betrayal, and most of all hope.

I spent the entire time reading hoping they would get to a HEA. Told in the past and present, we get a very well rounded story of the friendship, to more, to today.

I wanted to read this book slowly, to savour it, however I found myself devouring it, swiping to the next page, needing to know what was going to happen.

I ran the full gamut of emotions as I read. Elliott is the (almost) perfect book boyfriend - no one wants all that perfection, do they?

I thoroughly enjoyed Love and Other Words, and I can't wait to see what Christina and Lauren bring us next.

Love and Other Words evoked so many emotions from me. There aren't enough words to describe how captivating, all consuming, encompassing this wonderful novel by my favourite duo ever is.

I often find it difficult to stumble across a story that not only flawlessly connects you with the main characters, it also sweeps you into an emotional vortex. Love and Other Words explores the possibility of second chance romance, while weaving experiences with family loss, falling in love, discovering yourself, finding comfort in another family (while not forgetting your own), creating friendships, forming bonds, overcoming your guilt, and learning about forgiving yourself and your past throughout.Elliot Petropolous and Macy Sorensen have an interesting, intricate history, it is impossible to resist being drawn towards discovering their story and becoming irrevocably enamoured by it. There's that burning question that remains after every chapter, "what happened to Elliot and Macy for them to fall apart? that keeps pulling you in, further and further, through the flashbacks, across the present. Years of separation hasn't dulled their affection, contentment, recognition or familiarity.

One of my favourite things about Love and Other Words, besides how Elliot and Macy's relationship made my usually cold dead heart ache, is I truly connected with the exploration of family that it deeply resonated within me. Macy is faced with the harsh reminder of family loss, of remembrance, how certain things will always keep us connected even in death. Her adversity also sends a message: despite your loss, you can still gain another family through meaningful relationships with others. I, personally, haven't lost my parents, however the message still hit close to home as I took my relationships for granted prior to my decision to move interstate.

No matter what, family is always there. Through good times, bad times. Your struggles with yourself and your struggles with external factors. At the end of the day, those who truly and deeply care for you will always be waiting for your return home.

CLo never disappoints me. I've loved them since they were a Twilight FanFiction duo (I'm admitting my teenage shame right here...). They have done nothing but improve, go above and beyond to produce quality writing. Love and Other Words is by far my favourite novel of theirs so far. As much as I love my erotic romance with a side of asshole, possessive alpha male, CLo opened my eyes to women's fiction with this beautiful, wonderful tale.