Love languages raises a topic with which many people can empathize. What makes the difference are the artistic decisions that the author makes: the implementation of various languages in the dialogue bubbles, for example.
Love languages presents the story of two foreigners who work in Paris and after meeting for the third time they begin a friendship where language is not a barrier (as it has been in their daily lives) but something that unites them even more.
I think it's a book that almost all audiences can read, I would give it a +13 because of some comments that are made. Migrant and bilingual people (or those in the process of becoming so) will enjoy it, they will feel seen.
You can understand very well the whirlwind of emotions when you can't fully understand your surroundings and also can't fully make yourself understood. As Sofia Vergara said in Modern Family: You don't know how smart I am in Spanish.
It is a graphic novel that explores the interior of its protagonist and also tells us about her surroundings. The color palette is wide and quite vibrant when they are outside or enjoying, but dull and dark in less happy moments. It is also interesting how it presents this friendship, where the dialogue bubbles are increasingly filled with different languages at the same time. Ping already say it: we have always understood each other. Where others could hear and see chaos, for them it was a linguistic system that allowed them to get to know each other.
I don't have negative points to add, although the type of drawing is not my favorite, but this would be something more personal than objective.

I devoured this book in one sitting! It’s a beautiful story, brought to life by beautiful artwork.

Sarah and Ping meet by chance in Paris. Neither of them speak French as a first language, and as their friendship deepens they each learn the others’ mother tongue, and end up almost creating a language that only the two of them can understand, constantly switching between French, English, and Cantonese. What I really loved is that as much as learning these languages helped them get to know each other, it also helped them get to know themselves and open up their own worlds in different ways. I thought the way languages were used as a metaphor for queerness was beautifully done, and it felt very poetic.

The illustrations are absolutely beautiful, and they’re not just a vehicle for the story – they enhance the story, showing us emotions and depths that we don’t get from just the words. I thought the way colour was used was particularly powerful and effective. I also really liked how the different languages and translations were depicted, keeping us in the loop just enough. It was always really clear what language was being spoken, and how much the listener understood of what had been said.

This is a beautiful book in every way, and it’s a love letter to opening yourself up to the people and experiences around you. I was transfixed the whole way through, and I’m sure it’s one I’ll come back to.

I received a free copy for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, IDW Publishing and Top Shelf Productions for providing an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Sarah and Ping navigate a fascinating multilingual friendship that develops a slow burn of love. The water color art brought the story alive. It was a great story about listening to one another and building foundations for friendship and love via sharing language and culture. Truly an enjoyable reading experience.

An easy 5/5 rating for me!
I read through it in a single evening, so it can be a quick read, depending on how much time you spend looking at the beautiful artwork (which I will definitely go back to do).
Storywise, it has all I could want from a book: adorable wlw romance, living in a foreign country, communication through language barriers, a cute baby... I could go on.
I will definitely be purchasing a physical copy when it comes out!

As a big lover of languages, this book spoke to me from the start and I was so glad I gave it a go.

The author does an incredible job crafting the words and illustrations to describe the journey of learning one or more languages. The personal mix-and-match language you rely on when you and your friend are at different levels in different languages. The hesitation and anxiety of being misunderstood when you really want to convey something. The sudden click when everything finally falls into place somewhere in your brain just when you let your guard down and felt the most insecure about your skill.

This is of course a love story, but to me it goes beyond just the relationship between Sarah and Ping - it's about how language is at the base of all relationships. Through this story, the book manages to take readers through a beautiful exploration of this idea that feels genuine and heartwarming.

I can't recommend this book enough - if you're looking for a sweet love story or you're a fan of languages, this should hit the spot.

✨ Disclaimer ✨ I received a free copy of this book and this is my honest review.

Oh this was absolutely precious. I’m so pleased that they ended up together. I genuinely think this is one of my favorite romances I’ve read in a long time. I enjoyed the use of multiple languages just to show the power of love.

How adorable this book was, urgh, I absolutely loved it! I am most grateful to James Albon and the publisher for providing me with this advance reader's copy!

Thanks to James Albon and NetGalley for this ARC!

This graphic novel was so unbelievably charming. With a colour palette that was so welcoming and a watercolour visual narrative that immediately brings you into a soft and tentative exploration of a relationship. The focus on languages and finding a safe space in a non-native country in the people that you surround yourself with.

*Minor spoilers ahead*

This was a lovely little graphic novel. I really enjoyed the focus on connecting across cultures, and it was sweet to see the romance come to fruition. But oh gosh, the show-stealer is the art. It's just so beautiful and enjoyable to look at, and it paired so well with this kind of story. My only criticism is that it would have been nice to get a few more pages of them together at the end.

Thank you to Netgalley, IDW Publishing, Top Shelf Productions for an arc in exchange for ab honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

This book is an interesting combination of a novel and a comic; it was fantastic. The story follows our protagonist, Sarah Huxley, as she navigates her relatively new life in Paris while meeting a faithful friend named Ping along the way. It is a realistic and beautiful portrait of love, the hardships of life, and acceptance.

One of my favorite things about this book was the beautiful watercolor art style. As an artist myself, I found this book to be really inspiring, the expressive art style and bold strokes spoke to me. the visual storytelling is really interesting too. an example could be the translation text bubbles blended into the actual text bubbles towards the end, indicating the language is not foreign to them anymore.

overall I loved this book!

This was very cute! It was definitely a slow burn but I liked these characters and the art style a lot, especially the way the languages are depicted. Very much a casual read

Oh how I adored this book! Sarah and Ping had such a journey that felt so real, emotional, and lovely to read. I was happy to see their story end the way it did and wow, I look forward to so much more from this author. I expect this to be on my favorite end of the year list.

Such rich and unique visuals give supplementary texture to a story of two people determined to connect even when separated by language barriers. Truly loved the search for an authentic connection at a time in your life when you should feel like you have it all, but are left feeling empty and lonely. Absolutely devoured these two main characters and the innate thoughtfulness that they have for each other. The self deprecating humor evolving into earnest conversations and internal thoughts was divine and true to the journey of self discovery.

What a sweet, slow-burn love story! An Englishwoman and a woman from Hong Kong start as awkward acquaintances, both living out of their elements in Paris. As Sarah starts learning Cantonese, she and Ping form a friendship through a mix of English, French, and Cantonese, and eventually realize they feel more than friendship for each other. The shift from friends to lovers could have been expanded on more - both women talk about not having boyfriends, but internal or external explorations of queer identity are missing. Obviously not a necessity for a queer story, but it would have been nice to know if this was a new revelation of identity or not.

The overlapping words and translations makes the dialogue reading take a bit more effort, but the art style is loose and expressive, capturing the emotional world of living in foreign places.

A cute and loving story about finding love and being yourself
In Love Languages we follow Sarah in Paris. She moved here for her new job. You get sucked into the feelings of Sarah through images and colors used in the book. Than one day she meets Ping. You walk through their journey together. This graphic novel shows that even though there might be a languages barrier, love and friendship is a languages on it's own. It's a beautiful messages and it gave me all the right feels. The art is lovely and just fit with this story. There is brilliant use of color to show emotions and circumstances. It definitely is a must read for all.

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.