Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - Love and Other Words

I wasn't particularly fond of how the character was written. As an individual, it flowed how there was so much more to unpack. The intense avoidant detachment coming from it was insanely unhealthy for the sake of so-called friendship. Reading this has made me realize once again why the romance genres are so not my type of reading. Reeling away from processing grief, not facing reality, steering to convenience rather than actually living and not just merely passing by time, knowing someone just at arm's length, and settling for less—it follows a concept of the character's journey towards her perception and life in general. As the experience she endowed was distraughting enough, it's good overall, but it was icky for some reason. It's a shame I had to skip some parts because it just wasn't it.

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strayedthoughts's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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prettybaddieb's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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stephfauteux's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This book broke my heart. I will probably be thinking about it for a long time. However, without giving any spoilers, the reason why the main characters stopped talking was anticlimactic and actually almost ruined their love story for me to be honest. But the reality of Macy’s hardships and everything she’s been through just made me want to root for her and whatever made her happy. Macy’s dad was my favorite and the true MVP of this story.

Basically, their childhood best friends turned lovers then something happens and they don’t speak for 11 years until they run into each other, quiet literally, at a coffee shop but now their both in different relationships etc. The book switches back and forth between when they were kids and present day, both storylines heading toward what caused the fallout, until they converge with the night they stopped talking. While the reason they had a falling out is anticlimactic and predictable, everything else from that day is now and OUCH I really didn’t see that coming and Christina Lauren really didn’t need to do us like that.

Would have gotten 5 stars from me if it wasn’t for the cause of their falling out tainting their relationship for me. 🤷🏻‍♀️

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abigail_hos's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is so good. I read 350 pages yesterday and finished it this morning. Yes I read it fast because I’m returning it (long story) but also cuz it’s really so so good. It’s so easy to just keep reading, to say hmm just one more chapter. I love how I got to see them grow up it’s so beautiful the way they communicated. Their honesty, I just love everything about it. All their inside jokes, the favorite word, the dragon porn. Love it. I love their little closet library and how he always brought her his books. It was just so cute and I love it. I love the mom’s checklist thing, and the daughter dad dynamic. I love Elliot’s family, literally everything about this book I love so so much. It’s so cute. 5/5. This kinda felt like a Colleen Hoover book idk why. The favorite word thing reminded me of their little jokes in it ends with us which is a good thing.

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thatswhatshanread's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I think I can officially say that the duo of Christina Lauren has successfully infiltrated my heart into the deepest, most emotional parts.

I feel numb after finishing this one, because I felt everything else while reading it. It didn’t take me long at all to pour through it, but somehow I’m left thinking I’d been inside those words for years and years. It was so comforting, real, sweet, honest, deep, heartbreaking… and other words.

To say this is a ‘great romance’ is doing it a disservice—it is an overwhelming portrait of every pulsing vein that makes up a contemporary romance. The chemistry between Elliot and Macy, built up so naturally, stretched into an aching slow burn, the intensity of raw hurt and mixed signals, dialogue dripping with honesty, the painful passage of time lost. Short chapters switching between “then” and “now” made it all the more heart racing. Would love prevail?

This isn’t a romcom, like the other books by Lauren that I’ve read. I adore romcoms, but I adore real stories even more. Real characters, real emotions, real loss, real situations. And this is real, this is all-encompassing, this is love.

Lauren’s full-hearted leap with this romantic drama is an instant winner for me. Hard to believe it was their first foray into women’s lit. What a home run.

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