Love & Other Words

Main Leads: Macy Sorensen, Elliot Petropoulos
Setting: United States, California, Berkley
Tropes: First Love, Second Chance Romance, Traumatic Past
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Published On: April 10, 2018
Publisher: Gallery Books
Format: e-Book
Source: Purchased
Pages: 433
Purchase It: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

The heart may hide, but it never forgets.

The first women’s fiction novel from New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Christina Lauren (Autoboyography, Dating You / Hating You).

Macy Sorensen is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: work hard as a new pediatrics resident, plan her wedding to an older, financially secure man, keep her head down and heart tucked away.

But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos—the first and only love of her life—the careful bubble she’s constructed begins to dissolve. Once upon a time, Elliot was Macy’s entire world—growing from her gangly teen friend into the man who coaxed her heart open again after the loss of her mother…only to break it on the very night he declared his love for her.

Told in alternating timelines between Then and Now, teenage Elliot and Macy grow from friends to much more—spending weekends and lazy summers together in a house outside of San Francisco reading books, sharing favorite words, and talking through their growing pains and triumphs. As adults, they have become strangers to one another until their chance reunion. Although their memories are obscured by the agony of what happened that night so many years ago, Elliot will come to understand the truth behind Macy’s decade-long silence, and will have to overcome the past and himself to revive her faith in the possibility of an all-consuming love.

This was my second read of 2025 and it left an impression that has stayed with me ever since. This was also a buddy read that I did with my daughter and we both liked this book a lot more than our book club book so we were glad to have left The Mirror behind. It had been a long time since I was so moved by a book that I stayed up late into the night reading. This book did wonders in bringing my reading mojo back because I have not stopping reading ever since.

This story follows our main characters, Macy Sorensen and Elliot Petropoulos as they grow in love. We first meet them as kids when Macy and her Dad move into their summer home right next door to Elliot’s family and she sees Elliot for the first time reading in her closet. Now even though Macy and her Dad don’t live at that house year round, they return often to visit and get a break from the city so Elliot and Macy become best friends and every time they’re together, they spent a lot of time reading in her closet. As the years pass, their relationship changes as well. First love springs forth that grows into a deep love that stays with them even after they’re torn apart and Macy doesn’t return to the house. Theirs is a love that transcends space and time and eleven years later, they run into each other again and the love that Macy tried to move on from starts to creep up again and she’s forced to deal with the feelings she’s spent so much time and energy in running from.

Macy was a pretty great heroine. The more that I got to know of her, the more I loved her. Even when I didn’t understand why she avoiding Elliot the way that she was, I didn’t hate her and though there were times when I was a little frustrated that she stayed with Sean even when she knew that she didn’t love him, even then I didn’t hate her. Macy was someone who was used to loss and when she finally decided to break free from a loveless relationship and deal with the only love she’s ever known, I cheered for her because I understood that she has dealt with a lot of loss so seeing her taking back the things she had ran away from felt like a huge deal.

Holy cow, Elliot was the kind of love everyone wishes for. He was kind, he was smart, he was steady, and the way that he loved Macy was exactly the kind of love that fairytales are made of. When Macy comes back into his life after more than a decade, the way that he made himself available to her in every single way had me in a pile of goo at his feet. He really loved himself some Macy Sorensen and seeing him devoted to being part of her life and so grateful that he was a part of hers was just swoonworthy. He fought hard for the love that he knew they both deserved. Seeing what their separation did to him over the years was hard to read but never once did I doubt that he belonged with Macy and that Macy belonged with him. Their romance and their love was what girls dream of and seeing theirs play out, seeing them fight to be together again as they were in the present and not them in the past made this entire book all the more special.

The writing was fantastic and I thought Christina Lauren did such a great job of telling a complex story with a lot of heart. The plot twist completely threw me because I wasn’t expecting that to happen, I wasn’t expecting to be as heartbroken as I was when it comes out but holy cow, that scene where Macy is sitting in the house after all those years of never going back, seeing her deal with the guilt of the last time that she was there, ahhh, I was a ball of wrecked emotions.

My only gripe about the book is what happened to Elliot that broke him and Macy. It didn’t sit right with me that it was sort of glazed over, unfinished. What that girl did to him, while he was that drunk, didn’t sit right with me. Not when we find out that it happened but also that nothing was ever explained about the aftermath. Even Elliot’s attitude when he’s explaining it to Macy, how he says, “But come on, was it so bad that you cut me out for eleven years without a discussion?” didn’t sit right with me because it doesn’t acknowledge the very real harm that girl caused so that was a bit of a let down.

While that was a very huge ding to my enjoyment, I still really loved Elliot and Macy’s story (if I don’t think about that too hard) and I was so satisfied with the way their romance ended. This story does first love and second chance romance really well and I’m really glad that I read it. It was a good story to read with my daughter and it gave us much to discuss which was also a lot of fun so I’m happy with this book.

4.5 out of 5