Love and Other Words – Review

Storyline

Macy Lea Sorensen knows that she’s never stopped loving Elliot Petropoluos, her first of everything. Her first best friend, her first boyfriend, her first kiss, and also her first more than a kiss. But now, seeing Elliot again after eleven years being separated, there’s just too much left unsaid between them. And Mace is not sure she’s ready to unfold all the things that she’s kept secret for the past eleven years.

Ell doesn’t fully understand why Mace left abruptly, nor does he understand why Mace still clamps herself up eleven years later when she clearly still has feelings for him. She said she is getting married, but he can feel that that’s not it. Mace doesn’t seem happy with her fiance, if anything she looks distant with him. Reticent, like she’s always been since the day her mom died. Ell used to be the only person whom Mace let in on her secrets, and her fiance doesn’t seem to fill his spot even now.  

After eleven years not seeing Mace, and have not had understood a thing why they had to separate in the first place, Ell is not going to let this chance slip. He’ll show Mace that they belong together. Unless, there’s something that he should know first about Mace?  

Comments

This one was such a slow-read. I was clearly struggling to get through this book, but it’s not like I could drop reading it in the middle of story. I still very much wanted to know what happened to Mace and Ell in the past. It’s just that the wait for the curtain-lifting was real drudgery.

Love and Other Words is a bit different than CLo’s other novels like Unhoneymooners, Roomies, and Josh and Hazel’s Guide To Not Dating. The heartbreak is profound and unfathomable in this one while the others are totally simple straightforward love stories.Thus, the somber tone is nothing but fitting.

Now, about Macy.

I’m very lucky in life, I’ve never really experienced a serious heartbreak like what Macy had to experience, and that’s why I think I didn’t understand Macy well. But if I may be brutally honest with you, I hated Macy and all of her choices. It was simply because I saw a quitter in her, and that she tended to flee at the first sign of problem, and I disliked that.  

And I also really couldn’t comprehend the ending, which to me, felt totally oversimplified.

I mean, it’s taken Macy eleven years to find closure. Which she clearly hasn’t found. Cause obviously, Macy’s first choice is never to solve a problem, and cause, she always prefers to leave a trouble hanging instead. And cause, the right way to find closure is facing the problem head-on. But anyway, after some serious hard thinking, Mace finally decides to talk about this ginormous secret she’s been locking up all along. And that’s good. She finally does something right. But, then! Nothing happens. The surface is just as without ripple as before, and then, chop chop, they move on. Just. Like. That. I was frankly freaking disappointed. Shouldn’t they have fought or something, over the big big big surprise? Why are they acting like it’s no big deal? When it’s really a big deal?

All in all, I just thought Macy handles everything poorly, and I sort of wished she’d ask for help when she needed it, would for once be honest with herself, and save everyone the trouble. 

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