Book Title: Love and Other Words
Author: Christina Lauren
Length: 432 pages
Genre: contemporary romance, women’s fiction
My Rating: 1/5
Age Rating: 18+
Content Notes: Sex (very explicit), innuendo and inappropriate conversations, death, grief, emotional themes, sexual assault/rape (I didn’t get far enough in the book to find out about this part of the story but my research says it is a prominent part of the story later on.)
My Review:
I picked this book up on a spontaneous thrifting date. I’d seen it in a few recommendation videos for teens and expected it to be clean — let’s just say it no longer has a home in my library.
I was really excited for this read. The cover is so cute and totally has camping vibes, which made me think it’d be the perfect read for my family’s camping trip. I only lasted a few days before I put it down and didn’t pick it back up again.
Long story short, this book is not for teens. It has multiple extremely explicit sex scenes in it.
But first, let’s talk about the writing. Overall, the writing was easy to read, though I didn’t feel there was anything especially special or jaw-dropping about it. I liked that it follows the same characters over two timelines (titled Now and Then, which is so cute). Not to mention I was also excited for the best-friends-to-lovers-to-strangers-and-then-lovers-again trope (man, that’s a mouthful). But sadly, I never got to find out what happens in the end because of the explicit content that kept me from reading further.
Speaking of that, let’s move on to the content notes. In the timeline where they’re adults, the main character is already in a relationship, and it feels like every time the couple is shown together, they’re having sex. These interactions aren’t very descriptive, but you understand what’s happening, and personally it was hard to read. On top of that, after skimming through the book I discovered at least two more situations that are very descriptive. There are also a lot of conversations and jokes built around sexual activities, which made me want to skim even faster, and I’m glad I stopped before I had to suffer through more of it. There’s also language in this book, along with themes of grief, loss, illness, and other emotional content.
Overall, this book is meant for adults. I feel slightly let down by the book community for suggesting it to me as teen content, and it’s reminded me that you can’t just buy a book expecting it to be clean and fun anymore. Something that makes me pretty sad.
I was very unhappy with how this read turned out, and I don’t suggest it for those looking to skip the spice.
Happy Reading,
Ava
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