Novel Review: Love and Other Foreign Words by Erin McCahan

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Dial (Penguin)

Release Date: 2014

Spoilers?: Light.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Can anyone be truly herself--or truly in love--in a language that's not her own?

Sixteen-year-old Josie lives her life in translation. She speaks High School, College, Friends, Boyfriends, Break-ups, and even the language of Beautiful Girls. But none of these is her native tongue -- the only people who speak that are her best friend Stu and her sister Kate. So when Kate gets engaged to an epically insufferable guy, how can Josie see it as anything but the mistake of a lifetime? Kate is determined to bend Josie to her will for the wedding; Josie is determined to break Kate and her fiancé up. As battles are waged over secrets and semantics, Josie is forced to examine her feelings for the boyfriend who says he loves her, the sister she loves but doesn't always like, and the best friend who hasn't said a word -- at least not in a language Josie understands.

The Cover:

I think this cover is very cute. The font and lettering is fun, and I think it represents the book pretty well. It's very much easy to carry around, too, and doesn't focus too much on the romance, but Kate's curiosity instead.

Review:

This book has one of the most accurate titles I've seen in a while. Josie is extremely smart for her age, is already in college, but she doesn't know what love is. One day, she decides that she needs to understand it. Her sister is engaged to a guy she absolutely refuses to accept, and she can't comprehend why her sister thinks she loves him. So starts her quest to understand love.

Josie goes through a bit of a journey in this book. She starts a relationship with a previous school-dance date, whom likes her a lot, and whom she tries to love back. Then there's her young college professor, who she's convinced she feels love at first sight with. And during all of this, she's fighting with her sister, and her best friend Stu is always there.

I really enjoyed Josie's voice. She's odd, possibly a little autistic, but generally on a different level than everyone else. She can only take so much socialization, she likes things a certain way, and she looks at every interaction with people in a different way. I feel like the real romance took a long time to actually show up, as Josie was so distracted for so long and Stu was just letting her do her thing until she was ready. I also found that really sweet, though, and thought that the ending was really good. The way things wrap up with not only Stu, but also with her sister and her sisters fiance, was really nice. And I really liked her family; they're all very close, and they're always around and doing things together. It was really sweet, but also a lot of fun. The banter was great.

This book was a little slow in its pace, but Josie needed to contemplate and process everything, and she needed to take her time getting to the end. I really enjoyed the characters, though, and it was a lot of fun to read.

Wishlist Thursday[55]: Love and Other Foreign Words by Erin McCahan

Love and Other Foreign Words by Erin McCahan

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Dial (Penguin)

Release Date: May 1^st, 2014

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Perfect for fans of John Green and Rainbow Rowell, Love and Other Foreign Words is equal parts comedy and coming of age--a whip-smart, big-hearted, laugh-out-loud love story about sisters, friends, and what it means to love at all.

Can anyone be truly herself--or truly in love--in a language that's not her own?

Sixteen-year-old Josie lives her life in translation. She speaks High School, College, Friends, Boyfriends, Break-ups, and even the language of Beautiful Girls. But none of these is her native tongue--the only people who speak that are her best friend Stu and her sister Kate. So when Kate gets engaged to an epically insufferable guy, how can Josie see it as anything but the mistake of a lifetime? Kate is determined to bend Josie to her will for the wedding; Josie is determined to break Kate and her fiancé up. As battles are waged over secrets and semantics, Josie is forced to examine her feelings for the boyfriend who says he loves her, the sister she loves but doesn't always like, and the best friend who hasn't said a word--at least not in a language Josie understands.

Why?:

The synopsis doesn’t particularly grab me, although it does sound good, and like a book in my direction of interest, but it’s mostly the author that has me interested here. I loved McCahan’s first book, I Now Pronounce You Someone Else—it is still one of my favorite books, one I’ve re-read a few times, and one I don’t think many people have read. While the synopsis of this book doesn’t sound particularly catchy or romantic, the cover is cute (although not hugely eye-catching, either), and I have good hopes for it simply because of how much I liked her first book. It’s been a while since that one was released, but I hope that this one is even better. I really, really want it to be.

So, what are you looking forward to reading?

Review: I Now Pronounce You Someone Else by Erin McCahan

4.5 of 5 Stars

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books (Scholastic)

Goodreads Synopsis: 

Here Comes the Bride — If She Can Pass Chemistry.Eighteen-year-old Bronwen Oliver has a secret: She's really Phoebe, the lost daughter of the loving Lilywhite family. That's the only way to explain her image-obsessed mother; a kind but distant stepfather; and a brother with a small personality complex. Bronwen knows she must have been switched at birth, and she can't wait to get away from her "family" for good.
Then she meets Jared Sondervan. He's sweet, funny, everything she wants — and he has the family Bronwen has always wanted too. She falls head over heels in love, and when he proposes marriage, she joyfully accepts. But is Jared truly what she needs? And if he's not, she has to ask: What would Phoebe Lilywhite do?

Review: 

I love this book. I love it so much. Everything about it, really, even the parts that almost made me cry. (Which is something of a feat, I will admit, because I don't cry easily.)

Bronwen Oliver is the main character. Only she doesn't want to be Bronwen Oliver, she wants to be Pheobe Lilywhite, or Bronwen VanHorn, or maybe Bronwen Sondervan, She doesn't particularly get along with her mother, which is understandable because her mother doesn't try very hard and doesn't like to talk about things. She got along with her step-father at one point but is mostly just a little distant with him now. Her father died when she was little, but she isn't stuck on it even if she misses him. And she sees Jared Sondervan again, who is an old friend of her brother. Oh, and her brother Peter is Jesus, at least in her mothers mind.

Bronwen is trying to find herself, and accept who she is and trying to deal with that her mother won't accept who she really is. I'm a bit more cynical than she is, or a lot, really, but I still felt a connection with her. She's already figured out the relationship thing. You know, the one that says relationships are always good in the first few months, and you don't really get to know a person until that phase is over, and so you shouldn't say you love them until then. In the beginning of the book, she goes through this type of thing with Chad Dykstra, who just wants to have sex with her and so claims to love her. She doesn't fall for it, and I liked that.

She has a best friend, Kirsten, who gushes over everything with her. She's also very wary about Bronwen and Jared's relationship, and she talks about it with Bronwen. It might cause some problems between them, but I still liked this about her. Because she's a really good friend. (And, yea, I'm a bit envious.)

A big thing goes down near the end with Bronwen's Mother and Whitt, her step-father. Her Mother is kind of really terrible. I have a mother somewhat similar, not nearly as bad, but similar in the not listening thing. But I kind of hate her, especially because of what she did to Bronwen and Whitt. Whitt, however, is kind of awesome. He's sweet and he cares and he's funny. And it's not his fault for what happened, it's her Mothers.

Now, Jared. I love Jared. So much. He's so very sweet. And he loves Bronwen. They get along so well, too. The conversation between them is so easy, and he just goes along with all of her jokes and makes his own. They're just so cute together. He holds back kissing her for a while, and he wants to get to know her, and he loves her and wants to marry her. I love him, and I love their relationship. I want their relationship. As well as Jared's family. They care and are fun and love Bronwen like she's their own.

This book is very much about finding love as it is finding yourself. Because Bronwen finds herself, accepts herself, and she falls in love with Jared. There's a part near the end with Jared that almost made me cry, because it's so sad and I love them and they need to be together, but I know it was coming and it needed to happen because they weren't ready. But it's still heartbreaking to read.

The writing in this book is in Bronwen's point of view in the future, so she's talking about it all as she remembers it. It adds to the element of her learning all of these things. It's very smooth and calm and a bit heartbreaking.

I love this book. So very much, as I've already said. I have a bit in common with this book, and I would love to have even more in common with it. (Like Bronwen and Jared's relationship.) I think just about every teenage girls should read this book, it is that good.

Sidenote: One thing that bothered me about this book, was what it says on the back cover/inside flap, about 'if she can pass chemistry', because that's very misleading. School has very little to do with this book. It starts at the end of her junior year, then goes into the summer, and then through her senior year, and yea there's a bit about her going to college. But that doesn't have a whole lot to do with her relationship with Jared. Where she's going to college does, but she's already pretty set on that, and there isn't anything about her not passing. Very little of time is spent with her even at school. The cover is cute, though, even if the books don't have a lot to do with the story.