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.

Manga Review: Anonymous Noise, Volume 7, by Ryoko Fukuyama

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: March 2018

Volumes: 16+

Spoilers?: No.

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

Volume: 1. 6. 8.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Music and longing collide in this ballad of unrequited love!

Nino Arisugawa, a girl who loves to sing, experiences her first heart-wrenching goodbye when her beloved childhood friend, Momo, moves away. And after Nino befriends Yuzu, a music composer, she experiences another sad parting! Luckily, Nino reunites with Momo and Yuzu in high school, but things haven't played out the way anyone expected...

Nino takes the stage at the school festival, ready to deliver the message held fast in her heart. Both Yuzu and Momo have composed songs for her, but which piece of music will be the one to awaken her? Meanwhile, Kuro's secret feelings seem to have reached a turning point as well... And is In No Hurry finally ready to take things to the next level professionally?

Review:

I somehow completely skipped this volume and read the next one, and I have no idea how that happened. I will say that reading volume 8 wasn't confusing, as a new plot line started at the beginning of it. But it sure makes a lot more sense after this one.

Not a lot of action happens in this volume, but so much character progression and realization and thought process does.

Yuzu is silently competing with Momo here, as he has Nino sing a song by each of them, because he wants to see which one of them will make this work for her. She's missing something, and she's trying to find it, and he needs to know which of them will give it to her.

I'm honestly not sure which one wins. They both seem to give her something different.

On that note—I have no idea what she's actually missing. Her voice is somehow off, I guess? She can't get into the songs, or the performance, or the singing? It's really hard to tell what exactly it is that's off for her, which is probably why it's a little hard to tell what it is that she discovers mid-song. Maybe I'm thinking too hard about it?

After all of that, it makes sense why Yuzu decides to write songs for other people, after previously agreeing not to. He needs to expand his view.

I love the subtlety, the moments of realization, in this series. They're done so well, so on point and perfectly timed. I appreciate that, and it gives the series a particular intensity.

We got some progress and insight into some of the side characters, like Ayumi and his messy crush, but still most of the focus is on the main triangle. They're just such a mess, and Nino doesn't even realize it.