Love and Other Words

Macy Sorensen has built a safe, efficient life in San Francisco: long shifts as a pediatric resident, a calm engagement to an older artist, and no room for the past. Then she sees Elliot Petropoulos in a Berkeley café, still carrying books like they are sacred objects, and the world she has kept sealed for eleven years cracks open.

Told through alternating past and present, the story follows Macy and Elliot from awkward teenage neighbors to best friends, first loves, and almost soulmates. Their bond grows inside a converted closet-library in a weekend house near Healdsburg, where grief, books, favorite words, and first desire teach them how to love. But one catastrophic New Year’s night tears them apart. To find their way back, Macy must finally speak the truth she buried with her grief.

• Listeners who love emotional second-chance romances with deep friendship at the center.
• Readers drawn to stories about grief, healing, family, and first love that never truly ends.
• Fans of dual-timeline love stories where small memories build toward a major reveal.

Christina Lauren is the pen name of longtime writing partners Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, bestselling authors known for contemporary romance, emotional love stories, and witty character-driven fiction.