Love and Other Foreign Words by Erin McCahan @booksparks #SRC2014 #summerreading

I received this book for review purposes only from BookSparks PR Summer Reading Challenge.

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.

My Review:

If you want to read a book from a teen that is not a YA book type book, you have found it. I am not a fan of YA but this book had me from the first page. Seriously. Josie is fun, quirky, sarcastic, confused and fiercely loyal. She reminds me so much of myself at that age (minus the genius IQ) it was almost scary. She doesn’t understand girls her age or boys for that matter. She gets so involved in being the “perfect Josie” for everyone that I think she loses who she is for a bit. It takes her sister bringing home a new boyfriend that Josie instantly dislikes for her to kind of get back on track with who she is. Many things happen in her life, her group of friends and her sisters new relationship to make Josie take a good hard look at what she wants from life.

My favorite characters in the book are Josie’s parents and her best guy friend Stu. They are the best part of Josie’s life and pretty much the only people that understand her language. My least favorite character was Josie’s sister Kate. She becomes so cruel to Josie at one point you actually cringe at certain points. She does ultimately redeem herself but I still wonder if I was Josie if I would have forgiven her.

Very rarely does a book end exactly how I want it to but Love did. If you are looking for a great, heartwarming story about a wonderfully outlandish 15 almost 16 year old girl, grab this book. It would make a great beach or weekend read.

Add to your Goodreads TBR list:

Buy the book

Amazon Kindle: http://amzn.to/1jIP6KX
Amazon paperback: http://amzn.to/1n7Sq27

About the author

Erin McCahan is the author of the YA book I Now Pronounce You Someone Else (Scholastic, June 2010). Erin’s debut novel was a 2010 Cybils Award finalist. She grew up in Michigan and worked extensively with teenagers before beginning her writing career. She lives in Columbus, Ohio.