OTHER WORDS FOR LOVE by LORRAINE ZAGO ROSENTHAL

OTHER WORDS FOR LOVE is a 2011 novel by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal of YA romantic genre, in which relationship of the female protagonist, Ari with her mother, sister, Evelyn is equally highlighted along with her lover Blake. Its an stunning page turner filled with drama, struggles, betrays and lessons. If you are looking for hormones and too many intimate moments in every other page, I would rather advice you not to pick up the book.

I simply loved Ari the way she was – her simplicity, honesty-the way she helped her sister and also handled her kids even though Evelyn was a foul mouth to her. Some of you may feel weird how Ari had innumerable crushes- the significant ones being her own ‘hot’ brother-in-law. But you always can’t keep your head cool when you are a teenage girl and there are too many handsome and hot guys around you. Eventually when her family inherited a huge fortune which enabled her to join the flashy HOLLISTER PREP- the ultimate school of the rich strata of the society, she felt nervous about her get up and worried that the rich girls would make fun of her. But things start getting colourful in Ari’s world when a rich guy, Blake asks her out. Soon both of them fall in love with each other and things get heated up within them. The pace of relationship between them was perfect. She shared an amazing chemistry. But, Ari’s world fall apart when Blake breaks up.

Set in Manhattan in the late 80s, the book is all about Ari Mitchell- how she achieved good grades to get up to her mom’s expectations, how her relationship with her loved ones changed with circumstances, how she got along her post break up trauma and how she see start viewing life in a new ray of hope, how she began realizing that there might be other things in life as important as love.

I simply loved the family dynamics in the novel. The book also explores day-to-day activities of Ari, but surprisingly I wasn’t bored at all. The smooth flowing writing with no unnecessary details got along with me amazingly. The section that touched me most was the break up. It left me wondering why always bad things happen with nice girls like Ari! The characters is this book are so real and well fleshed that get ready to face a huge sea of emotions of happiness, sadness, frustration, anger, despair and more. I felt so connected to it that it was tough for me to pull out of the story when it ended. The author deserves tremendous praise for writing such a real life story with full of real life complications.