When an unexpected inheritance enables Ari to transfer to an elite Manhattan prep school, she makes a wealthy new friend, Leigh. Leigh introduces A...
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reviews
May 30, 2011
Wendy Darling
rated it: 
I enjoy a great romance novel now and again, and I like it when there are relationships in most of the YA books that I read. But the key word for me is romance, not just hormones and sex. I felt like Ari, who is too good to be true in many aspects, was a little too fixated on boys in this book between her long-standing crush on her brother-in-law, her ennui over her ex-boyfriend, her interactions with Del, and her relationship with Blake. While I remember being 17 and dealing with those crazy te
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16 comments
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(21 people liked it)
Feb 26, 2011
I don't even know where to start this review. I've been sitting here for what seems like hours trying to compose my thoughts into coherent sentences and it is just not happening.
When I first started Other Words for Love, I had no idea what to expect. It's a debut, so I had no previous experience with the author's writings. I thought the summary sounded nice.... but it didn't hook me enough to 'have' to read this book. (That summary does not do this book justice!) So why did I decide t More...
When I first started Other Words for Love, I had no idea what to expect. It's a debut, so I had no previous experience with the author's writings. I thought the summary sounded nice.... but it didn't hook me enough to 'have' to read this book. (That summary does not do this book justice!) So why did I decide t More...
8 comments
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(21 people liked it)
May 20, 2011
Kate
rated it: 
I don't think I'm alone in having gone into this book thinking it was going to be another young adult chic lit type romance. I was thinking something like 'Anna and the French Kiss', but this was pretty different. It's not a heart fluttering sweet boy meets girl story. It attempts to tell the boy meets girl story from a deeper more realistic perspective. The blurb on the back of the book said it was like reading someones diary, and I think that's a good description. It delves deep into Ari's tho
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9 comments
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(6 people liked it)
Jan 21, 2012
Cass -
rated it:
4/5
I'm not even entirely sure how I feel about this. Other Words for Love is an inspired and empowering book that reveals important morals that I appreciated during my reading. Ari was such a genuine character that not only could I connect and relate to her on so many levels, I was also able to understand her rationale behind her actions and sympathise with her at her low-points.
Other Words for Love is unlike all other contemporaries, in that love is portrayed as OTHER than More...
I'm not even entirely sure how I feel about this. Other Words for Love is an inspired and empowering book that reveals important morals that I appreciated during my reading. Ari was such a genuine character that not only could I connect and relate to her on so many levels, I was also able to understand her rationale behind her actions and sympathise with her at her low-points.
Other Words for Love is unlike all other contemporaries, in that love is portrayed as OTHER than More...
Dec 27, 2010
Princess Bookie
rated it:
My Thoughts: When I first saw this book, I thought I was going to love it. Maybe even more than a 5 cupcake book! I didn't love it as much as I hoped but I still did enjoy it a lot. We are introduced to Ari who lives in the late 80's. She lives with her mother and father. Her sister lives a little bit away with her husband Patrick. Ari kind of had feelings for Patrick which was a bit unusual but nothing actually ever happens between them. It's more like a little teenage crush.Her sister is kind
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2 comments
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(3 people liked it)
Feb 22, 2011
YA Reads
rated it: 
Originally featured on yareads.com
There are so many different ways to promote books these days. The one way that I completely trust is when everyone (with nothing to gain for doing so) is buzzing about a book as enthusiastically as they were for Other Words For Love. So after I checked it out myself, I completely loved it.
The characters in this book were incredible. Each character was unique, complex, so well fleshed out and had these realistic personalities with both vir More...
There are so many different ways to promote books these days. The one way that I completely trust is when everyone (with nothing to gain for doing so) is buzzing about a book as enthusiastically as they were for Other Words For Love. So after I checked it out myself, I completely loved it.
The characters in this book were incredible. Each character was unique, complex, so well fleshed out and had these realistic personalities with both vir More...
Apr 23, 2011
Emily Christine
rated it:
The synopsis on Goodreads for this book does not do it justice, in my opinion. It doesn't even cover half of what this story is about. I thought that this would be an extremely light read, but it pulled me through so many emotions from happy, to sad, to infuriated! This book is about Ari Mitchell and her eventual relationship with Blake Ellis, but it's also about her relationship with her sister Evelyn, her relationship with her very strict and worried mother, and her rocky friendships. You'd th
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(3 people liked it)
Jun 11, 2011
Tanychy
rated it:
So this is great book... it has ups and downs but without them this book wouldn't be so great! :) <spoiler> For me the best thing is the end..because i though that this will be some classic end .. you know..they lived happily ever after..and i'm so happy because it's not! :) </spoiler>
34 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Feb 11, 2012
Suzanne
rated it:
"Other Words For Love" by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal is a wonderful and mature YA novel. I had heard a lot of blogger buzz about it since it was published in 2011, and I wish I had read it sooner.
The novel tells the story of Ariadne "Ari" Mitchell, a teenager in New York City (Brooklyn) from the middle to the late 1980s. I loved that such a wide span of time was covered because it allowed the author to add depth to the characters and allow them to grow and mature.
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The novel tells the story of Ariadne "Ari" Mitchell, a teenager in New York City (Brooklyn) from the middle to the late 1980s. I loved that such a wide span of time was covered because it allowed the author to add depth to the characters and allow them to grow and mature.
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Dec 21, 2011
Esther
rated it:
Full review on Reader's Dialogue: http://readersdialogue.blogspot.com/2011...
Though the story of Other Words for Love is set in the '80s, this story could have been happening right now. The emotions are so real, the relationships and complications so true-to-life. Ari is the perfect character for this story to happen to - just enough naivete, just enough repressed anger, just enough dreams and fantasies.
I love how there are so many layers to the story and how Lorraine knits t More...
Though the story of Other Words for Love is set in the '80s, this story could have been happening right now. The emotions are so real, the relationships and complications so true-to-life. Ari is the perfect character for this story to happen to - just enough naivete, just enough repressed anger, just enough dreams and fantasies.
I love how there are so many layers to the story and how Lorraine knits t More...
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(3 people liked it)
Dec 16, 2011
Charisma
rated it:
This is the most amazing book! I had heard such praise for it on the internet that I had to get it, and I was intrigued right off the bat by Ari’s intimate narration. My heart ached for her through her hard times and soared when things were good. I was happy at the end, even though it’s bitter-sweet, because what happened was best for Ari and she grew so much, she figured out that she didn’t need a guy to be a satisfied person. I loved the writing style, and that the subjects were deep and cover
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2 comments
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(24 people liked it)
Nov 12, 2011
ChristinaSimone
rated it:
The best thing about this book? EVERYTHING.
Other Words For Love sunk me deep inside the main character’s consciousness. It sent me to New York City in the 1980s, and it was a place I wanted to be. I wish I could still be there. I wish the book wasn’t over. I wish I knew Ari and Blake and Del and Leigh and Summer and Patrick and Evelyn, and that I could find out what they were doing today...if they were real. Because the thing is, they felt real. Hauntingly and beautifully real. I could More...
Other Words For Love sunk me deep inside the main character’s consciousness. It sent me to New York City in the 1980s, and it was a place I wanted to be. I wish I could still be there. I wish the book wasn’t over. I wish I knew Ari and Blake and Del and Leigh and Summer and Patrick and Evelyn, and that I could find out what they were doing today...if they were real. Because the thing is, they felt real. Hauntingly and beautifully real. I could More...
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(8 people liked it)
Oct 26, 2011
Charlotte
rated it:
I think that what makes Other Words for Love a standout are the characters. Ari—a pretty, talented artist who is so overshadowed by her glamorous friend, Summer, that she can’t see the beauty of her own reflection in the mirror. Evelyn, Ari’s streetwise, stunning, bitchy and foul-mouthed sister who is trying to cope with her weight issues, her post-partum depression, and the knowledge that her parents are disappointed in her for falling into motherhood as a teen and living an average life with a
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Oct 18, 2011
Emma
rated it:
Eh... this one's really more of a 2.5, really.
This is the first time I've had truly mixed opinions about a book since reading the fifth Vampire Academy book back in June. Sometimes I'll give a book three, write out my review and then mark it down to a two. Or vice versa.
But for this one... I honestly don't know. I'm really not quite sure how I feel about it.
The story was unremarkable. There was a book called What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell that won More...
This is the first time I've had truly mixed opinions about a book since reading the fifth Vampire Academy book back in June. Sometimes I'll give a book three, write out my review and then mark it down to a two. Or vice versa.
But for this one... I honestly don't know. I'm really not quite sure how I feel about it.
The story was unremarkable. There was a book called What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell that won More...
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(1 person liked it)
Sep 01, 2011
Bibliomaniac
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Aug 31, 2011
Missg23
rated it:
I’ll keep this short and sweet, since nothing I write will do justice to Other Words For Love.
Lately I have found it hard to connect with a book. I read all of the good reviews of this one and decided to check it out. Well, I was not disappointed. I finally connected.
The author is one of the few who can write a boy-girl relationship in a YA novel that doesn’t make me roll my eyes. The Ari & Blake story is realistic, radiantly and painfully realistic.
The writing is beautiful and f More...
Lately I have found it hard to connect with a book. I read all of the good reviews of this one and decided to check it out. Well, I was not disappointed. I finally connected.
The author is one of the few who can write a boy-girl relationship in a YA novel that doesn’t make me roll my eyes. The Ari & Blake story is realistic, radiantly and painfully realistic.
The writing is beautiful and f More...
Aug 09, 2011
Erin
rated it:
“Other Words for Love” flows in a way that is compulsively readable and addictive. The main character, Ariadne (Ari) is filled with the insights and angst of a bright adolescent who suffers from depression, low self-esteem, and from being a longtime outsider. But by the end, she has grown and learns that self-worth and independence is more important than being with a guy who is only half-way there for you.
Ari is an iconic and sympathetic narrator who brought me into her home, her fam More...
Ari is an iconic and sympathetic narrator who brought me into her home, her fam More...
Aug 07, 2011
Glenda
rated it:
I read Other Words for Love this weekend, and I honestly couldn't put it down. I was entranced by Ari's voice and the author's gripping writing style. What a powerful story.
Please don't go into this book thinking it's a romance or a typical boy meets girl story. It is not. It's a coming of age novel about one of the most important things in life: the people we meet along the way and how they affect us.
Some say that this book is like a diary, but I don't agree with that. It ha More...
Please don't go into this book thinking it's a romance or a typical boy meets girl story. It is not. It's a coming of age novel about one of the most important things in life: the people we meet along the way and how they affect us.
Some say that this book is like a diary, but I don't agree with that. It ha More...
Jul 29, 2011
1985 was a time for change and self-discovery for everyone, the world was rapidly evolving, sometimes for the good and sometimes not. For Ari Mitchell, high school is just that in Lorraine Zago Rosenthal’s first novel Other Words for Love.
She is too shy, too preppy to stand out at her Brooklyn high school and outshined by her best friend Summer. Ari has an uneasy relationship with her older sister Evelyn, “a former teenage mom whose handsome firefighter husband fills Ari’s head with guilty More...
She is too shy, too preppy to stand out at her Brooklyn high school and outshined by her best friend Summer. Ari has an uneasy relationship with her older sister Evelyn, “a former teenage mom whose handsome firefighter husband fills Ari’s head with guilty More...
Jul 02, 2011
Giselle
rated it:
There is so much that I love about this book, most of which has already been written in the other reviews here. For me, it was beautiful and powerful.
Lorraine Zago Rosenthal deserves tremendous praise for writing a novel for young adults that is neither moralistic nor idealistic, and this is atypical for the current YA market. It's also a good sign that, hopefully, the genre will turn in this direction. I can only hope it does, because I am tired of prudish and sappy YA novels with More...
Lorraine Zago Rosenthal deserves tremendous praise for writing a novel for young adults that is neither moralistic nor idealistic, and this is atypical for the current YA market. It's also a good sign that, hopefully, the genre will turn in this direction. I can only hope it does, because I am tired of prudish and sappy YA novels with More...
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(2 people liked it)
Jun 24, 2011
Stacylee
rated it:
Jeeezzzzz, this story was SO amazingly good, real, sexy, edgy, intelligent, well-written and inspirational. The author bypasses the usual BS that is most YA fiction. She shirks the standard cookie-cutter format by not having an unrealistic fairy tale ending, or making the girl a wimp who forgives the guy for being a jerk, and the author also puts in actual conflict: real, painful, complex conflict. Here we have a story that we can all relate to: serious problems in Ari’s dysfunctional family (a
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Jun 03, 2011
Sandra
rated it:
This absorbing tale, centered around a Brooklyn girl’s coming-of-age during the mid-to-late 1980s, encompasses a broad spectrum of emotion and vividly depicts the strengths and frailties of human character. Ari Mitchell, an aspiring artist, matures from a depressed high school junior to a hopeful college student as she copes with her family that is dysfunctional, quirky, maddening, but deeply loving. She is swept up into a whirlwind of a love affair with a wealthy young man, Blake Ellis, who bec
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Jun 02, 2011
Tiffany
rated it:
Realistic YA is my favorite genre, and it’s even that much sweeter when it’s set in a historical period. It’s interesting to see that even though things might have been different in the past, people are pretty much just the same. That was one of the messages I got out of this book.
Realistic YA + historical setting is one of the reasons I’m going to rave about Other Words For Love. I’ve read so many glowing reviews of this book, and it was everything I expected and so much more.
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Realistic YA + historical setting is one of the reasons I’m going to rave about Other Words For Love. I’ve read so many glowing reviews of this book, and it was everything I expected and so much more.
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May 31, 2011
Carina
rated it:
Read OTHER WORDS FOR LOVE if you want a story that is raw and romantic, sad but hopeful, serious but humorous, gritty yet gorgeous. It's not a shallow YA, where parents don't even have a role in the story and the teenagers barely have an intelligent or meaningful thought.
This novel has a strong plot that moves quickly, but it's literary. What I mean by literary is character-driven, where the focus is not only on the story but on the inner workings of the main character's mind. Her t More...
This novel has a strong plot that moves quickly, but it's literary. What I mean by literary is character-driven, where the focus is not only on the story but on the inner workings of the main character's mind. Her t More...
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May 31, 2011
Annette
rated it:
I ADORE THIS BOOK. It's powerful in an understated, quiet, and subtle way. I love that the author doesn't bash you over the head with her meaning...it's just there for you to figure out if you look closely enough. For example, Ari never really comes out and says that she is longing for her father's love...you can just see it because he's so obsessed with his job (police officer), he's never home, and even her mother obviously misses him, but that's so subtly stated, like when Mom gets annoyed th
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May 27, 2011
Anjelica
rated it:
Without a doubt, Other Words For Love is the best YA novel I have read in a long time. The author shows respect for teens by not making Ari a shallow character in the typical YA lit sense. She’s real, so very very real. She has family problems, and not just “Mom won’t let me stay out late.” She’s got to deal with important problems, like her father ignoring her, and having to live up to her mother’s dreams that Ari’s teen mom sister didn’t fulfill. Ari’s relationship with her first boyfriend, Bl
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2 comments
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(2 people liked it)
May 26, 2011
Judy
rated it:
OTHER WORDS FOR LOVE is a fantastic book, the kind you don’t find very often, especially in YA. It’s the kind of book that you still feel burning in your heart and in your hands when you finish that last page.
Ari Mitchell, the main character, transcends the usual YA protagonist. She’s got her insecurities, but she also knows that she has good qualities to share. The problem is, she doesn’t appreciate herself enough, nor do the people around her...her back-stabbing best friend, Summer, More...
Ari Mitchell, the main character, transcends the usual YA protagonist. She’s got her insecurities, but she also knows that she has good qualities to share. The problem is, she doesn’t appreciate herself enough, nor do the people around her...her back-stabbing best friend, Summer, More...
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(1 person liked it)
May 21, 2011
Nouda
rated it: 
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
May 16, 2011
Jackie
rated it:
My favorite type of YA is the realistic kind, and this tops the charts of the best realistic YA out there.
I felt very close to the main character, Ari Mitchell, while reading. She's kind, honest, witty, clever, sincere, sweet, and waiting for love. She wants the unconditional kind her sister, Evelyn, has. Evelyn is married to Patrick--a fireman who is tough but soft on the inside.
I loved Patrick. I loved his no-nonsense ways, his gruff exterior, his kind heart, and the way More...
I felt very close to the main character, Ari Mitchell, while reading. She's kind, honest, witty, clever, sincere, sweet, and waiting for love. She wants the unconditional kind her sister, Evelyn, has. Evelyn is married to Patrick--a fireman who is tough but soft on the inside.
I loved Patrick. I loved his no-nonsense ways, his gruff exterior, his kind heart, and the way More...
3 comments
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(4 people liked it)
May 15, 2011
Will
rated it:
2.5 stars
Firstly, this book does not deserve such a gorgeous cover. It gives people false hope of a good book
This book is....I'm not entirely sure what word I want to use but the phrase 'all over the place' would fit as well.
This book went up and down for me. More down than up. I look at this book as though it's in 3 parts:
1st Part - not good. I hated the characters.
2nd Part - uplifting and good. I felt like the book was heading in a good direction. More...
Firstly, this book does not deserve such a gorgeous cover. It gives people false hope of a good book
This book is....I'm not entirely sure what word I want to use but the phrase 'all over the place' would fit as well.
This book went up and down for me. More down than up. I look at this book as though it's in 3 parts:
1st Part - not good. I hated the characters.
2nd Part - uplifting and good. I felt like the book was heading in a good direction. More...
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