He’s thirty-eight. I’m twenty-three.
He speaks Spanish. I speak English.
He lives in Spain. I live in Canada.
He dresses in thousand-dollar suits. I’m covered in tattoos.
He’s married and has a five-year old daughter. I’m single and can’t commit to anyone or anything.
Until now. Because when they say you can’t choose who you fall in love with, boy ain’t that the f*#king truth.
***
To a restless dreamer like Vera Miles, it sounded like the experience of a lifetime. Instead of spending her summer interning for her astronomy major, she would fly to Spain where she’d spend a few weeks teaching conversational English to businessmen and women, all while enjoying free room and board at an isolated resort. But while Vera expected to get a tan, meet new people and stuff herself with wine and paella, she never expected to fall in love.
Mateo Casalles is unlike anyone Vera has ever known, let alone anyone she’s usually attracted to. While Vera is a pierced and tatted free spirit with a love for music and freedom, Mateo is a successful businessman from Madrid, all sharp suits and cocky Latino charm. Yet, as the weeks go on, the two grow increasingly close and their relationship changes from purely platonic to something…more.
Something that makes Vera feel alive for the first time.
Something that can never, ever be.
Or so she thinks.
“Love is like a thief, it robs you of all thought and logic, and all you have left is a heart that you can only pray is strong enough to survive the rest.”
I read Love, in English the moment it appeared on my kindle and I couldn’t. stop. reading. I literally had to force myself to stop when it was 2 AM and by then I was around halfway done. God, this book did a number on me. I can’t stop thinking about it–my mind and heart are still in a jumble of a mess right now. All I really want to say is the I love this book so freaking hard. Love, in English has become one of the best books, the best romances, I have read this year yet, and it’ll most likely stay that way because, simply put, this book is phenomenal.
“You can fall in love in a second,” she said with a snap of her fingers. “The heart has no regard for time.”
First, let’s talk a little bit about forbidden love! Yes, as you can see from the blurb, our heroine, Vera Miles, falls in love with a married man. A married man, you say??? Yes, yes, a married man. This is a touchy subject, but it’s one I felt Karina Halle handled flawlessly. I normally stay far, far away from books that involve cheating, and only very, very few books have made me fall in love with the story and characters. Love, in English is one of them. So if you’re wary of the cheating aspect of the book, I would say to not turn your back on it just yet.
The thing about Love, in English is that it is so much more than just a forbidden romance. The very essence of this book is not the forbidden part, but the love part. Vera goes to Spain to teach English to a group of Spanish native speakers, and there she discovers more about herself and about love than she could ever have dreamed of. She thought she was fairly okay with her life up until her trip to Spain, where she meets new people who “get” her. She doesn’t have to pretend with these group of Spaniards and Anglos, who welcome her with open arms, something she never had at home.
“You are lonely, but you say you like to be alone.”
I nodded. “I do. I prefer it. But… it doesn’t mean I don’t want someone to love me.” My eyes stung, as if tears were on their way. I bit my lip, debating if I should say more. “It doesn’t mean that I don’t have a lot of love in me to give someone.”
And along the way of this self-discovery, Vera actually falls in love… but it just so happens that he’s married. And what I love most about Vera, besides her kickass attitude and her awesome tattoos, is that she knows what she feels for Mateo is wrong. She knows there would be consequences and was very adamantly against having any feelings for him. And it certainly is wrong to act on those feelings, but what she feels for Mateo is something completely different. As she spends more time with Mateo, talking with him, getting to know him, her feelings blossom into something… beautiful. And it is very obviously reciprocated by Mateo.
“What is love? In English.”
I raised my brows. “Love, in English, is love?”
“What is it in Spanish?”
I was so enthralled by his hypnotic eyes, I could barely remember. “Amore?”
He shook his head ever so slightly. “No. Love in Spanish is you.”
Cue the blubbers!!! My heart was seriously bursting here. *sigh*
But but but… heartbreak is like a dark cloud hanging over Vera and Mateo. If they had only met under different circumstances, then a love this theirs would have been the most wondrous, glorious thing. But they didn’t, so what can actually come out of a love between the two of them?
“You and I, we were always a memory in the making.”
Cue the goddamn tears!! Karina Halle is so powerful with her words. I could feel the heartbreak, the anguish, but most of all, the love between Vera and Mateo. And another thing Karina Halle so eloquently expresses in this book? Spain. It was like I was taken into another world, a special place designated to Mateo and Vera for falling in love. And I was rooting for them every single second. They were two people falling in love at the wrong time, but there was no doubt that the two of them were meant for each other, meant to be with each other. I had no idea what direction Karina Halle would have the two of them take, but everything was honest, heartbreaking, breathtaking, and real.
“But love makes you an optimist,” she said. “That is what love is. It is hope for the future. Love doesn’t want you to lose faith, to view the world darkly, to have no hope. Love makes you believe in the impossible. That is the meaning of the word.”
All in all, Love, in English was one beautiful book. It made me laugh, made me cry, made me hurt, and made me feel nearly every emotion out there known to man. I was gasping one moment, and tearing up in the next, but every single second I was falling more and more in love with the book. This is without a doubt one of the best romances I have ever read, and I wish every single person out there gave Love, in English a chance.
Reading Order: LIE series
#1 ~ Love, in English: Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads
#2 ~ Love, in Spanish: Ebook • Goodreads (Nov. 11, 2014)
Spinoff ~ Where Sea Meets Sky: Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads (March 1, 2015)
