Review - Love, In English By: Karina Halle

Title: Love, In English

Author: Karina Halle

Genre: "New Adult"/Adult Contemporary Romance

Release Date: April 20, 2014

Add to: Goodreads

Order online: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Amazon UK

NOTE: This is a "New Adult"/Adult novel. Due to mature content this title is recommended for ages 17+ 

Synopsis: 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.

Review: 5 Stars - Love, In English by the very talented author, Karina Halle is one of those books that as soon as I read the synopsis I knew I had to read it. Filled with such a taboo subject as cheating, set in Spain I knew I would either love it or hate it and I was so thrilled that my love for this title came out on top.

As mentioned above this title deals with cheating. It’s a subject that tends to rub some the wrong way. I’m not a fan of cheating at all. I tend to stay away from it when at all possible but sometimes there’s a book that you just can’t look away from and Love, In English was just that book for me and so much more.

Vera is young, free and has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She’s from a divorced family and has a wild side. She has her own set of issues and takes off to Spain to work for a month for a company to help teach conversational English to as the synopsis states – businessmen and woman. Being that its set in Spain is the icing on the cake and off she goes for an adventure that she hopes will be a chance to do something different and exciting. While from time to time I didn’t care for Vera or her choices it’s in those moments that she’s more realistic because she’s flawed, which made me appreciate her as a character even more so.

That’s when she meets Mateo. He’s almost forty, rich, extremely successful and pretty much the complete opposite from Vera with her tattoos and him with his expensive business suits. The more we read the more we learn about him and his life and who he’s left behind to help him with his English. Yet the same can be said about him and my feelings I had with Vera. There’s plenty to love and to hate about these two and I was glad to see that Halle showed both sides of the story with the decisions made and what each had to loose and at what cost.

These two are just so different yet they work well together. From time to time while reading you almost can’t help but wish that things were different for the two. There are so many emotions that run through this book from both characters that there’s no way to miss it. Halle did indeed write a story that many others will I hope love as I have but I’m sure there will be some who just can’t get past the cheating aspect of this title.

While reading there were two parts in the story that I had to stop because I couldn’t see the pages from the sobbing, one of those times I cried uncontrollably for over thirty minutes! The reason is there are two parts in this story that just hit too close to home. Nothing to do with the cheating mind you, but something that reminded me of times when I had to leave my now husband for a period of time that brought back all of those emotions that I just couldn’t get my head out of that space.

One of the things that I loved most about this title is that I was utterly absorbed in the story because of how wonderfully written this title was. Anytime a book can make me this emotional and allow me to be whisked away to another place is something I just can’t look past. And while this took me a little longer to read than normal because I was so emotionally drained on two occasions I was thankful.

I didn’t want this book to come to an end. I didn’t want to have to say goodbye to Vera or Mateo, yet I was happy to see where Halle leaves readers and her characters’ at the conclusion of their story. For me this turned out to be one of my favorites titles I've read this year. It left it's mark and I was more than happy that I had to chance to read Vera and Mateo's story. I would without a doubt recommenced this title to anyone who is looking for something about a taboo subject and any and all future readers who go into this novel with their eyes wide open about it's subject matter. Enjoy!