TITLE: LOVE, IN ENGLISH
AUTHOR: KARINA HALLE
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
“No one ever said this would be easy, the hard things are worth it. Hang in ther.”
Please excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor from my hysterical weeping!
WONDERFUL!!!! I kind of want to do this whole review with EXCLAMATION MARKS!!! But that’s a bit obnoxious so pretend there are a slew of exclamation marks after every sentence. Love, in English is a bundle of joy and pain that reminds me why I love contemporary novels so much. I’d be surprised if you don’t smile and cry at the same time while reading this book. It will touch you to the core; it will open your mind to a lot of things, it’s sweet, it’s bitter, just plain good!
“You’re married.”
“It’s over.”
“I want you, I wanted you from the very beginning, I just never thought it would be possible.”
“Because it’s not possible.”
“You don’t know that.
“You’re married. I cannot be the other woman!”
“You already are the other woman!”
I feel like I have to be so careful with my words because I don’t want to give anything away, especially for those of you who have yet to begin this book. One major strength of this story was Karina Halle’s ability to take an imperfect and broken world of Vera and Mateo, two vastly different cultures collided and bring them together. Were things always easy? No. Was there always harmony? Certainly not. All of the differences and struggles definitely made the story richer and more interesting. Ms. Halle made sure everything was handled very realistically, without anything being too easy or convenient. I greatly admire this because she trusted her characters’ intelligence to work through any chaotic situation she laid before them.
“Why couldn’t he have been single? Why couldn’t I have been older, or he younger, or why couldn’t I have met him in another point in time?”
“I tried not to. I tried to hold it in. But a month’s worth of second-guessing and anguish had built up. It was hard to leave that field.
“But we had to. We both knew we had to.
We were back to being separate. Our feelings back to being hidden.
Now we were a secret.
And we were running out of time.””
It was absolutely heart wrenching to read as Vera tried to escape from her feelings and battle between what’s right and wrong. How she managed to keep it together was beyond me. It is a very difficult situation to be at where you are only left with one choice…leave.
“Design your own universe, make your own stars, write your own stories, and create your own destiny.”
Perhaps the most difficult aspect of Love, in English is wanting to rush to find out what happens and how the story ends, but grappling with the fact that after you’ve turned that final page…it’s all over. It’s the worst dilemma a reader can be faced with. But let me reiterate that you should soak it all up, enjoy the journey, and let your heart experience all the emotions. Karina Halle’s work deserves to be appreciated.
Ultimately, the multiple layers and story lines that were woven throughout made this book awesome. It was about dealing with life changes, your choices and the decisions you have to make. It was about finding the right love at the wrong time. It was about growing up and learning how to deal with all the consequences of life.
If you are prepared to embrace the drama, Love, in English is worth giving a shot. Pick it up now! You’ll be embracing a book overflowing with love, life lessons, intermingled story lines and so much more!
With her USA Today Bestselling The Artists Trilogy published by Grand Central Publishing, numerous foreign publication deals, and self-publishing success with her Experiment in Terror series, Vancouver-born Karina Halle is a true example of the term “Hybrid Author.” Though her books showcase her love of all things dark, sexy and edgy, she’s a closet romantic at heart and strives to give her characters a HEA…whenever possible.
Karina holds a screenwriting degree from Vancouver Film School and a Bachelor of Journalism from TRU. Her travel writing, music reviews/interviews and photography have appeared in publications such as Consequence of Sound, Mxdwn and GoNomad Travel Guides. She currently lives on an island on the coast of British Columbia where she’s preparing for the zombie apocalypse with her fiance and rescue pup.
Karina is represented by Scott Waxman of the Waxman Leavell Literary Agency.
