Review: Love, In English by Karina Halle

Love, In English by Karina Halle

Published April 20th 2014 by Metal Blonde Books

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.

My Thoughts

He took his hand and ever so slowly, ever so gently, brushed a strand of loose hair from my face, tucking it behind my ears. His fingertips felt like whispers, telling my skin secrets. I closed my eyes at the touch, feeling it travel down my spine, bathing me in starshine.

Wow! Did you feel that??? I sure did! 

Intense writing, hypnotic narration and emotionally charged chemistry.

I really enjoy Karina Halle’s story telling. She has a tendency of putting her readers into edgy situations where you know you shouldn’t be condoning what’s happening, but as you fall deeper and deeper into her spell, you become a part of the journey and a complicit bystander in the situation.

Love, In English is no exception.

The characters in this story are a perfect mismatch of flawed individuals that enter into a one month program called Las Palabras that includes 20 Anglos and 20 Spaniards shipped off to a small town in Spain where they interact every day to teach the Spanish participants conversational English. Spending every day with each other creates some deep bonds and long lasting friendships among the group. When the month commences, many of the participants find it difficult to leave their newly created family and reenter their lives after the program.

Vera Miles is a twenty-three year old astronomy student that meets and falls head over heels for the thirty-eight year old, Spanish ex-football player Mateo Casalles. These two experience an immediate attraction and spend the ensuing weeks falling in love. The bump in this situation, however, is not just the age gap, but the fact that Matteo has a wife and child waiting for him back home. When the program comes to an end, Mateo and Vera try and find a way to continue their relationship without leaving a ton of destruction in their path.

Mateo was a perfect combination of unflappable, passionate and dominating. As smooth as this character came across at the beginning of the novel, it was exciting to see him somewhat fall apart after he left the program and was forced to face the aftermath of his choices. I love when dominant male characters show a bit of darkness and twist, and Mateo was no exception. There were certain choices that made me livid(view spoiler), but when he admitted his faults and revealed his vulnerabilities through a good groveling session, I was in ever deeper lust with this character. He really did it for me. Yes, I'm messed up...I know.

I took my time reading this novel, and I have to say I really enjoyed my time with Vera Miles and Mateo Casalles. Their relationship was never simple and straightforward seeing as Mateo was married when these two fell in love during the program. There were so many points in the story where I had no clue how these two would end, and I had to fight off the feeling of skipping to the end for a spoiler. I’m glad I didn’t because the ultimate conclusion was profound!

Overall, Love, In English is an edgy, flawed story in all the right ways. It proves to me how much of a sucker I am for stories with poor choices and flawed characters. Halle did a great job of narrating a different type of novel that was unique and emotional. Definitely a hit in my opinion.

4.5 Suns