Something I’ve wanted to try lately is writing posts like this one, where I focus on a certain theme and provide a couple of books that carry the theme through. I’m inspired by one of my favorite podcasts, Fated Mates. Jen Prokop and Sarah MacLean produce episodes called Interstitials where they deep dive on a certain topic and talk about all of the books they know that fall into that category. Well, here goes.

Previously, I wrote about my love of books that use language as a theme within the story in some significant way. Here are a few that I think do a great job with it.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab is an absolutely stunning cautionary tale to “never pray to the gods who answer after dark”. Addie is desperate not to fall into a life of mundanity, of getting married to man she doesn’t love, having children, and losing her purpose. She makes a bargain with the devil to live forever, but is simultaneously cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets as soon as she leaves their presence.

This story follows through space and time, beginning in France in 1714 and walking through 300 years of time periods. Due to the setting, being mostly in France, French is heavily interspersed within the dialogue and descriptions. It is used not only immerse ourselves in the scene, but to express love; the love of a father, the love of a lover, and love of a friend. French is such a beautiful language that it only seems fitting for us to experience strong emotions through it.

The River of Rain duology by C.E. Ricci is one of my most favorite MM romances. I should probs make it’s own review at some point, but I read it so long ago that I’d need to re-read. When Ciarain Grady transfers colleges, he meets River Lennox, star QB and, quite frankly, a ray of sunshine to Rain’s dark cloud. Rain joins the team and thus begins the sordid relationship.

This is a friends, turned enemies, turned lovers kind of story. It all comes to a head when they are forced to live together for five weeks in a secluded cabin and work out their issues. Suffice it to say, they absolutely do, but I’ll let you enjoy that rollercoaster without too many spoilers. Where the language piece comes in, though, is the fact that Ciarain (as you can probably deduce from the name) speaks Gaelic. And said Gaelic is spoken when? Oh right, at the best times, during moments of passion, of course, which is pretty much the sexiest thing I can think of. I stopped so many times to not only look up the meanings, but to find you tube videos of people speaking the words to me. I just needed to hear it. What a beautiful language.

The Off Balance series by Lucia Franco is a rough journey. This is a forbidden obsession between two very unhealthy people; one is an elite level gymnast and the other is her alpha coach. As a story, it’s very heavy, but entertaining. If you can handle reading about all of the fucked up shit elite athletes put themselves through, along with a man on a power trip, then go for it. Proceed with caution though. Overall, I liked it, but just be prepared.

The reason I bring it into the discussion at all is because Kova (the coach) is so very Russian and the language is beautifully utilized to punctuate any high emotion. Whether Kova is angry (which most of the time, he is) or during the many MANY spicy scenes (this man is…uh…passionate), he is slipping back into Russian. Side note, I read most of this series, while I was traveling a lot for work. I wonder if any of my seat mates looked over my shoulder, especially since I don’t always keep a straight face when I read. Lol. Anyway, pet names are one of my favorite tropes in books and Kova always called Adriana, “myleshka”, which loosely translates to “baby girl”. I mean…not a fan of the English meaning, but I wouldn’t mind being called “myleshka”. Just saying.

War by Laura Thalassa is unique contribution to this topic because Laura invented an entire language for this book. This is the fourth book in her Four Horsemen series, which I highly recommend. I think Pestilence was my favorite of the series, though. War is the second in the series, so we’re already in a place where humanity endured a global pandemic and they are now facing mass wartime destruction.

So the world is burning and Miriam is, well, traumatized, right? If that’s not enough, War himself claims her as his wife, very much in the style of Khal Drogo and Daenerys Targaryen. Miriam moves into War’s camp, but War does not speak Miriam’s language, but somehow Miriam can understand it, so throughout the book whenever War speaks, we get his dialogue along with an English translation. But you know I was trying to sound it out every single time. It sounds a whole lot like Dothraki too, which…wellllll…there’s a reason I stopped watching Game of Thrones shortly after Khal dies. Do I have a type? Lol. The combo of the foreign language being so immersed within story AND it being a completely made up language insane, right? But I loved it so much. This ultimate warrior cannot be bothered to learn the languages of earth, which adds to his…I don’t know…godliness? Maybe? Shrug. It worked for me.

Oof, this post took a really long time to put together. I don’t know how Jen and Sarah do this so often. I enjoyed it though, so hopefully I can throw these in from time to time. I have some good ideas cooking, but it’s just a matter of finding the time and focus to put words down. If you have any other recommendations of books where language is used as theme, I would greatly appreciate them!