Words of Lovers collects 124 short pieces on love, arranged in eight chapters that follow a relationship from “The First Spark” through devotion, distance, heartbreak and renewal, ending in “Passion, Freedom & Forever.” Most entries are a few lines long, so the book works as a bedside companion or a gift to dip into, not a cover-to-cover read.
The early chapters are the most charming. The opening pages are plain and sincere, with advice such as being patient and kind to the one you’re with, saying “I love you” from the heart, and treating love as a two-way street. They have the warmth of a handwritten card. The one longer piece, a vignette set in a Kathmandu café with Miles Davis on the radio and a stranger who sits down beside the narrator, is the book’s most vivid moment and shows what Sticco can do with a little more room.
The middle of the book is its strongest section. Chapters Three, Five and Six move away from romantic abstraction toward blunt, earthy advice. Love is called a “workshop,” a partner is not a rescuer, and respect is “an active shield.” The heartbreak chapter offers real consolation, including the line that some people are chapters, not the whole book, and the reassurance that healing is not a straight line. The charcoal-sketch passage that ends with soy milk at Trader Joe’s is the funniest and most original entry, and it makes a good argument for love as ordinary labour.
Words of Lovers is a heartfelt, accessible collection with a few memorable moments and a sincere belief in love as a daily choice. It would suit couples, anniversary cards and readers who like their wisdom in small doses.
