I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

Content warnings: grief, troubled mother-daughter relationship.

This book follows Bella, who is caught in a rut with relationships. She loves her dad, but has a difficult relationship with her mum. Bella is a relatable protagonist and I ended up developing a deep connection with her. I think her story struck a chord with me in some places and it made her much more likeable.

The plot itself was very well executed. It was well-written, interesting, and emotional in places. The love story really stole my heart. The way the author switches to present tense to recount Bella's memories was both intimate and immediate and managed to put you right back into that moment in time.

Overall this is a funny, sharp, and raw story that has a lot to love about it. I recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of contemporary romance and chick lit, I know this will be one many people will love!

Thank you to Net Galley, Claire Calman, and Boldwood books for the eArc for this in exchange for an honest review!

This is a new to me author and since it's close to Valentine's Day I thought it would be a nice book to read. What I took away from this book is it's nothing remarkable!
A woman's boyfriend dies and she needs to change everything, her job, her location,basically her whole life. She's not changing one thing though, that's her mind about giving love a another chance .
I felt like the book could have been shorter, it dragged in spots. There are too many sad bits and it drags the book down.


Pub Date: 24 Sep 2020
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for a review. This started out as the typical post relationship, new city, new job, new apartment opener for a romance novel. It took quite awhile for anything to really happen. We do get a little bit of a surprise when it comes to Bella’s ex and the life she has led and why she is so closed off. She is a really damaged character and is so closed off from those around her, it makes my heart hurt. This story was quite disjointed for my liking and it jumped around a lot between different days and times it seemed with no warning or clarification. It ended up being really unexpected from what I thought going into reading it and a solid 3 star read.

Not sure what it was with this, but it just didn’t click with me at all. I couldn’t connect with the story or characters, so I can’t really recommend

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

At the very beginning I wasn't sure about this book. I'm so glad I carried on though. I loved it! Turned out to be one of the best books I've read so far this year.

Sprinkles of humour mixed between the tougher, emotional topics of the book. I think this would be a great book for a book club as it has plenty of areas that could be discussed. Dealing with death, grief, miscarriage, family relationships, friendship, romance... this book had it all.

Highly recommend.

Love is a four letter word and the perfect word to describe this book

LOVE it

This book is just wonderful. It is real, it is happy, sad, dramatic, funny - laugh out loud (embarrassingly loudly so do not read on a train !!!! )

Never read a book by this author before and this was just wonderful. It was a joy to read and a real feel good book.

Could not recommend this highly enough. I will definitely re-read this and it is honestly not often I say that.

"Love is A Four-Letter Word" by Claire Calman was a delight to read. I don't usually read romantic comedies, but maybe I will from now on because I really enjoyed my experience with this book. The story follows Bella, a single thirty-something with some baggage from her past and is forced to deal with it in the present. As a thirty-something myself, I found that some of Bella's experiences are extremely relatable, which was a big contributing factor to why I liked it. The reader is able to connect with the character which sometimes is very hard to do depending on the genre, even if you're not a woman in your thirties you will most likely be able to relate.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a good romance book with comedy included. There was never a moment where I was bored while reading this, it was most definitely something uplifting and fun to read. The reason that my rating is four stars is because I found it to end abruptly. Or maybe I was just sad for it to end. Regardless, it was a good book with a good ending and hopefully I can read more by Claire Calman in the future.

Not a fan couldn’t get through the first chapter.
DNF


**********I received an ARC for my honest opinion from NetGalley.************************

This was a really difficult read. I’ve not read this author before, but the cover and synopsis appealed to me.

Firstly, the style of writing didn’t suit my personal taste, this is a very individual opinion and others may love it. I felt it was very jumpy, short bursts of information in fractured sentences.

Secondly, I didn’t really connect with the storyline or the main character. I actually found Bella annoying. Again, this is a personal opinion, but once I’d formed that opinion it was hard to engage with the story.

Finally, I really didn’t like the references throughout the book. They were poor in taste and just irked me to be honest. An example is where the author describes Bella being tired and walking like a ‘stroke victim...’. Another was Bella looking for a hat to wear because of a bad hair day, but deciding against it because she couldn’t keep the hat on all day unless she could claim she ‘was Muslim or having chemotherapy’.

Really not for me.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for my advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review book 📚

Bella is in a rut with relationships, she hasn't met any guys lately and debates with herself about becoming a nun. She loves her dad and has a difficult relationship with her mother. She moves house and employs Will to design her garden.
This book is a typical rom com/chick lit. Its an easy read with some funny moments and some sad bits.
Received this book from Netgalley and publishers in exchange for an honest review

The story itself is great. The second chance at finding love. The struggles of finding your true passion, realizing just because you are older and single doesn’t mean you have to give up, that it’s okay to love a new man. The twists that lead our heroine to her new home/job. All the past things that happened to her. Man it’s all good. All the new love, steamy romance, funny banter. So good.

Now at first I almost didn’t finish this book. I was going to stop. I’m not an English major so I don’t know the correct terminology, but I didn’t enjoy this writing style. It threw me off more than once and trying to figure out who was talking, and especially when it switched from past to present and back to the past. That all threw me off, but I powered through. Then I was so grateful I did. The story and Bella are great. The bones are so good. I loved Will. He is definitely the definition of book boyfriend material. But the ending. I’m so mad. All this build up. All this angst at the end. Bella coming to terms with her truth. Going to declare her love. And then it’s the shortest chapter and DONE. No epilogue nothing. I was so disappointed in how the ending was extremely abrupt. I could have given it 4 stars, but the last chapter made me drop it to 3. I felt like I wasted my time almost. I was extremely invested at that point and I was routing for them so badly. Did they get together? Yes. But then it was like slamming into a brick wall and over and done. I just wish there had been more at the end.