A Five-Letter Word for Love was a super fun and cute love story. The integration of Wordle and their love story was an entertaining treat. The slow build between the characters was refreshing. It is a perfect book for fans of slow burns with realistic scenarios and heartfelt discussions!

DNF — I wanted to love this, but it just read slow to me. The premise of using Wordle was cute, but I just had a hard time getting into this one.

This was my palette cleanse so to speak for my in between thriller reading. I loved how light and fun this one was while giving all the small town romance cozy vibes you could ask for. I have never done Wordle but this made me want to pick it up and join into the fun! I love how a game was incorporated to almost be like a guiding life path in a quirky way!
Emily's character really developed throughout the book from a lost I don't know what to do with my life, into figuring out a path that would make her happy. Emily and John were a little weird for a couple, but it was also cute taking the polar opposite personalities and making them fit into a relationship built off of Wordle. The barrel museum was a cute idea, and I liked how the older individuals were incorporated in the story to give it more emotion and empathy to give a lot of focus to community, generational influence, and how small towns can really come together which gives small towns their own uniqueness!
If you want a lighthearted, a little emotional, but such a good read this is a gem! In a way it gave me Virgin River vibes ( I have only watched the show so far, the books are on my TBR), but I like that there were a lot of characters that could be incorporated in to give that community feel without being too many personalities to sort through.
Thank you to the publisher and getting a #Bookclubgirlearlyreads copy to review with my own thoughts!

This novel follows a woman living in a small town on Prince Edward Island in Canada, where she works as the receptionist at a car repair shop. She wants to do more with her life, yearning for life in a big city. As she gets more involved in her community and begins to fall for a coworker at the auto shop, she finds that she may not need to leave to find happiness.

I found the main character frustrating to follow and I think there were more mentions of Wordle than there was a serious plot.

On the other hand, I appreciate the character development that the main character had in the second half of the novel and I liked how the story wrapped up. I think the barrel museum seems like a charming place.

When I read the blurb and saw that it was set on Prince Edward Island, the FMC was obsessed with Wordle, and there was a quest for the "perfect dream job" I was excited to read.

While trying to make ends until Emily can find her dream internship and job she leaves her family and heads to live in Prince Edward Island working at a body shop as a receptionist. I love a small town story with a setting that has its own charm, local characters, and a peacefulness that makes the everyday mundane into an adventure. If you are looking for a book where Prince Edward Island is a main character in the story this might not be the book for you. Having spent decades traveling there I was hopeful for more than just a "taste" of this magical place.

Instead we find Emily working at the local autobody shop working with a guy who doesn't speak much and irritates her. Making the most out of her time she befriends a few older residents and takes a second job as a caregiver while building friendships along the way. It's a little difficult to swallow that her inexperience taking care of the elderly becomes something lucrative but this is fiction and moves the plot arc for Emily.

Despite wanting to put the book down half-way through I decided to read until the end because I had to know what Emily finally decided to do about her dreams and the goals she set for herself. What happened to her friends back home? Did she complete her Wordle challenge? Did she find her dream job?

While this didn't connect for me I'm sure there will be readers who devour this story and find a connection with the plot.

I liked the idea of this book but the execution was just not good. First major issue is that it’s a book using the theme of Wordle, but then mistakes are made in the Wordle patterns. At one point, the letter “A” is grey in the first guess but then “A” is one of the five letters! Second major issue was the timeline. At first it seems like the FMC is a recent college grad, at most, 3 years out. But then, one of her University friends already has three kids?! Everyone else is very established in their careers? Also, she was a chemistry major - which I was too! Yet, she comes off as incredibly stupid. You can’t get a chemistry degree if you are as stupid as the FMC seems. Also, the acceptances she gets towards the end of the book, not even fathomable in fiction! And putting an application together in two days?! There is a level of things not being 100% realistic that’s fine in fiction, but this is just poorly research and conceptualized. The FMC is judgy and kind of mean at the beginning but just doesn’t seem to understand life. Even her storyline with John doesn’t work and feels really forced. There’s some okay ideas here but it just doesn’t work. 1.5⭐️, 1.5🌶

A cute rom-com set in modern times. I actually really enjoyed this story and thought it was overall well done. Our main female character lives in a town reminiscent of Anne of Green Gables meets Gilmore Girls. It was interesting that her main love interest was someone she already knew but wasn't initially attracted to, made it feel very friends to lovers. Also, I love that in the end she found community and relationships beyond a love interest. The only downfall for me was the way everything seemed rushed towards the end, like very weird timelines but I understood it was due to the urgency to reunite. I also did not think the main male character felt developed for me, like I cannot remember a single trait he had except that he owned a fish. Overall an enjoyable book.

As a wordle girlie on day 299 of a streak, I was immediately drawn into the premise of A Five-Letter Word for Love, a debut romance by Amy James. I wasn't sure how she would tie wordle in throughout the story, but she did it seamlessly! The romance itself was a bit lackluster for me, but I appreciated the creativity.

3.5 stars

I wanted to love this story more than I actually ended up liking it. I play wordle almost every day and the cover is so cute and reined me in. I didn’t really like/connect with the characters. Loved the concept, didn’t love the execution.

Let me tell you I love Wordle. I have even had a streak of 90 something days. When I saw the cover for this book I laughed and said...heck yeah I want a Wordle inspired Romance! This was it and so much more. I love Emily and how she is figuring out her life. She has so many goals, so many ambitions, and no idea what she actually wants to do but she does have a really good streak of Wordle going. I love how through out the whole story we get how she picks her words on what is going on in the day, (i also chose words like that). I love how her and John spark up the friendship over doing wordle. My favorite scene might be the one where he says he plays on hard mode and it rearranges how Emily see John. I speak three languages and can completely rework a car, whatever but you play wordle on hard - I am all in baby! LOL.
I love how Emily slowly start piecing her life together with her caregiver services, how her old friends start falling away and she is making new friends. How she loves to listen and is completely interested in people and John doesn't like to talk. Their banter really made this story so cute. I love how they just kinda of fell into friendship, dating, love. Not a lot of drama, not a lot of fuse...they were just so easy and perfect together.
I am never really a fan of the 80% break up rule (where the characters break up at 80% of the book) but it actually really worked her. That scene where Emily was in the Met staring at the other guys hand and she saw her whole new life. Urgh..that moment hit hard. Choice in life are hard, and you always have to wonder "what if" but she saw it, and realized she wanted what she already had (with or without John which I feel is super important). She needed to know she would be ok on her own, and then she could be with him. She also pushed him with all her ambition - he goes from an employee to and owner of the garage, an apartment to a house that he really wanted and loved ( it just happens to be the house she loves also).
The scenes with Jim were just beautiful. I cried my eyes out (with happy tears I swear) knowing that Jim was going to be with his wife, but they had one great afternoon together before he left.

Just lovely. Highly recommend to those that like sweet romances with easy to love characters, coming of age type stories, quirky side characters, small town romances, and of course who could forget a love of barrels or Wordle!

I was looking forward to this book because I love playing the Wordle everyday. I have so much fun comparing my score with my husband and my children. This is marketed as a story about two people who fall in love over playing Wordle, but it just didn't feel like that. The main characters are Emily and John. They work together at an auto body shop in a small town on Prince Edward Island. Emily is very unlikable, and she comes across as whiny, immature, and boring. With John, we don't know much about him. We know that he is a mechanic at the auto body shop, and he loves living in his small town. Other than that, John is super boring.

I didn't feel much romance between these two characters, and I was not interested in them as individuals or as a couple. The other characters were more interesting than the main characters.

Overall, the book was difficult to get through, and I didn't have fun reading it.

This was such a cute story! I’m such a sucker for a good, grumpy/sunshine romance. I do feel like 2 characters who barely spoke at the beginning of the book got together very quickly.

I’m also still not entirely sure how I feel about Emily leaving New York to go back to him. I understand it was important to the storyline but it’s like she was chasing after him rather than the standard “he gives up his life for her.” That was definitely different from other rom-com-esque books I’ve read.

All that being said, I did really enjoy this book and would definitely recommend it!

A Five-Letter Word for Love was a slow start for me and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get through the whole book. But I'm glad I stuck with it because it did get better and the plot came together better.
The main character Emily stressed me out with how much she had going on between her jobs, volunteering, her million interests, and her big dreams. It made the book quite complicated and the plot felt lost with it. As she and John started to get to know each other and Emily narrowed down her dreams in life, the story became easier to read and I enjoyed the book more.
I appreciate how unique this book was and surprisingly liked the Wordle factor in the story.
Thank you, NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!

A Five Letter Word For Love was a cute read. Emily and John were a nice match. I love that Wordle brought them together. I think that Emily is what a lot of us can feel when it comes to where to settle in life. I like the fact that John was so supportive. The small town in PEI was a wonderful, fun backdrop for this story.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon and Harper, and Amy James for this e-ARC. This review is my own opinion.

This is a very high two start rating because the story was sweet but there was too much Wordle. Emily and John barely spoke and their communication had left much to be desired.

💚 Small Town Vibes
💛 Grumpy MMC
🩶 Slow Burn
💚 Opposite Attracts
💛 Workplace Romance
🩶 Work Acquaintances to Lovers
💚 Third Act Breakup
💛 Self discovery
🩶 Mention of Death 💀
💚 Great Side Characters

Emily does a daily Wordle and has a streak going. Emily almost did a full year of daily word guess. [Wordle is a five letter word guess]

Emily and John work at the same place at a mechanic shop. They didn't have much in common until they realized that they both play Wordle. They started a friendship and turned into a romance with this game.

John had his sweet moments of helping Emily throughout the book. I was not crazy about their romance, and it seemed like something was missing there for me. I didn't like Emily's character when she was creating bonds with people in the small town, and then she decided to leave for bigger and better things. She was making great relationships with everyone around her. All of a sudden, she wanted to do something she thought was important until she tried it. It's good she tried this opportunity to see if this is what she wanted. However, she left a lot of people who wanted her to stay, including John. Emily's character was not my favorite, honestly.

It really liked the elderly people when they spoke their minds. It was hilarious! It was interesting how obsessed Emily was about the barrel museum. Emily had to go through this self-discovery to know what she really wanted in life.

I love playing Wordle, and I love sweet romances that don't throw in a miscommunication trope. Unfortunately there was a 3rd act breakup (insert side eye... I HATE when this is a part of a book), but ultimately you end up with a HEA. I loved how Emily truly learned to follow her dreams, even when following those dreams made her realize her heart belonged with something else. I loved the sweet, grandparent-like figures in the book, even if it was a little bittersweet to me. I loved how it added to the story.

This had a good set up and I thought it was fun but in the end it took too long and also wasn't that invested in the two characters.

This book was PHENOMENAL. Watching Emily and John’s relationship develop, watching Emily grow as a person, all the supporting character’s distinct personalities, showing Shelley up, everything in this book was fantastic. It was like a friend giving me a hug the whole time. The ending? Spectacular, no notes.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an early copy!

Emily doesn’t have a lot going for her, but she does have a 300+ day streak on wordle. One day with only one guess left, she gets help from John, her annoying coworker. Soon they become wordle buddies which leads to an even stronger bond than she could have imagined.
I never expected to read a book where two characters connect and fall in love over a game of Wordle, but I kind of loved the premise once I started. I loved it even more when Emily felt the word of the day somehow connected to her life each day. This book really is centered around Wordle, so be prepared for it to be mentioned many times. At times, I was more intrigued by finding out if Emily would make her year streak than by the romance. This was overall a cute story but I would have loved a bit more character development.
Thanks to Avon Books and NetGalley for the advance copy.