What a good read! I truly enjoyed this book, I thought it was a sweet and unique storyline. Having a second-chance romance through secret notes and a community library is such an eccentric and darling little romance. I loved how both characters had their fair share of flaws as they went through their journey of grief and healing. I thought it portrayed grief in a beautiful and realistic light, I fell in love with and mourned Bonnie right with Erin and James. Some things I thought would have made this book even better would've been more details regarding James and Erin's history. I wanted to know more about how they fell for one another, what it was like when they were kids, if they thought of each other often during their years apart, etc. I think there was various areas that could've used some more descriptive details about how the characters were feeling, what was going on for them, or any resurfacing experiences from the past. Overall, it was a fun story and I'm eager to see it on the shelves! It has been a fantastic opportunity being able to read this arc and learn about James and Erin's stories!
3.5/5 stars

The Book Swap is based upon a storyline that is pure genius!! Imagine You’ve Got Mail but the messages are sent thru margins in a book? The references to the utterly brilliant classics in this book are unbelievable- Great Expectations, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, & Wuthering Heights just to name a few. I could not get enough of this book. If you love books, you will love The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers.

Thank you NetGalley & Harlequin Trade Publishing for an ARC copy of this book.

(2/5) I struggled to fully read this book. I think this would’ve better been categorized as a contemporary fiction book with a sice plot of romance, because this book was truly just about self improvement. Which brings me to my next point: this book is the epitome of “therapy fixes everything”. It seemed that the entire book was just the mcs realizing they were assholes and needed to improve themselves, which miraculously happened with the help of 1 year of therapy. Also, this book never excited me. I mean, it’s obvious how it was going to end, the main characters easily fixed all of their problems, and there were really no plot points that really immersed me in the story.

This ended up being a much denser read than I anticipated. This book heavily discusses bullying, infidelity, death and mental health disorders. Based on the blurb, I thought the premise was intriguing and a very cute idea for a romance. However, I am not sure that I would push this as a romance novel at all, especially when the main characters don't get together until the very last pages of the book. I found the romance aspect of this book to be unsatisfying and I didn't find myself rooting for James and Erin's relationship. I did enjoy Erin's relationships with her best friend and her sister. I think I could have read an entire book about just that.

I wasn't a huge fan of the dual POV because I didn't find much difference between the voice in the narrative when it would switch between Erin and James. I had to keep reminding myself who's POV I was reading. I think this book just hit too many heavy topics, too frequently for me. This was not a bad read, just not the book for me.

Thank you Net Galley and the publisher for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc copy of this book! This book largely focuses on Erin and James, their personal struggles, loss, love, and forgiveness. The chapters alternate between the two main characters POVS, each mixing in both past and present events. I found it a little hard to piece everything together at the beginning. The book had a slow start but I eventually enjoyed it when the book swap begins. I loved that part of the story line. Over all a cute read.

First let me start by thanking NetGalley and author Tessa Bickers for this digital ARC.

This is Tessa Bickers’ debut novel and if I wasn’t told that, I would have never guessed it. The Book Swap has become one of my favorite reads of the year so far earning a well deserved 5/5 stars.
I don’t like to write reviews that have real spoilers because I feel that it takes away from the joy of reading a book with clear eyes. What I will say is this is a beautiful story about love in many different forms, personal growth, loss in one’s life and the importance of finding what makes you happy and inspires you to do more. This is a dual POV book and the way these two main characters stories wind together is perfectly written. It’s a book for book lovers who really just love what books can mean to a person and for those who have an appreciation for some classics.
This book put me through the wringer of emotions, smiling, laughing, blushing(not really spicy/a slow burn for those that want to know), and crying quite a few times haha.
I can’t wait to get the physical copy of this book to really channel my inner Lucy/James and fill in the margins with all my thoughts!

I do think it’s important to note this book deals with the loss of a loved one and a few different mental health diagnoses.
While the author does write these topics with sensitivity and respect, it’s good to know what you are getting into especially if you’re sensitive to such topics.

I actually really loved this book and if it were sold as fiction I would rate it five stars. However, I did feel as though this was mis categorized as it was first and foremost a moving story of coping through immense grief. I absolutely loved the characters but was far more invested in the fmc and how she would cope with her grief and the mmc and how he would manage his family than in their relationship which was very secondary to the plot.

The cover of this story was ultimately its downfall for me. What I thought was a lighthearted romance via books, a la Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares, was instead a heavy look at grief. It was by no means a cheerful read.

There were quite a few side plots and I found myself praying the next chapter would ground us once again in the book swaps. Unfortunately this took me way to long to find the energy to slough through.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!
I loved the premise of this book as a huge Little Free Library stan. It was a truly heartwarming tale, though a little less romance and a little more deep in the feels than k usually want. But a lovely story nonetheless.

guys i wanted to love this. i really really did! but this was just not for me. plot wise this is SLOW hence my not finishing it :/ and it's just not really a romance - or at least that's very much not the focus. if you go into it knowing that it's not super light hearted and that it's not romance centered than you could enjoy it more i think. even though it wasn't my cup of tea, the writing was not bad, so if this still sounds good to you then you'll probably quite enjoy it!! huge thanks to netgalley and harlequin publishing for allowing me to read the arc in exchange for an honest review.

If you're a sucker for little free libraries like me, "The Book Swap" is bound to reel you in from the get-go. I mean, who doesn't love the idea of two strangers connecting over dog-eared pages and handwritten notes? It's like stumbling upon a hidden treasure chest of literary magic right in your neighborhood.

What really struck a chord with me was how the author wove together the separate yet intertwined journeys of the main characters. Erin and James aren't your typical love-at-first-sight duo; their relationship is a slow burn fueled by shared stories and shared pain. And let me tell you, it's a journey worth taking.

If you're in the market for a feel-good read that's equal parts heartwarming and heart-wrenching, do yourself a favor and snag a copy of "The Book Swap." Trust me, you won't regret it.

I’m a big fan of little free libraries. There are several in my town and I love dropping by when I’m out running errands. I even try to keep a book to donate in my car at all times!

This book hooked me from the start. … two strangers meeting in the pages of a book and watching their relationship grow with each new story shared via the little free library. Magical!

The parts where they were remembering Bonnie during her illness brought up sad memories for me, but I was glad to see the characters find one another again after such a huge loss. As my friend who had cancer would say, “it’s all about the love.”

This is a great book with lovable characters. I enjoyed reading it very much!

Thank you to the author and publisher for providing me with a digital ARC title via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I loved this cute book. It was such a fun, sweet story of two people who unknowingly reconnect through annotations and notes in favorite books swapped in a community bookshare. I enjoyed seeing their growth through grief, family issues, relationships, and overcoming past mistakes.

I really liked this book and enjoyed all the classic book references. It was a fun read that made me think about how stories can help us feel better about ourselves.

*ARC REVIEW*

Thank you netgalley for providing this arc for me to review.

The book swap by Tessa Bickers was just the book I needed to get out of my book slump. It has happiness, heartbreak and trauma all to unpack and thats just the book I needed.

I very much enjoyed how the fmc and the mmc had seperate- but also together stories. How they intermingled in real life and unknowingly through books as well. I loved how the book swap gave Erin a way to fall in love with James without all the history they had. I also love how this book didnt just go from Erin "hating" James to her magically loving him. It took time, it took growth on both of their ends to see they were not living the life they wanted. It took healing their inner child to get over all the trauma from their past.

I very much enjoyed reading this book. Thank you.

A book about books, that drew me in! James and Erin have a history that centers around betrayal, heartache, and loss. But when both of their lives are not going in the direction they’d hoped, they are drawn back to each other through a book swap. Back and forth new books comments bring them closer together, until Erin finds out who she is corresponding with. What I thought would be a cute rom com had a lot more layers with grief, growth, and healing. I enjoyed this book, but I did feel it could’ve been shorter and there were a lot of sub plots that drew focus from the main story lines.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is Tessa Bickers debut book and for a brand new author I really think she hit the mark. At first I thought this book had too much trauma , too much drama. It didn’t feel as realistic to me with so much going on in both the main characters lives.

As I kept going I was proven wrong. The author wove these two stories together quite nicely with so many quiet (and not so quiet) themes. It, at times, felt like the message of ‘be exactly who you were meant to be’ was thrown in our face (but isn’t that message something that we DO want to get across to people?!).

I thought that this was going to be something it wasn’t and I’m glad. I thought it was going to be your standard love story, but it was so much more. It actually was a love story between three best friends.

It taught us to live ‘One day at a time’. And who doesn’t need that reminder?

Kudos to Tessa on this beautiful debut!

Thank you for the ARC of this book. Unfortunately, this one fell a bit flat for me. The book was hard to get going, and never really kept a flow that was comfortable for me. Others may really enjoy this one, but it was a miss for me.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Harlequin, and Trade Publishing for the opportunity to read the ARC copy of Book Swap. The idea and concept of this book was delightful but the execution was lacking in flow. The initial character development was a little incongruous and confusing. The flow with the introduction of James was very sporadic in going back and forth with reminiscing. The continuous flashbacks disconnected the whole chapter from the plot, in my opinion. I think there were too many issues addressed and the excess subjects interrupted the story of swapping books and the “romance” promised in the synopsis with the cover.
With exploring grief, bullying, mental illness, and the reminiscing, the book swap was lost and delayed so that the reader loses focus of that central idea. For me, this book was a tough read because of the slow flow. It took forever to get into the actual story of swapping books and notes. The book simply did not present the way it was introduced in the synopsis, and for that it was disappointing. The cover is fabulous.

just one word for this book: AMAZING!
Before starting it i was in a reading slump and this book took me out of it!!
i immediately fell in love with james and i LOVED the way they fell in love with each other by just reading each others margin notes on book.