I thought the idea was such a cute concept. Falling in love via little free library? Sign me up. To be honest I just felt like the FMC was not likable. Her flaws were too big to over look and she got in her own way of the entire plot of the book. I wanted more growth from Erin that I unfortunately didn't get.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book gave me “you’ve got mail vibes”. It was the cutest rom com where you cheer for the relationship the whole way through. I laughed and smiled throughout the pages. Such a heartwarming tale about dealing with the grief of a best friend while finding love.

thank you to netgalley for this advanced reader copy! all thoughts and opinions are my own.

erin is still reeling from the loss of her best friend, bonnie. she experiences a major life change, and she starts marie kondo-ing her belongings. it reminds me of when you break up with your boyfriend and chop all your hair off lol. she accidentally adds her favorite book to the donate pile, which ends up in a little free library in her neighborhood. as soon as she realizes,she frantically returns to the library to get her favorite book, full of her annotations and thoughts of the book, but most importantly contains a postcard from bonnie. a few days later, she finds her book returned to the library, with some new annotations and directions to read another book.

james finds erin's book in the little free library, and responds with his own annotations and a copy of his favorite book for her to experience.

erin and james swap books back and forth, reliving their shared pasts and attempting to forge their futures together. this book is full of literary references, slow burn tension, learning to forgive, and is just the epitome of human experience.

i think this book isn't so much a romance as it is a delayed coming of age story (delayed since they're all adults), full of learning to heal from grief, mental illness, and mending broken relationships. i had a pretty difficult time connecting with our main character, erin, but i was invested in her story and was excited for her by the end of the book. i really loved how we see all of the characters fall into their true callings in life, which gave me a positive outlook based on my own situation.

that being said, i was kind of unsatisfied with the lack of face to face interaction between erin and james. erin ran away every time she saw james until the last few pages, but continued to interact with him via book margins. we end up learning the reasoning behind this, but it still comes off as a cutesy version of a middle/high school couple who can't seem to interact outside of texting.

i personally felt that there was too much going on, on the side of the main plot. i understand you have to have some other things going on to keep things interesting, but there were way too many storylines going on outside of the book swapping for my liking.

overall, i really enjoyed this book for what it is and might read another by this author when more are published.

trigger warnings include intense grief, pretty severe bullying, mental illness

I was just okay with "The Book Swap" - I did like it mostly, but it was definitely NOT the bookish rom-com that I (and likely many others) was expecting & I don't think that's debut author Tessa Bickers fault - it's the marketing teams. This story here is much less a romance and actually has some very serious undertones of grief, bullying and trauma. But it also has much to recommend it - especially to readers of classic literature (I've read the majority of the classics referenced (never got through Dickens or G.Eliot though). So, I do recommend it to readers of classics who might enjoy a "book about books" but not to anyone just looking for a light beach read. My thanks to NG, et al. for the advanced reader copy.

This book has a really fun premise but sadly weighs to heavily on the idea and not quite enough on good character development and plot depth. It is a very slow burn and does not quite feel like a romance. There is a lot of talk of trauma and grief and working through the past. One of my favorite parts was all of the talk of classic books which were a great reference.

Oh this book... When I picked this title, I was expecting a super sweet romance centered around a love of books and stories. What I instead found was a gut-punching exploration of what it means to love one another (both romantically and platonically) and a beautiful depiction of grief. As someone who lost my own best friend to cancer, I felt so seen and understood by this book. It was a cathartic moment grieving my own loss alongside Erin, and the revelations she had and the healing she found mirrored my own journey over the last ten years when I lost my friend. To put it simply, this was the book I needed ten years ago, and it was the most poignant depiction of grief and how it coexists with love. I also was so deeply invested in the family dynamics in this book and how Erin and James grew in their understanding of what it means to be family and to love one another.

Another element that I cherished in this book was seeing how Erin and James both grow in their understanding of what it means to love oneself enough to believe in your own dreams. As a 20-something who has gone through her own "existential crises," I felt so connected to both of their journeys to themselves and to pursuing their passions. This book needs to be read by anyone who has had to fight to be who they want to be and for anyone confused or lost-- it especially needs to be read by those feeling hopeless that they don't have it all figured out yet. This books speaks into those places and shows how universal those fears and longings really are.

Yes, I loved the love story, and yes I ADORED seeing it play out in the margins of beloved stories, but what makes this book shine for me is that it is so much more than a love story. It's a picture of what it means to be human and how we impact one another in our respective journeys.

I will be posting it to my IG account soon under @bookish.kendall, and will of course be telling everyone and their dog to go preorder this lovely story. It's a shining debut, and I am so thankful for the chance to have read it and fallen in love with it. Thank you so much!

ARC review
“They say it takes one moment to change your life. My moment will happen at twelve minutes past three this afternoon, but there’s no way of knowing that when I wake up.”

okay, i’ve felt ALL the feelings in this book, in the best way possible! I truly loved this authors viewpoint and writing in regards to grief/loss, the way it impacts the main characters themselves, the relationships within their lives and how grief can completely derail you.
““I promise to change into something colorful for you.”

Erin & James are experiencing grief of the same person, from varying viewpoints, loss of other relationships within the lives and an overall grief of the future they pictured for themselves. I loved watching the main characters grow themselves, how their relationship came back around full circle and their connection shared through the classic novels exchanged. I do wish we had gotten to see more of the “after” and gotten a bigger view of the HEA at the end.
I highly recommend this book, the deep questions on life/love that it arises and insight into our own grief, especially those we are struggling to work through.

The plot of this book sounded so fun and I love the idea of love centering around books. I didn't quite expect some of the content to be as heavy as it was since it seemed to be described as a romcom. Definitely head the trigger warnings. One of the major downsides for me though were the characters. They both came across very young and immature. I kept waiting for them to get better but their personalities didn't work for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This is described as a book lover's dream and it really is just that. A meet-cute/second chance romance that would be a the fantasy romance of any book nerd. The concept was so simple but so unique and even though the FMC was fairly unlikable, it never ruined the storyline for me and I was rooting for the pair the entire way. Best of all I have a few more classic novels to add to my TBR 😍

Favorite quote: "Better yourself is the best kind of apology you can make."

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC of this novel!

I was expecting a light and fluffy romcom, but got SO much more. The characters navigate life dealing with grief, loss, mental heath, bullying, family trauma, a toxic workplace, and burnout of being a caregiver. Once I recalibrated I my mind the type of book I was reading, the book’s plot and characters grew on me the more I read. This felt so relatable and real. I loved the near slow burn of the romance between Erin and James and the flashback scenes to their childhood.

Erin, our FMC, is working through the loss of her best friend since childhood, Bonnie, due to cancer. James, our MMC, is burning out as he splits his life between an unsatisfyjng job in London, and being a caregiver for his mother who has bipolar. Erin and James were friends for a period of time in school, before they had a falling out, making James persona non grata.

Erin misplaces her beloved and well annotated copy of To Kill a Mockingbird when she accidentally donates it to a local lending library. When she goes back to the library to search for it, the book is back with more notes in the margins and a message to read another book left behind. Erin starts to exchange annotated books and messages with this mystery person, who may be someone she’s known all along.

I loved reading The Book Swap. I felt the beginning was a little slow, but once it found its stride, it was hard to put down. Overall, the pacing was good and the flashbacks helped flesh out the history between the main characters. An excellent debut novel!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this was going to be a book about books and it sort of was, but it was more a character driven book with A LOT of characters, in fact maybe a few too many? There were the families of Erin and James, there were the friends of Erin and James (which actually became a nice side story), there was the ghost of Bonnie and her story. It was almost tiring to try to keep up and empathize with all the different stories. I think the book might have been more effective without so many story arcs and so much information. However, all that aside the plot contains a sweet love story and a great theme to do what makes you happy--and it might not be just a job for money. Bickers had the best line for an end to a romance--but yet goes on for almost 3 more "pages" (I read it on a kindle). Nevertheless, English majors of the world rejoice, maybe many readers will be introduced to some great classics.

I will be honest and I'm not much of a literary classics person. When I found the summary of this Book I was super interested, what a cute idea to have two people fall in love through the classics. What a beautiful story of friendship, death, falling out and coming back togethers.

Again more honesty, I have never read any of the books they mentioned in here (I know I know, uncultured swine) but I'm glad the author explained them the way they did. Not like they were writing a dissertation to other English majors and literary critics, they wrote for the common person who may have heard of these classics but never read them. So thank you for that.

Thank you netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’d been itching to read this for the plot, it felt so unique from the other romances I’d been reading. I still very much love the concept, but I think James and Erin fundamentally irked me in every way possible that I can’t get pass. I found them both to be extremely unlikeable. I wanted to just shake them both the whole time I was reading. I also did not buy that someone would get so relentless bullied and borderline sexually assaulted for their dad being a one hit wonder? That just seemed so unlikely it really pulled me out of the story. I also was having trouble, and not sure if it’s an American schooling vs UK schooling thing, keeping track of what ages people were when things were happening. I enjoyed the ending though!

The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers is a story about Erin and James, who bonded over books and almost dated in secondary school, until James's great and terrible betrayal. Erin and James reconnect later in life in an unexpected way, once again, through their mutual love of reading.

This book was a lot heavier than the cover and write-up suggest, although the ending was solid, and the resolution to the story line had a hopeful feel to it. This book was more women's or general fiction than romance, with the connections we have with friends and family, and all the complexities that entails, being the star of the show. Forgiveness was a big theme in this book - forgiving ourselves for our own failures and weaknesses, and forgiving others for theirs. Figuring out who you are and learning to chase your dreams is another prevalent idea throughout this story.

I rated The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers 3/5 stars. This was one of those rare instances were I enjoyed the supporting cast much more than the main characters. That being said, as debuts go, I felt like this author has a lot of promise, and would consider reading future books by her. I recommend this book for anyone who's interested in an inside look into coping with mental health issues, which the author treats seriously, without making light of the adversities experienced with various mental and emotional difficulties.

I was drawn to the premise of this book, and while I appreciated the unexpected levels of depth and complexity of the MCs, I wasn't expecting such heavy content. This definitely isn't a light, airy, romcom; not that this is a negative, just something to aware of. I thought Bickers handled the discussion of mental health issues well though and am glad I was granted this arc.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I really enjoyed this book! Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this one.

This was a really cute story, even if it did have some rather heavy content (Erin is struggling with a lot of past trauma including the death of her best friend, her parents divorce, betrayal from another friend, loss of her job, and more). The book exchange part of the story, as well as the enemy's to lovers plot, is reminiscent of You've got Mail.

Overall cute story, but very long and drawn out. It look many days and times I had to put it down because it was too much for my brain to process. Many side stories that confused me and didn't really contribute to the main story of the book. Mental illness was well portrayed, and talked about in a respectful manner.

i always love a great slow burn if it’s done right and this definitely was! also a very heavy and sad story but it was very positive in the way of seeing the characters get through what they were going through. i loved seeing the relationship develop between erin and mystery man, written through annotations in timeless classics.

thank you to the author, netgalley, and graydon house for giving me the opportunity to receive an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

For the most part, I enjoyed this book. It dealt with a lot of heavy topics of grief and mental illness. However, there were times when I thought the book's pace was very slow and I struggled to want to continue. The story was unexpected and took a lot of different turns and side plots which were intriguing but sometimes didn't always add to the story. It was not a romantic love story by any means, but the concept of grieving the lost of your best friend while trying to find her place in the world was still a great plot of this book. I would still recommend this book with the caveat that it will be an emotional rollercoaster.

This book was sweet, but such a slow burn. Took ages to finish and was very predictable. I did like how the author addressed mental health struggles and the loss of a loved one. However, I was bored for most of the story.