Erin and James are both a little lost—working in unfulfilling jobs, feeling alone and somewhat disconnected from family and friends, and feeling unsure of what to do with their lives. They were best friends in school before they had a massive falling out, and now they haven't spoken in years—that is until they start corresponding in the margins of books that they leave for one another in the little free library in their neighborhood. You might enjoy this book if you like books about books or exploring topics of grief and loss.

<i>The Book Swap</i> wasn't what I was expecting at all, and I don't know if I would classify it as a romance. <spoiler>The two main characters barely interact in person until the last few pages of the novel, and when they do, it's brief and they don't <i>actually</i> communicate.</spoiler> While there was some character growth throughout the story, I never really grew to love the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | Graydon House for the complementary digital copy. All opinions are my own.

4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Book Swap
Author: Tessa Bickers
Contemporary

Thank you Netgalley and Graydon House for this ARC! This was an enjoyable read. Our FMC is going through a hard time having recently suffered a tragedy. She ends up accidentally donating one of her beloved classics to a little library near her home. It turns up later with messages in it and she begins an exchange of letters through classic books. It was a cute and unique spin on You’ve Got Mail. There were a lot of serious topics in this, and watching our FMC navigate them all was really inspiring. This book was just as much sad as it was happy. Definitely not a romcom. It was overall a good read.

this book was both adorable and heartwarming. this story was written beautifully and the characters were immediately so likable. i found myself not only enjoying the romance of this book but its overall message as well. this was my first tessa bickers book and i hope it's not my last!

thank you netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. A fun debut! The tone of this story felt a little hard to follow, but very intrigued with where it went. I look forward to more work by this author in the future.

I feel like I went through a lot of emotions reading this book. I feel like Erin is honestly so immature and dramatic. She held grudges over things that she should have been over in way less time. I really enjoyed the book exchanging and the notes they left in their books. It was so cute and romantic. I felt like the second half, after Erin learned who James was, was a little all over the place and seemed to just drag. The bones of this book is good, just didn’t love how a lot of it actually played out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin for this ARC

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing Company for the ARC and allowing me to read this prior to publication!

The Book Swap was a delightful summer read for me! I went in thinking cutesy rom com/Nora Ephron vibes, and I got so much more.

This book goes deep into tough topics like loss, grief, mental illness, bullying and so much more.

More than a book about two people falling in love with each other, this is a book about falling in love with yourself and your life and until you truly do that you can’t begin to fall for someone else in a way that matters.

If you’re looking for a book loving, make you smile, think and maybe spill a tear or two, this one’s for you!

The Book Swap is an enjoyable read and would be good for fans who like:
- Dual POV
- references to classic literature
- characters on a journey to better understand themselves
- second chance friendship/romance is reignited through writing to one another
- books like Clare Pooley's The Authenticity Project and Erica Baeurmesiter's No Two Persons.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book and got through it quickly. It was heavier in subject manner than I initially expected and wish I had known that before reading (see CW warnings).
CW: death due to cancer; grief; depression; a parent with mental illness

Thank you Harper Collins for a physical copy and Netgalley for an e-arc to review.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this book. Interesting premise, especially for a book lover like myself. But this book was very slow for me and i found it boring overall.

I am really surprised by some of the reviews of this book on Goodreads. People seem to have really mixed feelings about it, but I really enjoyed it. It is not a cute, fluffy romance like one might assume but instead a story about being true to yourself, relationships with friends and family, loss and growth.

Erin and James were friends when they were young and have always carried feelings for each other. They had a falling out, and they both lost their best friend Bonnie to cancer. They are reconnected by a free little library, unknowingly at first and everything unfolds from there. I found the characters in this book extremely relatable and the topics that were dealt with were just real life; loss, success, growth, mental health. It was an emotional and realistic story that left me rooting for the love story of course, but that wasn't all this book was about for sure.

I recommend.

This book was.... fine. The communication via notes in books was cute and new. I just didn't find any of the characters very likable. Yes, they realized their flaws, but even after the realization it didn't seem like there was any sort of change. I don't know, I just didn't care for any of them. There was potential for all the parts of this book, the characters, the story, the drama, but it just didn't do it for me. Thank you to NetGalley and Graydon House for this ARC!

Okay, I adored this.
I adored the little free library. I adored how it took the entire book for them to overcome their communication issues. I loved how both of them grew in their relationships with their siblings and their parents. I appreciated the emphasis on friendship and how it can feel strange in the face of grief. I loved all of the references to classic novels. And did I mention how it took an entire book to grow? Nothing felt magical, everything felt real. Not just because I am an aspiring novelist slash girl working multiple part time jobs because it brings me more joy than any corporate job.

Some of my favorite quotes:
"I've left it to sit there in an unopened document on my laptop ever since. Better to keep it as one perfect chunk than try to finish it and fuck up the whole thing." CALL ME OUT TESSA BICKERS
"That's the great thing about books. They're there to teach you whatever you want to learn. They're for all of us." MOST PROBS READ THIS AS A ROMANCE BUT I READ IT AS A LIFE BLUEPRINT
"You can't have success without some failure, so stop being so afraid of it."
"A job doesn't mean anything. But love. A place to call home. A passion. That's life. That's living. The rest is just filler."

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and Tessa Bickers for an eARC in exchange for my honest review. Sorry that this took me so long to review!

The Book Swap

Ohh my heart. This was a heavy but beautiful story.

Erin is struggling with depression as she quits her toxic job and still needs to work through the guilt and grief of losing her best friend to cancer. James is struggling in a job he doesn't love, giving up much of his life to help support his dad as a carer for his mom, who suffers from manic and depressive bipolar disorder episodes.

The mental health struggles in this book were accurately done and well represented, but at times hard to read. The love story was deep and moving through the pain the two of them worked through.

A beautiful story, but be mindful that this is not a lighthearted romance.

Thank you to NetGalley for this arc read. It was a cute story, but is a bit lacking in depth to me. The topics described in the summary drew my interest, but the topics seemed to be touched rather briefly to focus more on the romance than the deeper issues throughout. I did enjoy it, it was an easy read, but it seemed to drag a bit for me.

Erin Connolly is still grieving the death of her best friend three years earlier. She doesn't know how to move on. When she accidentally donates her favorite book to a little free library, she is desperate to get it back. When she does find it again, she finds that the person who had it added to her many margin notes and began a conversation with her.

James Parr found To Kill a Mockingbird and became intrigued by the person he names Margin Girl. He is dealing with a job at which he is successful but which he doesn't enjoy and a bipolar mother who often needs help. He has long had the dream of becoming a writer but had let everyday responsibilities with his work and family situation to derail his dreams.

Erin has recently quit her job when her controlling boss wouldn't let her attend her friend's memorial and is now trying to decide what her new future should be. She seems to be living in sweats and staying in bed. Only her walks to the little library to see if her pen pal has left more notes or recommended another book to share gets her out of her depressed state. Until a man looking for a book for his daughter hires Erin to help the girl prepare for her school exams.

Erin is gradually beginning a new career as a teacher and James is finally writing the book that he's wanted to write for years. But will their shared past with its shared hurts derail each of their new brighter futures?

This book delves deeply into themes of trauma and personal growth, focusing on Erin and James as they navigate grief and personal struggles. While the story is rich with references to classic literature and explores serious topics like bullying, family issues, and mental health, it may not resonate with everyone. The slow-burn romance and disjointed narrative can be challenging, and some readers might find the characters difficult to connect with. Despite these drawbacks, the novel’s exploration of healing and self-discovery offers a poignant, if somewhat heavy, reading experience. If you enjoy stories steeped in classic literary references and character-driven growth, this might be worth a read.

(3.5 Stars) Many thanks to Netgalley and htp_hive for an advanced copy. Below is my honest review. 

Erin Connolly needs a life reset. After a personal heartbreak and professional upheaval, she takes it upon herself to “Marie Kondo” her flat - donating unused clothes and bringing books to her local little free library. But when she realizes that she accidentally donated her beloved (and heavily annotated) copy of To Kill a Mockingbird. She returns over and over to the little free library, hoping someone will return it. To her surprise, someone does—but with a twist. The mystery person has added comments to hers and invites her to continue their conversation in the margins of Great Expectations. Thus begins a life-altering relationship, sharing raw and personal details neither has ever shared before, but Erin and the mystery man aren’t the strangers they think they are; in fact, he is the one person she’s sworn to hate forever.

I thought this would be a fun, lighthearted book. It, in fact, deals with some weighty issues related to shame, loss, illness, and other things (DM me if you want more details). I enjoyed the love story that unfolded in the margins of the books and liked the subplot between James and Joel, where they explore why men often struggle to share their feelings in friendships and how they can hold each other accountable to do better. There were, however, times when I found Erin hard to root for, and there were several situations that were set up as binary choices where I felt like there were options that were less so. But, if you love books about books, this one is an ode to classics, modern must-reads, and everything in between (Great Expectations, On the Road, Perks of Being a Wallflower, etc).

Wow. So much Wow. 💗😭💗 Tessa Bickers hit all of my feels with her new book, The Book Swap. Every. Single. Emotion. I am still wiping away tears, having just finished the book. It is That good!

As an adult, Erin Connolly quit her career in journalism that was bringing her no joy because of her abusive boss. She decided to then continue to remove the other things in her life that are bringing her no joy. She stumbled upon a little lending library in London right after accidentally “no joying” a treasured keepsake of hers into it, and when she realizes her mistake, she tries to get it back, only to realize that it might be gone forever.

A few days later, her stalking of this little library produced pay-dirt: whoever had borrowed her beloved book had returned it with more margin notes and a few questions. Erin was over the moon and quickly noticed that another book had been left with notes in the margins for Her this time.

This swapping that began so innocently would have been the ultimate meet-cute, except that unbeknownst to either swapper, they had a rough past already, which ended in a life-altering betrayal. What will become of this new and delicate flirtation?

Thank you SO much to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing’s Graydon House for this wonderful (“sigma”?) ARC!!!

I absolutely adored this read! This book had so much heart and emotion. It was a roller coaster ride and I am so glad I was given the chance to read it! I really appreciated the honest look at grief and the complicated way it can affect so many parts of your life. My only complaint was that I needed MORE and I think there certainly could be more in this world!! The side characters were just as important and developed!

Wooh. This was not at all what I was expecting, but honestly I am so glad, because it was so good!
I went into this one expecting a light hearted, fun rom-com centered around a little free library, which I was super excited about being a LFL steward myself. This book was so much more, and in the best of ways.

I was not prepared for the emotional roller coaster that this book took me on. There is so much going on with our MCs, Erin and James. The heaviness of their grief, trauma, loss, and just feeling a bit lost in life was written so well. I laughed, I cried, I felt like chucking the book a few times. It was a trip for sure.

I absolutely loved the way Erin and James find their way to each other through their book annotations. It was such a sweet and unique take on a second chance romance. Watching them fall in love through the pages of each book and the way they yearned for each other long before they even knew who they were writing to was heartwarming and so fun to follow.

Bravo on an awesome debut novel! Can’t wait to see what’s next for the author!

What a debut !

I am extremely biased and should most certainly not be trusted to write this review considering I have a huuuuge passion for books about books.

Tessa Bickers' first novel is such an easy read. You are not able to put that book down once you have picked it up. It's addictive!

The author is able to talk about romance, grief, forgiveness, friendship and family with an amazing depth and a right-on-point development.

The romance is... believable. In a lot of books, the romance can seem too perfect to be true, but this is not the case when it comes to Erin and James. Their romance is troubled and chaotic, but somehow it still works.
However, this positive point is also a negative one. The miscommunication in this story reaches the unbearable level. I know that if they were excellent communicators there would simply be no book at all, but TO THIS POINT ? C'mon, guys, just SAY SOMETHING.

Other than this tiny little negative point, I honestly do not think I have anything bad to say about this book. Tessa's writing is smooth and beautiful. It reflects her love for literature.

The book itself is a love letter to books and I love that.

AMAZING !