A reason to live, love and forgive.

The Book Swap is about Erin (fmc) and James (mmc.) It is a duo pov romance story about Erin losing her favorite *annotated* book to a little free library which James then stumbles upon and picks up himself. From then on, Erin and James go back and forth - reading and annotating a book and asking the other to meet them in their next read.

A funny, heartwarming romance with second chances, grief and possible new beginnings The Book Swap is a perfect book for those who love books about books.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, finishing it in one days time I couldn’t get enough of Erin, James and every character in between! Reading a book about two characters who love books just as much as I do, it made me feel connected to them easily. My rating lands at 4/5 stars since I loved the way the story flowed and how things weren’t ever just sunshine and rainbows, it felt realistic while also having that “fantasy” illusion too it.

I went into this book thinking that this would be a cute romantic read due to the original description, but there are harder topics in this book that are now outlined (for some of the editions) to give the reader a better understanding of what is covered in the book.

Erin, the FMC, is navigating the death of her best friend Bonnie and this is a big topic throughout the entire book. She is also grappling with abandonment issues related to her mom. Ex friend/crush from highschool, James, who is the Mystery Man (sorry) and second POV in the book, is dealing with his mom who struggles with bi-polar disorder and a soul crushing career path. Their stories are woven together by a neighbourhood library when they start communicating to each other through the margins of classic novels.

This book had a lot of potential to be a five star read. Two people finding themselves and each other in the margins of books that mean something to them…adorable. Unfortunately it was trying to do a bit too much in too short of a time frame, especially with the hard topics. I found it really difficult to care about Erin. She was selfish and rarely reflected on how her actions made other people feel. Between the two, James was definitely a more likeable character and tried really hard for his family. I didn’t find a moment where I wanted them to end up together in the end as a couple, maybe a rekindled friendship.

If you love literary references and tougher topics with your romance this might be a great read for you. It’s available September 3, 2024.

page&pour rating: 3 star

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the opportunity to read The Book Swap and share my opinions.

☕️✧˚ ༘ ⋆𓍢ִ໋☕️✧˚ ༘ ⋆𓍢ִ໋☕️✧˚ ༘ ⋆𓍢ִ໋☕️✧˚ ༘ ⋆𓍢ִ໋☕️✧˚ ༘ ⋆𓍢ִ໋☕️✧˚ ༘ ⋆𓍢ִ໋☕️✧˚ ༘ ⋆𓍢ִ໋☕️✧˚ ༘ ⋆𓍢ִ໋☕️✧˚ ༘ ⋆𓍢ִ໋☕️✧˚ ༘ ⋆

~ rated 4.5 stars ⭐

This book took me a little bit to get into, like a good few chapters before I really got invested in the story. I ended up absolutely loving the book, but I'd like to give a heads up that this isn't necessarily just a pure romance/fluffy romance even if the cover looks like it. (highly suggest to please check the trigger warnings before getting into this book - and the author actually puts the trigger warnings pretty much at the beginning of the book).

Imo, this story was more about the relationships between people (platonic, family & etc.) and I couldn't help but fall in love with the characters because they felt so real. I can be brutally honest and say that the main characters frustrated me multiple times but I think I appreciated the icky side of being human. I also think the timing of when I read this book worked out really well, b/c it felt like something I wanted to hear.

The story took a while if I'm being honest, but I really did enjoy it. I liked how slow burn everything was, and I'm a major sucker for the whole notes between the main couple. A few of the lines in this book actually made me want to read some classics so I love that as well.

thank you netgalley & the publisher for sharing this book with me <3

Thank you to @Harlqeuin Trade Publishing @netgalley for a gifted eARC of this book! 

Pub date: 9/3/24

The premise as well as the book cover drew me in to want to read this debut book. But unfortunately for me it fell flat. And maybe for me part of the problem was my expectations that this would be a fun lighthearted romcom but it is not. The book is a slow burn and also handles darker themes of grief, mental health, cancer, and more. For the first 20% into the book I wasn't quite sure where the plot was going. The writing felt choppy and the timeline throughout the book wasn't quite clear to me. The POV as well as the timeline would jump and at times I still didn't know WHEN in the story that chapter was supposed to be occurring. I honestly wanted to DNF this book as I was not interested in the plot or the characters aside from the moments dealing with the book swap/book exchange. 

I did enjoy every single moment with the little free library, the books being exchanged, and the annotating within the margins. Seeing someone fall in love with themselves and lives by reading the annotations someone else wrote was magical. From there, I also enjoyed that they started writing questions and getting to know each other on a deeper level, However, those chapters were really the only ones I found myself enjoying in this book.

Living and loving after loss. This book was interesting and heartwarming but it didn’t completely engage me.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC.

Thanks a million to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this beautiful, touching story.
 
This had me from the start! I knew as soon as I read the blurb that I would love it. I wanted to stay in this book for a long, long time. It was, truthfully, a beautiful and moving read. Everything a book lover wants and more!
 
This made me want to find a little library book exchange and find a pen pal myself! What a meet-cute that would be! Swoon.
 
James and Erin’s story touched me in so many ways. While their history was hard to move through, they found their way to their happy ever after. The way James loved Erin, everyone deserves to be loved like that. pure, undying love.
 
Not only was the romance lovely, but the characters themselves had so much personality! I think it’s important to take their struggles and remember for yourself that everything will pay off one day. You can’t stop moving, and you can’t give up! You will find your way, just not on your own time. They worked through some of the toughest things individually; they had a long, bumpy journey of self-discovery, and their struggles only made me love this story so much more because I could see myself in these characters.
 
Ultimately, I gained a lot of wisdom from this story, and I am so thankful to Tessa Bickers for giving me a new sense of comfort and sharing her exquisite work with us. I will be reading this many, many times over. It changed my life, and that is such a special thing—to read someone’s work, the words imprinted on their soul, and find yourself a little more between the pages.

Oh I so wanted to enjoy this but I ended up DNFing this one. I found the FMC to be so unlikable. This felt super disjointed to me.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing for the eARC!

The main reason this book caught my eye was because the premise was nothing like I'd heard before. I think I speak on behalf of the entire bookstagram community when I say there's nothing better than discovering a Little Free Library in your community or eve someplace you've never been before. They're a great opportunity to practice some community self-care and it's a low-barrier way to access literature in your neighborhood. While I had high hopes for this unique romance, I was left a bit disappointed. Personally, I felt like the plot was being pulled in way too many directions. I mean within the first quarter of the book you discover that Erin doesn't have the best relationship with her mom, she hates her job, her friend died, she's seeing a therapist, and her love life is a dumpster fire. I think the plot would've been better off if Tessa Bickers just picked one or two ideas and stuck with them. Another important factor to me in any romance book I read is the chemistry between characters. Even though the two main characters have history together (questionable history at that), they don't have any flirtatious or sexy energy between them. On the topic of being sexy...where's the spice? This is definitely a personal preference of mine, but I wish there was a tad bit more action than just a kiss or two at the very end of the book. I just wish this book had risen to meet my expectations.

This is such a beautiful story. I enjoyed the unique concept of it. I love how the main characters are bookish people like me. This has a little of everything. Some cutesy rom com scenes but also some deep topics. I definitely enjoyed this book and think everyone should give it a try!

A second chance romance that deals with grief, loss, and forgiveness between two people who share a love of books. The miscommunication and stubbornness of the main characters who refuse change were pretty frustrating in the beginning. But, as someone who also loves annotating my books, I loved the storyline of “the mystery book club”! This was the slowest of slow burns but still an enjoyable read! (and a lil European London vibe is always a plus!)

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing and Tessa Bickers for the gifted copy for an honest review! ◡̈

Don't let this cover fool you! This book covers some heavier topics and had me balling my eyes out at one point!

Erin suffered a major loss and hasn't fully moved on from it and just isn't happy with where are life is at the moment, then losing an item that she holds dearly leads her to someone she never knew she needed.

James has had an exceptionally hard life, he tries his best to maintain his work home balance, but he still feels like his life is lacking.

This was an amazing debut novel that covers love and grief and mental illness. It packs a punch! One of my favorite reads of the year so far! Thank you Net Galley for this amazing ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this was a very cute story- alternating perspectives of a young man and woman that write notes to each other in the margins of books and swap them via a little free library type thing. It reminded me of the movie You've Got Mail and I found the characters endearing. It mentione some classics like To Kill A Mockingbird and makes you want to reread them ASAP. Overall I really enjoyed the story.

2/5 Stars
*ARC Review*

When I heard the premise for this book, I couldn't wait to get into it. A You've Got Mail style romance where the leads are exchanging books through a local library? Sign me up! Unfortunately, I found Book Swap to be quite lackluster and struggled to get into the book. There are some great elements, but as a whole, it wasn't really for me.

This book relies so much on the individual trauma of the lead characters, but I never felt like it connected them together. Also there is so much trauma on both sides, it got to be a bit too much for me. Erin is dealing with a recent loss while James is trying to help his mentally ill mother. I don't think these things were handled in an entirely appropriate way as they seemed to be plot tools to get the characters where they needed to be rather than addressing the reality of these difficult situations. It also really hindered my ability to enjoy the story as it was always buried in this cloud of sadness that never got addressed or lightened even as the book went on.

Part of the reason I think this happened was because the characters failed to ever connect in real life. They are leaving some bits of information in the margins of the books they share, but in person Erin despises James for betraying her in high school (even though these characters are now in their 30s). They hardly ever interact in person throughout the book, and when they do it's always confrontational. This meant there was barely any levity in the whole story, and by the end, I couldn't see why or how these two people would ever be together. That's a huge problem for me in a romance, which is too bad because I think the ideas in this book could be great if some things were adjusted.

I wish I liked this book more than I do, but it just didn't work for me. The relentless cycle of trauma and fighting between the main characters made it hard for me to root for them, even though I desperately wanted someone to be happy in this book. Maybe if someone is looking for a more serious and dower type romance, they will enjoy this story; that's just not what I'm looking for in my romance books.

I like the concept of this, but the execution just didn’t do it for me. I didn’t feel like the characters were well developed, and I just didn’t find myself caring about what was happening. I ended up DNFing this around the halfway point.

When I initially read the description of the book swap I thought I was getting a romcom between two book lovers and while this had a generous amount of references to classic literature, I can’t in good conscience say this is a romcom. There is romance but this is a journey of healing between two people who find peace in an unexpected way

If you prefer character-driven romances that focus much more on the people and less on the butterflies then this is the story for you, We follow erin and james who have both been dealt a heavy hand in life and find solace in communicating through the margins of literary classics from their small community library - learning to heal in the process.

The book swap is an ode to storytelling and the power of human connection and I will carry it with me for some time yet.

Tw: grief, loss of a loved one, bullying, terminal illnesses, mental health issues and more

This just wasn't what I was expecting from the synopsis. I went into it thinking this would be more of a light hearted rom com with almost a you've got mail style story. I gave it a solid try but I just struggled connecting with the story and characters.

I am giving this one a three as I feel this partly a me thing. I think this could appeal to certain reading groups that wants something with a little more depth than just a typical rom com. It just isn't what I wanted.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this advance reader copy. My review is voluntarily my own.

Despite the cover and any taglines you see, don’t be duped into believing this is a romance. While there is an underlying element of a misunderstanding that lead to a missed connection, this book is not a romance.

Erin is still lost after the loss of her best friend three years ago. Beneath that she’s reeling from both being betrayed by her mother and the boy she might have loved when she was a teen, more than a decade ago.

That boy? James.

And he’s lost as well. He has a good job he doesn’t like, holds a grudge against his brother who managed to escape a difficult household where their bipolar mother is often unmedicated, and can’t stop beating himself up over what happened with Erin.

Where Erin can’t forgive, can’t let go, can’t see anything except how everything affects her - and she is unlikable for the majority of the book as a self centered and childish woman in her late 20s, James blames himself for everyone else’s shortcomings.

The title comes from a charming conceit: Erin accidentally donates a prized annotated book to a local Little Free Library and James finds it. He annotates against the annotations, returning it and inviting her into another book, neither knowing with whom they are having the exchanges. Each finding missing parts of themselves in the notes.

I know many will love this book, and I can see why - it’s a book for book lovers, referencing so many greats - but it wasn’t for me.

The events that serve as catalyst are too far in the past, some so childish to have held on to, that I found Erin, in particular, vapid. Additionally, the bipolar mother should have been a trigger warning and was quite difficult for me, a child who grew up in that same situation.

Again, there will be an audience. It just wasn’t me.

Thanks to @netgalley and @harlequin, eARC in exchange for an honest review. This one comes out September 3, 2024.

I thought this book would be right up my alley as the synopsis stated " A romance novel about book lovers and for book lovers - uplifting, moving, and full of love".
I am sorry to say that I just couldn't get into this story and stopped reading at 50%. I was expecting a lighthearted rom-com, and that is not what I was reading. I constantly had to back up and reread passages, as the story jumped narrators, and I the main characters just annoyed me.

Thank you Netgalley and Graydon House for the chance to read The book swap for a honest review.

DNF - Could not get into it, The concept it something I've seen a lot and so everything felt just regurgitated TikTok trends.

I enjoyed this book overall, however I do think the synopsis doesn’t properly tell the audience what to expect with this book. It does touch on heavy topics, so going into this book I had originally thought that it would be more of a fun, fluffy read… that was not it at all.

If the synopsis reflected the topics in this book a little better - I think that would all around improve the experience for readers.

I did enjoy the characters and story like overall, and the authors writing style! I’ll definitely be looking out for more books by this author in the future.