I had high hopes for this. I was as thinking it would be something like Emily Henry’s “Book Lovers” but I just couldn’t get into it. I had to DNF. It was just so slow and I couldn’t figure out the plot.

I really enjoyed this debut novel! The plot and relationships were SO complex. It wasn’t just about a romantic relationship, but the bonds between friends, siblings, and parents, too. There was a LOT going on, but the way all the relationships weaved together was so intriguing. Main characters Erin and James were both very flawed, but I appreciated that their growth was evident by the end.

Two things I loved about this book:

1️⃣ The way Erin + James could learn and recognize so much about the other person by how they annotated and what they wrote in the margins. How we look at books can reflect how we look at life.

2️⃣ The theme of forgiveness, and diving deeper into both sides of a story before we make up our minds about what happened.

This book did take a little time for me to get used to the writing style, (I think partially because of the way things are worded in the UK) but the story was so engaging, it didn’t stop me!

read if you like:
+ debut authors
+ friends to enemies to lovers
+ second chance
+ dual pov
+ books about books
+ classic novel references

I am surprised by how much I loved this! While I expected a fluffy romantic comedy, what I actually got was a very moving story about grief and learning to live for the good things, because life is too short to have any regrets.

I really loved this premise. After actually donating her beloved copy of “To Kill a Mockingbird” to a little free library, Erin is desperate to get it back. One day it appears, and someone has added to her annotations and left a gift in the form of another book, annotated and waiting for her comments. Thus begins one of the most adorably heartwarming meet-cutes! However, the past has a funny way of catching up with you when you least expect it.

This book is a very slow burn, and I appreciate that not everyone will enjoy that! It’s also not what I anticipated when I picked it up, but it surprised me in the best way.

Something about the characters really resonated with me. I, too am in my late twenties and am evaluating what makes me happy. My job is not one I am particularly passionate about and I for sure feel a bit stuck in a (comfortable) rut. I want to take more risks! Both Erin and James are the same way.

Both characters do a lot of learning and growing, and they help each other along in this journey without even realizing it. I think their shared history adds so much to this book. While Erin was almost a savior to James when they were younger, James also provided Erin with a friend who understood her obsession with books.

Erin and James are both dealing with a lot of grief and past trauma. They’re both grieving Bonnie and James is grieving the slow decline of his mother. I actually can’t count the number of times I was genuinely in tears reading this book. Let me tell you, Bonnie feels like a friend to me. Like, I feel like I also lost a friend.

I enjoyed Tessa Bickers’ writing and plot development a lot! It actually reminded me a bit of Emily Henry’s books. And I would be remiss if I didn’t add that this book is inspiring me to go back and re-read some of my favorite classics!


A huge thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing / Graydon House and Tessa Bickers for the ARC!

Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing & NetGalley for the ARC!

This book had so much promise but sadly fell flat for me. I loved the premise, I just did not connect to the characters at all. I found them all frustrating and irritating. I hope to read more by this author in the future, but this one didn't do it for me.

Thank you again for the ARC!

The plot of this book was what first pulled me in, who wouldn't want to read about a romance involving a little library? And it ended up being more than a romance, there was so many relatable and serious topics in this book and I could see a lot of myself in Erin. The way the story was intertwined was good and made me what to snap the characters out of it so they could have the happy ending that they deserved!

I love the title of this book and the cover ! I adored all the book references in it, especially the Wuthering Heights references. It was a very quick read for me and kept me entertained the whole way through. I even shed a few tears at some parts, which is not the norm for me. I would recommend it for fans of romance and literature. Such a great book for book lovers. I look forward to reading more of this author's future works.

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the digital arc in exchange for my honest review.

Actual Rating: 3.75/5 stars

I loved the premise of The Book Swap— two characters processing their grief, traumatic pasts, and loss through a little library book exchange in London. Personally, I absolutely thought the exchange of notes in the book margins was romantic, especially since I’m a sucker for any type of notes/letters left between characters.

I did feel that the plot could have had a little bit more development, but I still enjoyed the book overall! A great debut novel by Tessa Bickers!!

Thank you again to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing/Graydon House for a chance to read and review an advanced copy of this book!

After a traumatic childhood, James lives a fairly self-contained life shuffling between his London life and his hometown when his bipolar mother hits her manic phases.

Still grieving the loss of her best friend Bonnie, Erin is distraught to lose her annotated copy of her favourite book. A week later it returns, marked with fresh comments from a mysterious correspondent.

'The Book Swap' is a tender and poignant slow-burn story of grief, mental health and trauma filled with two well-rounded and compelling characters. Erin is prickly, full of unresolved anger and guilt, so her growth is incrementally slow. She will frustrate but when she finally learns to let go of her anger, it is fulfilling. James is chasing financial success so he never has to live like his parents, with his father giving up pop stardom for his mother, becoming a pizza delivery driver. I really loved his journey.

I adored the way they expressed themselves through the margins of the books. This book was also a love story to literature and how it can help us heal, or find comfort when life is not so great.

While I am happy without an epilogue, given everything the characters went through to get to their happy ending, I would've loved a time jump, or perhaps the resolution happening a bit sooner so we can see a bit more into their future.

Thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing/Graydon House and NetGalley for the ARC.

Still grieving after the death of her best friend, Erin is devastated to lose another friend, a treasured copy of her favorite book To Kill a Mockingbird - complete with detailed, personal notes - in a tiny community library (Americans call them Little Free Libraries). When she revisits it, the book is gone, and still gone, and still gone, until it suddenly reappears with new notes from another reader and an invitation to read a donated copy of Great Expectations - also complete with personal notes. A thrilling new relationship begins. But of course there is much more to Erin's life - work, family, friends and the blow grief and depression have brought to her life. And the new book friend also has his problems, and the two's ties turn out to be more complicated than just books.
Much more than just a romance, the story is about grief and friendship and forgiveness, and love of books, of course. Engaging characters and a smooth plot make for a very enjoyable read.

Erin is stuck in a job that makes her unhappy, so she quits. She's also missing her best friend, Bonnie, who passed away from cancer a few years prior. One day, Erin discovers a community library, which she decides to donate some of her used books to, not realizing she donated a book her best friend, Bonnie had given her. Upon finding the book returned, Erin opens it to find that the boy who borrowed it, responded to her notes she had written in the margins. Erin and the Mystery Man keep this up, writing back and forth to each other through the books. This book is filled with friendship, sibling rivalry and love, and relationships. It was a cute story to read.

It was a very slow book. I had to really push to finish this book. Both main characters were hard to like and I didn’t find myself rooting for either of them.

very lovely book I appreciate the change of scenery and the characters were very lovely to get to know. any book that has a them of books is my absolute favorite to read about. thank you for the advance read

I have posted my review to Goodreads and included the link below. I will post it to social media on @cocos.book.nook later this week!
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“To Erin. These extra wide margins are for you.” 😭 teary-eyed. One of the cutest ideas for a romance book! Tessa Bickers’ “The Book Swap” releases September 3rd, and you HAVE to read it! I’m so grateful to have received an ARC on NetGalley from Harlequin Trade Publishing 📖

A love story written in the margins of books from a little community library. This is quite possibly one of my most favorite romance books I’ve read! It was just so cute and touching, even though it dealt with really heavy topics. The characters felt so real and relatable in so many different ways. The slow-burn was everything, and the flashbacks were crushing—forming such a wonderful tale.

This book deals with a lot of hard topics. Cancer, bipolar disorder, bullying, suicide… but it handles every topic in a way that is touching through the story. Showing the guilt one might feel, or the struggle with grief you face.

While exploring the challenges and changes the characters were going through, there were so many beautiful lessons to learn as a reader. It reminds me a lot of the popular saying, “Be nice to your parents. It’s their first time living too.” ❤️ In this book, we see how we might be judging people for how we think they should be rather than realizing what they might be going through. When it comes to James and Erin, this applies to their parents, siblings, friends, and each other. Reading about how they realized mistakes, making changes in the many relationships in their lives, inspired me.

While reading this book, I could tell how much the author loves writing and reading. The way the characters loved literature, incorporating quotes from classics throughout, showed how passionate the author is about this!

I loved this cute romance, shed some tears, and hope you will too 🫶🏼

I love books about books, but sadly this one fell flat for me. The concept is really fun, passing notes back and forth by annotating in the margins of books and slowly falling in love while doing so. It reminded me of some other books I’ve read about falling in love while passing notes. I expected a lovely romcom, but that is not what I got. Erin was pretty insufferable. The first few pages are her whining about her failing to do her job, and it describes how she failed at it, but then she expects her boss to praise her for doing a fantastic job. It was a whole lot right at the beginning and it really set the stage for how much I would come to dislike her over the course of the rest of the book because she was so self-centered. The book was also overly descriptive in such a mundane way. So many details that I didn’t need to know or care about, I need to be able to imagine something as a reader. The one thing that this book did well was cover some heavy topics, but there were so many that it moved the book out of romcom territory for me. I’m all for trauma, but trauma dumping when I want something light and fluffy just doesn’t work. I did enjoy all the references to classic books, I just wish I would have enjoyed the book more overall.

I loved the premise of this - two people exchanging notes in the margins of their favorite books in a little free library. Turns out, these two have a shared history and we slowly learn more and more of their story throughout the book. It was a little slow at times and both characters had some really selfish tendencies, but we got to see some personal growth. The ending was really quite lovely, and ultimately made this a sweet second-chance love story. It tackled some really difficult topics (mental health, caretaker burden, grief, abandonment) and I think it was done fairly well. I found it a little less believable that they were in love when they spent very little time actually together in person, so I would have loved some sort of epilogue to see more of them together in the end. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review

This was a fun novel, with lots of bookish references, and characters with enough heart and depth to balance the sweetness of the plot. If you loved The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary, you'll love this.

This book was contained with such great emotional depth, that I felt incredibly moved with every page. Bickers writes her characters in a fantastic way. I hope people read this story as the writing and its characters stay with you after you finish the book. 5/5 stars for me.

This was a sweet romance made for the bookish girlies! I always love a romance that hits on heavier themes (death, bullying, infidelity, mental illness, etc). I was surprised to learn that this was Bickers debut! I feel like she has such a clear voice and it is one to watch! Can't wait for whatever she writes next!

3.5 stars rounded up.

So…this book is definitely heavy and I really wasn’t expecting that, which is fine…I just feel like I should have gotten in the right headspace to tackle it first. There are multiple trigger warnings in this book: death, mental illness, extreme bullying, cheating…

And while there was definitely a romantic aspect, I do not classify this book as a “romance”. I actually think the romance part of this book was secondary to the main characters’ personal journeys and growth. The main characters who are so in love by the end of the book barely talk to each other and all the in-person interactions they have are pretty awful. I didn’t feel the romantic chemistry here and I think maybe the author should have taken a little more time to explain their history. Also details about what tore the characters apart in the first place were revealed slightly too late in the book.

The FMC was totally unlikeable…but that actually didn’t bother me like it normally would because all of the things I took issue with about her were pointed out by another character…and I feel her unlikeable-ness actually helped readers to see her growth.

One fun thing about this book was the emphasis on a love of books. I love books about loving books. 😊

This was an emotional journey and overall I really enjoyed it. I just think that readers should be aware of what they’re getting into – it’s not a light read.

“The Book Swap” is not your typical rom-com. It has a unique backstory between the characters, which adds to the plot. Through their anonymous-at-first interactions, you get to learn about each one of them and what makes them who they are. I really enjoyed reading this book.