Thank you so much to the publisher and to the author for my eARC. All thoughts are my own.

What a delight! I so enjoyed this story and slowly finding out the drama and heartbreak between James and Erin. There were so many relatable moments as well as sadness and grief. Bickers did an incredible job balancing the humorous moments with tender moments between both Erin and James, but also their loved ones. James' relationship with his dad was just so sweet to read about.

I personally love using LFL so this was so fun to read about a LFL similar to a favorite movie of mine, You've Got Mail.

Thank you NetGalley, Tessa Bickers, and Harlequin Trade Publishing/Graydon House for granting me access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

WOW! I am utterly blown away that this is a debut contemporary romance!! The author's exceptional storytelling makes it feel like work of a seasoned writer. The Book Swap resonated with me on a deeply emotional level, taking me on a journey from laughter to tears and everything in between. I have cherished every moment spent absorbed in their pages. So get ready for a story of second chances and new beginnings, a slow burn romance that is a love letter to both books and life! What truly captivates me about this author's book is her masterful handling of emotional, relatable, and heavy topics, all while expectedly balancing humor in lighter moments. Through it all, she infuses an abundance of love, care and heart into her storytelling , creating a narrative that is profoundly moving and utterly heartbreaking. Please understand that this is far from your typical romance. It delves into weighty themes such as life, love, loss, grief, forgiveness, healing, and mental illness, The story is character-driven, featuring truly authentic characters, and culminates in an immensely rewarding and totally uplifting conclusion. I absolutely adored this book so much!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Synopsis:
Still reeling from a recent tragedy, Erin Connolly knows she needs to start living again but has no idea how. When she accidentally donates her favorite book-To Kill a Mockingbird-to a local community library, she's devastated. However, a week later, the book reappears with fresh notes in the margins and an invitation in a copy of Great Expectations to meet her newfound pen pal. A life-changing conversation begins between Erin and her Mystery Man, written only in the margins of beloved classic books. As the book exchange continues, they follow each other through the pages of their favorite novels, opening up and forming a deepening friendship and possibly something more.

Unbeknownst to them, Erin and her pen pal share a history neither has guessed. Faced with painful reminders of the past and the one person she swore never to forgive, Erin finds herself at a crossroads that could change her life forever.

In summary, this is an emotional rollercoaster read that will tug at your heartstrings, so be sure to keep your tissues ready. However, the tears and anguish outweighed by the hopeful conclusion, making the journey well worth the emotional investment. If you're seeking a story that celebrates the power of books and the magic they hold within their pages, this is the book for you! I wholeheartedly recommend this book and I eagerly anticipate reading more novels by this author⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!!!!

I was so pleasantly surprised by this little book! For some reason I went into this expecting a cute contemporary rom-com, but it ended up being so much more. While there are a few quippy and humorous lines, Tessa Bickers does a really beautiful job of touching on incredibly relatable themes such as grief, mental health, healing and forgiveness. This one is just so much more than your typical romance. I literally felt so many different emotions while reading this one.

From the beginning I just knew Erin & James' story was going to be so cute, secretly writing to each other in the margins of books they pass to each other through their local little free library! I was immediately wrapped up in their story and loved each POV slowly giving us more and more of their history. I loved experiencing them not only find each other, but also themselves through their sort of pen pal relationship. The overall character development and growth was such a joy to read.

Both of our MCs definitely struggle with being suck in the past, constantly reflecting back and struggling to move on. At times I found this a little frustrating to read, but ultimately I felt it made sense for the characters, and they had to learn to forgive and move on in order to really find themselves. I would have loved some sort of epilogue for Erin & James! After experiencing their story I just wanted a little bit more of them.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC for my honest review.

I enjoyed reading The Book Swap by debut author Tessa Bickers. It delved into grief, bullying, mental illness (parent), and healing. It was more heavy hearted than most of the romance books I read so please be mindful if you have any triggers with death or mental health.

I would read another book by Tessa Bickers.

This was such a cute book! Normally thrillers are my thing but I wanted to try something new and this was great! Such a cute and original plot. I was on the edge of my seat hoping for a happy ending! Thank you for allowing me to read this!

3.5* I went into this one expecting a lighthearted romance but it was a lot more than that! Yes, it was a slow burn romance but it also included a multitude of topics including loss, grief, bullying, sickness, family, healing, friendship and more! There were lots of references to classics and if you are someone who annotates your books, you'll definitely want to check this debut novel out!

Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book based on the first couple pages, but I’m sure glad I kept reading! I finished this in less than a day because I just couldn’t put it down! The characters were so real and raw—they were all obviously crafted with the utmost care and detail. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say the plot unraveled with precise timing and in pieces tied to the past at just the right moments.
My heart broke at least three times for James and Erin, both separately and together. The process of grief is real and different for each person, and this was a clear message in the book. To have a front row seat to their grief was difficult but honest.
The different characters’ lives wound so neatly together, and the minor characters were few but necessary. I enjoyed the full development of Erin’s and James’s lives and was glad the book swap was only part of this story; we needed to know their full stories to fully appreciate the book as a whole. The use of classic books was clever and interesting as well.
The reader is given a variety of issues to relate to throughout the story, and I found myself really pondering some of the life lessons and how I connected to them. I enjoyed this book and will be recommending it to my reading friends.

I loved this book. What’s not to love about people who love books?! A great debut from this author. Cannot wait to read more.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc.

Thank you, NetGalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for my honest review.
Book Swap made me laugh and cry and I cried pretty hard towards the ending. I really related to James more so than Erin, which is odd since it is a romance. I felt more connected to James. I understood the struggle he has with his mom and how much of a strain that has put on other relationships in his life.

I also felt for Erin but in a different way. Everyone copes differently with death and she just floated through life only looking back. She also had her own issues with family she was dealing with too.

I'm giving this one 5 stars because I thought it was witty and heartfelt. It wasn't so much a romance, as it was just with connecting to other people whether it be people you're related too or friend. It's about how those people help us get through the rough times so we can truly enjoy the good ones by looking foward and not back.

Erin Connolly knows she needs to start living, but has no idea how. When she accidentally donates her favorite book—a heavily annotated containing a memento that was forgotten to a local little community library, she’s devastated. The book is returned back to the library with fresh notes in the margins, along with an invitation in a copy of Great Expectations.

But Erin and her pen pal have a shared history that neither of them has guessed. Faced with painful reminders of the past—and the one person she swore never to forgive—Erin finds herself at a crossroads. One that could change her life forever.

A book-lovers dream! References to the following classics can be found in The Book Swap:
• TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
• GREAT EXPECTATIONS
• WUTHERING HEIGHTS
• MANSFIELD PARK
• THE GREAT GATSBY
• MIDDLEMARCH
• BELOVED
• ON THE ROAD
• THE BELL JAR

This was such a sweet read with a heavy amount of emotion mixed in! The story was definitely a slowwww burn romance, yet it touched on a lot of heavy topics like terminal illness, mental illness, and bullying. I thought it was all handled really well and the backdrop to the whole story being a little community library had my literary heart all sorts of happy!

I would definitely recommend, but be aware that this does touch on some heavy topics throughout the story!

The author wasn’t kidding when she said this was a love better for book lovers! The mysterious book exchanging was so sweet and tender, I loved it! Something I think was done well in this book against most others that I read is that every character was perfectly crafted to serve a purpose in the story. I didn’t find anyone meant for the purpose of filler. The miscommunication in this book is next level though. Despite Erin going through her character development in the way of her career and mending familial relationships, she really doesn’t come around to a new frame of thinking about James until truly the last second. Despite the years of distance in their friendship, when they finally start to turn over a new leaf, and Erin is ready to open her heart up to him, she takes the first chance she gets and bolts, literally right out of the room and doesn’t talk to him for six months, which I find to be pretty ridiculous since that is eerily similar to how they became distant in the first place. Especially given the fact that their closest friends end up dating but they don’t seem to grasp that Erin and James never got over each other? I understood Erin’s thick headedness up until the memorial. Despite its flaws I would recommend this book and very much still enjoyed it!

Thank you to the publisher, NetGalley, and Tessa Bickers for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This is a wonderful debut novel. Such wonderful characters, and the issues they deal with, grief and mental illness, are powerful and handled lovingly. I didn't read the synopsis before beginning, I went for it based on title and cover alone. I got super lucky and this was better than I could have expected. Highly recommend.

I really liked this! The pacing was fast enough for it to feel like a quick read and all the characters got justice in their development. There were too many F words and I feel like Erin didn't need to blame everyone quite so much. Technically a second-chance romance, but I felt like it was much more about self-discovery and found family. I would read more by this author!

I had super high hopes for this book. I love the concept of passing books back and forth through the little lending library and I was excited to read the dialogue exchange the characters would be leaving in the margins. I was picturing a light hearted romcom like You’ve Got Mail maybe, but this was quite a bit different than what I expected. In some ways that was refreshing. I liked the complex backstories of the main characters. They were both dealing with things and trying to heal and there were relatable events and quotes to connect with on that front. But usually when I reach for a romcom, I am looking for an escape and this book just wasn’t that. It was heavy a lot of times and it dragged a little bit at times as well. Also, I didn’t love the dialogue in the margins of the books - the voices of the characters’ words there was sometimes a little off, and the comments were sometimes really shallow, which was an odd contrast for the rest of the book as well as for the literary classics the comments were left in. This book was just inconsistent in a lot of ways and a little bit disappointing.

Thanks for the AR ereader edition, Netgalley.

Thank you netgalley and harlequin for the gifted arc.

*this is just my opinion and I intend no hate to the author 🫶

Unfortunately, this is a dnf. The writing felt really choppy and I’m having a hard time following along with what’s going on. I also just don't feel a connection to the characters.

Thank you to Harlequin and NetGalley for providing me with a digital galley of “The Book Swap” by Tessa Bickers in exchange for an honest review.

Three years following the tragic death of her best friend Bonnie, Erin Connelly is still deep in mourning. She’s stuck in a toxic workplace, has drunken, meaningless hookups with her slacker roommate, and she barely speaks to her mother over an incident from years before. She’s prickly and closed off. Her only close relationships are her sister, a sweet coworker, and a hallucination of Bonnie’s ghost.

Meanwhile, James Parr is also stuck. He divides his time between a well-paying but soulless job and helping his father care for his mother, who suffers from a severe case of bipolar disorder. His relationships are limited and he’s all but given up on his dream of becoming a writer.

Erin and James have a messy history. Years ago, while still in school, they had been friends inching toward something more. But in a moment of panic and self-defense, James betrays her. Erin’s family fractured and she was humiliated. She’s hated him ever since, refusing to speak with him at all.

It seems like Erin and James could stay in their holding patterns forever but one day, Erin quits her toxic job in a blaze of glory. She then cleans her room of the detritus that has built over the years. Among the discards is her beloved, much annotated copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, which also contains a last memento from Bonnie. When Erin realizes her mistake, she rushes back to the donation box (basically a Little Free Library) to try to reclaim it. It’s gone but she checks daily in case it’s returned. When it turns up again, someone has written their own notes in the margins and added an invitation at the end. “Meet me in Great Expectations?”

She takes the invitation and fills the copy of G.E. with her own notes, before turning it to the library with her own reading suggestion. They continue swapping books and notes as their relationship develops anonymously. Meanwhile, they’re inspiring each other to make big, important changes and pursue better things for themselves.

After months of book swapping and self-improvement, Erin asks her anonymous reading friend if they should meet in person. Do they agree to meet, realize who their correspondent is and immediately fall in love? Of course not. There are further complications to contend with.

The Book Swap is a lovely story, really, but it’s not marketed well. The cover and blurb might lead you to think it’s a cute romcom, like “You’ve Got Mail” centered around a Little Free Library. It’s not really a romance. Yes, it has a love story, but that plot provides the framework for Erin and James to grow and change as people. It’s the catalyst for important changes in their lives but it’s not the central focus of the book. While it does have its sweet moments, this book tackles some big, heavy emotional issues, grief, guilt, mental illness, toxicity and holding grudges among them. The characters act like real, messy humans and at times, they can be pretty unlikeable.

Recommended for readers who want to see real, genuine, positive emotional growth. It’s a good book. Just don’t mistake it for a romance novel.

This book was an okay book. This was a slow burn romance and I had a hard time getting into it because of it being slow. Overall it was an ok.

This book was not at all what I expected from the synopsis. I was expecting a rom-com meet cute book and it was sooo much more.
Despite Erin grieving the loss of her bestie Bonnie, she is trying to make a life and live as she told Bonnie she would. She looks at things and thinks WWBD - What would Bonnie do? and then goes from there. I liked how there was a book box in her neighborhood and it was utilized throughout the whole book as she and MMC (James from school) swapped books with questions, notations and quotes in the margins. This is how they got to know each other and I thought that was an awesome way to get to know someone. It's pretty clear after a while who MMC is and I was surprised that they didn't realize it sooner especially as they began bumping into each other more periodically especially since they had been such good friends and grew up together. I was shocked by what was revealed as to how their friendship ended and sad for both Erin and James as they were both hurt badly by it. I enjoyed watching Erin grow into her new career, realize Georgia was really a great friend and not just a "work friend and how the relationship with her sister and then her mom even got better. All in all I really enjoyed this book and if you like a good meet cute, you will like this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

WOW!!! This is not at all what I was expecting, in the BEST possible way!!! I was expecting a cute fun quick romance novel. What I got was sooo much more!
First the book swapping, as a librarian and book lover I'm 100% wishing this would happen to me in real life. But the story is so much deeper, about grief, forgiveness, life. How we too often view success as what we earn monetarily, instead of the quality of our lives and happiness. The friendships in this book, and the characters were just amazing. I'd like a sister like Georgia! This book had me feeling all of the feels, laughing and crying harder (in a good way) than I think I've cried reading any other book. This one spoke to me, and resonated. Such a wonderful debut novel.
Thanks so much to Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this ARC. Most of all, thank you to the author Tessa Bickers for writing such a touching book.

I absolutely loved this book. Everything about the characters, love story and overcoming difficult things spoke to me. The writing was done in a beautiful way and I found myself not only falling in love with the characters but recognizing pieces of myself in them.

Will absolutely recommend to everyone I know!