Torn between 3&4 stars. 4 stars because I was obsessed with the plot of anonymously passing books back and forth through a little free library while falling in love through underlined quotes and notations in the margins. You couldn’t make a more perfect romance plot for me. A man who will read, reflect upon and love Jane Austen? Sold.

3 stars because my emotional response to any traumatic situation is to ignore all feelings, bury it and just move on. Build a bridge, walk over said bridge, and blow up bridge so you can forget what happened on the other side. These characters were emotional. And complex. And honestly just rolling around in their sadness and indecision for too long for me. So I personally needed it to be shorter.

I was rooting very hard for James. But Erin needed some tough love way earlier in the book.

I’m excited to read more by Tessa Bickers!

A fun sweet read! Highly recommend.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for my ARC.

Some of my favorite books are books about book lovers! I knew I wanted to read this book based on the title and cover alone and it did not disappoint! Both Erin and her mystery man struggle with large emotions and they both use their love of books to get them through tough situations. I was expecting a light hearted romantic comedy but I got so much more from this book! I cannot wait for September 3rd because I will be going straight to the bookstore to get the physical copy of this book!

Thank you so much NetGalley and Graydon House publishing for letting me read an ARC of this wonderful book!!

I love a book about books. These high school sweethearts get a second chance at romance when they anonymously start swapping class books at a local little library. It’s cute and sweet but there’s lots of emotion and drama with grief and history.

What a cute story!! I love books and this title screamed- "lil romantic story with a bit of comedy and books." I will definitely recommend it to anyone interested in a cute romantic love story.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Going into this book, I had really high hopes. Romance, second-chance love, classical books, a combination of all the things I love! But this book fell a bit flat for me...

My first issue was it was hard for me to get into. It is a dual POV novel, from the view of James and Erin (main love story) who were best friends but had a falling out. They are later brought back together through an anonymous book swap where they write thoughts to each other in their favourite classic literature (this is the first time I've ever heard of someone reading Dickens for fun LOL). The story jumped between POVs of these characters, but also jumped back in time to their school days and to memories of a mutual friend they had who had passed away. The point of views were clear but I found the time jumping to be difficult to follow at times.

My second issue is the ending was sweet but a bit too sweet. It seemed unrealistic and pulled me out of the story. Everything seemed to be tied into a neat bow; James and Erin's love story, Joel and Cassie finding someone, both main characters forgiving their parents, both main characters coming to terms with their internal mental health struggles, quitting their jobs to follow their dreams, getting over the grief of their lost friend, etc. I felt that this book tried to solve too many of these problems the characters were dealing with, if they were still going through the grieving process or working on themselves, I think it would have been a more well-rounded ending.

I liked some things about the novel, too. I thought the conversation about mental health and the ripple effect was very well done. I appreciated how this overlapped with the large theme of grief and loss in the book. Sometimes, mental health and grief can be written in a way that is overwhelming in emotion but I thought the author did a good job of keeping a balance.
The side characters made this book worth it. I love Cassie and Georgia with all my heart, Georgia should have her own spinoff.

All in all, it was okay, not a favourite of mine but was a light fun romance to read.

Going in I thought this would be more about books and romance, but it ended up being quite different than my expectations. Incredibly heartfelt and devastatingly sad at times, my biggest gripe is how much I disliked Erin at first (but hey! Room for character development).

I definitely would not recommend going in thinking this is a romance since doing so made this a challenging read for me at times, but overall a good read for those who want more of a book centered around loss and mental health, with a dash of romance.

I really wanted to like this book more! It sadly felt sooo slow for me. I couldn’t get over Erin’s self-centered behavior. Even when you think she’s learned some awareness and admits it, she repeats the same behavior and lets another 6 months go by! It was so frustrating. I loved James and his growth throughout this book, especially through his friendships with Elliott and Joel. His POV chapters were really the only thing that kept getting me through this book.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book.
DNF about 20%
Life is too short to read books that don't grab your attention. Honestly, Erin's behavior in the first chapter annoyed me, and I couldn't see myself enjoying her journey.

3-star rating because it made me give one, but I think this book just isn't for me right now.

I tried to start this, but I got a bit interested in reading reviews first and realized this is not only a slow burn which isn't really for me, but that it's more contemporary fiction focused on subjects like loss and I'm not in that headspace when I want a romance so for me this will be a unfortunate Dnf. Whoever is reading this review don't let this suede you away from trying this one out! It's just not for me!

I was expecting a cozy book about books with romance, but it's not really that. More than romance, this book focuses more on themes like loss, dealing with the past, and growing as a person. The thing is, I didn't connect with these characters at all, which is a bummer. I see a lot of people enjoying it, which is great, I wish I liked it more.

I love the concept of pen pal via book swap and the way that the author intertwined the two characters kept me very interested! I was slow to warm up to this one, but as the plot got thicker with connections I could not stop reading!

The Book Swap had an interesting premise but I got lost in which characters were real or deceased. Love the literary sprinkles and references for reading addicts who are back again. Wished more to grab me into this book.

This book is different than what I expected it to be ! I was excited by the premise of a relationship developing through annotated pages of classic literature but it really handled a lot of heavy topics like terminal illness and bullying that I just wasn’t anticipating. I think if you’re a huge fan of classic literature, have read a lot of the classics so you would understand and appreciate the references, and don’t mind a slow burn romance, this would be really enjoyable for you !

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for the advanced copy !

This was a fun read for me. Erin and James both love books, and we get to follow their story through the notes left in the books they read.
Interesting concept and the writing flowed easily.

Beautiful , laugh out loud, and well written - 3.5 Stars

This was so cute!! Every book girls dream is to meet a guy throught book annotations! James is such a sweetie too so that made it even better. I love how this book portrays grief and the message of the book. I cried three times and I thought this book had a perfect ending. I rarely give out 5 stars to NetGalley books but this one was beautiful and I really enjoyed reading it.

I wanted so much more from this book! I just finished reading and I must say that it didn't grab me as a "romance" novel. Almost the entire book is the two main characters, Erin and James, working through their past feelings and history. Erin has a lot of growing to do. She always blames everyone else for what happens in her life - including James and her mother. She doesn't take ownership of her actions and doesn't show any empathy for anyone else. She suffers from recurring bouts of depression, to which I believe many of us can relate. James also has much to learn as he tries to navigate life as an adult with a mother that struggles with mental health. He also lacks self-confidence in the one thing that he wants more than anything else.

I found the premise of the book swap at the little library to be incredibly full of promise. It could have been developed into a beautiful "romance", but it turned out to be more of a chick-lit or personal growth story for me - I am unsure which type of book it was meant to be, so maybe it turned out to be exactly as the author intended. If you take away the expectations of a romance, this book has its merits. I especially enjoyed the questions Erin and James started asking and answering at the end of the books. It gave insight into the characters and allowed them to open up and share their feelings in a non-threatening way, so we could witness the discovery of their true selves. It would have been nice to see some sparks or chemistry in the few scenes where they interacted in the physical world. It was kind of difficult to buy this budding relationship from the written exchanges in the books alone. I guess, overall, I was expecting this to be more of a romance. I did enjoy the swapping of the books and the notes inside the books. It was a cute read, but I wanted more chemistry in order to be invested as a reader.

**Thankyou to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC in exchange for my honest review**

I enjoyed this book however it did not come across as a romance to me and I didn’t want it to. Because the characters are so involved in their own lives and their own personal growth for the majority of book and aren’t truly interacting, it makes it difficult to believe they are involved romantically by the end.

THAT BEING SAID: I think romance aside this book tackles personal growth in a way that is beautiful. The way that grief and family trauma can tear people apart and how people build that community back together can be tricky to write about, and I think it was done very successfully.

But for me, I wish the ending was just James and Erin forgiving each other and start a new friendship in adulthood. Their “relationship” didn’t feel earned even though their connection and their history / bond did.

(And that’s not to say you can’t discuss deep issues AND be a romance book, I would never trivialize the genre like that. THIS book I just don’t think accomplished that.)

That book started off pretty slow. It has two main POVs. I really enjoyed the second half it made me cry more than once. No spicy, but lots of love.

4.5/5 stars - I loved this book! Based off the premise alone, I knew this would be right up my alley.

While it did take me a little while to get into it, I became pretty emotionally invested in the two main characters about 1/3 of the way through. I really loved the literary references throughout the story and especially loved how the author used them to build the two MC’s relationship. I think the idea of two people swapping books they found in a little library and communicating through their annotations is really clever and I could tottttally see this story being adapted into a film.

I think the author handled the depiction of what it’s like to grow up with a bi-polar parent well and it made me really relate to and adore James - I was rooting for him from the beginning! However, I did have a harder time relating to Erin and felt like her character was a bit immature. Towards the end of the book I did begin to warm up to her and felt very satisfied with the ending.

Overall, I think this was a really cute and cozy story and I am excited to read more from Tessa Bickers!


Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC!