I am conflicted about this story and I really think it's mainly because of the book description. I went in expecting one thing, and I got something completely different. I fully expected this to be a nice little romcom and it definitely was not even close to that. It was more about the trauma and growth of the two main characters, who knew each other from high school and who both went through horrible experiences. The romance equaled one kiss on like the last page of the book. The FMC Erin was so unlikable, I barely warmed up to her even at the end. The MMC James I felt bad for, but I also just wanted him to leave his past in the past. Overall it was a decent story, and I would've enjoyed it more if it wasn't marketed as romcom, and that goes all the way to the cover of the book. Definitely more women's fiction than anything.

Also in the blurb it mentions references to book classics but they were so minimal throughout the story, I'm not sure why they chose to highlight these as a big deal. They were literally just names of books they swapped, but unless you know what each of the stories is actually about then it wouldn't even make sense to you. So that wasn't my favorite. Overall 3 star read. It was fine, but I won't remember it a week from now.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | Graydon House for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. As a book lover myself, the premise of communicating through meaningful books was so appealing. I struggled to connect with the main characters though. I feel like by the end of the book this improved a bit, but that overall I just didn’t feel I was rooting for them as much as I’d have liked to.

This book was super cute but very slow. I enjoyed the last half very much but it took me that long to get into it. It covers a lot of harsh topics like bullying, cancer, grief, etc. and I think it does a pretty decent job at covering the complex emotions with it. A decent slow burn romance💕

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this e-arc.

Rounded up from 3.5. I love the cover of The Book Swap, but it did not match the contents. The Book Swap follows Erin, a woman who is still grieving the loss of her best friend, as she strikes up a friendship with a stranger that is leaving notes in books in a little free library.

As a little library owner myself, I was SO excited for a cute, bookish romantic comedy. This was something else. The story was much more focused on grief and past relationships than anything to do with rom-coms. The main pair were a little too angsty for my tastes, but I did appreciate deep dive into difficult familial relationships.

Go into this one expecting a heartwarming book, with lots of focus on family and grief and you might love it!

Thanks to Tessa Bickers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review!

This is a sweet book in many ways, but I struggled to like the main character, Erin. I’m glad she had to some people to call her out on her stuff, but I still wasn’t really sure I liked her at the end. The premise was cute, although I’m not sure I really believe you can fall in love with someone through some book notes and answered questions.

This book centers on journalist Anna as she profiles Dr. Nate Reed, a researcher dedicated to studying pain in his Pain Laboratory. Dr. Reed's wife, Eva, who suffered from insensitivity to pain, died under mysterious circumstances, piquing Anna's interest in both the doctor and his story.

Narrated eloquently from Anna's perspective, the book reads more like a memoir than a mystery or thriller. Without the initial mention of Eva's death, its importance might be missed. Though Eva's brief journal entries from her time as a therapist offer some insights, the characters' backstories and motivations aren't deeply explored, leaving readers wanting more to fully experience the psychological thriller aspect.

The story progresses slowly, and the climax feels a bit anticlimactic. This book is likely to appeal more to those interested in romantic fiction rather than a mystery or thriller, as the mystery takes a secondary role to the ghostwriting plot.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing the opportunity to read and review this book.

This was a really fun and emotional romance book in the realm of "You've Got Mail". I loved the take of using a free community library as the mode of communication between the main characters. The character development was really great. I loved seeing how Erin and James both got out of their comfort zones to try and go after what they truly desired, both professionally and romantically. I definitely foresee this as being a book I would read again and again, which is rare for me when it comes to romance books.

The Book Swap has a great premise of two people anonymously swapping books at a free library and adding comments to each other in the margins like a one on one book club. The story however wasn't just a cute romance and about two people connecting through books. It was also about grief and loss, bullying and parental trauma. There was so much heavy stuff for the characters to get through that this story felt more of a coming of age story than a romance. It also felt like there was too much for the main characters to get over between each other for them to be happy in the end. I think the story would have made more sense with the characters getting closure but moving on in the end, maybe meeting many years later. Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin for the ARC to review.

This book was so so cute and cozy. I think it's perfect for those craving a fast-paced wholesome book. I enjoyed the plot, the characters... everything.

This book is the perfect book for book lovers. It gives you all the feels and is the perfect escape. Tessa totally delivers! I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait to recommend this book to all my friends! Thank you Net Galley and publisher for the ARC!

This was a little difficult to get into, but I thought the concept of it was actually really sweet. In general, I did enjoy it even if it took me a little longer to get through it. I would rate it 3.5!

Erin is at her wit's end with her job and for what? With no love lost, she searches for a job that will be worth getting out of the house for. In the meantime, she's feng shuied her messy existence only to discover a well-loved copy of To Kill a Mockingbird to be missing and left in a little free library. Hopeful for its return, Erin haunts the LFL and finally finds it with a note to "meet me in Great Expectations" with notes from a stranger. On the other side of the mystery book exchange, James can't help but love the exchange they've unwittingly embarked on, finding inspiration and something to look forward to within the pages.
While this book is much heavier than I anticipated based on the blurb and cover, it wrapped me up in the best literary hug and had pockets of humor throughout for needed levity. Every single win was worth it and WELL EARNED. I loved so much about it - the epistolary element, the little free library, the friends-to-enemies-to-lovers, the flashbacks, and the near misses - and it kept me flipping the pages. I will absolutely read another from Tessa.
Thank you to HTP Books and Netgalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

This was for sure not my favorite book, it was a bit slow and hard to get into. I will recommend this book to others that I feel would enjoy it.

I thought the idea was such a cute concept. Falling in love via little free library? Sign me up. To be honest I just felt like the FMC was not likable. Her flaws were too big to over look and she got in her own way of the entire plot of the book. I wanted more growth from Erin that I unfortunately didn't get.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book gave me “you’ve got mail vibes”. It was the cutest rom com where you cheer for the relationship the whole way through. I laughed and smiled throughout the pages. Such a heartwarming tale about dealing with the grief of a best friend while finding love.

thank you to netgalley for this advanced reader copy! all thoughts and opinions are my own.

erin is still reeling from the loss of her best friend, bonnie. she experiences a major life change, and she starts marie kondo-ing her belongings. it reminds me of when you break up with your boyfriend and chop all your hair off lol. she accidentally adds her favorite book to the donate pile, which ends up in a little free library in her neighborhood. as soon as she realizes,she frantically returns to the library to get her favorite book, full of her annotations and thoughts of the book, but most importantly contains a postcard from bonnie. a few days later, she finds her book returned to the library, with some new annotations and directions to read another book.

james finds erin's book in the little free library, and responds with his own annotations and a copy of his favorite book for her to experience.

erin and james swap books back and forth, reliving their shared pasts and attempting to forge their futures together. this book is full of literary references, slow burn tension, learning to forgive, and is just the epitome of human experience.

i think this book isn't so much a romance as it is a delayed coming of age story (delayed since they're all adults), full of learning to heal from grief, mental illness, and mending broken relationships. i had a pretty difficult time connecting with our main character, erin, but i was invested in her story and was excited for her by the end of the book. i really loved how we see all of the characters fall into their true callings in life, which gave me a positive outlook based on my own situation.

that being said, i was kind of unsatisfied with the lack of face to face interaction between erin and james. erin ran away every time she saw james until the last few pages, but continued to interact with him via book margins. we end up learning the reasoning behind this, but it still comes off as a cutesy version of a middle/high school couple who can't seem to interact outside of texting.

i personally felt that there was too much going on, on the side of the main plot. i understand you have to have some other things going on to keep things interesting, but there were way too many storylines going on outside of the book swapping for my liking.

overall, i really enjoyed this book for what it is and might read another by this author when more are published.

trigger warnings include intense grief, pretty severe bullying, mental illness

I was just okay with "The Book Swap" - I did like it mostly, but it was definitely NOT the bookish rom-com that I (and likely many others) was expecting & I don't think that's debut author Tessa Bickers fault - it's the marketing teams. This story here is much less a romance and actually has some very serious undertones of grief, bullying and trauma. But it also has much to recommend it - especially to readers of classic literature (I've read the majority of the classics referenced (never got through Dickens or G.Eliot though). So, I do recommend it to readers of classics who might enjoy a "book about books" but not to anyone just looking for a light beach read. My thanks to NG, et al. for the advanced reader copy.

This book has a really fun premise but sadly weighs to heavily on the idea and not quite enough on good character development and plot depth. It is a very slow burn and does not quite feel like a romance. There is a lot of talk of trauma and grief and working through the past. One of my favorite parts was all of the talk of classic books which were a great reference.

Oh this book... When I picked this title, I was expecting a super sweet romance centered around a love of books and stories. What I instead found was a gut-punching exploration of what it means to love one another (both romantically and platonically) and a beautiful depiction of grief. As someone who lost my own best friend to cancer, I felt so seen and understood by this book. It was a cathartic moment grieving my own loss alongside Erin, and the revelations she had and the healing she found mirrored my own journey over the last ten years when I lost my friend. To put it simply, this was the book I needed ten years ago, and it was the most poignant depiction of grief and how it coexists with love. I also was so deeply invested in the family dynamics in this book and how Erin and James grew in their understanding of what it means to be family and to love one another.

Another element that I cherished in this book was seeing how Erin and James both grow in their understanding of what it means to love oneself enough to believe in your own dreams. As a 20-something who has gone through her own "existential crises," I felt so connected to both of their journeys to themselves and to pursuing their passions. This book needs to be read by anyone who has had to fight to be who they want to be and for anyone confused or lost-- it especially needs to be read by those feeling hopeless that they don't have it all figured out yet. This books speaks into those places and shows how universal those fears and longings really are.

Yes, I loved the love story, and yes I ADORED seeing it play out in the margins of beloved stories, but what makes this book shine for me is that it is so much more than a love story. It's a picture of what it means to be human and how we impact one another in our respective journeys.

I will be posting it to my IG account soon under @bookish.kendall, and will of course be telling everyone and their dog to go preorder this lovely story. It's a shining debut, and I am so thankful for the chance to have read it and fallen in love with it. Thank you so much!

ARC review
“They say it takes one moment to change your life. My moment will happen at twelve minutes past three this afternoon, but there’s no way of knowing that when I wake up.”

okay, i’ve felt ALL the feelings in this book, in the best way possible! I truly loved this authors viewpoint and writing in regards to grief/loss, the way it impacts the main characters themselves, the relationships within their lives and how grief can completely derail you.
““I promise to change into something colorful for you.”

Erin & James are experiencing grief of the same person, from varying viewpoints, loss of other relationships within the lives and an overall grief of the future they pictured for themselves. I loved watching the main characters grow themselves, how their relationship came back around full circle and their connection shared through the classic novels exchanged. I do wish we had gotten to see more of the “after” and gotten a bigger view of the HEA at the end.
I highly recommend this book, the deep questions on life/love that it arises and insight into our own grief, especially those we are struggling to work through.