Adorable, sweet & charming holiday story. Lucy, Jules & Chloe have been friends since they were middle school age. Now they are all grown up & living very different lives. They decided they needed a change & for Christmas one year they all switched places. At first I thought how bizarre, why wouldn’t someone want to go home for Christmas?! But sometimes it’s nice to experience something completely different than what you’ve become accustomed to. Romance is in the air for all three of the women, but in very different ways.

This book would be a perfect read in December, while sitting by a fireplace. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was turned into a Hallmark Holiday movie. The characters are charming and it is a sweet reminder that Christmas is a truly romantic and magical time.

Thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for the ARC!

This was a really lovely Christmassy romance. Very light with no real cliffhangers or jeopardy. I did keep getting slightly confused with the nationalities of the 3 women, but that was down to me not the writer. It was nice that each chapter focussed on a different woman and their romance. It was a really well written escapist read on a wet October afternoon.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read a preview copy of this book.

I’ll be honest, the plot points were hard to keep up with this one! But the fact that it took place at Christmas time (my favorite) made up for the minor confusion. Charming and sweet is how I would describe this breezy rom com novel that is perfect for the holidays!!

Chloe, Lucy and Jules have been friends who met on vacation as young girls. One is from The US, one from England and one from Australia. When they decide to swap places for Christmas the fun begins. Echos rom-com movies but still fun to read. At times got them mixed up,but could just be me. Would highly recommend this book.

The traditional Christmas swap story, but with 3 friends instead of 2.
A lot of plots to keep track of.

Chloe, Jules and Lucy met as children and became friends for life. They come up with a plan to swap homes, families and countries for Christmas. Each woman travels to another country and stays with the others family. A cute story of friendship, love and family. A great mood lifter for these times.

Thanks to netgalley and One More Chapter for the arc

Honestly when I signed up to have a review copy of this book I had fallen in love with the cover - I didn’t realise how hard I'd fall in love with the book. Is it possible to fall in love with three guys in one book? I wish i could start it all again. If your perfect christmas is a white one, filled with hot chocolate, cozy fires, and big natural christmas trees; it's in this book. If your perfect christmas is surrounded by family, a home cooked christmas dinner and spending time in a cute little neighborhood; It’s in this book. If your perfect christmas would be warm, spending time on a beach and spending time with friends; thats right you’ve guessed it it’s in this book.

I rate this book five stars and wish I could give it more.

This was such a sweet & enjoyable read! I loved Lucy, Chloe & Jules and their friendship. I thought each story was well-written and suited each of them. I speed through this, wanting to know what happened to them & their Christmas romances! This is also the first story I've read with a summer Christmas & now I need more!

I absolutely adored this book. It was so heartwarming and wholesome.

The Christmas Swap follows three friends: Jules, Chloe, and Lucy, who live in different parts of the world, but are best friends. They decide to trade places for the holiday season. Chloe, who is from Australia, spends her vacation with Lucy's parents in England. Lucy, who wants a white Christmas, jets off to Colorado, to spend her Christmas with Jules family, and Jules, who is over the cold, has an orphans christmas with Chloe's friends in Australia. They each have no idea just how much a simple christmas is going to change their lives.

I loved how heartwarming this book was. The different families were so welcoming to the girls and made them feel like they were a part of that family.

I also really enjoyed the different traditions and families that were represented. While one gathering was large and casual, another was intimate with just the parents, and the last was formal with friends.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone who wants a christmas read with rom-com vibes. My only regret was, it made me want more. I need to know how their lives turned out!

Loved, loved, loved this book! I could not put it down. I enjoyed the true friendship of these girls and experiencing a special holiday in a very different way and being so open to it!

I know it’s still September, but I am ready for all the Christmas joy and romance. 🎄The Christmas Swap by Sandy Barker is the perfect holiday read. Best friends Chloe, Jules and Lucy swap their traditional christmas experiences. Conveniently all finding love 😉. Lucy and Will are my favourite couple, and I loved how awkward and how quickly they fell for each other. I also enjoyed the different cities and Melbourne is now at the top of my dream vacation list! I did sometimes find the 3 storylines slightly confusing and often had to remind myself who I was reading about at the beginning of a new chapter. But by the end I was fully invested in each story. Grab a blanket, hot chocolate and this book! The Christmas Swap is out on October 16th. Thank you @netgalley and @harpercollinsuk for this advanced copy!

P.S. How have I never read a Christmas book before?! Send me all your Christmas themed recommendations please!

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#bookreviews #bookrecommendations #christmasbooks #arc #advancedreaderscopy #netgalley #sandybarker #thechristmasswap #bookstagram #harpercollinsuk #onemorechapter #ebook

A fun filled read about three best friends Chloe, Jules and Lucy who swap their homes and families at Christmas. Set among the winter wonderland of Colorado, the sunny skies of Melbourne, and rainy old England; it’s just the break each girl needs and if they find love along the way, what could be more perfect?

This is the first book I have read by this author and it won’t be the last. A lovely festive story which was an easy and entertaining read.

Having read Sandy's previous books, I was thrilled to be given a sneak peek at the new festive novel so I can prepare for the blog tour.

2020 is a year of not travelling anywhere due to the global pandemic, so I was thrilled to have the May Ladies tale me around the world at Christmas. I loved how they all swapped to experience a different type of Christmas - from freezing cold USA to sunny Australia to damp UK.

In each location, the May Ladies also found a gorgeous man so this is a book full of romance and travel. Personally I would have wished to travel to Australia for the sun and to meet the dog, Dexter but the rum hot chocolates in the USA were also very tempting.

A fabulous book, with great stories in each of the three countries, all interwoven by the catch up calls - thank goodness for video calls. I definitely felt more festive reading this and we are still in late September!

I will polish this up more for the blog tour but wanted to get some thoughts down now.

My first Christmas book of the year and it was perfect! Three best friends decide to swap countries for Christmas and the settings are perfection - a snowy Christmas in the US, a sunshine filled one in Australia and a traditional cosy UK Christmas too. The three main characters are likeable and the relationships they fall into are heartwarming. This was such an easy read and leaves you feeling happy and totally satisfied. I really recommend this book!
Thank you to netgalley, the author and the publishers for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I've got to be honest with you. The last few weeks have seen me read less and less, not for want of trying, but because I am exhausted due to the trials and tribulations of this whole Covid-19 craziness.
Books that I would usually whizz through, are unable to keep me awake and reading,
However, for the first time in around four weeks, I found a book that kept me reading, and I finished it in two sittings.
And that book was The Christmas Swap by Sandy Barker.
OMG, I LOVED it!
It was just the level of lighthearted reading that I needed, with characters that I felt invested in from the beginning.
The May Ladies, or rather Jules, Lucy and Chloe, are a trio who met as youngsters and formed a true bond, despite living in totally different continents, America, Australia and England. Their friendship stays strong over the years, with them meeting up regularly.
This Christmas, however, they end up swapping their lives, with Jules, the Aussie, ending up in a small village in Oxfordshire, Lucy the English rose, in the snowy depths of America, and Chloe, the American, enjoying a warm Aussie Christmas in Melbourne.
A total departure for each of them, and who knew they might just meet some one special in their new Christmas abodes?
I loved how Sandy switched slang for the different characters, so you could tell the origins of each character. The chemistry that simmered between certain individuals as they tested their feelings out, and that hint of something physical, without too much graphic detail.
A really wonderful read, that promises to take you on a journey of discovery, and a whirlwind tour of the world!
Many thanks to NetGalley and One More Chapter for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I only discovered Sandy Barker’s books last year and she’s quickly become one of my favourite authors. The Christmas Swap follows three friends, Jules lives in Colorado, Chloe in Melbourne and Lucy in London. They met in Maui as children and formed a lifelong friendship regularly meeting up for holidays even though they live continents apart. Over twenty years later, the decide to swap Christmases. Chloe wants a perfect English Christmas so is heading to a sleep Oxford village to spend it with Lucy’s parents, Lucy wants a guaranteed white Christmas so is off to Colorado and Jules, chasing some sun is on her way to Australia.

These trips allow the girls to take stock and discover more about themselves. It’s a book of friendship, sisterhood with the addition of plenty of romance as the girls each find they are having their own perfect Christmas. This book is a heartwarming and fun read and very worthy of 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter and the author for the chance to review.

This novel is like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants meets the Holiday. Three women meet when they are eleven years old while on holiday in Hawaii and form the May Ladies Club. They then separate to their respective homes, but remain friends who talk all the time and meet-up to travel around the world together. This novel takes place in each of their parts of the globe in separate stories that are also brought together by their communication and friendship.

Our story takes place twenty-two years later when the girls have all grown up and are now working different careers and living their own lives while still maintaining their friendship they formed all those years ago. Jules is a programmer who is in a rut from Boulder, Colorado. Lucy is from London, England has been in her position for eleven years and is having trouble with her new manager, and Chloe is a PR representative from Melbourne, Australia. As Christmas is approaching, they start discussing their respective plans. Lucy dreams of a white Christmas, Chloe wants a small town Christmas, and Jules wants a warmer Christmas. As Chloe’s family is going on a cruise for Christmas, they get inspired by The Holiday and decide to swap locations for Christmas.

Lucy travels to Breckenridge, Colorado to spend Christmas with Jules’ family at their cabin; Chloe goes to Penham (Oxfordshire), England to Lucy’s parents’ house; and Jules goes to Melbourne, Australia to stay at Chloe’s house with her roommate Ash and their friend-Christmas.

As no romance novel would be complete with love interests, we meet our three men in each of the women’s holiday destinations. When Jules arrives at Ash and Chloe’s apartment in Melbourne, she meets Matt, a winemaker. Lucy is picked up from the airport in Colorado by Jules’ brother, Will and they bond on their drive to the cabin. Finally, Chloe meets Archer Tate (an international film star) while helping out with the Christmas Fair.

I loved that each of the three couples were individual. Each couple handled their relationship different and they complemented the characters. Lucy is more reserved and it was reflected in her relationship. There is enough background for each character, even the side characters, such as the friends or family members that you get to learn a lot about what’s going on at each place while still maintaining focus on the main stories.

My only issue was the use of phrases/word choices that were supposed to be regional, but didn’t add up to me. “All that and a bag of chips” and “gobbledygook” were the ones that I can remember off the top of my head. They were written as being something foreign to Jules, the American, but as an American I can attest that these are extremely common to me so it was hard to get behind that Jules has never heard them at least once in her life. It wasn’t a huge deal for me, but there were a lot that each of them said that just didn’t seem to add up as being an American, Australian, or British type speaking pattern. Sometimes Chloe would say something that I’ve never heard any of my Australian friends say, but I’ve only heard my American friends. (This happened with everyone) It could just be my experience that just didn’t match the author’s, but it seemed the author kept their cultural mannerisms one way and then they would change to another. It didn’t take away from the novel, but it just was a double-take type moment when I read a line and was like, “Wait – that’s not something any British person I know would say.”

Each destination is described well enough that you feel like you’re traveling to each place as you move between the characters. It made me want to go travel to each of these places and spend Christmas (I’ve checked small town England off the list– sadly no movie stars to meet, but now I have Colorado and Australia to go.) I love that these locations aren’t ones that you read about in novels, especially Colorado in general or Australia for a Christmas novel.

The friendship between the characters is what stands out in this novel. No matter what was going in each of their lives, they always made time for each other. I love that even if they are exhausted, they will still stay up and talk to each other and they each take turns talking about their lives so it’s not too one-sided. One thing I kept trying to figure out though (and I know it’s fictional so it’s not super realistic), was how on Earth did they get the money to travel that often!? A New York vacation especially would’ve been super expensive (especially flying in from Australia). None of their positions are millionaire type jobs so it was hard to believe that they could afford their decent home lives plus afford the multiple trips around the world together (plus excursions – horseback riding in Mexico, etc.)

Overall, this novel was amazing and light-hearted. It was three Hallmark holiday movies combined to make a single story. I loved how the author attempted to weave their individual stories together to connect the women through their phone calls or just generally when they were thinking of each other. It really helped to try and make three separate stories into one cohesive novel. The writing style was easy to understand and I would read multiple novels by this author without a second thought. Without question, this was a heart-warming novel that just gives you all the holiday feels (even if it’s September). Highly recommend this novel to anyone who wants a story that just makes you walk away with a smile on your face and love in your heart!

**Thanks for Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this novel! All opinions expressed are my own.**

Lucy, Chloe, and Jules became friends when they were eleven years old. Now, two decades later, the women decide to swap Christmases. Each woman is ready for a change, and they agree that a Christmas swap is a perfect solution. Three wonderfully charming Christmases in three different places open the women’s eyes to new beginnings and love in Sandy Barker’s The Christmas Swap.

I love the relationship between the “May Ladies.” Lucy, Chloe, and Jules have a strong bond that has lasted for twenty-two years and across continents. Throughout their two-decade-long friendship, the women make time for each other, support each other, and have a remarkable bond.

The May Ladies each find love, which is, of course, one of my favorite parts of the story. And since there are the three parallel stories in three different places, Colorado, Australia, and Oxfordshire, it’s almost like reading three romances in one!

A fun and heart-warming story that highlights the bonds of friendship, the need for connection, and the magic of the holiday season, The Christmas Swap will appeal to readers who enjoy contemporary romance. Thanks so much to Netgalley and One More Chapter for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

Oh my goodness this story was an absolute tonic. Exactly what the doctor would have ordered for the end of summer blues and to rev you up nicely for snuggling up through the winter waiting for Christmas.

This is my first Sandy Barker novel and it's always so lovely to come to an author late and then have a great back catalogue to catch up with.

Full disclosure - I love Colorado - and it was the mention of this gorgeous place that first drew me to the story. I have always wanted to visit Australia too and the author really works magic in taking you there.

If you are looking for a lovely read to snuggle up and have a glass of wine with as the nights draw in, then you won't go far wrong with this little beauty.

Highly recommend

This was a sweet, cute, roommate book version of The Holiday. Three best friends swap homes in different countries for Christmas and find romance along the way. My favorite character and storyline was Chloe as it has depth and a lot of humor and heart. My only complaint was the ending. I wish we had more of a time jump into the three girls lives to see where they were at and how the romances were evolving. Cute Christmas read.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC