After I read the scene where James told Cassie that he doesn't need a house tour and asked her to just hand over the key to her house and scram...I said, verbatim: “Absolutely horrendous behaviour. You are so so so insufferable, you indecent prick.”

James Grey is just...that. I hated him during the first portions of the book! Insensitive, aloof, a bad listener, egoistic, annoying---he doesn't even eat dessert! However he made up for that later due to the AMAZING character development displayed in the book. I was astounded after realizing what the author did to me.

I often hold grudges, fictional people included yet Jo Lovett managed to redeem the once pompous ass in one single book!

I love Lovett's writing style! Very cozy, witty, and very, very entertaining (still can't get over “verbal diarrhoea” lmao). Will definitely read other works of hers again!

The House Swap is romantic, full of laugh-out-loud moments (which actually made me lol) and the chemistry Jovy Lovett built around the main characters, for the main characters is insanely suffocating --- perfect!

James has a crazy ex girlfriend, who after expecting a marriage proposal at her 30th birthday party, is now harassing him out of town.

Cassie is a popular novelist who needs to leave her island sanctuary as her agent Jennifer wants the latest book to be set in London and it just so happens it would make getting ivf easier.

This is a great example of enemies to lovers with two main characters that are both flawed but likeable. James with his commitment issues and family history and Cassie with her cheating ex and previous miscarriage are both vulnerable and so perfectly suited.

I must admit I didn’t warm to James at first and thought Cassie was far too good for him. But like Cassie I warmed up to him and I began to root for them to get together.

Then there is the wonderful supporting cast of friendly neighbours for Cassie and animals for James. This has both the funnies and the fuzzies as well as a will they won’t they slow burn of a romance.

Pure feel good escapism and who doesn’t love an alpaca or three!

Thank you Netgally for providing me with a digital copy of this book.
I needed something light and funny and sweet, and this book delivered. This book as strong reminders of a film about a house swap, but it is not too predictable. It is a romantic book, so you expect a happy ending, but there were many twists that surprised me.
This is the story of Cassie and James and their need to move to different sides of the world, for different reasons. Cassie is quite a famous children’s writer (she writes under a pen name and few people know who she really is) and must move to London for a longer period of time to research and get familiar with the city for her new book. James is a 30 something man who works in finance and needs to move to the US to escape his stalker ex-girlfriend, but also grow his business. They could not be more different and come from more different backgrounds. After intense scrutiny and checks, James and Cassie house swap and their story really starts.
I found the characters very likeable and funny. Both James and Cassie come with luggage and have their demons to slay, but their journey, albeit convoluted and eventful, reaches, as you would expect, a happy ending and they both get more than they bargained for. The other characters in the book are also very likeable and funny.
The writing is great. Easy to read, easy to follow and perfect for the book. Absolutely what I needed.

GAAAAAAAAH. My heart.

I LOVE the house-swapping plot. I've read other similar books before, but this one was special.

At first, Cassie and James don’t get along so well (hello, enemies-to-lovers fans!). Since the beginning, it’s clear how they have such different ideas about everything. She tries her best to be nice, preparing her house to welcome him. He isn’t so worried about pleasing her. It’s all just a deal for him.

But guess what? This experience isn’t just about the house. It’s about people, family, friends, culture, fears, feelings, routine, mental health. And so much more... They don't know at first, but they're both getting out of their comfort zones and facing past traumas. I guess that's what happens to everyone when you spend some time away from home, from your city, your people... Everything gets a new meaning.

After a few fights, they slowly realize how they're changing and becoming better people, learning with each other, seeing their own mistakes, appreciating things they never had. They had nothing in common before, but now they do.

It’s such a romantic and funny book! I was surprised with the fact that they kept in touch most of the time. I fell in love with them during those calls and texts. Until a certain point, I really thought I was going to give it 5 stars, but there were some things that I didn't like.

>> Attention: Spoilers! (maybe?)

If this book was a movie, it would be one of those who turn off the lights when things are about to get steamy. So, don't expect to find hot scenes around here. (this was something that disappointed me a little. I was expecting at least one more page about their first night together.)

At times, it may seem a little unrealistic how they overcome their traumas so suddenly. In real life, I think they would need much more time and therapy. However, I believe that the outcome is possible. That’s the goal, face your fears, chase your dreams... No matter what. Even if it’s scary. Even if it’s something you never thought you could actually do. So yeah… I was happy with how it ended.

Trigger warnings: pregnancy struggles, miscarriage, IVF, mentions of alcoholism, abusive households.
* I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

When I read the synopsis for The House Swap it kinda reminded me of that movie The Holiday, minus the actual holiday. You too? So I jumped right in.



There are many things to enjoy about this novel. If you love British characters, as we do over here at MRBoD, then this will hit that spot for you. The slang, the various places visited, even the snobbery of the main male character and the quirkiness of our main female character are all good stuff. There's also the quaint and lovely American village that seems sweet and romantic and small town--lots of good stuff there.



But really, the novel is captured in phone calls, text exchanges, and the adorable annoyance that each of these characters have for each other. It's through these exchanges and the down time between them that we get to know their histories and broken hearts. It's through these exchanges that they learn more about each other, let down their guards, and become genuine friends and companions...lovers and a couple.



While there were definitely times when I felt that the writing was a bit long and more verbose than I normally like, I did ultimately enjoy the premise and characters.

i actually read this yesterday but waited to say HAPPY RELEASE DAYY! i’m giving this 4 stars:) it was fun, it was cute, it was just what i was looking for after a hardcore fantasy. if you have just read a rough, heavy book and want something light, cute and fun. this book is for you, when i tell you i had so much fun reading this i mean it! i enjoyed the first two thirds of the book the most it was kind of predictable so that’s why it’s getting 4 stars rather than 5. it was semi enemy to lovers, the guy was kind of a dick in the beginning. at the end this was easy and such a fun read, i did enjoy it! thank you!

A really cute romcom! Not my most favourite read in the world, but I flew through it pretty fast. I haven't read any other books by Jo Lovett and am now curious to see if there are more!

Great book from a new author for me. I loved the back stories of the two main characters Cassie and James. It was great to see how their relationship developed across the miles. A lovely read. Keep tissues handy.

Synopsis: He needs an escape. She needs an adventure. Cassie swaps her island house off the coast of Maine for James’ central London flat. Both didn’t realise that swapping homes also meant swapping parts of their lives. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
What I liked⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- It’s a version of an enemies to lovers story.
- The wat the house swap let’s the characters explore themselves. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- It’s a light and easy read. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- The House Swap is an absolute feel good romance! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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What I didn’t like ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- James’ complete personality switch at the end was unrealistic. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Rating⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Review on Goodreads, Instagram and Amazon. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I received a complementary eARC from the publisher via @netgalley in return for my honest review. ⠀⠀
Trigger warning: overdose, miscarriage.

First, thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for an e-galley of The House Swap.

I loved this book! If you like Beth Leary's books, this is perfect for you.

Cassie and James live on opposite sides of the world, but they both find themselves in need of a change of scenery. So they decide to swap houses for a couple months, James will move to an island in Maine and Cassie to the heart of London. But upon their arrival at their respective locations, it appears each has left unexplained issues behind.

As they stay in touch regarding ex-girlfriends who barge into flats, and the utter lack of internet, James and Cassie find themselves talking more and more about non-house swap issues. Despite being an ocean apart, a relationship of sorts begins to form.

Thank you to Bookouture for my copy of this book via Netgalley and for letting me take part in this tour. I really enjoyed The First Time We Met so I was excited to read another book by this author.

I really enjoyed Jo's writing style. I like books with multiple POV so I really enjoyed switching between Cassie and James for each chapter.

The story is split between an island near Maine, USA and London. The London scenes gave me a real hankering to visit again. It's been more than a year since I last went to London and I do miss it. I love seeing the sights and catching up with friends for dinner and drinks. I really enjoyed living vicariously through these characters. Cassie's house also sounds beautiful. I would LOVE to visit somewhere like this for a lovely relaxing break.

I really liked both main characters. James did come off a bit rude, to begin with, but once his walls started to come down he really did grow on me. Underneath all the pain of his past, he's actually a really sweet guy. Cassie is such a sweetheart. She cares about everyone and always tries to help out where she can.

I really loved all the side characters in this book. Even though they weren't the main characters they were still well thought out with their individual personalities.

Jo explores different types of grief in this book. It was really lovely to see how James and Cassie could help each other through their grief and to heal.

This book was a lovely sweet story that made you really appreciate your loved ones and gives you the warm fuzzies.

This was a sweet and easy read for me. It’s a semi enemy to lovers trope...more like guy is a dick in the beginning and girl is super bubbly so they butt heads trope. I honestly didn’t know how they were going to come together believably by the end of the book, but it did work in ways. I think I would have liked it more if there wouldn’t have been huge gaps in time/personal growth, or at least made the transitions not seem as huge.

I loved that half of the setting was on an island in Maine. I love this state so much, and am always excited to see it highlighted in a novel! I also enjoyed the London half since it’s one of my top places I want to visit.

🏠🏠🏠🏠
THE HOUSE SWAP
Jo Lovett

Bookou

I chose this book because I found the idea of house swapping interesting. I could tell from the cover that it would be a Rom-Com type of book.

The house swap is between James, an uptight financial guy who lives in the centre of London, and Cassie. Cassie is an author who writes children’s books who lives on an island off the coast of Maine. Cassie is a detail-oriented and outgoing person.

As expected, as they are going through the details of the house swap, Cassie and James get off on the wrong foot. The rest of the story is quite predictable.

I don't usually mind when a story leaves the realm of reality, as long as it stays entertaining enough to keep my attention. And, interesting enough to keep my attention watching it evolve.

I could predict within the first few pages what the outcome was going to be. I did not realize that it would involve some touching moments. I would call it “substance” popping up in a light read. There were lots of touches of humour too, a perfect balance!

I always like a book where I learn something. In this book, I learned that there is such a thing as a “tuna and sweet corn sandwich”. After Googling, I see that it is a British thing. Who knew?

In conclusion, the characters were cute, the plot was cute, the ending was cute. There are times in our lives when we need something like this book.....and I read this at the right time. It turned out to be a real “feel good” book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Cassie and James meet on a house swap website. Cassie needs to live in London for 6 months to do some research for her latest book and James wants to live in the States to escape a crazy ex girlfriend.

At first they only have contact via the internet but they keep hearing all about each other from their neighbours and friends. Soon their occasional contact for house related enquiries turns into long daily telephone conversations.

I've never wanted to smack two character's heads together and yell "Get your shit together!!" more than I did with Cassie and James. Jo Levett also leads the reader into some super saucy scenes and then skips right over them which had me checking if I missed a page.

This was a really lovely story though that made me laugh in parts and while predictable in its storyline delved past the superficial love story and also explored trauma and loss.

Cassie and James swap houses for 6 months.
Cassie so she can write her next novel and maybe have IVF and James to get away from a psycho ex girlfriend.
Cassie and James start off by sharing text messages and then move on to talking every day they eventually meet in London and they soon realise that they have feelings for each other.

This was an enjoyable read. I didn’t love James at first. He was incredibly rude and a bit up himself. But as the book progressed he calmed down and was less rude.
The ending was a bit predictable but gave me the warm and fuzzies anyway.

A great read for all romance readers.

I really enjoyed this book. You sometimes can't beat a romance book.

The book is shown in Cassie and James' perspective. It was quite a fast paced book but it worked in this.

Honestly it was pretty predictable what would happen but it was still a really enjoyable read.

2 stars out of 5

I wish this book wasn't being marketed as a Romantic Comedy when its much more suited to the Women's Fiction genre. Cassie and James are from two different worlds, she lives on a small island with wifi that's spotty at best and he lives in a London penthouse for his business job. They both decide to join a house swapping website and live in each others places for a few months. Along the way, they start to fall for each other after connecting during phone calls. For a romance novel, we barely see any actual romance on the page. It seemed like there were too many time jumps and paragraphs that ended with "and they talked on the phone for hours" instead of letting us actually see them fall each other. I also had a hard time connecting with the characters. Cassie was just fine at best but James was rude and cold from the beginning. He had a little bit of growth in the story, but it was hard to forget how off putting he was at the start. The author's writing would fit the Women's Fiction genre better since it just wasn't romantic. I couldn't understand their relationship once they were together but not really together? This book just wasn't what I was looking for nor how I think it was being described.

Cassie is a writer who lives on an eclectic island off the coast of Maine, and James is a London finance hot-shot.
When Cassie and James meet on House Swap, it feels like fate, even if they could not be more different.
James is eager to get out of London and flee his stalker ex - so an island in the middle of nowhere sounds perfect, while a reluctant Cassie needs to return to London to research locations for her new book series.

I enjoyed the first two-thirds of the book. It felt like an amalgamation of Beth O'Leary's books the Flatshare and the Switch. James and Cassie go from despising each other to talking every day on the phone because they are both quite considerate people.

The last third, though ...

James and Cassie have massive trauma. Cassie fled to the Island after her miscarriage and subsequent breakdown of her relationship four years earlier. She certainly should not be trying IVF with a sperm donor before counselling.

James is actively avoiding the deaths of his sister and mother - both caused by addiction and decides he will never get married or have children because of his childhood trauma.

I was so upset with the resolution of the "twist". James and Cassie both needed therapy before their happy ending. It's ok to put your characters in therapy and it can help de-stigmatize it.

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for an e-ARC of the book.

Thank you, NetGalley and Bookouture for an e-ARC of The House Swap in exchange for an honest review.

I was so worried when I started this book because I couldn’t stand James. I knew it would take a lot of background information and character development to rectify that. But Jo Lovett did it and by the end, I was fully invested in him. (It probably took about 40% of the book for me to start to warm up to him, though.)

Thankfully, I loved Cassie from the get-go.
And I enjoyed all of the side characters (including the alpacas!) as well... minus his ex, Emily. I wish we could have gotten a little more background on his relationship with her.

I also wish we got to see a little more of James’ and Cassie’s jobs. Especially James’ job because we learned about all of these problems in the beginning, but nothing ever happened with any of it.

I loved the friendship that Cassie and James developed. This was a very slow burn romance and while it did have a lot of angst, there was very little steam. That said, I loved how their relationship unfolded, even though it felt for a while like it would never happen.

I loved that I got to travel to both London and a small island off the coast of Maine through this story. The island was my favorite place to “visit.” I loved the tight knit community and small town vibes. Not to mention all of the wildlife and scenery. The island setting was also a little more developed than the London setting and easier for me to imagine being there.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story. I’ve read a few reviews where people DNF before 50% and if that’s you, keep going! The second half was my favorite and so much better than the first half.

Review will soon be posted on Amazon and my bookstagram ( @bookishlee_kaci )

Trigger warnings below...



Trigger warnings: pregnancy struggles, IVF, mentions of miscarriage, mentions of alcoholism and drug addiction, loss of family members

What originally drew me to this book was that it sounded like a variation on the theme from The Holiday, one of my favorite movies.

James & Cassie swap houses (London & an island in Maine). There is a lot of animosity at first, but over time, they fall in love through correspondence.

I found James to be absolutely insufferable. Enemies-to-lovers is my favorite trope, but oh man, it was hard to get past his personality. He’s inconsiderate and an absolute toxic male.

James eventually turns his attitude around, thank goodness, though James just isn’t the character for me.

I can absolutely understand why people will love this book. I enjoyed it! It’s just not my favorite.