Stone mason, John Townsend, begins work on a new project where something isn’t quite right. On his first day he meets Judith Ransom, the woman who commissioned his work on the 17th century house, AND Penny Peverrel, the ghost of the woman who lived in the house in 1645. John and Penny have an instant connection, but she’s constantly leaving, married, and dead. What will they do?

I can tell you right away this book was not for me. I tried so hard, I promise. When I say John and Penny’s connection was instantaneous, I mean it. This isn’t a spoiler because it happens on the first page, these strangers meet and then immediately kiss. No build up, no character introduction. All of the characters seem two dimensional, and the timing of the book feels off. Very jumpy, like everything is on fast forward.

I understand that characters need to have flaws, but I genuinely found it difficult to root for any of the characters. They made terrible decisions.

It’s not often I’m reading and surprised by a sexual assault, but this book got me. There was also child violence/death. It was very off putting since given the description, tags, and cover art, I wasn’t expecting it from this novel.

Lastly, I don’t think the last chapter needed to be included. It didn’t make sense when it felt like the previous chapter had drawn a natural conclusion to the book. It felt jarring and extraneous.

Thank you Cranthorpe Millner Publishers and NetGalley for this ARC.

I felt as though this book was a little lacking in the world building and in the plot. I did ended up finishing it but it was not my cup of tea.

Exchange of Love by Brian Rayfield was an interesting read and even more interesting storyline for a romance novel.

"Where do ghosts go when they disappear from view? Do they know they are dead? Are they only on Earth to fulfill some greater purpose?"

When John meets Penny, a ghost, while he's helping to renovate a mansion he starts asking himself these questions and more.

John, who has a live girlfriend, somehow falls in love with Penny, who died during the English Civil War. Uh oh.

It was an interesting story, not one I'd normally picked out, but it's definitely worth a read and it left me with questions about whether I believe in ghosts and if I do, can we communicate with them? (still working those questions out)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC for an honest opinion. All views are my own.

3.5 stars!

This was a pretty good book. It is definitely not my favorite but I think there are people out there that would love this book. I think it need to be a little bit better written. But the story was interesting.

I so wanted to like this. It was an awesome idea but read a little like fanfiction. It didn't feel fully fleshed out and just didn't quite read right