The Book Swap was definitely different from what I was expecting. I wouldn't necessarily call it a light read... There are some prevalent triggers that I wasn't necessarily expecting that really define the characters. Erin and James have dealt with the death of a mutual friend and are impacted by this in different ways. I feel ambivalent about this book. The book swap story is incredibly cute and original, and makes me want to scour the local libraries for the gems. Erin and James are very flawed characters and as they continue to be stuck in their ways, I found them more unlikeable. There was a lot of scolding in my mind, with some of the self-destructive behaviour from both characters but mainly Erin. The other part was that the end felt a bit abrupt in terms of reconciling old feelings with new ones. One thing I will say though is that I loved her sister Georgia who is a badass and loves Erin very much.

Steam: 0
Heart Flutters: ❤️

At first glance, I expected a lighthearted rom-com. I was very wrong. Tessa Bickers goes deep into the human experience, tackling themes of grief, loss, and the journey to healing. This book made me feel so many different emotions, it's simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking. Unfortunately it felt a bit slow at times and fast paced at others. From the begging the flow was quick and then it died down which was a bit wierd to me. Then we have the relationship between Erin and her Mystery Man. A relationship fostered through the annotated pages of beloved classics, which was really cute. This is a slow burn so be prepared. Lastly we have the dynamic between Erin and her sister Bonnie, a sad melancholy connection that kinda works and shows different levels of grief

Sad and sweet, heart-wrenching and heartwarming. I loved this debut! A second-chance love story born in the margins of the main characters’ favorite classic novels. Eager trips to the neighborhood little free library to check for new books and new notes. Explorations of mental health, grief, forgiveness, and second chances both in career and relationships. So good!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this cute rom-com. While it wasn’t my favorite and I struggled with several parts, I overall enjoyed it and I’m glad I read it. The lead up did not keep my interest and this made it hard to follow. But I gave it a chance and pushed through. Around the half way mark, the book picks up and I found myself cheering for Erin and her mystery guy. The correspondence between the pages of a book was just adorable! And I loved what Erin said when she explained her reasoning behind it.

THE BOOK SWAP really turned out to be a wonderful read for me. Secrets are not so easy to hide, what happens if it all comes out? THE BOOK SWAP is all about Erin Connolly trying to come to terms with a recent death that has left her absolutely drowning in grief and not being able to move forward. One day, she figures that maybe moving forward could start with her cleaning out the clutter in her home. She starts with her books and decides to donate them to a community little free library. But things turn out very badly when she realizes one of her favorite books was donated. Like a mad woman, she races down to the library and the book isn't there. After checking the library for almost a week, she finds the book. Once she is home she discovers that someone has added their own notes to the notes Erin wrote in the margins. This begins a new friendship for Erin. But the friendship isn't really new as Erin will soon find out.


I really enjoyed the small town setting. There is a great set of characters and I wish I could read more about the secondary characters as well. I think the pacing in the book is great and gave a good foundation for the story.. I had a great time reading THE BOOK SWAP. Tessa Bickers pulled me right in and hooked me from the very first page. She is now an auto buy author for me. Her characters feel very real. They aren’t perfect and while they all have flaws they are also very lovable. I now know I will devour everything this awesome author writes and do it all easily with a smile on my face and tears in my eyes. How can a book about books not capture the reader's heart?


THE BOOK SWAP is a sweet novel about letting go of the past and making amends. Of rediscovering what its like to be in love again, friendships and of coming to terms with loss. In a week where I have started four or five books and given each up at between 30% and 50% I read THE BOOK SWAP straight through because the story is an easy read with engaging characters, a fun plot, and a believable storyline. Tessa Bickers writes snappy dialogue, fantastic female friendships, and laugh out loud moments to give the story the perfect balance of humor and “will somebody pass the dang tissues?! Erin deals with some heavy situations, and several shocking revelations change everything for her. Hang on to your seats, trust me!! THE BOOK SWAP is my first book by Tessa Bickers and it won’t be my last!


I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I DNFed (Did Not Finish) this book. I made it 17% into it before I DNFed. I went into this book expecting a cute little romance, with a cute little meet cute. This book delivered deep topics; ranging from bullying, to mental illness, and then to death. There's nothing wrong with a book addressing these topics, I just was unprepared to read about them.
The beginning felt very slow. The book was also very focused on these characters past lives. Which unfortunately I was not interested in reading about.
I implore other readers to give this book a shot if it sounds intriguing to them.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the chance to read this Advanced Readers Copy

I loved the premise of this book, it definitely felt like a book written for book lovers, I think if was a little hard to get into but once it got going I really enjoyed it.

This book was so good. I loved the characters and how they interacted and overall the plot of the book was truly increcible I would recommend this book over and over again.

The Book Swap is marketed as a romance, but it felt more like a fiction book with romantic elements. As a romance lover, I wanted a bit more wooing and more interactions between the two main characters. While it does explore a budding connection between Erin and James through the shared love of annotated classic books, the romance is only part of the story. Anyone who appreciates literature will find themselves immersed in the numerous references to classic novels, which added a layer of depth I really appreciated. However, I feel you might need a love for classics to fully enjoy these moments.

Erin, as a character, was difficult for me to root for. Her reactions to life's challenges often felt overly dramatic, which made it hard to connect with her journey at times. That said, the novel beautifully explores grief and the process of finding oneself again after tragedy. Erin and James’ individual journeys of self-discovery, healing, and forging new paths resonated deeply with me.

The book's premise, where they swap books via a free little library, is undeniably charming, but I wish I could have connected with the characters more. The dynamic between Erin and her sister, Bonnie, added some emotional weight, but overall, I felt the book’s conclusion was too abrupt, leaving me wanting a bit more of Erin and James’ happily ever after.

For readers who enjoy stories steeped in classic literature, grief, and self-growth, The Book Swap might be a delightful find. However, if you're looking for a typical romance, this might feel more like a character-driven story with romantic elements rather than a full-blown love story.

I feel like the cover was a bit misleading. I went into this expecting one thing and got something else completely different. The beginning was dreadfully slow and I found myself wanting to dnf at several points. Thankfully it did pick up though right before the middle.

The fmc was pretty unlikeable right from the get go and it sort of set the pace for how I was going to feel about her for the entire story which made it harder to root for her through anything.

Still dealing with a recent tragedy and quitting her job, Erin Connolly knows she needs to start fresh. However, when she accidentally donates her heavily annotated, treasured copy of To Kill A Mockingbird to the local community library she’s heartbroken, until she finds it returned with new annotations from its recent reader. Her and this mystery man begin to exchange books, leaving notes in the margins, and forming a special friendship.

Wow—what a wonderful, uplifting read, and a book lovers dream—you got to love books about books! I loved all the references to The Perks of Being a Wallflower, one of my all time favorite books, and the parallels to Erin and her friends’ lives growing up. The dual POVs allows you as a reader to truly get to know these two dynamic characters, full of emotions, flaws, and personal struggles. While this was a heartwarming, wholesome romance, the story was also so much more, with so much of the book focused on other aspects of the characters’ lives, which I loved. I would highly recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Grayson House Books for my gifted e-ARC!

Necessary disclosure: I am an avid supporter and cheerleader for little libraries everywhere. THE BOOK SWAP by Tessa Bickers was a delightful read describing how strangers connect through notes in the margins of classics -- revealing themselves as they are at heart. I believed in the growing relationship, absolutely embraced the challenges of becoming real from fantasies and impressions made at a safe distance, especially when being real on the page translates to being real in real life. I received a copy of this book and these are my own, unbiased thoughts

I loved this book so much!! I was hooked from the very beginning. The parallels between the main characters were an amazing touch to show the invisible string tying them together. I laughed, I cried. Erin and James were so perfectly imperfect by being raw and human. There were times I got angry at their choices and other times I cheered them on.

The parts of the book that went back into the past could have been formatted differently. In the beginning, it was hard to go from one moment in the present to the next in the past without any indication (even though that's how it works in real life). It was just hard to read at first.

This book was very grief-filled, but after the first couple of chapters, I adjusted easily to the plot. The romance was a slow burn. I liked the will they/won't they? and all the sweet moments in between.

I have a feeling this book will stay with me for a while.

I was delightfully surprised by The Book Swap! Although it’s advertised as a contemporary romance, I would say the romance isn’t necessarily the main plot point. The plot is heavily driven by Erin and James, each separately processing their own grief, loss, mental illnesses, and finding their respective passions. I adored the character development for James, he’s the star of this book and I think one of the most multidimensional MMCs I’ve had the pleasure of reading. Reading Erin’s character arc was satisfying and gave me so much hope for her future. The romance is very much a slow burn, so all my slow burn lovers out there - pick this book up! If you want quick gratification from a romantic story, The Book Swap definitely isn’t the choice for you, and that’s okay. I won’t lie, I expected to not enjoy this as much as I did due to some lackluster reviews, but thankfully, that wasn’t the case for me. The writing style, references, and story overall are incredibly British. I never considered that some stories originally written in the UK might go through a naturalization process before publishing in the US, but The Book Swap definitely didn’t go through said process. I didn’t mind how heavily British it was, I actually think it contributed to the storytelling, but I can see how some people would find the voice odd or disjointed, especially if they’re caught off guard. That being said, I think this was super cute, but I do wish we got an epilogue detailing Erin and James’s relationship a year or more after the ending.

Thank you to The Hive, NetGalley, and the author for sending me an early copy!

This book was so much more than I expected! I went into it thinking I was getting a romcom, but instead I read an exploration of grief, forgiveness, hope, friendship, and second chances. Just having lost someone to cancer, I will say the title, cover, and even description is deceiving and this did really catch me off guard; I would recommend editing the description to give a bit of warning of what you’re actually going to be reading. That said, the book is beautifully written, heartfelt, and an in depth view of all the emotions life unexpectedly throws at us.

Thank you for the opportunity to read! This will make an excellent pick for my book club.

The Book Swap is a heartfelt exploration of grief, second chances, and the magic of connecting through literature. Erin’s journey from tragedy to self-discovery through the written margins of beloved classics is both charming and poignant. The concept of building a relationship through books like To Kill a Mockingbird and Great Expectations is a book lover's dream come true. While some parts felt a little heavy with the themes of grief and loss, Tessa Bickers balances these well with moments of hope and connection.

The slow-burn romance between Erin and her mysterious pen pal is sweet, although the emotional weight of their pasts adds a complexity I wasn’t expecting. Fans of classic literature will enjoy the nods to iconic works, though the book occasionally feels more like a study of grief than the light romance the cover suggests. That said, it's a unique and beautiful story of love, forgiveness, and finding one’s way through loss.

If you're in the mood for something emotionally resonant with a bookish twist, The Book Swap is a great pick. Just prepare for a deeper story than the cover might imply.

had thought this was going to be super cute and a great romcom to refresh me between some darker fantasy books, but it actually talked about some tough topics. don't get me wrong, it was still a decent book, but the cover is a bit of a mislead. the description does touch on the subjects, however. it reminds me of a movie i watched a few years ago where they left each other notes in books for a while, and then they decided to meet. it was okay, but it was definitely not a super cutesy, light-hearted romcom book that i expected. there were fun times in the book, and i loved their unintentional matching costumes.

thank you very much to netgalley for an advanced copy of the book. ♡

Wow! Reading this book felt like watching a movie. It was so true of a romance novel while maintaining a freshness to the genre. I really loved the fact that the character's attachment to books is what brought them closer together and helped to unite and reunite them throughout the book. The vibes were so cozy and familiar. I highly recommend reading this book. I'm excited to see what other stories Bickers creates in the future!

The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers

I just finished reading this fantastic debut, and I really enjoyed it! The characters were so well-crafted—realistic, flawed, and relatable. It gave an honest look at grief, sacrifice, childhood trauma, and how we can be our own harshest critics, just as much as we judge others. I found myself really liking these characters and how naturally they fit together, which made the story all the more compelling. Huge bonus points for the amazing side characters, who can so easily make or break a book. And seriously, a book about a little free library!? What's not to love?

This is a story about second chances and new beginnings—a love letter to books and life.

Perfect for fans of Beth O'Leary and Mhairi McFarlane.

Thank you to Graydon House copy! This book is out now.

The Book Swap was an unexpected journey of a novel that is an enemies to lovers romance and so much more. It poetically deals with grief, loss, and finding your way again after profound tragedy.

Erin is still mourning the loss of her best friend, Bonnie, who died tragically from cancer. Unable to move on, she persists in a job she hates and sub-par hookups with her roommate until her accidental donation of her favorite book, To Kill a Mockingbird, to a free library propels her into positive action. Erin is particularly devastated by the book's loss because it contains a treasured postcard from Bonnie. She is both relieved and intrigued when her copy of To Kill a Mockingbird shows up a week later in the free library, postcard inside, and fresh notes in the book's margins, responding to her own annotations inside the novel.

Erin and the "Mystery Man" that wrote the margin notes thus begin an unlikely friendship trading margin notes inside beloved classics including Great Expectations, The Great Gatsby, and Middlemarch. Literary analysis also gives way to more personal questions as Erin and the mysterious margin writer share musings about their hopes and dreams for the future and spark a potential new romance.

Just as Erin begins to feel that she is making forward progress, a startling realization about the "Mystery Man" threatens to upend everything that she believed to be true.

The Book Swap is a love letter to the transformational act of reading, the power of free libraries, and the hope of new beginnings. Do not miss this intriguing and special romance.