This was such a sweet read with a heavy amount of emotion mixed in! The story was definitely a slowwww burn romance, yet it touched on a lot of heavy topics like terminal illness, mental illness, and bullying. I thought it was all handled really well and the backdrop to the whole story being a little community library had my literary heart all sorts of happy!

I would definitely recommend, but be aware that this does touch on some heavy topics throughout the story!

The author wasn’t kidding when she said this was a love better for book lovers! The mysterious book exchanging was so sweet and tender, I loved it! Something I think was done well in this book against most others that I read is that every character was perfectly crafted to serve a purpose in the story. I didn’t find anyone meant for the purpose of filler. The miscommunication in this book is next level though. Despite Erin going through her character development in the way of her career and mending familial relationships, she really doesn’t come around to a new frame of thinking about James until truly the last second. Despite the years of distance in their friendship, when they finally start to turn over a new leaf, and Erin is ready to open her heart up to him, she takes the first chance she gets and bolts, literally right out of the room and doesn’t talk to him for six months, which I find to be pretty ridiculous since that is eerily similar to how they became distant in the first place. Especially given the fact that their closest friends end up dating but they don’t seem to grasp that Erin and James never got over each other? I understood Erin’s thick headedness up until the memorial. Despite its flaws I would recommend this book and very much still enjoyed it!

Thank you to the publisher, NetGalley, and Tessa Bickers for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This is a wonderful debut novel. Such wonderful characters, and the issues they deal with, grief and mental illness, are powerful and handled lovingly. I didn't read the synopsis before beginning, I went for it based on title and cover alone. I got super lucky and this was better than I could have expected. Highly recommend.

I really liked this! The pacing was fast enough for it to feel like a quick read and all the characters got justice in their development. There were too many F words and I feel like Erin didn't need to blame everyone quite so much. Technically a second-chance romance, but I felt like it was much more about self-discovery and found family. I would read more by this author!

I had super high hopes for this book. I love the concept of passing books back and forth through the little lending library and I was excited to read the dialogue exchange the characters would be leaving in the margins. I was picturing a light hearted romcom like You’ve Got Mail maybe, but this was quite a bit different than what I expected. In some ways that was refreshing. I liked the complex backstories of the main characters. They were both dealing with things and trying to heal and there were relatable events and quotes to connect with on that front. But usually when I reach for a romcom, I am looking for an escape and this book just wasn’t that. It was heavy a lot of times and it dragged a little bit at times as well. Also, I didn’t love the dialogue in the margins of the books - the voices of the characters’ words there was sometimes a little off, and the comments were sometimes really shallow, which was an odd contrast for the rest of the book as well as for the literary classics the comments were left in. This book was just inconsistent in a lot of ways and a little bit disappointing.

Thanks for the AR ereader edition, Netgalley.

Thank you netgalley and harlequin for the gifted arc.

*this is just my opinion and I intend no hate to the author 🫶

Unfortunately, this is a dnf. The writing felt really choppy and I’m having a hard time following along with what’s going on. I also just don't feel a connection to the characters.

Thank you to Harlequin and NetGalley for providing me with a digital galley of “The Book Swap” by Tessa Bickers in exchange for an honest review.

Three years following the tragic death of her best friend Bonnie, Erin Connelly is still deep in mourning. She’s stuck in a toxic workplace, has drunken, meaningless hookups with her slacker roommate, and she barely speaks to her mother over an incident from years before. She’s prickly and closed off. Her only close relationships are her sister, a sweet coworker, and a hallucination of Bonnie’s ghost.

Meanwhile, James Parr is also stuck. He divides his time between a well-paying but soulless job and helping his father care for his mother, who suffers from a severe case of bipolar disorder. His relationships are limited and he’s all but given up on his dream of becoming a writer.

Erin and James have a messy history. Years ago, while still in school, they had been friends inching toward something more. But in a moment of panic and self-defense, James betrays her. Erin’s family fractured and she was humiliated. She’s hated him ever since, refusing to speak with him at all.

It seems like Erin and James could stay in their holding patterns forever but one day, Erin quits her toxic job in a blaze of glory. She then cleans her room of the detritus that has built over the years. Among the discards is her beloved, much annotated copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, which also contains a last memento from Bonnie. When Erin realizes her mistake, she rushes back to the donation box (basically a Little Free Library) to try to reclaim it. It’s gone but she checks daily in case it’s returned. When it turns up again, someone has written their own notes in the margins and added an invitation at the end. “Meet me in Great Expectations?”

She takes the invitation and fills the copy of G.E. with her own notes, before turning it to the library with her own reading suggestion. They continue swapping books and notes as their relationship develops anonymously. Meanwhile, they’re inspiring each other to make big, important changes and pursue better things for themselves.

After months of book swapping and self-improvement, Erin asks her anonymous reading friend if they should meet in person. Do they agree to meet, realize who their correspondent is and immediately fall in love? Of course not. There are further complications to contend with.

The Book Swap is a lovely story, really, but it’s not marketed well. The cover and blurb might lead you to think it’s a cute romcom, like “You’ve Got Mail” centered around a Little Free Library. It’s not really a romance. Yes, it has a love story, but that plot provides the framework for Erin and James to grow and change as people. It’s the catalyst for important changes in their lives but it’s not the central focus of the book. While it does have its sweet moments, this book tackles some big, heavy emotional issues, grief, guilt, mental illness, toxicity and holding grudges among them. The characters act like real, messy humans and at times, they can be pretty unlikeable.

Recommended for readers who want to see real, genuine, positive emotional growth. It’s a good book. Just don’t mistake it for a romance novel.

This book was an okay book. This was a slow burn romance and I had a hard time getting into it because of it being slow. Overall it was an ok.

This book was not at all what I expected from the synopsis. I was expecting a rom-com meet cute book and it was sooo much more.
Despite Erin grieving the loss of her bestie Bonnie, she is trying to make a life and live as she told Bonnie she would. She looks at things and thinks WWBD - What would Bonnie do? and then goes from there. I liked how there was a book box in her neighborhood and it was utilized throughout the whole book as she and MMC (James from school) swapped books with questions, notations and quotes in the margins. This is how they got to know each other and I thought that was an awesome way to get to know someone. It's pretty clear after a while who MMC is and I was surprised that they didn't realize it sooner especially as they began bumping into each other more periodically especially since they had been such good friends and grew up together. I was shocked by what was revealed as to how their friendship ended and sad for both Erin and James as they were both hurt badly by it. I enjoyed watching Erin grow into her new career, realize Georgia was really a great friend and not just a "work friend and how the relationship with her sister and then her mom even got better. All in all I really enjoyed this book and if you like a good meet cute, you will like this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

WOW!!! This is not at all what I was expecting, in the BEST possible way!!! I was expecting a cute fun quick romance novel. What I got was sooo much more!
First the book swapping, as a librarian and book lover I'm 100% wishing this would happen to me in real life. But the story is so much deeper, about grief, forgiveness, life. How we too often view success as what we earn monetarily, instead of the quality of our lives and happiness. The friendships in this book, and the characters were just amazing. I'd like a sister like Georgia! This book had me feeling all of the feels, laughing and crying harder (in a good way) than I think I've cried reading any other book. This one spoke to me, and resonated. Such a wonderful debut novel.
Thanks so much to Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this ARC. Most of all, thank you to the author Tessa Bickers for writing such a touching book.

I absolutely loved this book. Everything about the characters, love story and overcoming difficult things spoke to me. The writing was done in a beautiful way and I found myself not only falling in love with the characters but recognizing pieces of myself in them.

Will absolutely recommend to everyone I know!

This book will have you in your feelings, laughing and crying! Tessa Bickers knocked it out of the park!

A simple book swap or something more? Erin and James have a complicated past, can they move past it or will they remain mortal enemies? You will be cheering for all of the various characters by the end!

Thank you to NetGalley, Tessa Bickers, and Graydon House for this ARC!

I read this a few months ago but delayed leaving this review because I’m loathe to be negative, especially when I think this debut novel shows promise for the author’s future work; but I appreciate honest reviews and also hope that the author and publisher are open to constructive feedback. (Some spoilery inclusions ahead.)

The more I thought about this book, the more I disliked it. It’s not a cute rom-com, despite the cover and obvious influence from works like “You’ve Got Mail.” (This kind of thing is apparently trending - I had just read another book with exchanges via Instagram DMs and one via exchanges notes in a home.) The description does reference tragedy and starting to live again; but there’s also 1:1 and family guilt, a toxic work environment, past bullying, family dysfunction, mental illness, and more. It’s a lot.

I’ve noticed that there’s been a trend for women’s literature/chick lit to have main characters that are just not very likable. Representation of various issues and/or conditions is great, but those can’t be what makes entire personalities; and we have to be able to see why friends and family want to spend time with someone, why romantic interests find them appealing enough to embrace them issues and all. Even if we have explanation for why someone obviously needs therapy, their acting immature and selfish isn’t excusable; and if it’s a turnoff for readers, it has to be for a romantic interest.

I very much liked the references to various classic novels, appreciated the use of exchanges between Erin and Bonnie, and and I could buy into the use of a little library for exchanges; but the extra-fantastical aspect of the latter happening in a large city by two people who knew each other in a small town was too far for me - it would have been better served staying in the town. Also the limited interactions via books and notes wasn’t enough to show us how strong feelings grew - this wasn’t lengthy letters between penpals or online exchanges over time that bring feelings of intimacy; and inclusion of past friendship only goes so far. The main romantic pair simply had to spend more time together to get to big love.

Summary: A promising debut novel, I just hope that future work has better workshopping and/or editing to bring more realistic, well-rounded characters and plot.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my (obviously) honest review.

Copy/pasted from Goodreads: This book was... fine. I had some glaring issues with it that I think left it somewhere around a 2.5-3/5 stars. I'm leaving it at a 3 to give this debut author the benefit of the doubt since they're new and will hopefully only improve over time. I want to start by saying that I enjoyed the mechanic of the relationship in this book - using a Little Free Library as a way to almost pen pal with a mysterious person about books you love seems lovely! The premise certainly hooked me. I also thought the side characters, especially the best friends, were quite good. As for my personal gripes, I'll keep it relatively short: chronology, character insights into books, and the absolutism of the characters themselves.

Chronology - this was mostly in the first third to half of the book, where rather than changing perspectives when the bookswaps changed hands, the author would show a character dropping off the books at the library then sometimes at least a day would pass before we would switch back to the other MC and we'd have to rewind to them picking up their books and then everything they go through as well. This was most apparent when they'd interact between the drop-off/pick-up, so we'd get both perspectives. It wasn't a massive problem, but mostly came across as poor editing; as if the author felt they needed to include certain thoughts and events before being able to switch perspectives. More chapters/perspective switches could've easily solved this problem, but instead I was periodically confused about our timelines for no real reason. Other people might not have an issue with this, but it lowkey frustrated me for about 100 pages.

Character insights into books - several books are passed back and forth between our main characters, and for the most part I enjoyed their writings in the margins. Sometimes though, I had to wonder if the author had read the books themself or if they had revisited them since being a teenager. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, for example, featured heavily as the main leads' favorite book - and honestly, this book was massively underutilized. They only looked back on it with nostalgia, and I wish it had been one of the stories they exchanged with each other to give them the opportunity to reflect on it as adults as well. To grow and become kinder on themselves and each other as they realize part of Perks is how much stuff happens to the teenagers that they have no control over. Instead the characters take very few lessons from any of the books they read except towards their budding relationship (I'm sorry, but how has James not heard of Beloved?)

Absolutism - James in particular was guilty of this one, but Erin had her moments. All I will say here is that far too many issues were resolved by a brief conversation where someone tells the MCs to consider something from another perspective and the MC goes "oh, shit, I've been an asshole about this the whole time! They're totally right!" A lot of the topics addressed were not black and white - they could've had nuanced takes OR acknowledged they were being judgey and rude as hell but stick to their guns. Instead they switched sides with little to no pushback, then moved on with their lives.

This romance between Erin & James was so cute! And it includes so many topics of discussion like bipolar disorder, bullying, cheating, death, etc. it was SUCH a good story that touched on many topics that are real.

Erin struggles with losing her best friend and doesn’t know how to cope with many things in her life. She can’t move on from the past and does some drastic things like quit her job… but when she starts writing notes in books with Mystery Man in a library, she starts to change her perspective on life.

James is unhappy with his life knowing his mom struggles with bipolar disorder and he hates his job. Once he starts writing notes in books with Margin Girl, he realizes he needs to chase his dream and finish writing the book he started writing a long time ago.

Erin and James find their way back to each other through a love of books. They discover many things about themselves as people and go after their dreams… and eventually find each other 💛

Erin’s sister, Georgia, was my favorite character. She is so real and honest with Erin and is an intense character, but her adoration of her sister is inspiring!

It was an easy read and I highly recommend reading it!!🥰

This was super cute! Going to be a great fall pick up weekend read. Would make the perfect book exchange book and one I would love to just gift to a friend or put in those little free libraries because of the theme of the book.

Under the premise of “a love letter to books and reading,” I was a hundred percent on board. When first reading the description and title, I thought I was in for another cute book people rom-com (think Emily Henry) that would leave me on a high note. Instead, I found myself with a book with a little bit of romance and a whole lot of trauma. Now, this isn’t to say that these aren’t topics I would read, however, the push to make it seem like a light-hearted romance felt inaccurate and misleading.

On a technical note, the story was extremely choppy and lacked clear transitions between scenes and chapters. It was extremely hard to keep up with the story and sometimes felt as if key information and background knowledge were just never given. I hope coming back to this book later on with a fresh pair of eyes and a clear understanding of what genre this book is (or in this instance, isn’t) will make me like it more on a second reading.

Thank you to both NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing this digital ARC.

Author Cesca Major called THE BOOK SWAP "a love letter to books and reading." There are no truer words. For all of my mildly mixed feelings about this debut contemporary romance, it truly is a love letter to books and reading.

THE BOOK SWAP is narrated by the story's two main characters, Erin and James. In an impulsive moment, Erin decides to declutter her space, gathering up items that she never even unpacked from her latest move. She fills a roller suitcase with books and walks to the little free library in her London neighborhood. It's only after returning home after a memorial for her best friend that Erin realizes what she did: drop off her beloved copy of To Kill a Mockingbird at the community library. It isn't just the loss of a favorite book that she has meticulously annotated, it's the postacrd from her best friend that was tucked inside. Heartbroken, Erin is stunned to find the book returned to the library a few days later--along with more notes in the margins and an invitation to "meet up" in another book.

So begins a unique correspondence between Erin and James. The one-time childhood friends haven't spoken in years—and, to be fair, they don't know they are speaking through this book exchange either—at least not at first. Through the books, notes in the margins, and questions left on the endpapers, Erin and James find a connection that leads each of them to understanding, healing, and a little bit of hope.

I loved so much about THE BOOK SWAP. My one complaint is a strong one, but not one that derailed my enjoyment. By the halfway point of the novel, Erin's self-centeredness began to wear and grate on my nerves. Everything was about her, without question or preamble. She was a constant victim. Thankfully, Erin's sister was there as a counterbalance and called her on her behavior.

In contrast, James is the quintessential Good Guy. Always giving, always forgiving, especially where Erin is concerned. As I read more and more about his life, his family, and his past, I started to think that he was way too good for Erin. I early shouted a cheer out loud when he finally--FINALLY!-- called her out.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and was satisfied by its conclusion. I'd like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

This was my first romance book that I have rad in a while. The title of it alone had me interested because I love to read. Tessa Bickers made me feel a lot of emotions while reading this. I felt both happy and said throughout this book. It made me realize that grief is okay to go through and that the best things come at the most unexpected time. The flourishing relationship between the main character Erin and her “Mystery Man” was so adorable. This book was a very heartwarming read. Me being the hopeless romantic that I am I was hoping to hear that Erin and James ended up having a bit more clarity and closer about their relationship. All in all this book was so cute. I highly recommend.

I received an e-ARC of this book. Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publushing.

That said, I struggled a lot, and I mean a lot to finished this book because I was sent a pdf and I normally read epub. I struggled to adjust the size of the page in my phone. It took me several sessions during almost 2 months. I don’t want that to affect the review of the book.

This book felt like it had a little bit of romance and a lot of trauma from their younger days.

I think Erin and James chemistry build reallyyyyy slow. For me personally it lacks romance. And I liked James personality but not Erins. She is selfish.

If you enjoy classic literature this book mentions a lot of that. I liked that. But other than that I felt happy until the end of the book. I loved the ending but boy! I did struggled to finish it.