The Book Swap follows Erin and James, both struggling with their place in the world and the loss of their friend, are reacquainted through a shared love of literature. This book is about second chances, tackling life, and making choices for yourself.
This book is marketed as a contemporary romance. In some cases, as a romantic comedy. If you’re looking for that you should swap this book out for a different one. We love romance and I’d like to think we have a firm understanding of the genre – see our 2025 wrap up posts. We agree this book should be fiction – maybe romance is a sub-genre? Either way, it’s not the typical romance, which is fine, but before reading this understand you’re getting yourself (and your tissues) into way more than a fun, contemporary romance.
Aside from what we believe is a misrepresented genre…this book has well developed characters, great writing, and a fun concept. We love the secondary characters and appreciate how friendship, mental health, and grief are represented. We’ve rounded our review to 3 stars. Keep going if you want to hear more about what we thought!
Favorite Quotes
Sometimes redemption isn’t just about saying sorry, it’s about how you recover from the mistakes you make. Bettering yourself is the best kind of apology you can make.
Tessa Bickers, The Book Swap
Don’t waste your heart’s calling on saying yes to something, just because you know you can do it. The straightforward route isn’t always the best one.
Tessa Bickers, The Book Swap
WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!
 Alyssa |  Meagan | |
|---|---|---|
I’m dying to know what you’re thinking, because I am so conflicted. | ||
I am not conflicted. | ||
You didn’t like it? | ||
Not really. I think Kindle killed it for me… listing this as a romcom is false advertising. | ||
I never laughed. It even has content warnings at the beginning. | ||
Luckily I did read those first. So I knew what was coming. But there was no comedy. | ||
Definitely no comedy. What did you rate it? | ||
3 stars. Not the worst, but not sure I would have finished the book if we didn’t have this review planned. | ||
I thought it was a 3.25. It was a quick read. | ||
I usually rate higher than you. | ||
I feel like we’ve been doing that lately! I thought the writing was good, especially for a debut novel. Also, it handled grief well. | ||
Yes, you’re right. It did cover some tough topics. | ||
Bonnie, the dead friend was the main character for me. | ||
She really was. And the costumes at her remembrance were kinda cute. Maybe that was the comedy part? | ||
Right, the dead girl’s remembrance. But, how many times can you dress up as something starting with “B”? | ||
LOL. Yeah, I thought it was a just that one year, but then it happened again at the next one. | ||
Must just not have been our type of humor? | ||
But, I feel like we have a broad range for what’s funny! But, I guess. I cried… maybe three or four times. | ||
Same. I normally love a book that gets me that emotional, but I just kinda resented it in this one. The most emotional parts were always about something not related to the romance. | ||
Yeah it is NOT giving romance. What if you didn’t go in expecting a romcom? | ||
Hmmm. I’m not sure I would have liked it any better. | ||
Maybe this should have just been fiction and not romance. That’s what I’ll add it as in StoryGraph. | ||
Me too. OK, I need to think of the things I liked. | ||
The dual point of view? | ||
Ummm, I guess. | ||
Hahaha. I can sense the hesitance. | ||
LOL. It just wasn’t for me. What’d you like? | ||
A few things… the two points of view were so clear. They each had a distinct voice. | ||
I liked the call out to Harry Styles. You know that will always get me. | ||
I thought of you! | ||
I could picture what was happening. The little library, the walk to it, their apartments… I thought the level of detail was good. Not too much or too little. | ||
The side relationships were fantastic. They were even more important than the romance. | ||
Yes, I enjoyed Cassie and Joel. I loved that Joel took on the hard emotions with James and made them closer. | ||
The bromance was adorable. How they started running side-by-side after that. | ||
And Jame’s brother and nephew. I want to read that kids book. I love that James went on to write a kids book. | ||
I did like the side characters. | ||
The side plots were nice and heartwarming. Her tutoring Savannah and Georgia’s tough love. | ||
But it was a little too much plot. Necessary to the story, I guess. But still too much. And the main plot device was a no for me. It wasn’t feasible. Plus, it’s essentially the plot of You’ve Got Mail. | ||
There is no way that would have worked. Someone else would have taken the books. | ||
Right? I found the references to the back and forth messaging a little boring. Pages of book quotes and their reactions. | ||
I felt like I missed out on context because I haven’t read all the books mentioned. I did add a few of the classics to my TBR! | ||
It took me awhile to understand how the back and forth worked. There were always two books that could have been taken by others. I don’t know. Just so unrealistic! | ||
It was over the top. | ||
Too Far Fetched. Our alternate book title. | ||
Maybe this is more of a realistic romance than we’re used to reading? Maybe it’s us? | ||
Maybe we’re the problem? I still wouldn’t be a fan of Erin and James. | ||
They were very immature for 30-year-olds. Actually It surprised me when we found out they’re both around 31. I thought they were much younger. | ||
Agreed. And I didn’t feel like there was a whole lot of character development by the end. They went through all that, never resolved anything and suddenly in love. | ||
At least he called her out on being selfish? But she was in therapy and it didn’t seem to be working. | ||
Right? I kept expecting her to be diagnosed with depression because she couldn’t get out of bed for weeks at various times in her life. | ||
But no, she just didn’t want to deal with things, I guess? | ||
Yeah, that was odd. He tried to do better though. And the way he helped take care of his mom was admirable. | ||
True. I legit didn’t want them to end up together though. | ||
I was not rooting for them. | ||
I wanted the end to be them learning to just be friends again. And the twist would be the romance turned out to be Cassie and Joel. | ||
Same! | ||
My favorite part was the ending. Not them getting together, but for Eileen’s little library. It was cute how they painted it. | ||
Yes, I liked that. | ||
And the colors matched the book cover. It bothers me when the cover doesn’t match what’s in the book. | ||
That happened with the Cinnamon Bun Bookstore. | ||
LOL. This is the second book this month about little free libraries. I, of course, had to make a sticker… | ||
Oh my goodness, you’re so good! I love the sticker. The book smells good. Just so you know. | ||
I’m going to start thinking you have a fetish. | ||
I do. I walked into my newly set up book nook and it smells so good with the shelves full of books. | ||
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