Shannon's Reviews > The Book Swap: The romance novel about book lovers and for book lovers - uplifting, moving, and full of love

3.5 rounded down

A beautifully moving second chance friends to lovers debut British romance for book lovers of all ages.

Erin is grieving the death of her friend and feeling lost and alone after a bad breakup and James is dealing with his mother's unstable bipolar condition. Erin rashly decides to 'Marie Condo' her life and drops off a bunch of her books in a little free library only to later regret it. When she returns she finds someone has made notes in her copy of To kill a mockingbird and she decides to respond.

What follows is a series of anonymous exchanges between two supposed strangers as they form their own book club sharing bookish insights and asking one another important life questions. As Erin and James become more and more emotionally attached to one another, James is the first to realize he might know who the mystery women he's been writing actually is.

This was a tender story about forgiving oneself, moving on from the past and rekindling a joy for books and writing. Perfect for fans of authors like Poppy Alexander or Melissa Ferguson's Meet me in the margins and was good on audio too. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

Steam level: kissing only
CW: death of a friend from cancer, parent with a bipolar condition