I love books about books, and The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers more than delivers on that front. After quitting her job, Erin Connolly decides she needs a fresh start and begins by decluttering her bedroom. Unfortunately, one of the items she accidentally gets rid of is her heavily annotated copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, when she drops off a bunch of books at a local community library. But then the book turns up back in the library a week later with new notes in the margins and an invitation to meet her new friend in Great Expectations.
Thus begins a conversation between Erin and her Mystery Man. As they share their favorite novels with each other, their friendship deepens and leads them both to hope for something more. Unbeknownst to them, however, they already know each other in real life, and their history is not good.
I enjoyed the juxtaposition between the relationship that develops through the book exchanges and the conflict that arises whenever the two meet in real life. The POV switches back and forth between Erin and James throughout the book, so we are privy to both sides as the story unfolds as to what happened in their past. Bickers does a great job with the second chance storyline, but the book encompasses a lot more than that as it also deals with grief, family relationships, and coming into your own as an adult.
There were a lot of great classic works highlighted in this book, and I was especially intrigued by the book the main characters had shared an interest in when they were in school together, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Somehow, I have never read it, and I am hoping to get to it this year.
All in all, I can’t recommend this book enough.
In So Many Words 