The main characters, James and Cassie, both displayed strength in their character and convictions but also emotional vulnerability that allowed both to become the best versions of themselves. They also proved that being kind and displaying constant actions of love best serve oneself in life. Cassie constantly did this in her openness with her neighbors, friends and her devotion to becoming a mother. She for a while despite her feelings was willing to walk away from.James to do so. James in his part became closer to his family and realized that being closed and emotionally distant doesn't serve him. When they came together, it was right.

James needs to leave London, his relationship has gone wrong and people he just made redundant are tracking him down. Cassie needs to leave the comforts of her island life to do research for her next novel. So intails a house swap between the two of them. It seems hard however, to swap houses and no get involved in each others lives. What starts of as arrogance and flying insults soon sparks into something more.

This book is totally inspired by the Holiday but certainly developed the story into something more than just a copy. The concept was really interesting and unique to the genre. Enemies to lovers is one of my favourite tropes and boy this didn't disappoint!.

Cassie and James were rounded and well thought out characters who had their own problems deal with. The side character was not so well developed and I would have loved to have them fleshed out a bit too.

I did have a few issues with the book regarding the pacing. The beginning of the book felt slow and the development of the relationship between the character felt fast despite most of it occuring during the second half of the book. Alongside this, the way ending was done felt predictable in places but also did not show a lot of character develop. It felt like a character felt one way one minute and had change their opinion in the next paragraph.

All in all I enjoyed reading it. It was lighthearted while also dealing with some serious topics as well. It kept a great tone throughout and had a great ending. I have enjoyed both books by Jo Lovett and I am looking forward to what she writes next.

After reading an intense book, I need something lighter and The House Swap fit those qualifications perfectly. This was a fun lighthearted story about two people on two different continents needing to swap houses for different reasons. James and Cassie are two totally different people, James, the serious one in London and Cassie the free-spirit in Maine. Both have different issues holding them back from a full and happy life and when they first switch houses at Cassie’s house in Maine they don’t get off to a good start.

James eschews entanglements and never wants a family. Cassie’s greatest desire is to be a mother. As they switch homes and continents, their personal lives intrude on each other. James’s stalker ex shows up and infuriates Cassie; James despite being a loner becomes entwined in Cassie’s small town friendships and their nosiness. James and Cassie begin texting and calling and a friendship blossoms.

I totally enjoyed the first two thirds of the book and could totally see where it was heading. Towards the latter third I felt the way James changed didn’t ring quite true, but just rolled with it. All in all it was a likable story and I gave it three stars. I thank NetGalley and the publisher, Bookouture, for the opportunity to read this book for my honest opinion.

Thank you @NetGalley and @bookouture for sending me this arc in exchange for an honest review 🥰

Synopsis:
Cassie is a big time writer with a tv contract and just been offered a contract to write more books for her series... small issue, her publicist wants her to move to London to research her book pitches.

James ends on bad terms with his gf and finds out she’s a complete stalker and he needs out of his London flat.

So the two of them end up on a house swapping app and the two decide to switch houses for a few months. James flies over to the states, Cassie flies to London. Despite the two not getting along at first, it would seem that they both have things they can learn from the other and a lot of issues with their past stopping them from doing what they really want.

Opinion:
I really really enjoyed this book! I loved the depth to each of the characters and how they developed when in the new living scenarios. It was lovely to see the relationship between them flourish. I particularly liked how the author targeted the topic of a single woman wanting to raise a baby and dealing with the trauma of miscarriage and divorce. Also the themes of grief of a parent and sibling was brought up well without making it too deep and emotional without only skimming the surface. One criticism is that it felt that I was reading 2 completely different stories - the one when they are house swapping and the one afterwards. The second half of the story felt like the author was trying to cram a lot of different situations in before the book ended. Overall a very easy and enjoyable read while touching on some difficult themes

The House Swap was absolutely lovely! As a fan of romance novels and of Beth O'Leary, I couldn't wait to snag a copy of this book. I thought the author did an amazing job of developing the characters and their relationship in a way that made us all fall in love with the couple. The House Swap was a really beautiful mix of deep personal growth, with community and character development. It was funny and a REAL romance between people in the late thirties (something that isn't common). I thought it was refreshing, especially since it was not about young professionals that are job deterministic centric. Would recommend!

The house swap was a light hearted easy read. A feel good book that everyone needs at some point in their life! It made a lovely change from my usual go to thriller genre.

Absolutely loved the characters! I love how different they were but how their personalities complimented each other. I found them to be very likeable characters.

The story line itself was fab and although you knew what would ‘happen’ it was a nice build up and a very cute heart warming love story. It left me smiling and feeling good :)

The setting for the story was perfect! It had the upbeat city and then an idyllic island. And the scene was set perfectly as you could really picture the island and London flat in your head.

Thank you NetGalley and bookouture for allowing me the opportunity to read this book.

Disclaimer: I got this book in exchange for an honest review!

The one-line review: disappointed.

This had an adorable premise! Cassie needs an adventure and James wants an escape. The way the synopsis of the book talked about Cassie and James I thought there would be more chemistry between the two.James was definitely my favorite! I liked seeing how he became softer throughout the story. I didn't like Cassie. it reminded me of that movie The Holiday, but it wasn't as good as the movie (in my opinion). I would have loved to see the enemies to lovers part of the book throughout the book rather than just ending it somewhere in the beginning of the story.

This was light-hearted, fun, and reminiscent of The Holiday movie with Cameron Diaz. I've never actually heard of anyone doing a house swap in real life, but I'm sure it's a thing. It's a great vacation read where you don't want something really heavy or intense so I would recommend it for that.

Unfortunately, there were just a few things I didn't enjoy. The book suffers from that thing that some authors do where they try to tell the story through entirely dialogue. And there is no descriptions of facial expressions, hints of personality, etc. and it's just dialogue bouncing back and forth including some conversations that really didn't need to happen and seemed very extraneous. There were also a lot of time jumps. A LOT of them.

Since James and Cassie were in each other's houses, I felt like the author really needed to spend more time investing in their relationship and showing how they slowly fall in love through notes and phone conversations. I felt like this didn't happen and was surprised when time would pass by and all the book would say is "they call each other every day now"... and then bam, they're both in love and I didn't actually feel convinced of that at all. I'm sure they're very good friends, but love? Eh.

Also, trigger warning for IVF. I actually tend to stay away from books with IVF because it's quite depressing so if that was in the description, I would not have requested this arc to review... Still, I powered through, although I do feel that women who actually struggle with fertility and are sensitive about this topic are going to be pretty annoyed at what happens in the last few chapters of the book. So I really didn't appreciate the book not having a trigger warning for this.

This was a cute enemies to lovers story and although I liked it, I didn’t love it-mainly because there was a little too much cheese factor for me. And James, one of the main characters, started out as such a brash, self-centered jerk and then magically turned into this caring, super friendly guy that everyone loved. It was just too much of an abrupt change in character for my liking. But the idea behind the story is cute.
James’ ex is stalking him so his friends talk him into doing a SwapBnB to get away for a while so she could move on and he wouldn’t have to deal with her. Cassie has had a bad break up but has had some great success in her career and needs a change of scenery to write her next book series, so she decides to swap as well. They chat online and decide to swap for 6 months. Of course they are very different types of people and as such, challenges exist in adapting to each other’s houses and lives so they are in constant communication and start to grow feelings for each other.
They finally meet in person and sparks fly. Overall, there was cute banter and some of the support characters were fun. I enjoyed that they didn’t just immediately fall in love -and I loved that Cassie had alpacas and chickens and lived a simple life and James was ultra modern. It was like country mouse and city mouse lol
Cute little story and though there were a few minor hiccups for me, I liked it overall.
Thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for this Arc in exchange for my review.

Slow paced but still fun. I agree with other reviewers that the first half of the book with the build up was Lovett’s finest moment. The witty, cute, banter made for a great slow burn!

but still incredibly fun.

I definitely enjoyed the beginning of this more than the end, but that's the case with most romances. The interactions and banter between James and Cassie were so funny, and I loved reading about them. I'm a fan of enemies-to-lovers, so their semi-hatred at the beginning had me hooked. The last 25% just got a bit too sweet for me, everything worked out too well.

But the real star of this book were the alpacas. Every time they showed up, i knew we were about to get an amazing scene. James slowly growing to care and worry about them was one of the best things I've ever read. Especially because he was some tough business man, and ended up crooning to an alpaca.

The concept of this was super unique, and it kept me hooked the entire time! It was a super fun read, and I'd definitely recommend it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Jo Lovett for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Likeable characters and an interesting plot. asie and James swap house for 6 months due to work and personal commitments, but find there is more to it than just swapping a location.

IVF, miscarriage, death and addiction all play a part in the story line and could upset some readers if they are not expecting the content.

A slow paced, easy read that was enjoyable and kept me engaged until the end.

This story got me wishing that Swap BnB really existed!

This story is about James and Cassie; Cassie lives on an island in the US, whilst James lives in London. However, Cassie is an author and because she has got a deal for six more books and needs to go to London. On the other hand, James needs to escape from London and his ex. Cassie puts her house on Swap BnB and James puts his apartment on Swap BnB as well, both of them love each other's homes and agree to swap. Cassie and James are so different from each other, so they have a few bumps along the way, but whilst doing so, they start to become fond of each other!

I am absolutely in love with this story! The story is so high in emotion, I enjoyed watching the characters grow and adapt to the environment; James becoming softer and all lovey-dovey with the animals and making friends with the neighbours, and Cassie making new adventures whilst in London! What I enjoyed most though is how well they complement each other, and how they accepted their past and helped each other move on!

I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

This book is just what you need for pure escapism. I absolutely loved all the characters in this story with the main ones being Cassie and James. Cassie lives on an Island in Maine USA and James lives in a 'top pad' in London.
They both decide now is the time to have a change of scenery (for different reasons)...hence the 'House Swap'
Jo writes with such clarity it is easy to visualise the scenes and captures you fully into the story.
This book will make you laugh and cry and will keep you turning the pages!
It's an absolute MUST read.

Well, this was fun! I would say that this was a very relaxing and easy read. I enjoyed the settings and the alpacas! I also liked the overall plot idea. However, I didn't like the pacing of it. It was kinda slow with not much happening for half of it and like you know that the couple is going to get together eventually because it's a romance but it's taking too long even for a slowburn and you're getting kinda impatient. The romance was nice. I felt it escalated a bit too quickly though. There were a lot of time skips and I get why they were needed since the book's a bit short but I felt like a lot more happenings could have been expanded on, like a lot of the Glasgow scenes. Also some characters felt like they were picked up and then dropped and never heard from again djdjsjshdhd. I was also kind of surprised that this wasn't steamy at all — but nothing wrong with that! I personally preferred it to be spicier but Cassie and James still had a lot of cute moments and I especially enjoyed the ending. Would recommend this as a fun, cutesy, summer read.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
This was quite a slow paced book. We did get to know the characters thoroughly, and they also became intimate friends first... but there was not much happening at all for big chunks of the story.
Cassie's baby issues were insightful and felt very real. James as a character though, he just wasn't my kind of guy I think.
I can see other readers appreciating this more, apologies.
2.5 stars

Cassie lives on an island off the coast of Maine, James lives in London, England. For independent reasons they both need to spend time in each other’s areas and they connect through an online service that facilitates house swaps. Cassie is warm, thoughtful, inviting, and friends with everyone. To protect himself from his past, James is reserved, a little thoughtless, and pretty distant to those around him. What starts as a few snarky texts and phone calls turns into nearly daily conversations, and their story proceeds from there. This is a really fun, mostly lighthearted enemies to lovers story. If you liked The Switch by Beth O’Leary, this will probably be right up your alley.

*I was provided an ARC from @netgalley and the publisher @bookouture for my honest review.

She needs to spend some time in London researching her book. He needs to get far away from London for a while to distance himself from some personal problems. They meet on a house sharing website and decide to swap homes for a while. Simple, right? The characters were in their late 30's and set in their ways but there was a lot of personal growth during the swap and they each became better versions of themselves. I don't want to spoil this sweet story but look for it's publication on April 19th, 2021. Well worth the read.

I've just finished this book and I'm in love! The characters of Cassie and James drew me in as I followed their story of swapping houses on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Their relationship was frustrating at times but heartwarming as it progressed. A great story of friendship, alpacas and love!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read this book.

Overall I’d give this book 2.5 out of 5 stars. I found it very slow and lacking chemistry. The two main characters swap houses and start talking. They’re polar opposites yet we are led to believe that after 7 months of barley talking they fall in love? They barely know each other!

I kept reading thinking the story would pick up, it it doesn’t! Then James does a huge 180, it’s very unbelievable. There was hardly any romance for being called a “romance” and there was no depth. Entirely predictable and frustrating.