Since I loved J.E. Rowney's previous book Other People's Lives I was really looking forward to her new one. But somehow it didn't catch me as much as I wanted it to.
The premise however was perfect: a woman, recently separated from her husband, moves in with her mum and spends her time with reading. She comes across a note in book she received in a book swap that asks for help. She can't help but doing something and starts investigating.
The book sometimes is a mystery but I would not count it as a thriller.
Thank you #NetGalley #BooksGoSocial for this ARC
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The Book Swap By J.E. Rowney

Separated from her husband Laura returns home to stay with her mum. She is an avid reader and is part of a book swap community online. She receives a book through the community and discovers a note with “HELP ME” written in it.



😊What i liked :

✔ Thriller/Light mystery
✔ It’s got an interesting plot.
✔ It’s a short read. Light and fast.
✔ It has a few moments where suspense is at a high.

🤔What could have been better -

✔I wish there were twists and turns in the story.
✔ I felt the story pick up slightly in the second half and then quickly went flat.


📚Who Should read :

👶 Beginner's
🧑‍✈️Thriller Lovers


📈My Rating : 3/5


hank You J.E. Rowney and NetGalley for a copy.

Ok, a quick and short read. Laura is part of an online/app book swap club. She receives a book from a stranger with a note asking for help. The sender doesn't know who wrote it either so both set off to investigate. Characterizations could be better , plot also not great and based on a couple of suspicions.
Too much waffle about Laura's (poor) state of mind at the beginning and then acting out of character by setting off across the country based on a note found in a second hand book ....
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC .

An enjoyable book, the main character is an avid reader and one day through a book exchange she finds a note in a book saying Help Me so her mission begins to find out who, where and why…

Usually, what catches my attention in a book is the cover. This wasn't the case this time. Instead, the concept of The Book Swap by JE Rowney caught my attention readily. It isn't just about books and reading, but rather an entire book about books, reading, and swapping with other people.

After a breakup, Laura moves to live with her mom. Leaving everything behind, she spent her days reading trying to escape reality. Then comes the day she receives a novel from a book swap group containing a call for help note. That's when our story begins.

This isn't a thriller -no plot twists- but a good mystery that kept me interested as we follow Laura in her journey trying to find and help the stranger behind that note.

One of my favorite annotations is when Laura talked about how people change. She said: ''People change, and sometimes people stay the same, but we realize we never really knew them in the first place.''

There is one thing I didn't like when reading the story though, and it's the fact that Laura's in her 30s, and yet, her personality seemed like one of a teenager. I'm not saying I didn't like the book but Laura's personality felt like an overly sensitive and emotional teenager's instead of an all-grown-up adult's.

Overall, that was a fast interesting enjoyable read and I give it 3.5 on 5.

Wow! I absolutely love this from page one, kept me hooked right up till the end, I warn you, this is a read in one sitting thriller.

Laura has been separated from her husband, Jamie, for a few months, living with her mother, Catharine, while she gets back on her feet. An avid reader, she one day receives a thriller from a book exchange group on Facebook, and she is surprised to find a note inserted between it's pages. But the message is even more surprising: "Help me". So she decides she has to find and help whoever wrote that note.
This was a super short quick read, but there was no tension. The writing felt clumsy, like the story was floating, with little to no descriptions. The plot was thin and empty, and very redundant. However, I had to keep reading because I wanted to know how it ended. I had a few theories, one of them was almost on the nose. I can't say I didn't like it, but I can't say that I did either. I did love the friendship between Carley and Laura.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I couldn't read this book whole because of some technical problem in my Kindle but starting 30 percent was intriguing and engaging. what i liked most was the concept of book.
Characters were also relatable, specially for the people who like reading YA thrillers.

Gonna get the full book from bookstore.

Laura just separated from her husband recently. She lived with her mother. Over the months since she had been part of the Book Swap group, Laura had received many such parcels of anonymous gift exchanges and random novels from kind strangers. Then, came a parcel containing a book. Inside the book was a scrap of paper, displaying the scrawled note, Help Me. Together with Carley, who she had got the book, followed the trail to find the person who had written the note.

I don't know. It seems too plain for a cozy mystery. I don't want to question Laura for making the assumption blindly but thanks anyway to @netgalley and BooksGoSocial for providing an earc.

My personal rating : 2 ⭐️

Where to begin…. Laura is an unemployed, soon-to-be-divorced woman, living in her childhood home with her mother, moping around and being overall depressed. She has no confidence, even to talk on the phone, and has no social life.

Then, Laura receives a book in the mail from someone she’s never met, from an online book review forum. There’s a note inside the book that hints at someone being in trouble. All of a sudden, she gets it in her head to recruit the sender of the book to become a junior detective with her to try and figure out who’s in trouble and how to save them, all the while still complaining how frightened and scared she is. She and her new partner in crime travel to the city where the book was purchased, find the person who donated it and, magically becoming the missing member of Charlie’s Angels with a new-found zest for danger and adrenaline rushes, takes on the bad guys and saves the damsel in distress.

Oh, and she and her soon-to-be ex-husband bond again, after being separated for months without speaking.

This book was a sloooooooow burn, for sure - the first 3/4 or so was just being in the head of a fearful, sheltered, uncertain woman who couldn’t carry a conversation with a stranger to save her life, but then switched spontaneously to someone who’s taking on all the evils of the world! The progression of the events was wholly unbelievable and a little cliche, but I’m a sucker for an HEA, and that’s the reason I finished the book instead of DNFing it halfway through.

This was a wonderful surprise , The author was new to me, I loved the pace of the book and cant wait to read more by this autor.

After Laura’s husband decides they should end their marriage, she moves in with her mother and other than joining an online book swap, Laura has become a tea drinking, book reading recluse. After receiving a book in the mail from a book swap member, Laura discovers a note tucked into the book that says Help Me. Now with the help of her new book swap friend she has pushed out of her comfort zone to try and help someone. I found this to be a quick, fun mystery!

Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for giving me a chance to read this ARC.

You find a note in a book in second hand bookshop. Saying "Help Me"?......what would you do.

Fast paced ,enjoyable read .4✨️✨️✨️✨️

Really enjoyed this story!
A quick and easy read, kept me guessing!
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to read!

This was a great book. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece! I read it in 12 hours, which is a lot for me to do! It had everything and more laid out in the novel! I sure hope she writes more! I am totally hooked!

This book unfortunately wasn’t for me, nothing much went on in this for a good while.. I found it very slow. It was a quick read, but in my opinion it’s more suited for young adults. I have other books by this author on my kindle so hopefully those would be more suited to me.
Thank you netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a honest review.

Firstly a big Thankyou to #NetGalley for this copy to read, very much appreciated.
I really enjoyed this one! There was good suspense and I particularly liked the development of the characters and how they interacted. The only reason for 4 stars over 5 is the climax felt a little rushed, and some lose ends weren’t tired up very well IMO. I would have liked to see more of the characters in their new lives towards the end (I don’t want to spoil for you so I’ll leave it there).
Overall I enjoyed and plan to read more from this author, it was a nice light read with a bit of suspense to keep the story going.

What would you do if someone sent you a book with a note inside, asking for help?
For Laura, the note gives her purpose amidst a huge shift in her personal life - she has to find the author of the note and get them the help they need.

For me, this fell a bit flat. The "thriller" aspects didn't really start until almost the end of the book and it felt like suspenseful elements were added in awkward places just to give more of a thriller feel. I also just kept cringing at the girls' actions.

Thank you BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for this eArc.

Ignore the cover. It is so misleading! I think this book was a cozy trying to be a thriller and anyone looking at the cover is going to think they are in for a solid thriller and be disappointed. This book was not that! Instead, this story does a very good job in that very small area between the two. A woman suffering from depression on the cusp of an unexpected divorce receives a book in the mail from a social media reading group. (Hey! I belong to a few of those!) Inside is a mysterious note. And, like anyone trying to avoid the things they must face, she begins to investigate. Had this been a thriller, things would have gotten quite a bit darker on the path Laura followed. Instead there was an interesting mystery for her to solve as she comes to find peace with herself. I thought the connection with internet book groups was also a fun little addition.

The plot of this story is interesting and it has a little bit of a twist though not one that was hard to figure out. The main character, Laura, is well written and goes through a dynamic change as you make your way through the book. I voluntarily reviewed an advance readers copy of this book.