The Book Swap | Tessa Bickers
REVIEWED BY LINDA HILL
With a difficult past between them, Erin and James don’t realise that the person they are conversing with through notes left in the margins of books from a community book swap is someone they know. As the truth is gradually revealed, will old hurts be healed or made worse?
The Book Swap: book review & synopsis
The Book Swap was not what I expected from the cover. Assuming that this would be a rom-com with a predictable happy ever after ending I was completely taken aback by Tessa Bickers’ mature, insightful and affecting exploration of grief and the power of forgiveness.
The story is sensitively written, deeply moving and yet still an accessible, uplifting and enormously enjoyable read. There’s humour to be found, but even better is the deep emotion in the book. It’s a tale that stays with the reader long after it is finished.
The premise of the book swap library is a total joy for any reader. We’re reminded of classic books, of quotations we’ve forgotten and we find new titles to explore. As a result, the story rekindles our own memories at the same time that Erin and James remember their own. It’s totally glorious.
The structure of the story around the messages written in book margins, and that begins and ends with Bonnie’s memorials, makes it self-contained and enormously satisfying to read. Be warned though. Only the hardest-hearted reader will escape unscathed, unchanged and without needing tissues!
Wonderful, authentic characters
Erin and James are fabulous characters. Presented through the prism of Bonnie, they shimmer with authenticity. Each is stubborn, self-centred and fixed in their opinions and lifestyles. Equally, each of them has the power to love, to understand themselves and others, and to give the reader the power to do the same. This is a fantastic narrative that teaches us what is important in real life even as we are totally absorbed in Erin and James’s fictional lives. It’s wonderful.
The presentation of mental health, of family dynamics, blame, guilt and forgiveness is perfect. Not every issue is ideally resolved so that The Book Swap resonates with truth and relatability. I loved the concept that what is the ideal life for one person isn’t necessarily perfect for another. We’re shown how projecting our own preferences onto others is neither helpful nor necessary.
The Book Swap is a glorious read. With both fiction and romance at its heart, it entertains, educates and leaves readers feeling that they are seen, understood and cared about. Totally fabulous!
The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers is out now (Hodder & Stoughton, HB, £16.99) and available from Amazon.
Read more fiction reviews by Linda Hill including Scandalous Women by Gill Paul, Island In The Sun by Katie Fforde, The Trap by Ava Glass, Look In The Mirror by Catherine Steadman, I Died On a Tuesday by Jane Corry and Redemption by Jack Jordan.
