My Rating: 3 stars
Synopsis from GR:
He needs an escape. She needs an adventure. So why not swap lives?
When Cassie and James find each other on a home swap website, it feels meant to be. City hotshot James needs a bolthole after a relationship goes sour and Cassie needs to leave the comfort of her little island to research her new book.
Soon, James is living in Cassie’s cute but ramshackle house off the coast of Maine, and Cassie’s living in James’s super smart London penthouse. It’s the perfect solution.
Except it turns out it’s difficult to switch homes without getting involved in each other’s lives. Cassie’s unimpressed when James’s ex turns up, and James is furious when he discovers that he’s going to have to help organise Cassie’s neighbour’s eightieth birthday party.
But as the insults fly, so do the sparks, and when the time finally comes to swap back, Cassie and James find they aren’t ready to give each other up – until a shocking discovery brings the pair crashing back to reality and forces them to decide what life they really want.
My Review:
3 things I liked of this book & 3 things I didn't.
Likes
1_the house-swap storyline: it got me curious right from the start since I'd never read anything similar and it didn't disappoint
2_Cassie's house and life in the island: it felt cozy, peaceful and so charming; I also really wanted to be the one hugging Cassie's lamas!
3_The easygoing and friendly relationship that Cassie and James managed to form around the middle of the book: it seemed they could talk about anything and be a support one for the other even at distance. But this good point leads me to the bad ones.
Dislikes
1_James: I wasn't overly fond of him at the beginning (he was such a jerk) and while after a while he started to get better I never really connected to him. He changed so much around 35-40% of the book and it was a bit out of the blue to me. One minute he's trying to cozy up Cassie and the next one he's genuinely kind to her and her friends. I'm not saying I didn't like the change, it just wasn't as gradually unfolded as I'd have liked.
2_Cassie & James love story: I really liked them as friends but at the end of the book I realized I didn't like them as much as a couple. I felt as I didn't get a real chance to like them like that. The L-word was quite sudden, given their circumstances. I'm going to quote the words of another reviewer (here's she is) since they describe quite well what I think: "here was a lot of telling, and very little feeling or showing".
3_(I'll be as unspoilerish as possible) the 'trick' used to bring them back together after they had a fall apart: it was predictable and annoying at a certain level.
Overall The House Swap is an enjoyable enough book but I felt it lacked something on the romance department, maybe it's just me.
At last, I'd like to thank the author and NetGalley for the chance to read this book for free in exchange for an honest opinion
