The Holiday Swap Book Review

This December, I cuddled up with the romance novel "The Holiday Swap" by Maggie Knox. Read here to find out if it kept me warm or left me out in the cold.

The Holiday Swap by author duo Karma Brown and Marissa Stapley, which writes under the pen name Maggie Knox, piqued my interest because the plot was unique in terms of romance novels. I was curious to how the duo would write the voices of these twins and how their love interests would be portrayed.

The book follows twins Charlie and Cass, both impressive bakers but different in their other interests and personality traits. Charlie is a star co-host on hit reality baking show Sweet and Salty, while Cass is in the process of completely taking over her family's bakery. When Charlie suffers a head injury at work that causes her to lose her sense of taste and smell, thereby jeopardizing her ability to do her job and threatening her chances of getting a highly sought-after promotion, she convinces Cass to switch places with her until her senses return. Though reluctant at first, Cass ultimately agrees, setting the sisters on life-changing paths.

My Thoughts

This book did a great job of keeping Cass and Charlie unique despite their shared looks. Where Cass is shy, Charlie is extroverted, where Cass loves alcohol, Charlie doesn't, and they obviously have different taste in guys, considering who they end up with. They're so different, in fact, that one of the twins' love interests falls in love with one twin and has nothing but platonic feelings for the other. It felt authentic and kept me turning page after page until the end.

I also enjoyed the relationship portrayed between the twins and how the swap inevitably brings them closer, realizing that they're better together. And I loved Starlight Peak. Oh, how I wish it were a real place. It made me nostalgic for my own snowy small-town and the people who live there. "The Holiday Swap" is one of those books near and dear to my heart where the setting feels like a character itself.

Graphic made by Kasey Faur.

The only thing that tripped me up was the girls' cell phones. Throughout the swap, each girl kept her own phone, meaning Cass was still getting texts and calls from the people in her life back home while Charlie was getting messages from her friends and colleagues in L.A. This all made sense, until Jake, a firefighter in the twins' hometown of Starlight Peak referenced a message he sent Cass (who was really Charlie at the time) that Charlie received. But Jake knew Cass before Charlie switched places and had her number, so how was he sending messages to Charlie?

All in all, I give this charming romance a 4 out of 5, and would definitely recommend it to other readers looking for a light-hearted universe to get lost in for a while.

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