“Magic happens at Christmas”
Meanwhile, Charlie must deal with a chain bakery moving into town, providing unwanted competition for the family bakery, and finish baking all of Cass’s finicky Starlight Loafs before the town’s holiday festival. Additionally, both twins get distracted by new love interests whilst pretending to be each other. The Holiday Swap is a feel-good holiday rom com filled with delicious recipes, drama, adventure, and true love. This book is a unique and contemporary take on the classic twins switching places trope that is ideally suited for adults; especially those who love movies like The Princess Switch, The Parent Trap, and It Takes Two as well as books like The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren, It Won’t be Christmas Without You by Beth Reekles, and All I Want for Christmas by Beth Garrod. I highly recommend reading this book in the winter when it is seasonally appropriate (as opposed to the summertime when I read it). The Holiday Swap deals with themes such as love and heartbreak, change versus tradition, identity, escapism, female roles, appearance versus reality, quest for power, overcoming fears, technology, and man against nature. After physically and emotionally walking in each others’ shoes, Charlie and Cass learn that you must be true to yourself, you need to deal with your own problems, and you should go after what you want (and what’s important) in life - no waiting or settling. I want to share a comical piece of advice that one of the side characters gives to Charlie because I really liked it: “Time heals all things. If time fails, try cake.”
Lastly, I found it odd and unrealistic that none of their close friends realized that the twins switched places (you would think that at least Cass’s ex-boyfriend, whom she has know for 10 years, would have noticed that he was talking to Charlie and not Cass). On the plus side, I found that The Holiday Swap was very engaging; I wanted to keep reading to find out if/ when the twins got caught in their lie! I also really appreciated how Cass stood up for her twin by questioning management on the inequality between Charlie’s image and her male co-host’s image on the show; while Charlie was unfairly given “sweet” dresses and heels to wear on the show, her co-host Austin got to look like a serious and confident chef while wearing his chef’s whites. I loved how The Holiday Swap included two holiday romance stories; Charlie and a handsome firefighter who frequents the family bakery as well as Cass and the gorgeous physician’s assistant who treated Charlie’s concussion. Again, I was very invested and wanted to keep reading to see what happens when the gentlemen inevitably find out that Charlie and Cass aren’t who they say they are. Lastly, I loved all of the Christmas elements included in this book such as snowy hikes, Christmas baking, festive television specials, holiday tunes, unexpected presents, mistletoe kisses, and family traditions. Overall, this book was a cute, fun, and heart-warming read that I would highly recommend adding to your holiday TBR list! I gave this book a rating of 9 out of 10. This article was written for "The Nerd Daily". Click here to view this article on "The Nerd Daily's" website or copy & paste the following URL into your web browser: https://thenerddaily.com/review-the-holiday-swap-by-maggie-knox/
Will you be picking up a copy of The Holiday Swap when it comes out on October 5th?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Go to Reviews from:
February 2024
|