Identical twins switch lives in the days leading up to Christmas.
Maggie Knox’s (pen name for writing team Karma Brown & Marissa Stapley) debut novel The Holiday Swap has all of the “ingredients” that I love in a cute rom-com story - twins, baking, and best of all, Christmas! Needless to say, this is a recipe for success, and I quite enjoyed kicking off the holiday season with this book.
For identical twin sisters Cass and Charlie, baking is in their blood. They grew up working in their family’s bakery, Woodburn Breads, in their quaint and picturesque mountainside town, Starlight Peak, and have both established a name for themselves in the culinary world. While Cass is carrying on the family tradition of working at Woodburn Breads, perfecting the classic recipes and trying out new ones, Charlie is one of the stars of a baking competition show, Sweet and Salty. Think the Great British Baking Show and you have Sweet and Salty in a nutshell.
When Charlie suffers a head injury on the set of Sweet and Salty ahead of what she hopes is a big promotion at work, she talks Cass into switching places with her until she can recover. Cass is all too willing after just having broken up with her long-term boyfriend who just doesn’t seem to get the hint that they are over. So Charlie takes over running things at Woodburn Breads, while Cass impersonates her sister on the set of Sweet and Salty. As you can imagine, this plan doesn’t go as smoothly as the twins expect it to! There are all of the typical “switching places” hijinks here, and after you add a couple of hot guys to the mix, things get especially complicated. This big switcheroo may end up being quite the headache for the twins, but it is a lot of fun for us readers!
The Holiday Swap is a sweet rom-com with Christmas sprinkles on top. The novel takes place in the days leading up to the Christmas, and while the holiday is always hanging around in the background, it is not the main focus of this story. I read this book during Thanksgiving week, which actually now seems like the perfect time to have read it since there’s not a whole lot of Christmas in this story. That means that The Holiday Swap was a great book to start with for my holiday reading this year!
The Holiday Swap is a lighthearted and heartwarming story about family, career, and of course, love. “Cute” is the word I keep coming back to when I think of this book. It is a lovely “feel-good” story that stays away from anything too dark or heavy, making it perfect for the holidays.. While I admittedly have never watched a Hallmark movie, I have seen this novel compared to them, so if you enjoy Hallmark Christmas movie binge sessions, you should also like this book.
So what could have made this novel even better? I wish that the twins had more distinguishing characteristics. To be honest, when they come together toward the end of the book, I had a difficult time keeping track of whose storyline was whose because the sisters were written so similarly.
Availability: Book; eBook in cloudLibrary Rating: **** Stars (I really liked it) Reviewer: Brooke, Public Relations Librarian
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DISCOVER MORE WITH NOVELIST APPEALS! The Holiday Swap
GENRE: Canadian Fiction; Contemporary Romances; Holiday Romances THEME: Love in Disguise (Can love blossom even though one or both of these characters is not who they seem?)
CHARACTER: Likeable; Well-Developed
TONE: Heartwarming; Upbeat
WRITING STYLE: Banter-Filled; Engaging
SUBJECT: Bakeries; Bakers; Baking; Family Relationships; Fire Fighters; Interpersonal Attraction; Men/Women Relations; Mistaken Identity; Physician's Assistants; Reality Television Programs; Twin Sisters
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