*I was given a copy of The Christmas Swap in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Penguin Random House and Talia Samuels for my copy of the book*

Synopsis: 

It’s the perfect Christmas love story.

Margot Murray is a newly single, high-flying businesswoman with no interest in a cutesy seasonal romance.

Ben Gibson is an unlucky-in-love sweetheart in need of a woman to bring home for the holidays.

Together, they make a pact: Margot gets a blissful week away from London in a picture-perfect manor, in exchange for posing as Ben’s girlfriend.

The story can only go one way. Margot is sure to fall in love for real.

And she does.

With Ben’s sister, Ellie.

What could possibly go wrong?

Review:

I was so excited to read The Christmas Swap, mostly because it’s the first LGTBQ+ festive romance I’ve come across (ARC-wise). I was even more excited because it’s sapphic and includes my favourite trope; fake dating. Sadly, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

The reason why I love fake dating so much is because of the constant fear of them being found out, but that just didn’t happen here. Not a single person questioned whether they were together and it didn’t even seem like Ben and Margot were that worried.

The funniest part was definitely Ellie thinking Margot is with Ben because of his money. This is obviously blown way out of proportion and Ellie’s instant hatred for Margot is very unwarranted, but it did make the book more entertaining.

I really didn’t like Margot. She was fine at first but then she became an “I’m not like the other girls, I like indie music” type of character. After she says this she lists three very popular artists who probably don’t classify as indie anymore. I’m being very nitpicky here, but I just hate this trope. Who cares if you like popular music? Literally no one.

Another thing I really didn’t like about her is that she makes a slip-up to Ellie about coming out to her grandparents and instead of saying “I’m bi” she says it was about being close with them. Why not just say you’re bi? You’re already lying about being straight. At least bi is slightly closer to the truth.

It pains me to say but the only character I was rooting for was Ben. He was the only genuine person and it sucks what Margot and Ellie did to him. Why Margot didn’t admit to him that she finds his sister attractive I don’t know. He was right to be annoyed with them.

The exploration of heavier themes seemed a little out of place at times, but it is an important topic to bring up. I would say this book comes with a trigger warning for emotional abuse, it’s mostly talked about rather than shown, but please do be aware of this.

I really liked the whole family and their dynamic was definitely interesting. They were probably the best part of the whole book, well Mitsi the dog was. She was crazy and I loved her.

Sadly, The Christmas Swap did not deliver on the festive vibes. They were pretty much nowhere to be seen. At the start of the book Margot and Ellie go to a Christmas market and around the middle, they go ice skating, but that’s about it. Every time a book has Christmas in the title but isn’t actually festive, I get a bit sad. I may be the problem, maybe I’m expecting too much.

Overall I’m giving The Christmas Swap a very fair three stars. I was going to give this a 2.5 but it gets an extra 0.5 for being sapphic.

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