The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox
The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Warm, Endearing Christmas Romance
What you need to know about “The Holiday Swap”:
✔ Kissing-only Romance
✔ Dual Point of View: Cass & Charlie (no POVs from the male main characters)
✔ Twin-swap Romance
✔ Charlotte “Charlie” Goodwin, ambitious pastry chef, co-host of reality baking show: Sweet & Salty
✔ Cass Goodwin, Charlie’s identical twin sister, baker in her family’s bakery in the small town of Starlight Peak
✔ Christmas x baking romance
✔ Hallmark-like
✔ Complete Standalone
Charlie Goodwin is the co-host of Sweet and Salty, a reality baking show which is filming its Christmas episodes in Los Angeles. She has a few allies on the set but horrible co-host Austin is after her job. She has an accident on-set and hurts her head after which she loses her sense of smell and taste.
Cass Goodwin, Charlie’s identical twin sister, lives in their hometown of Starlight Peak. Starlight Peak is a few hours from L.A. but has snow-capped mountains and is a quaint and festive small town. Cass is a baker at her family’s bakery. She is trying to get her parents to retire and leave the bakery in her capable hands. The twins sent their parents on a whale watching trip as part of their scheme to get them into a retirement frame-of-mind.
As part of the town’s Christmas celebrations many families get one of the special Christmas Starlight Loaves from the bakery on Christmas Eve. Cass is stressed out. Add to that a boyfriend that she’s just made an ex just won’t clue in that they are broken up.
Charlie calls wanting to swap places so that Cass can take her place on the TV show as the twin with a working ability to taste and smell. Charlie wants to win a spot on a new baking show so everything depends on her performance. Even so, Cass doesn’t have to think about it for very long before saying yes.
They swap places with Charlie working at the bakery and Cass stumbling her way through working on a reality baking show.
Cass and Charlie each get a do-over in a way and a taste of another life. I loved this concept and wished for a twin of my own so I could experience it. Perhaps without a concussion and less stress.
You get two love stories in The Holiday Swap as Charlie shakes up Cass’ life in Starlight Peak and meets firefighter Jake. Cass also starts dating Miguel, the physician assistant who treated Charlie after she hit her head.
Things grow complicated with these fresh relationships as both Cass and Charlie are lying to these men about who they are.
During the swap, both Cass and Charlie gain some new perspective on their own lives and each other’s situations.
The Holiday Swap is a warm, endearing romance about finding yourself while you’re pretending to be someone else. It’s a wee bit silly and can be overly dramatic but it’s ultimately a nice bit of Christmas cheer that would make a good present for your Mom or Grandmother.
WRITING STYLE: 3/5
PLOT: 3/5
WORLD-BUILDING: 3/5
PACING: 3/5
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: 3/5
ROMANCE: 3/5
HEAT: 1/5
I received an e-ARC of this book, my opinions are 100% my own.
View all my reviews
Synopsis
A feel-good, holiday-themed romantic comedy about identical twins who switch lives in the days leading up to Christmas.
All they want for Christmas is a different life.
When chef Charlie Goodwin gets hit on the head on the L.A. set of her reality baking show, she loses a lot more than consciousness; she also loses her ability to taste and smell–both critical to her success as show judge. Meanwhile, Charlie’s identical twin, Cass, is frantically trying to hold her own life together back in their quaint mountain hometown while running the family’s bustling bakery and dealing with her ex, who won’t get the memo that they’re over.
With only days until Christmas, a desperate Charlie asks Cass to do something they haven’t done since they were kids: switch places. Looking for her own escape from reality, Cass agrees. But temporarily trading lives proves more complicated than they imagined, especially when rugged firefighter Jake Greenman and gorgeous physician assistant Miguel Rodriguez are thrown into the mix. Will the twins’ identity swap be a recipe for disaster, or does it have all the right ingredients for getting their lives back on track?
About Maggie Knox
Maggie Knox is the pen name for writing duo Karma Brown and Marissa Stapley. Brown is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author of five novels, including the #1 national bestseller Recipe for a Perfect Wife, as well as the non-fiction bestseller The 4% Fix: How one hour can change your life. Her writing has appeared in publications such as Self, Redbook, Today’s Parent, and Chatelaine. She lives just outside Toronto with her family and a labradoodle named Fred. Stapley is a former magazine editor and the internationally bestselling author of four novels: Mating for Life, Things to Do When It’s Raining, The Last Resort, and Lucky. Marissa’s journalism has appeared in magazines and newspapers across North America, including The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Elle, Today’s Parent, and Reader’s Digest. She lives in Toronto with her family and a precocious black cat named Oscar.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/maggieknoxbooks
Instagram: http://instagram.com/maggieknoxauthor
Thank you so much for reading my review of The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox. If you’d prefer a little steam in your Christmas romance, I suggest the romantic Christmas comedy Dashing Through The No.