Genre: Holiday romance

Synopsis: 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?

Content/Trigger Warnings: Misogyny

When I started The Holiday Swap, I was reminded of The Princess Switch (of which I unabashedly enjoy all the movies thus far), but that quickly changed. There were definitely elements of similarity - the holidays, a swap, a baker - but that’s about where those similarities ended.

I found the book to have a very slow start. I was struggling to get through fairly short chapters, and found the characters to be confusing. They’re twins with C names, and there wasn’t a lot of time to get to know them each separately before they swapped places. Not to mention everyone else is calling them by the other’s name. I just had a difficult time wrapping my mind around it.

Eventually, I can’t say when, I hit a point in the book where it all clicked and I began to understand better which helped me to enjoy the book. It’s definitely a feel good Christmas story without any truly deep or traumatic scenarios. It’s not a steamy romance, just one very much Hallmark-y without being quite as corny.

So if you’re hoping for a festive holiday romance, this one’s not too bad.