The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox

A feel-good, holiday-themed romantic comedy about identical twins who switch lives in the days leading up to Christmas--perfect for fans of Christina Lauren's In a Holidaze and Josie Silver's One Day in December.

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's 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?

Kindle Edition, 352 pages

Published - October 5, 2021

 by G.P. Putnam's Sons

3.5/5 stars

I am new to reading Christmas books.  I think because I usually find them along the lines of Hallmark movies which I don't usually watch.  But just after the world blew up I read a rom/com and now find myself reading that genre and loving it.  Being a fan of Maggie Knox (aka Karma Brown and Marissa Stapley) I jumped at the chance to read The Holiday Swap.

The theme is baking, be it the bake shop or tv show, I enjoying the atmosphere.  It had me itching to get in the kitchen and bake. Told from 2 POVS showed how similar these twins are and yet how different. Of course one must suspend your belief and remember that this is Christmas time. It was a fun read, a little slow at times but with a good feel good get ready for the holidays vibe.

The Holiday Swap is somewhat a coming of age story but for adults. It's about self discovery with some comical relief and it has a dog, one can't go wrong when there are pets.

My thanks to Putnam & Sons (viua Netgalley) for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown

" Recipe for a Perfect Wife is a bold, intoxicating, page-turner. Karma Brown has long been a favorite of mine and this book is proof she just keeps getting better and better. This is a thrilling, audacious story about women daring to take control."--Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones and the Six

When Alice Hale reluctantly leaves a promising career in publicity, following her husband to the New York suburbs, she is unaccustomed to filling her days alone in a big, empty house. However, she is determined to become a writer--and to work hard to build the kind of life her husband dreams of, complete with children.

At first, the old house seems to resent Alice as much as she resents it, but when she finds an old cookbook buried in a box in the basement, she becomes captivated by the cookbook's previous owner: 1950s housewife Nellie Murdoch. As Alice cooks her way through the past, she begins to settle into her new surroundings, even as her friends and family grow concerned that she has embraced them too fully: wearing vintage dresses and pearls like a 1950s housewife, making elaborate old-fashioned dishes like Baked Alaska, and drifting steadily away from her usual pursuits.

Alice justifies the changes merely as research for her novel...but when she discovers that Nellie left clues about her own life within the cookbook's pages--and in a mysterious series of unsent letters penned to Nellie's mother--she quickly realizes that the housewife's secrets may have been anything but harmless. As she uncovers a more sinister side to Nellie's marriage and with pressure mounting in her own relationship, Alice realizes that to protect herself she must harbor and hatch a few secrets of her own...

Paperback, 336 pages

Published December 31st, 2019

by Viking

3.5/5

I think this is the 3rd book I've read so far this year from the 1950s, I'm not complaining, in fact, I rather enjoy it.  Women are still the minority with the role of housewife front and center, pity the woman who thinks otherwise.

Dual time periods are still my favorite.  Getting a taste of 2 stories and seeing what connects them, going on the journey alongside and seeing if I can undercover clues along the way.  With this book, I enjoyed the format.  Chapters that belong to Nellie back in 1952 usually start with sayings/quotes that one must take as comical (even though sad).

"Don't expect your husband to make you happy while you are simply a passive agent.  Do your best to make him happy and you will find happiness yourself. - Blanche Ebbutt, Don'ts for Wives (1913)"

With old magazines and a cookbook connecting these two women, add in an unsettling house Recipes was an engaging story.  Even though I wasn't really a fan of the characters that doesn't mean the book didn't work.  This is my first time reading Karma Brown and cant wait to read more.

This book was part of my 2020 Reading Off My Shelf Challenge (book 14).