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A review by keysersuze
The Christmas Swap by Sandy Barker
4.0
Three women who are lifelong best friends but live on different continents, collectively come to the same conclusion – they need a change for Christmas!
Lucy, who lives in Oxfordshire, UK, Chloe from Melbourne, Australia and Jules from Boulder, CO USA, decide to swap Christmases for one year and spend it with each other’s’ loved ones. On first read, that sounds like a far-fetched premise. Surely someone would kick up a fuss at not seeing their daughter over Christmas, especially if they usually spend it together? Barker handles it well though, and these niggles and issues are discussed and ironed out in a realistic and relatable way. They’ve all been friends for so long that their families know them, at least enough to invite them to stay.
Soon they are winging their way to their destinations, anticipating prawns for Christmas dinner or a snowstorm, or Christmas cake and sherry. This is something that is also handled really well – three different sets of traditions, both from a geographical culture and a personal one – each of the women have different experiences based on the country they live in. Chloe, for instance, sleeps in the UK but calls the duvet her doona in Oxford – totally normal inner monologue as that what she’s known it as.
That’s the other thing that is really genuine – a couple of nice communication failures or misses, based on the words used. Some of them are quite subtle, like the levels of swearing acceptable across the three countries is totally different. I thought that was really well observed, and clearly something the author has experienced herself.
Predictably, but actually quite cosily handled, all three women immediately meet hunky single guys who sweep them off their feet in seconds, as soon as they land. This is definitely not a contemporary fiction, warts and all, feet on the ground tale. It is cute, and the relationships were tackled differently enough that it wasn’t repetitive.
Just when I thought I had a complaint or a niggle, it would be addressed. For example, all of this cool stuff is happening and they’re not talking to each other about it? Boom – someone would think about calling the others, and ring them. Sometimes timezones got in the way, or just other plans, but the conversations they had were interesting and progressed the story too.
I also liked that the women were different personalities and had characters all of their own. There seemed to be a great deal of backstory and history with them which rang true, and that was balanced with being different enough to be able to tell them apart, but also it was easy to see why they had remained friends after nearly two decades. Sandy Barker thanks her own girl squad in the acknowledgements, and I think that’s why she’s able to write so well about that relationship set-up – because she knows all about it herself.
While this isn’t a book I’ll be rushing to re-read, I really enjoyed it and was surprised to find myself wondering what happened to the characters after they story had finished – I want to know where they go next! Maybe there’ll be a sequel…
Thanks as always to Netgalley and One More Chapter for the DRC.
Lucy, who lives in Oxfordshire, UK, Chloe from Melbourne, Australia and Jules from Boulder, CO USA, decide to swap Christmases for one year and spend it with each other’s’ loved ones. On first read, that sounds like a far-fetched premise. Surely someone would kick up a fuss at not seeing their daughter over Christmas, especially if they usually spend it together? Barker handles it well though, and these niggles and issues are discussed and ironed out in a realistic and relatable way. They’ve all been friends for so long that their families know them, at least enough to invite them to stay.
Soon they are winging their way to their destinations, anticipating prawns for Christmas dinner or a snowstorm, or Christmas cake and sherry. This is something that is also handled really well – three different sets of traditions, both from a geographical culture and a personal one – each of the women have different experiences based on the country they live in. Chloe, for instance, sleeps in the UK but calls the duvet her doona in Oxford – totally normal inner monologue as that what she’s known it as.
That’s the other thing that is really genuine – a couple of nice communication failures or misses, based on the words used. Some of them are quite subtle, like the levels of swearing acceptable across the three countries is totally different. I thought that was really well observed, and clearly something the author has experienced herself.
Predictably, but actually quite cosily handled, all three women immediately meet hunky single guys who sweep them off their feet in seconds, as soon as they land. This is definitely not a contemporary fiction, warts and all, feet on the ground tale. It is cute, and the relationships were tackled differently enough that it wasn’t repetitive.
Just when I thought I had a complaint or a niggle, it would be addressed. For example, all of this cool stuff is happening and they’re not talking to each other about it? Boom – someone would think about calling the others, and ring them. Sometimes timezones got in the way, or just other plans, but the conversations they had were interesting and progressed the story too.
I also liked that the women were different personalities and had characters all of their own. There seemed to be a great deal of backstory and history with them which rang true, and that was balanced with being different enough to be able to tell them apart, but also it was easy to see why they had remained friends after nearly two decades. Sandy Barker thanks her own girl squad in the acknowledgements, and I think that’s why she’s able to write so well about that relationship set-up – because she knows all about it herself.
While this isn’t a book I’ll be rushing to re-read, I really enjoyed it and was surprised to find myself wondering what happened to the characters after they story had finished – I want to know where they go next! Maybe there’ll be a sequel…
Thanks as always to Netgalley and One More Chapter for the DRC.