For fans of The Holiday comes a heartwarming Christmas house-swap rom-com debut in which finding yourself and finding love come hand in hand.

Bee Tyler needs a break. In the bustling San Francisco tech community, no one ever seems to stand still—especially her perfect sister and business partner, Beth. So when her best friend suggests a getaway on the wildly popular house-swap app, Vacate, Bee decides a countryside retreat might be exactly what she needs.

Clover Mills has had a year. Between losing her mother and making the complicated decision to leave her fiancé, sticking around the idyllic Christmas obsessed town of Salem, Ohio, just doesn’t feel right. So when she hears about Vacate, she jumps at the chance to spend the holidays in the unfamiliar city of San Francisco.

Soon enough, Bee is living in Clover’s cozy Salem cottage, and Clover is living in Bee’s sleek San Francisco apartment. As Clover can’t seem to stop running into Bee’s frustratingly gorgeous sister, Beth, and Bee finds herself spending more and more time with Clover’s ultra charming ex-fiancé, Knox, the two women realize that this Christmas they may find just what they were looking for and more…

“The Holiday” is one movie that I always watch over the holiday season. It’s one of those “not exactly a Christmas movie, but everyone calls it a Christmas movie” movies that I love. When I read the synopsis of this book, I immediately jumped at a chance to read it, and while I felt it was over too quickly and could have benefitted from a little something more, I still really enjoyed it.

The story follows two women – Bee Tyler and Clover Mills – as they embark on a house-swap adventure that leads them to unexpected connections and new beginnings. Bee lives in San Francisco and works in app development with her twin sister. Bee has been feeling incredibly burned out with her job, and her overachiever sister is on her last nerve, so Bee decides at the last minute to do a house swap. She needs a break – if only to save her mental health.

When Clover is notified that someone wants to house-swap with her, she is initially hesitant. When she signed up for the service, things were going well in her life. Her mother was still alive, her father was healthy, and she was happily engaged. But now that her mom is dead, her engagement is off, and her dad is recovering from a heart attack, she doesn’t know if now is the right time. With a little coaxing from her father, Clover decides to leave her farm in Ohio and spend a couple of weeks in San Francisco. Maybe she can reconnect with a friend from high school who awakened something in her that she’s never felt since.

As it turns out, the swap is exactly what both women need – even if, while away, they both find themselves falling for unexpected people. What will happen with their new love interests once their vacation ends?

While the novel’s concept isn’t exactly original (if you’ve seen “The Holiday”), and it all plays out exactly as any romance lover would expect, I still enjoyed it. The characters are beautifully flawed and entirely relatable. Bee is a strong and independent woman, but she also struggles with vulnerability and letting others in. Clover is grieving the loss of her mother and facing the uncertainty of a new chapter in her life, which also makes her easy to identify with. The side characters – from Bee’s sister to Clover’s father and her ex-fiancee – are all interesting and add a fun dynamic and a bit more drama to the story. It is helpful that the book is told from the alternating points of view of Bee and Clover so we get the whole picture.

I think my only complaint with this one is it felt rushed in some ways. I also felt like Clover’s story had more meat to it than Bee’s did. I wanted a bit more excitement for Bee. I almost felt as though her story was only there because it was needed in order for the plot to work. It was almost like the author had a better grasp on who Clover was, but not so much with Bee.

Overall, this book was a fun and quick read, even if it held few surprises. If you’re a fan of “The Holiday,” I would definitely recommend this one. I loved the characters, even though I did want a bit more from Bee. This is a quick and light read you can easily knock out in a day while lounging by the fire with a nice cup of coffee.