Review by Booklist Review
Similar to the movie Holiday, Eleanor and Tatum swap homes to escape their troublesome lives in this fun story. Eleanor has lost her job as a Broadway press agent after telling her colleague/lover's new fiancée that he'd been cheating on her, so she needs to get away. Tatum wants to leave her small town before her father's surprise son from an affair decades ago comes to visit. She brings her crush, June, with her to New York to stay in Eleanor's condo. They discover that the condo is dirty and cluttered, but they fix it up, and get to know the former starlet down the hall. They fall in love as they start envisioning a new life in the city. Meanwhile, Eleanor falls in love with Tatum's sibling, Carson, and attends the family gatherings with the newly arrived half-brother. She finds that she loves being part of the family. The warm characters and back-and-forth between the two couples offer appealing and quickly moving romance story lines and readers will be cheering for both couples. Small-town romance fans will especially enjoy Morrissey's latest (That Summer Feeling, 2023).
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Morrissey (That Summer Feeling) sets the sweetness level high in this two-part queer romance. Tatum Ward, diner waitress in the small town of Trove Hills, Ill., nurses her crush on patron June Lightbell while dealing with family chaos caused by the recent discovery that she has a half-brother her father wants to introduce to her and her siblings. When June's girlfriend breaks up with her just before June's big trip to New York to promote her perfume business, Tatum seizes the opportunity to escape by stepping in as travel companion and offering a weeklong home swap to Broadway publicist Eleanor Chapman, one of June's clients. Eleanor is happy to make her own escape from relationship and work drama. She soon finds herself entertaining a fling with Tatum's wild artist sibling, Carson, who's nonbinary, and pulled into all the family events Tatum's missing. June and Tatum, meanwhile, strike up a friendship with a fading movie star in Eleanor's building who encourages them to try a relationship. Both settings feel a bit stylized, with Morrissey amping up the small-town charm and big city hubbub. The two endearing relationships get equal space to grow, while family and friends add heart to the plot. Readers looking for a Hallmark aesthetic but with queer characters will find it here. (Apr.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
A house swap leads to dual love stories in this queer contemporary romance. Small-town waitress Tatum Ward has no interest in staying home to meet the half-brother whose existence recently revealed her father's infidelity, so she jumps at the chance to temporarily swap houses with New Yorker Eleanor Chapman, who is herself trying to escape a romantic and career implosion. In Tatum's Midwestern town, Eleanor's impulsive hookup with one of Tatum's siblings, the nonbinary Carson, leads to emotional entanglement. Meanwhile in NYC, an encouraging older neighbor pushes Tatum to act on her long-standing crush on friend June. Tatum and Eleanor have both experienced family-related traumas that make it hard for them to accept love as adults, but the novel remains fairly lighthearted, sprinkled with classic rom-com elements like aspirational careers (Broadway press agent, mural artist-slash-furniture creator, perfumer) and luxurious homes. Nancy Meyers didn't invent the idea of swapping houses and finding love, but enough specific details carry over to make this novel a clear pastiche of The Holiday. VERDICT Fans of Roan Parrish's The Holiday Trap will enjoy Morrissey's (That Summer Feeling) latest.--Katelyn Browne
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