The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox (Review for Virtual Advent Tour)

Title: The Holiday Swap
Author: Maggie Knox
Publication: Putnam, hardcover, 2021
Genre: Contemporary romance

Sprite Writes invited me to share a tradition as part of her 2022 Virtual Advent Tour and one I always enjoy is reading some holiday-themed books as Christmas approaches. Last year I read The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer, about a romance writer of Christmas stories who is actually Jewish and is asked to come up with a Hanukah novel. This year, I thought I would review a light-hearted impersonation story.

She Came Back by Patricia Wentworth

Title: She Came Back (UK title The Traveller Returns)
Author: Patricia Wentworth
Publication: Coronet Books, paperback, originally published in 1948
Genre: Mystery
Setting: WWII Britain

Description: After serving in Egypt and Tunisia, widower Philip Jocelyn was wounded and sent back to England. Soon he will begin working at the War Office but in the meantime, he is recuperating at his home, Jocelyn’s Holt, and is on the verge of falling in love with Lyndall Armitage, a quasi-cousin.

The Great Impersonation by E. Philips Oppenheim - #1920Club

Title: The Great Impersonation
Author:  E. Phillips Oppenheim

Publication: Little, Brown & Co., 1920

Genre: Fiction/Suspense

Setting: 1913 East Africa, England

About the Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim (1866 – 1946) was a English novelist, acclaimed for his thrillers, of which this is the most renowned, selling over 1,000,000 copies in its first year and inspiring several movies over time.  Oppenheim worked in the leather industry for many years and, interestingly, met his wife in Easthampton, Massachusetts while traveling for work in 1892 (Easthampton, about a 90-minute drive from my home, is better known for textiles than leather).

The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin

Title: The American Heiress

Author:  Daisy Goodwin

Publication: St. Martin’s, paperback, 2010

Genre: Historical Fiction

The American Heiress is the ninth of twelve books that are part of my 2019 TBR Challenge, inspired by Adam at Roof Beam Reader, to prioritize some of my unread piles.  I have another one read but not yet reviewed and two more to read by December 31st.  Can she do it?

Plot: Cora Cash is the beautiful daughter of an affluent and ambitious mother, who wants English nobility for a son-in-law.  Following a glamorous (although marred by a fire) ball in Newport, Cora leaves behind her local admirers and heads to England with her mother and her shrewd black maid, Bertha.  Conveniently, Cora immediately encounters a very eligible bachelor, the Duke of Wareham, who is high on pedigree but low on cash, and unenthusiastically recognizes an opportunity when he sees one.  The reader, if not Cora, anticipates the obstacles in the way of turning a marriage of convenience into a relatively happy union (condescending servants, jilted lovers, shrewish mother-in-law, poor heating) but there is more to Cora than desire for status.   Cora slowly learns how to defend herself and begins to figure out what she needs to do to master her new position, act befitting a duchess, and cope with her moody husband in what turns out to be an entertaining novel. 

In Her Skin (Book Review and Giveaway)

Title: In Her Skin
Author: Kim Savage
Publication: Farrar Straus Giroux, April 2018 (hardcover, Kindle, audio)
Genre: YA

Plot: From childhood Jolene Chastain's mother taught her how to survive by scamming the public, pretending to be someone else to garner sympathy and extract cash. Jo can be whatever or whoever anyone wants her to be. When her mother takes up with a series of bad boyfriends, Jo's life deteriorates rapidly even as her con artist skills become very lucrative. But after her mother is killed, she takes off, ending up on Boston where she makes friends with another abused teen, Wolf, in the tent city where the homeless live.

Deception Island (Book Review)

Title: Deception Island
Author: Brynn Kelly
Publication: Harlequin, June 2016, Hardcover
Genre: Romantic Suspense

Plot: Rafe Angelito thought he was done with the demons from his past—until his son is kidnapped. Blackmailed into abducting an American heiress, the legionnaire soon finds himself trapped in paradise with a fiery, daring beauty who’s nothing he expects…and everything he desires. But when he uncovers her own dark secret, Rafe realizes he’s made a critical mistake—one that could cost him everything.

Playing body double for a spoiled socialite was supposed to be Holly Ryan’s ticket to freedom. But when she’s snatched off her yacht by a tall, dark and dangerous stranger, the not-quite-reformed con artist will make a desperate play to turn her captor from enemy to ally, by any means necessary. Yet as scorching days melt into sultry nights, Holly is drawn to the mysterious capitaine, with his unexpected sense of honor and his searing touch.

When they’re double-crossed, they’ll have to risk trusting each other in ways they never imagined…because in this deadly game of deception, it’s their lives—and hearts—on the line.

Audience: If you like Cherry Adair and Cindy Gerard, you will enjoy this book.

My thoughts: This was a fun, fast-paced read with a fairly likeable heroine who deserves a happy ending. The deserted island was too dangerous to be romantic but the setting makes the book a good beach book and the hero has the requisite dark past. Although the actual plot and characters are not very convincing, the action sweeps the reader along without much time to quibble. Perhaps giving the mercenary a conscience and an appealing child was meant to endow him with depth but he simply did not come across as realistic in any way, including his transition from trained killer who has “no firsthand experience” of love to someone who wants to settle down with “the people I love” and run a business – all in the span of about five days. Or maybe it’s just my bad luck that I only know men lacking the firsthand experience of love who never evolve like Rafe . . . at least, comfortingly, I have been spared the paid assassins!

As someone who likes impersonation stories, I was a little disappointed that that part of the story line was over before it began. I became more curious about the real Laura Hyland than about Holly’s eventual fate. Maybe Brynn Kelly will write Laura’s book next!

Source: I received this book from TLC Book Tours in return for an honest review. You can read what other bloggers thought about Deception Island by clicking here.