I was not expecting to love this book the way I did. Romance books that are straightforward and advance the plot too quickly tend to not pull me in, as it's hard for me to suspend my disbelief. We all know there are tropes present like "love at first sight", "enemies to lovers", or "second chance romance", but I'm disinterested when I can spot the plot from a mile away. However, the characters in this book were so damn lovable, that I couldn't resist. It doesn't hurt that it's a queer romance. And while my demisexual ass demands a slow burn and very little physical intimacy in the form of sexual acts, the spice level for both of the main characters' storylines was the perfect amount. Enough spice to turn my face red and be glad I was reading on my e-reader, with enough real-life interactions and bonding moments to make me believe the sincerity of their connections.

It will come as no surprise that both characters get a happy ending with one of the first people they found themselves interacting with/being attracted to during their house swap. Or that they decide to make their house swap permanent to be with their newfound partners. Or that both main characters find themselves healing from previous traumas with the help of their partner. But I have never been happier for two predictable, happy endings for four characters that deserve nothing but happiness in their literary lives.

I'll end with some of my favorite quotes that spoke to me, attacked me personally, and made me rethink the trajectory of my life. (I'm only slightly exaggerating.)

 “You don’t hurt people by choosing yourself over them. They hurt themselves with what they think about it. It’s not your job to fold yourself up so small that your edges never bump into anyone else, babe. What kind of life is that?” (p. 251)
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“And that’s why it’s integrity, right?” Carys said. “Because you honor r the truth of your feelings above what the consequences were for speaking them. We’re taught that what matters most is what happens. Did we get what we wanted, did we win, did we achieve the most. But what use is getting what you wanted if you get it at the cost of never being real about your own feelings?”
That hit Greys hard.
She’d spent so much time thinking what mattered most was the outcome. Did she succeed? Did her parents approve? Was she pulling her weight in the family? But all those things were done in spite of her feelings, not in line with them. She had always worried that telling her sisters she didn’t want to do something would result in them being upset, but she never thought that doing the thing despite her own feelings was behaving as if her feelings didn’t matter.
But they did. They mattered a lot.
“Fuck.”
“Yeah. It’ll mess you up when you fully realize how little you’ve honored your own feelings, which are, like, your whole self.” (pp. 336-337)
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“You know, another way to say loser is someone who hasn’t bloomed yet,” Muriel said. “You’d never call a plant that had not yet put out its flower a loser.” (p. 406)
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“Oh, well. For being old, for being alone, for being ineffectual. The usual. But the point is that you were a surprise. You reminded me that there still were surprises that could happen to me. And that I still had something to offer. You can’t know how essential that is—to feel as though one still has something to offer. And I hope it isn’t too terribly patronizing to say that I’m very proud of you.” (p. 407)