The House Swap

By: Jo Lovett

Narrated by: Fiona McNeill, Frazer Blaxland

Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

An utterly heartwarming love story that will make you laugh and cry, fans of The Flatshare, The Hating Game and movies like The Holiday will fall head over heels for The House Swap.

When Cassie and James find each other on a home swap website, it feels meant to be. City hotshot James needs a bolthole after a relationship goes sour, and Cassie needs to leave the comfort of her little island to research her new book. Soon, James is living in Cassie’s cute but ramshackle beachside cottage, and Cassie’s living in James’ London apartment. It’s the perfect solution. Except James didn’t imagine he’d be sharing his home with 11 chickens and three alpacas. And Cassie is less than impressed when James’ ex-girlfriend turns up at his door, demanding to know where he’s gone. The more Cassie and James talk, the more the tension between them mounts. But as the insults fly so do the sparks, and when the time finally comes to swap back, Cassie and James find they aren’t quite ready to give each other up.

©2021 Jo Lovett (P)2021 W F Howes

Entertaining story with spotty narration

Very enjoyable chick lit story with likeable characters. Exactly what I was in the mood for when I read it.

A word specifically on the narration: The narration itself was a mixed bag. The male reader (Fraser Blaxland) was good (though not great) and I’d listen to him again. While I very much dislike giving bad reviews of readers, I feel I have to be honest and say that the female reader (Fiona McNeill) was pretty terrible— laughably so, in my opinion— and it wasn’t until I was almost finished listening that I figured out how best to describe her reading style. Her voice itself was pleasant enough but it was kind of like she was channeling William Shatner as James Kirk while reading the book. LOL. Her cadence and pacing were awkward and a bit jerky, with pauses and emphasis in odd spots. And her American accent was pretty bad. Thank goodness she didn’t have to use it much. If the “James T. Kirk” style of reading doesn’t bug you, you might actually enjoy her. I still enjoyed the book even though I didn’t care for Ms. McNeill’s reading, but if given a choice between the print and the audio, I’d probably suggest going with the print. That said, if all you can get is the audio, it’s still worth listening to. Just be prepared. Unfortunately the sample here on Audible only includes the male reader so there was no way to know what the female one would be like beforehand.

Who talks like that?

Loved the story, loved the male reader. Would like a 50% audible refund bc I could only listen to the half he read. The female reader was choppy, had odd rhythm, confusing accents, and shrill friend voices. Every other chapter I had to switch back to reading bc it was done so poorly, "

Story had potential, female reader was unlistenabl

I simply had to quit early on. Could not bear to listen to female reader and all her voices and strange accents any more.
The story had an interesting concept but the narrative seems to be written for 13 year olds. If you fall in that age group, maybe you'll enjoy this.