Review: The Swap by Annabella Michaels
SYNOPSIS:
When their daughter goes off to college, Samuel and his wife Gayle begin to take stock of their lives. Realizing they’re best friends and not in love with one another, the two agree to an amicable split. Nervous about jumping back into the dating world, they accept a friend’s invitation to attend a swap party.
Tossing their keys into a bowl and leaving it up to fate to decide who they’re paired with is too tempting to resist. But when Samuel is faced with an audacious young man who strikes up a conversation, the attraction to men he’s kept buried for so long comes rushing back.
At twenty-two years old, Oliver Hughes is one of the most sought after male models in the world. Sassy and bold, with a penchant for wearing high heels and a touch of makeup, Oliver’s life is what he always dreamed it could be. Except for one thing…
Yearning to fall in love and settle down, Oliver’s grown bored of meaningless hookups with shallow, fame seeking guys. While attending a swap party, his last-ditch effort to find someone who doesn’t know who he is when they meet, Oliver finds himself drawn to a handsome, older man. One who’s endearingly unaware of his own appeal.
As their relationship grows, something sinister and dark threatens what they’ve managed to build. What will it take for Oliver and Samuel to survive, and is their happily ever after doomed from the start?
REVIEW:
I am not even sure how to start this review other than great concept, poor execution. I really liked the synopsis and cover for this story. It sounded like something different from what I normally read and I could go for some aspect of suspense. But how this whole story played out had me happy to finish the book and never pick it up again.
The first several chapters were so very boring, they were dry and filled with so much background information about the characters that I almost DNF-ed because I wasn’t getting sucked in. After Oliver and Samuel finally meet, the story starts to pick up the pace but something is still off. And I think its the fact that Oliver and Samuel fall in love but the author sorta skipped all the conversations and heart to hearts. Like we knew there were weeks on end where Oliver and Samuel were texting and talking on the phone all night but none of those conversations were shared with the reader. Like how am I supposed to form a bond with characters when you give me nothing but superficial facts to connect with?
So aside from that disconnect, the characters really never had any of the hard conversations, like mainly the huge age gap between them or any discussion about what each other wants for a long term future? But then there is a serial killer on the loose. And I will give Annabella Michaels this, I didn’t anticipate the serial killer to be who they were. But the serial killer plot line was a minor blip till 80% and then the story blew up. There was just a lack of balance between relationship building and lurking danger.
But what really irked me was the ending, mainly the fact that I didn’t closure. Did Samuel and Oliver get a happily ever after, yes. Did I get answers to all my lingering questions, no. Why did Korey do what he did? What about the enormous amount of debt? How is Oliver paying for school? I mean there were some vague answers to these but it was more so sweep it under the rug and put on bow on it…*eye roll* Disappointed is an understatement for how I felt as I finished this book.
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