Low is eating lunch at school all alone when she sees Freya put an announcement on the bulletin board. Freya is gorgeous, the kind of woman you can’t turn away from. And when Low goes to see what she put up, she finds an offer for pottery classes. Low knows immediately that she will be learning to throw pots, or really, taking Freya up on any offer she makes. A head taller than everyone else at school and not at all interested in the typical high school drama, Low needs a friend. And she wants that friend to be Freya Light.
Freya and her husband Max have recently relocated to this small island in the Pacific Northwest, to a gorgeous house where they can recover from what happened in L.A. and start over. Max, a former hockey player, had been involved in a violent incident on the ice which accidentally paralyzed another player. His fans turned against him and against Freya, who had been making a living as an Instagram influencer. Now, Max has his kayaking and fishing, and Freya is lonely. But she finds Low, who takes her pottery classes, and she finds Jamie, who can sell her hand-crafted pottery in her gift shop.
Jamie and her husband are looking for a new beginning too. After spending several years trying in vain to have a baby, they moved to the island to follow their other dreams. Brian is writing a series of young adult novels, and Jamie is opening her high end gift shop filled with artisan products for tourists and locals. But Jamie’s disappointment at not being able to get pregnant is her constant companion, until she too falls under Freya’s charming spell.
These women’s lives are all changed forever, starting the night that Freya and Max and Jamie and Brian experiment with the island’s relaxed attitude toward relational mores. As the consequences of that night play out, every person in the story will confront their inner demons and face a new future that looks nothing like the present.
Robyn Harding is known for her complex thrillers, and The Swap fits right in. With complicated characters in emotional relationships, Harding takes readers on a treacherous ride filled with secrets, twists, and an ending you won’t see coming.
I loved The Swap. The dysfunction of the relationships kept me feeling for these women, wanting more for them, but unable to stop myself from watching as they raced 100 miles an hour towards danger. The stakes are high, the drama feels real, and the story is compelling from the first page until the last. So amazing!
Egalleys for The Swap were provided by Gallery Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.