Allie Lake is a scientist is on a held-up flight travelling home from a job when she is seated next to troubled movie star Milo Ford. She is in no mood to talk to him, whoever he might be. Her most recent project at a research station has just come to an end and she's about to move in with her sister and her love life is non-existent. As for Milo, he wants nothing more than to be at home hiding out with a little normality. Instead, he has to go and film a movie in the Romanian mountains... all the while, the press are getting closer, circling his most closely guarded secret.
Post-flight, they both quickly realise they've accidentally swapped phones with their fellow passenger. Easily rectified, except Milo's about to be on a remote set for a month... and Allie has no idea who Milo is, only that he is the keeper of her entire digital life.
As they trade back and forth on each other's phones, they can't help but notice there's more to their chat than practicalities...
Post-flight, they both quickly realise they've accidentally swapped phones with their fellow passenger. Easily rectified, except Milo's about to be on a remote set for a month... and Allie has no idea who Milo is, only that he is the keeper of her entire digital life.
As they trade back and forth on each other's phones, they can't help but notice there's more to their chat than practicalities...
Title: The Phone Swap
Author: Lia Louis
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Publication Date: August 25,2026
Review:
Thank you to Atria Books/Emily Bestler Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I absolutely adored the premise of this book. Phones accidentally swapped and the two people getting to know each other over text and face time/zoom calls. Sign me up! And, while the premise was fun, the execution was just a bit lacking for me.
The first chunk of this book is emails between the FMC and MMC and journal entries by the FMC. When I started reading, I thought it would just be an introduction. But then this format continued on and I figured the book would be written through this type of prose. I do enjoy epistolary writing done right, so I was down with seeing where it went. But suddenly this prose ends, you realize it was just supposed to be information put out via media, and you get dual POV from the FMC and the MMC. It felt totally disjointed to see this jump. For me, a then and now format or even just chapters with the emails and journal entries slipped between the now chapters as a build up for why the characters have animosity towards each other just would have made so much more sense. I'm not the author, and I do appreciate that authors have the right to put their art out there the way they feel is write, but it really took me out of the story and I had a hard time connecting with the main characters because of it.
I did enjoy the chemistry between the FMC and MMC. The build via the media was nice to watch. And, while it was nice to watch the romance, I didn't feel like the characters actually got to know each other all that well. You get a few weeks of the texts and face times, and then 4 days of them together in the Arctic, and that's it. I didn't feel like it was enough for the emotions we were being told they had. The reader is told of much that happens between the main characters but these were conversations that happened off page. I wish there would have been more showing in this area.
Coming from a background of addiction, I wanted to connect with the MMC on this. But it was hard for me to believe in his recovery since we don't really get to see it happen during the story. I felt like it was stuck into the story but never truly explored. Addiction is so complicated and that is not shown at all in this story. There is one part where you kind of see it's effects (towards the end of the book) but truly, it just seemed like it was slipped in to try and make the reader sympathetic towards the MMC but it just didn't work for me.
There's some cute banter throughout the book. I had myself a laugh here and there.
Overall, this is a sweet enough story that I think many will enjoy but there was just something missing for me. And I had a hard time suspending my disbelief for what happens between them at the airport at the end.
Author:
Lia Louis is a talented author known for her heartfelt and captivating contemporary fiction. Her novels, including Dear Emmie Blue, Eight Perfect Hours, and The Key to My Heart, have charmed readers worldwide with their emotional depth, relatable characters, and touching storytelling.
Lia’s writing beautifully captures the complexities of love, friendship, and life’s unexpected moments. When she’s not writing, Lia enjoys spending time with her family, exploring new places, and delving into a good book. Discover the magic in Lia Louis’ novels and get lost in her enchanting worlds.
