The Holiday Swap
- Judith D Collins
- Jul 31
- 9 min read
By: A.J. McDine
ISBN: 9504585242899
Publisher: Cherry Tree Publishing
Publication Date: 07/30/2026
Format: Other
My Rating: 5 Stars (ARC)
The Holiday Swap is the explosive new thriller by Amazon bestselling author AJ McDine. Perfect for fans of Freida McFadden, Claire Douglas and Andrea Mara.
We’re broke.
The last thing we can afford is a holiday.
So when my husband Robin's wealthy boss offers to swap houses for the week, it feels too good to be true.
The Lookout is everything we could ever want: a stunning glass house perched high on the Kent cliffs overlooking the sea.
Then Robin's old friend Pete turns up drunk in the middle of the night.
The next morning, I wake to find blood in the kitchen.
Pete is gone.
And Robin can't remember a thing.
As I try to piece together what happened that night, I realise this was never an innocent house swap. Someone wanted us at The Lookout. Someone is hiding the truth. And someone will stop at nothing to make sure I never uncover it.
Because our week by the sea was never just a holiday. Everyone had an agenda. Everyone was keeping secrets and everyone was lying.
Even me.
The Holiday Swap is the explosive new thriller by Amazon bestselling author A J McDine. Perfect for fans of Freida McFadden, Claire Douglas and Andrea Mara.
About the Author
A J McDine is the author of twelve gripping, character-driven psychological thrillers filled with secrets, lies and shocking twists. Her emotionally charged novels explore the dark side of relationships and will keep you turning the pages long into the night.
Before becoming an author, Amanda worked as a journalist and police press officer in Kent, where she still lives with her husband, fellow thriller writer A J Wills, their two grown-up sons and three rescue cats.
When she's not writing, she can usually be found with her nose in a book, at the gym or scribbling down ideas for her next page-turner.
Connect with Amanda on Instagram @ajmcdineauthor or Facebook at A J McDine – Thriller Author.
Connect with AJ
Exceptional Authors,
Standout Books. Elevator Talk.
BEHIND THE BOOK AND THE AUTHOR
The AJ McDine Edition | THE HOLIDAY SWAP
🛗GOING UP: Inside the Summer’s Most Dangerous House Swap
"Welcome to August, booklovers! We are kicking off the month with a high-speed ascent to the Penthouse. For this edition of the #LitLiftMiniAuthorChats (a part of the #AuthorElevatorSeries), we sat down with the incredible author, A.J. McDine to go Behind the Book and the Author for her brand-new psychological thriller, The Holiday Swap (out July 30th!).
If you think your summer vacation plans are stressful, wait until you see what happens when a broke couple swaps homes with a tech billionaire.
Amanda, welcome to the Lift!
Book Floors
🛗 Ground Floor: Doors Closing
The Setup & The Speed Round
🔘 Floor 1 The Pitch
Q. In the time it takes to get to the next floor, give us the elevator pitch for The Holiday Swap—go!
AJ: Jen and Robin are broke, so when Robin's wealthy boss offers to swap houses for the week, it feels like the answer to all their problems. Then Robin's childhood friend turns up drunk in the middle of the night. The next morning, there's blood in the kitchen, the friend's vanished, and Robin can't remember a thing. As Jen tries to uncover the truth, she realises they weren’t invited to The Lookout by accident...
🏢 Mid-Level Floors
Inside the Book & Glass House
🔘 The Swap Floor
Q. Your book features a luxury house swap that goes horribly wrong. Has writing this ruined vacation rentals for you forever, or would you still swap with a billionaire?
AJ: I definitely wouldn’t be put off – in fact, we’re heading to the Lake District here in the UK in September and are staying in a holiday cottage. But I’d definitely think twice about a house swap. The prospect of staying in someone else’s home when they’re not there kind of freaks me out. Never mind the fact that they’d be in my house, making judgements about me and possibly even going through my drawers. Urgh! Not going to happen!
Mind you, it makes a great premise for a psychological thriller, so never say never…
🔘The Insider Scoop Floor
Q. Name 1 to 5 insider things that readers may or may not know about the writing or concept of The Holiday Swap!
AJ:
1) The Lookout was inspired by a real house perched high on the cliffs overlooking the English Channel. Like my fictional version, it’s a striking concrete-and-glass home, reached by a sleek glass lift through the chalk cliffs. Thankfully, that’s where the similarities end. Everything that happens inside The Lookout came entirely from my own overactive imagination!
2) My background as a police press officer definitely came in handy when writing the investigation scenes.
3) Eagle-eyed readers might recognise the shrewd police detective, DC Sam Bennett. She appeared in two of my earlier thrillers, When She Finds You and No One I Knew. I liked her character so much I decided to bring her back for another case.
4) One of the book’s biggest themes is how secrets – even well-intentioned ones – can quietly destroy relationships.
5) The story is set over just four days, which really helps keep the tension building.
Author Floors
🏗️ High-Rise: Behind the Author
🔘 The Blue Light Floor
Q. You were a former journalist and police press officer. What is a weirder environment: a real-life active crime scene, or the mind of a psychological thriller writer?
AJ: Without a doubt, the mind of a psychological thriller writer!
Real life is often much less dramatic than fiction. As a journalist and later a police press officer, I dealt in facts, sad though they sometimes were. As an author, the only limit is my imagination. Writing fiction gives me permission to ask, ‘What if?’
🔘 The Household Floor
Q. You are married to a fellow thriller writer, A.J. Wills! Who handles the plotting better when you are arguing over who forgot to empty the dishwasher?
AJ: Definitely Adrian!
He plans out all his novels in advance, scene by scene, whereas I’m much more of a discovery writer. We work so differently that we could never write a book together. It would undoubtedly end in tears… or murder! But having another thriller writer in the house is invaluable. If I’m stuck on a plot twist or trying to untangle a knotty problem, there’s always someone to bounce ideas around with.
🔘 The Author Biography Floor
Q. Name 1 to 5 fun, surprising, or lesser-known facts about YOU, the author that readers may or may not know."
AJ:
1) I was born in Singapore.
2) I also write pony adventure stories for middle-grade readers under my married name, Amanda Wills.
3) I started weight training at the gym 18 months ago, and I’m now strong enough to leg press more than my own bodyweight. I can also knock out ten push-ups without breaking a sweat!
4) Swimming with dolphins is on my bucket list, as is a return trip to Singapore to see where I was born.
5) If I could have just one hobby, it would be walking. (Preferably with an audiobook to keep me company – if that’s allowed!).
🏎️ The Wild Card Rapid Fire Express
🔘 The Tally & The Tease Floor
Q.. How many books have you written, and (optional) what is your current or upcoming project?
AJ: Twelve thrillers and eighteen pony books.
Now The Holiday Swap is out, I’m in the very early stages of planning my next thriller. I can’t tell you about it yet, but it’ll be full of my usual twists and turns.
🔘 The Fuel & The Clock Floor
Q. What is your favorite snack or beverage while plotting, and are you a morning or night person?
AJ: A nice mug of milky coffee.
I do a lot of faffing in the morning. My most productive writing time is surprisingly between 4pm and 6pm. Probably because I’m usually nowhere near my daily word count by then and I’m starting to panic!
🔘 The Method & The Stars Floor
Q. Pantser, Plotter, or Plantser? Also, what is your Zodiac sign, favorite color, and favorite season?
AJ: A pantser who’d LOVE to be a plotter!
Leo. Blue. Late spring, when the promise of warmth and longer days is in the air.
🔘 The Roots & The Recs Floor
Q. What was your first car and your first job? Plus, name one recent book recommendation.
AJ: A blue Ford Fiesta and as a cub reporter on the East Kent Mercury in Deal in Kent.
I read Some of Us Are Liars by Fiona Cummins recently and loved it.
👑 The Penthouse: Doors Opening
The Final Destination
🔘The Ultimate Escape Floor
Q. If these elevator doors opened up right now onto any dream vacation spot in the world, where are we stepping out into?
AJ: South Island, New Zealand.
It’s somewhere Adrian and I would love to visit but we need to save our pennies first!
🎬 The Outro
"And that is our stop at the Penthouse! Fascinating and so much fun!
A massive thank you to, A.J. McDine, for spending time wiht us today. Make sure to head over to Amazon to grab your copy of The Holiday Swap right now using our reader link above. Check out my 5- star review below!
Stay tuned for our next August #AudioElevatorSeries with award-winning British Voice Narrator, Melanie Crawley (behind the mic) with audiobook, The Wythenshawe Dandy by S. J. Galbraith on Aug 3, and a #LitLiftMiniAuthorChat on Aug 18 with Jaima Fixsen, Don’t Look Close.
My Review
Would you swap your home with a billionaire? What if it costs you everything? A.J. McDine’s The Holiday Swap is the ultimate claustrophobic whodunit thriller. You won't look at vacation rentals the same way again!
The Holiday Swap by A.J. McDine (her twelfth novel) is a fast-paced domestic psychological thriller centered on a financially struggling couple, a luxury house swap, and a dark web of secrets.
The Hook
A financially broke couple steps into a billionaire’s luxury cliffside mansion for a dream house swap, only to wake up to a blood-spattered kitchen, a missing guest, and a husband who claims he remembers absolutely nothing.
Elevator Pitch
The Holiday Swap is a claustrophobic, high-stakes psychological thriller where financial desperation meets deadly deception. When a struggling couple accepts an invitation to swap their modest home for a tech tycoon's isolated, glass-walled coastal fortress, a midnight visit from an old friend turns fatal. With blood on the floor and a husband feigning amnesia, the trip morphs from a dream vacation into a meticulously engineered trap where everyone is lying to survive.
Setting & Vibe
~Setting: "The Lookout," an ultra-modern, isolated luxury smart-home made of glass and steel, perched precariously on a jagged cliffside overlooking a volatile, crashing sea.
~Vibe: Hitchcockian, clinical, and dripping with an eerie sense of being constantly watched.
Genre & Themes
~Genre: Domestic Thriller / Psychological Suspense / Locked-Room Mystery.
~Themes: The corrupting power of wealth, the fragility of marital trust, the desperation of financial ruin, and the impossibility of running from your past.
Standout Characters
~Jen: The Narrator (The Wife): A desperate but sharp protagonist fiercely trying to protect her family while navigating a maze of gaslighting, murder, and greed.
~Robin (The Husband): A man drowning in debt whose convenience-based "amnesia" makes him deeply untrustworthy.
~Scott Masters (Robin's boss and owner of the cliffside holiday home): A ruthless CEO of tech millionaire company 21 SocialScript.
Author Writing Standout
A.J. McDine excels at weaponizing the setting itself. The Author transforms the beautiful, transparent glass architecture of the house into a suffocating cage, turning high-tech luxury into an instrument of pure psychological torture with behind-the-scenes plotting, dark secrets, greed, and deception.
Takeaway
Desperation makes people incredibly easy to manipulate, and the grander the gift, the more dangerous the hidden strings attached to it.
Title Significance
The title, "The Holiday Swap," serves as a dark irony. A "swap" implies an equal exchange between two willing parties; however, in this book, it represents a predatory transaction where a wealthy elite trades temporary luxury for absolute control over a vulnerable couple’s lives.
Metaphor
The luxury house is a high-tech aquarium. The characters believe they are looking out at a beautiful view, but in reality, they are completely exposed inside a glass box, swimming in circles while a predator watches them from the dark.
Why You Should Read
Read this if you love unputdownable, single-location locked room thrillers with a relentless pace, unreliable narrators, and a plot that forces you to constantly shift your suspicions.
My Thoughts
A simple house swap by the sea turns deadly! What is hidden in the house?
A masterclass in building tension, drawing readers into a whirlwind of intrigue and suspense. Each character comes with their own hidden agendas, creating a web of complexities that keeps you on edge. The pacing is relentlessly brisk, plunging us directly into the heart of the central crisis, leaving no room for lulls or filler—every page pulses with purpose.
McDine skillfully weaves a sense of claustrophobia within the confined setting, amplifying the internal paranoia that arises from layers of deception and duplicity. As the plot unfolds, you find yourself constantly reevaluating the motivations of the characters, questioning their true intentions at every turn. Just when you think you have it figured out, the final shocking pages deliver a twist that leaves you breathless and reevaluating everything you thought you knew.
If you love fast-paced domestic suspense, unputdownable twists, and isolated beach settings, pack your bags for The Holiday Swap. Just don't look down.
Verdict: 5 / 5 Stars
"A gripping, binge-worthy popcorn thriller that will make you think twice before ever booking a vacation rental or accepting a favor from your boss."
Recs or Read-Alikes
~The Guest List by Lucy Foley
~Never Lie by Freida McFadden
~Our Perfect Holiday by Daniel Hurst
~The House Swap by Miranda Rijks
~The House Swap Keri Beevis
QA with the Author
Stay tuned for a fun #LitLiftMiniAuthorChat with AJ McDine coming August 1st!
Special thanks to Cherry Tree Publishing for providing an advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: July 30, 2026
My Rating: 5 Stars
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