The Christmas Switch is a fun, frothy and festive confection of a romantic comedy featuring two guys who’ve known each other since their school days and have never got along – until something forces them to really think about exactly what lies behind their mutual antagonism.

Joshua Van De Bogart and Gabriel García have known each other since their teens when Gabriel won a scholarship place at the prestigious private school Josh attended. When Josh’s attempts to befriend the new kid went awry, they instead became committed rivals who made almost everything into a competition, and by the end of high school, their rivalry had become a full-on-war. Josh thought graduation was the last they’d see of each other – but fate had other ideas and they ended up going to the same college. Now, they’re both interns at a prestigious East Coast law firm and are competing for the same job, although Gabriel is sure that Josh, with his family name and connections (his grandmother is a judge) is going to get it, no matter that Gabriel has worked his arse off and Josh… hasn’t.

Gabriel has volunteered to do the decorating for the office Christmas party and, not to be outdone, Josh says he’ll help. He’s come prepared, with lots of extra strings of lights (rightly expecting the company’s supply to be a bit stingy), and weaves them into an intricate pattern all around the room. When the moment of truth arrives and he throws the switch – the lights don’t work, and the two of them get into an argument about how to fix them which ends up with them both getting a shock.

In more ways than one.

Because when Josh comes round and looks down to where Gabriel has fallen, underneath the table Josh is lying on, it’s not Gabriel’s face and body he’s looking at. It’s his own. Pulling himself carefully off the table, Josh heads to the bathroom – and gets another shock when the face looking back at him from the mirror is Gabriel’s.

Desperately searching for a suitable explanation – a nightmare, a fever dream, an out of body experience – Josh and Gabriel eventually have to concede that something impossibly ridiculous has happened. They’ve swapped bodies.

As if that wasn’t bad enough in and of itself, Gabriel is due to head to Vermont for Christmas with his large extended family. He loves them dearly and doesn’t get a lot of time with them, so he’s been looking forward to spending the holidays at the family home – and short of pretending to be at death’s door, he doesn’t see how he can not show up. There’s nothing for it, but for him and Josh to go up there for Christmas and just hope Josh can pull off ‘being Gabriel’ well enough so nobody suspects something’s wrong. And maybe telling the fam that he and Josh are dating will be reason enough for them to stick to each other like glue to make sure Josh doesn’t slip up and prompt some really uncomfortable explanations.

Once they arrive in Vermont and are quickly enfolded in the warmth of the large and chaotic García clan, Josh begins to see a different side to his long-time rival. The Gabriel he knows is tightly controlled, never cracks a smile and is super intense and serious with no time for anything but work, but being on the receiving end of his family’s love and affection, and seeing just how much Gabriel is loved and valued gives Josh a new insight into the character of the man he’s regarded as an enemy for so many years. It also reminds him how lonely he is, how he would otherwise be spending Christmas alone, channel surfing and eating take-out and then attending his grandparents’ formal holiday dinner, which is more of a networking opportunity than a family celebration.<

Josh and Gabriel are well-drawn, likeable characters who are opposites in just about every way. Josh was brought up by his wealthy grandparents after his parents died in an accident when he was nine, and has spent most of his life trying to live up to their expectations in the hope of earning their love and affection. Gabriel comes from a large, boisterous and loving family, but has had to work incredibly hard to earn the sorts of opportunities that fall into Josh’s lap. The chemistry between them crackles right from the start, and their romance has the flavour of a slow burn as they begin to notice things about each other they’ve not allowed themselves to notice before and to realise that they’ve been using their antagonism as a way to deny their mutual attraction. Seeing themselves from a different perspective helps them to learn more about each other and about themselves, and as Josh learns what it’s like to experience unconditional love, Gabriel comes to realise that Josh’s flippant, unserious approach to everything is hiding a wealth of hurt and disappointment that his only real family doesn’t have much time for him.

The Christmas Swtich is a quick but satisfying read with plenty of laughs, flirty banter, and just a little bit of melancholy that tugs at the heartstrings. Briar Prescott once again shows that she really knows how to bring the rom and the com to the genre, and this one will certainly light up even the most dreary of winter afternoons. Just make sure the connections are sound before you flip any switches!