Sum of bond enthalpies for an exothermic reaction

Is the sum of bond enthalpies of reactants in an exothermic reaction higher or lower than the sum of bond enthalpies of the products?

I infer that it obviously must be higher if the enthalpy change for any exothermic reaction is negative, but the answer in my book says it is the opposite (no explanation given)... is this a mistake or something?

An exothermic reaction releases energy. If the process of breaking bonds and reforming new bonds releases energy, that means that there was more energy in the bonds that existed before the reaction took place. If the new bonds were higher in energy than the starting bonds, the molecules would need to absorb energy to form the higher energy bonds.

So when the bond enthalpy is higher in the products than it is in the reactants, the reaction is endothermic(absorbs heat).