A grandmother and granddaughter swap lives in The Switch, a charming, romantic novel by Beth O’Leary, who has been hailed as “the new Jojo Moyes” (Cosmopolitan UK)… When overachiever Leena Cotton is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, she escapes to her grandmother Eileen’s house for some long-overdue rest. Eileen is newly single and about to turn … Eileen is newly single and about to turn eighty. She’d like a second chance at love, but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn’t offer many eligible gentlemen.
So they decide to try a two-month swap.
Eileen will live in London and look for love. She’ll take Leena’s flat, and learn all about casual dating, swiping right, and city neighbors. Meanwhile Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire: Eileen’s sweet cottage and garden, her idyllic, quiet village, and her little neighborhood projects.
But stepping into one another’s shoes proves more difficult than either of them expected. Will swapping lives help Eileen and Leena find themselves…and maybe even find true love? In Beth O’Leary’s The Switch, it’s never too late to change everything….or to find yourself.
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Leena, on forced sabbatical from work, swaps homes with her grandmother Eileen for a refreshing start after the difficulties from the last year. Going from her London flat to her grandmother’s sleepy village for two months doesn’t sound really appealing, but Leena and Eileen both come out of the experience with eye opening results.
I loved the shenanigans and closeness of the residents in Hamleigh as well as Leena’s flat mates and residents in her apartment building. Eileen was a fixer and a hoot-because yes, older women do get away with saying whatever is on their mind-and she ended up being my favorite character! Leena was a chip off the block too. She may not have had the life experience Eileen had, but her heart was in the right place and at the end of the day, she just needed to rediscover herself.
The Switch was a heartwarming comfort read! It just goes to show no matter how old you are, it’s never too late to take a risk because sometimes…the rewards are worth it.
I won an advance reader copy from Goodreads and Flatiron Books. This is my honest review.
Copy received from Hachette Australia for an honest review
3.5-4 stars
The Flatshare was one of my favourite books of 2019, so it was an anxious moment when I received The Switch.
This book was just the salve I needed for my head and heart after reading a few emotionally draining stories in the week prior.
It says it all in the blurb, so you know what you are going to get. This is very much a character driver rather than plot driven tale, and even though it is quite predicatable, it is an enjoyable read.
It is kind of like the movie The Holiday, where grandmother/daughter do the house swap. Eileen and Leena have heartache in their pasts, and perhaps this swap will be a clean start for both of them?
And I gotta say – I am calling Eileen “Grandma gettin’ it on” – you’ll see why when you read it.
The Switch is a slow paced (though not unbearable slow, pleasurable slow) story of finding oneself again.
I am looking forward to what Ms O’Leary brings us in the future.
This book was so life-affirming and really relatable. I haven’t read the previous book by the author but I loved this book so much that I think I’m going to have to invest in it!
There’s such a wonderful cast of characters, who feel very real and fleshed out . Leena and her Grandmother Eileen are the main protagonists, who decide to swap homes for 2 weeks. Eileen lives in a small village in Yorkshire and Leena has a busy life in London . Eileen has always wanted to visit London and Leena has been given a 2month break from her busy job .
How the two adapt to the very different pace of life in each other’s realm makes for some humorous moments. I literally laughed out loud a few times.
The two women’s impacts on the people around them and how they interact with their new neighbours is both heartwarming and uplifting.. This was an emotional rollercoaster, I literally laughed, cried both happy and sad tears and felt relieved when things worked out for everyone concerned at the end .
This is such a beautifully written book and I thoroughly recommend it .
I received a copy of the book from #Netgalley in exchange for an honest review and all thoughts are my own and unbiased
Beth O’Leary follows up her best-selling “The Flatshare” with the equally delightful “The Switch.” It is a compelling and timely exploration of how three generations of women break through the isolations of grief, shame, and age to forge community and connections that allow them to be even more themselves.
After 29-year-old Leena Cotton blows an important presentation at work, her boss forces her to take two months of paid leave to rest and reset. Leena has been using work to try to anesthetize her grief over her sister’s death and her rage at her mother for not pushing her sister to try last-ditch cancer treatments. Burnt out, ashamed, and bereft, she retreats to her grandmother’s house in the Yorkshire Dales. Her 79-year-old grandmother, Eileen, has just been dumped by her lump of a husband, who has left her for the local dance instructor. Eileen is finding dating pickings slim in her tiny village, so Leena proposes a switch: Eileen will go to London, where she is likely to find more eligible men, and Leena will stay in Hamleigh-in-Harksdale, trying to help her mother and doing . . . whatever it is her grandmother needs her to do. She’s initially unclear on the details. She knows that she’s supposed to walk a dog, bring some biscuits to a community meeting, help with the May Day celebration. That can’t be so hard, can it? It turns out, it can.
I loved this book. Told in alternating chapters by Eileen and Leena, the voices are distinct, relatable, and somehow related. They sound like people from the same family. Though separated by fifty years, both grandmother and granddaughter are forthright – apparently the new HR-permitted term for “bossy” – kind-hearted, resourceful, and effective. Part of the great fun of the book is watching Leena use her consultant techniques and terminology to identify opportunities, remove obstacles, form coalitions, leverage out opposition, and generally get stuff done in the village while Eileen does exactly the same thing in London . . . just without all the jargon.
Supporting the main characters are a constellation of vivid neighbors, friends, lovers, and coworkers, deftly sketched through illuminating details and interactions. The story is beautifully and thoughtfully written. O’Leary knows how to spin a sentence so the joke is in the middle, catching you unawares, which makes it even more delicious. Here’s Eileen describing the Hamleigh Neighbourhood Watch meeting, in which tea and biscuits are an action item and the War on Squirrels and debate about whether culottes are in style take precedence over any actual crime:
“Since we’re not technically a Neighbourhood Watch, just people who like watching our neighbours, there’s no need to stick to any rules or regulations.”
Throughout the book, O’Leary skillfully develops what it means to watch one’s neighbors, to pay attention to them, to reach out to them, to try to understand what is behind the closed door, the heavy makeup, the constant scarf. People matter in this book. Read it now. Make some brownies. Read it again.
Thank you to Flatiron Books for the ARC Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for an honest review.