This is delightful, heartwarming, poignant, beautiful novel with different likable narrators/heroines: grandma and granddaughter. I enjoyed this one just not as much at The Flatshare

Guys...this book gave me all the unexpected feels! 😍

Leena Cotton escapes to her grandmother’s house in the country after a costly and embarrassing mistake at work forces management to put her on a forced sabbatical.

Her grandmother Eileen is newly divorced and approaching 80. After recently discovering online dating, she’s underwhelmed at the local talent available in her sleepy village.

How will Leena fill the next two months? And how will Eileen find eligible men? Leena convinces Eileen to switch lives for the next two months, and much hilarity ensues. Leena will take the pace down a notch in the country, while her grandmother will hopefully find an eligible bachelor (or two!) in London.

This was such a charming and heartwarming read. I just love love loved Eileen! She was a total force to be reckoned with! Can I be her when I grow up?!

I loved how Eileen and Leena - despite thinking they’d each be a fish out of water - seamlessly slotted in and contributed to their adopted community, making new friends and wrangling some of the more unruly neighbours.

The matter of grief was also handled delicately and explored in such a raw and honest way. This book reduced me to tears a few times (all when out in public of course!), but the overall vibe is definitely very positive. Take life by the horns, no matter what stage of life you’re at! Beth writes such wonderful characters who leap right off the page. I’d love to see this one turned into a movie!

Was this a perfect book? No, it's predictable in parts and I think the two central romances could have used more time to develop. But did it make me grin uncontrollably and almost cry while out on an evening walk? Absolutely. Between this and The Flatshare Beth O'Leary has become an auto-read author for me, since her characters in both books are incredibly nuanced and she captures both the giddy highs of new friendships and crushes and the unbelievable lows of grief so well.

Also, bonus points for a portrayal of older people that doesn't infantilise them nor make them infinitely all-knowing and only there to mentor the younger characters

I received an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Beth O’Leary wow you’ve done it again! I absolutely fell in love with her style of writing and intriguing characters in the Flatshare and just had to get my hands on this book. Thank you NetGalley for accepting my request.

Again the style of writing follows the flatshare with two different main characters who have their point of view voiced in alternating characters. A great tool to use to give depth to so many characters.
This book was everything I needed when I read it, it was funny, cozy, and made me miss my mum.

I will definitely be recommending it to customers

One of my top 5 reads from last year was The Flatshare, so obviously I was keen to read O’Leary’s follow up, The Switch. (Thank you to Hachette Australia, Mcmillan Audio and Netgalley for my copy.) A lot of writers struggle with their second novels after pulling off stella debuts, but I soon realised O’Leary had another winner on her hands with The Switch.

The Switch is told from the dual point of views of Leena and her grandmother, Eileen. Leena’s sister, Carla, passed away from cancer and Leena, along with her mother, Marianne, and Eileen, is still mentally suffering from her loss. Leena’s career is affected to such an extent that her boss forces her to take some leave. It’s at the beginning of this forced sabbatical that Leena comes up with the idea of ‘the switch’ - Leena will go and hopefully relax a little at Eileen’s cottage in a quiet Yorkshire village, and Eileen will go and stay at Leena’s flat in London where she will seek out a better-late-than-never type adventure (which includes the search for an older eligible gentleman). Leena will also, hopefully, reconcile with her mother, with whom she has had a somewhat fraught and tense relationship since Carla’s death.

Both Eileen and Leena are very likeable characters and O'Leary makes it easy for the reader to care about them. Marianne is not as well formed but she does get a couple of great scenes that made me alternatively cry and laugh. Both Leena and Eileen also get to be romanced and their respective beaus are equally as likeable. I was definitely cheering them all on and hoping for a happy ever after ending.

O’Leary’s handling of Eileen being a 79 year old looking for new love, romance and even secksy times was very impressive. I am always searching for really good ‘old people' romance and The Switch is one of the best I’ve read in this respect.

The Flatshare was a stand out to me due to two major pluses - its humour, and the respectful and organic way O’Leary included some really topical issues (racism and PTSD among others) into the plot. O’Leary managed to make me laugh out loud again on more than one occasion. And this time around O’Leary addressed the obvious (coping with the death of a loved one) as well as a lot of themes I wasn’t expecting, such as domestic abuse in the elderly and internet scamming.

I opted for the audio version which features two narrators. Leena is narrated by Daisy Edgar-Jones who is currently proving to be quite popular in the small screen adaptation of Normal People, and Eileen is voiced by Alison Steadman who many people would know as Mrs Bennet in Colin Firth’s version of Pride and Prejudice. So, it’s no cheap audio format; both narrators were great and their comic timing spot on. I highly recommend this version.

I must admit, I did enjoy The Flatshare more than The Switch but, as I added The Flatshare to my list of all time favourite books ever and would have given it 10 out of 5 if this was possible, this doesn’t take anything away from The Switch. It’s easily one of the best traditional romance/chick lit novels I’ve read this year. 5 out of 5 for this one and I’ll be there with bells on for O'Leary's third outing, the recently announced The Road Trip.

Oh I absolutely LOVED this book!
I loved the Flatshare and The Switch was just as good, if not better!
Leena and her grandmother are both such such unique characters with such great personalities! I loved the idea of the switch that took place and I love how the both ended up finding themselves at the end of it all. Such an enjoyable book that I have already recommended to so many people!!

Another fantastic read from Beth O’Leary! I really enjoyed this story. I love the premise of Beth’s books and the way she weaves the storylines together. The characters are always likeable and deal with situations that have merit. If you loved The Flat Share, you’ll love this too.
The story follows Eileen and Leena; grandmother and granddaughter respectively. Eileen lives in a little hamlet of Hamleigh where everybody knows everybody’s business. She’s on every committee and likes to organise the towns festivities. She is helping her daughter, Marian come to terms with the death of her daughter.
Leena lives in London and has a high pressure job, a great boyfriend and is trying to deal with the death of her sister; Carla.
Eileen and Carla swap lives for two months and things are pretty interesting. You’ll find yourself laughing out loud and crying. This to me is the sign of a great book. Happy reading

I love a book that puts people outside of their comfort zones.

After reading Saving Missy by Beth Morrey, I am also really enjoying books about characters at a completely different point in their life to me. I am pretty much smack bang in the middle of these two characters (age wise)...

I relish the idea of getting out of my life...and trying out something completely new like Leena does...but knowing that I probably never will. But that's the great thing about this book, because look at Eileen, 79, showing us that it is never too late...and that you can have an adventure at any time in your life...you just have to be brave enough to go out and do it.

That's what I love about books in general and in particular this one, you can live vicariously through the characters.

This one has all of the elements of a really great, feel good chic lit read, with the added bonus of showing readers that you're never too old for love or adventure.

I think I might have fallen in love with Beth O’Leary’s writing style. Besides a delightful and charming story, it’s the writing that made me chuckle and laugh out loud. Simple interactions and monologues had me cracking up. I think I found an author that works for me.

The story was charming, endearing and heart-warming. Besides the actual Switch, the underlying plot had surprising depth. Dealing with a shocking loss and learning to forgive is a theme that is woven throughout the plot, yet it doesn't take away from the overall joy of the story.

Thanks to the alternate POVs, because both Leena and Eileen’s stories were engaging, entertaining and absolutely lovely, I couldn’t tell you which one I loved more.

The Switch has so many great characters. I love the older generation; they have some spunk about them - Eileen gets more action than Leena does!

I love the honest and real-life interactions between the characters. I found I cared about them all.

I Loved this book and gave it 4.5 stars!

The Switch available now (in Australia and UK at least…) I have picked up the Waterstones exclusive edition & I was impatient waiting for it to come, so I also have it in a divine floppy paperback.

*I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley, Quercus and Hachette Australia I was under no obligation to review this book and have done so at my own discretion.*

4 1/2 stars
I was excited to read The Switch after seeing all the hype around it and it didn't disappoint.
The Switch is the story of Leena Cotton who is in her 20s and is forced to take a 2 month sabbatical from her London job when she has a panic attack in an important pitch. On a visit to her Grandma Eileen's house in the Yorkshire Dale's she comes up with the idea of switching house with her Grandma so she can take a break from her intense London life whilst her Grandma can access a larger dating pool in the big city.
During their swap both characters learn a lot about what's important in life and they meet such fun and interesting characters that you just can't help liking them all.
It's a fun read but it also deals with some hard hitting issues including loss, family dynamics and dating in this modern day and age across different generations.
I really enjoyed it and I look forward to reading The Flatshare.
Thanks to Netgalley.com and Hachette Australia for my complimentary ARC.

I really enjoyed this! Beth O'Leary writes in such a funny, heart-warming way - both of her books have had me laugh out loud, tear up, and cheesy grin right the way through. Also features a great range of characters that are warm and full of life, as well as sassy and diverse without ever feeling shoehorned in.

I don't quite know how to articulate it, but I feel as though The Switch is more broadly appealing than The Flatshare but less intensely enjoyable. I suppose what I mean is that this book is less polarising (not that The Flatshare is controversial, just that books with hard-hitting topics tend to be more hit or miss), so I think a wider demographic of people will enjoy it (as one of the MCs is in her 20s or 30s and the other is almost 80!) but it has less of that je ne sais quoi that can propel books to the top of favourites lists. I think it'll be one that a lot of people like, and find a really light, enjoyable read.

If you know anything about me, you would know that I am a really fast reader. This book took me a month to read. I just found it so hard to get into and I didn't love the characters which I think was the biggest selling point of this book as the synopsis pretty much tells you the whole plot line. It is quite a slow burn and I think the fact that I didn't care too much about the characters just made it hard for me to love the book. There were parts that I really liked but for me, it was far and few. I can see other people loving this book but it unfortunately just wasn't for me.

"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"


CW: Dealing with grief from family death; Domestic Abuse

After reading The Flatshare, I had very high hopes for The Switch and let me tell you, they were met and then some.

My nana is also in her late 70's and she was born in Yorkshire, so whilst I was listening to Eileen's chapters in the audiobook, it felt like it was my nana talking to me and that made the experience so rich that it added another level of enjoyment to it (as well as sadness, in the sad parts). Leena and Eileen have a close relationship with each other, like I do with my nana, so it was beautiful to read about.

The Switch basically tells you what it's about in the plot summary. Eileen and Leena switch lives to try and rediscover themselves. This rediscover comes with laughter, tears, anger, grief and letting go. It also speaks to the power of letting people in, knowing that you don't have to do everything on your own, and that it's important to work through what you're going through. Bottling things up only lasts for so long.

Leena buried herself in her work following on from her sisters death, so much so that she began to get drowned in it. She lost herself, lost her way and was starting to lose her grip on her sanity. Then came a two month forced sabbatical in which she moved into her Grandma's house in Yorkshire (and her Grandma moved to her flat in London), to try and get a grip of things again. It was a complete immersion into the quaint village lifestyle - not only did they switch homes, but they switched technology and responsibilities. Leena was now a member of the Neighbourhood Watch and the May Day Committee, full of nosey (but well intentioned) seniors and one easygoing and age appropriate Jackson, a teacher and distractingly handsome local.

Eileen is dealing with the repercussions of her husbands infidelity and ending of her marriage at the age of 79, along with being the strong matriarch trying to keep her family together while everyone is individually falling apart. Eileen also likes to keep herself busy with projects, so once landing in London, she starts up some new projects of her own: a) find someone on a dating website for herself (and have fun); b) start up the Silver Shoreditchers' Social Club to bring together the lonely and often forgotten about elderly in busy London and c) fix the lives of all of Leena's friends. I could write paragraphs upon paragraphs about what I loved about Eileen, but I'll try to keep it short and sweet. The relationships that she built up with Leena's friends was absolutely lovely and they all enriched each others lives. Eileen having a bit of fun on the dating scene was glorious to read and I loved how she let herself go and actually enjoy herself. The development of the Silver Shoreditchers' Social Club was an absolute tear jerker at times, it was so needed and issues were talked about with such grace and often times had me not sure whether I was laughing or crying.

Whilst romance is a tiny bit of this book, it's not the be all and end all of this book. The tenacity of the women in the Cotton Family is the focal point of this novel, and it is written so incredibly strongly that I feel like I went through their grief with them and grew as a person alongside them.

I'm going out to buy my nana a copy of this book so she can read it and we can discuss it together.

*Thank you to Hachette Australia and Netgalley for a copy of an eARC in exchange for an honest review

This was such a heartwarming and uplifting novel. Eileen is 79 years old Lives in Yorkshire and her husband ran away with the dance teacher. Leena, her grand daughter is a workaholic, lives in London and is grieving her sister. After a catastrophic work meeting, Leena offers to swap places with her grandmother, moving back to Yorkshire with her grandmother looking for an adventure in the city. Such a good read!

If you're looking for a contemporary read full of charm, wit, and a fabulous cast of characters - this 👏🏻 is 👏🏻 it.

Beth O'Leary is a master at exploring grief, family, and relationships in the context of contemporary romance lit, and it's refreshing to pick up a book in this genre knowing I'll get a page-turning read with substance, heart, AND characters I'll fall in love with.

Everyone needs an Eileen in their life 😉

I think Beth O'Leary is firmly cemented as a favourite author for me, and I can't wait to see what comes next!

‘This ... this stupid swap ... ’ I spit it out ... ‘was meant to help, and all it’s done is make things worse. I’m done, Grandma. I’m done with all this.’

The Switch - I loved this book in so many unexpected ways! The story of 79 year old Eileen and her granddaughter Leena ‘switching’ lives for two months. I was looking for light and frivolous .... I got that and so much more with a strong emphasis on family and friends. In the isolationist world we currently live in, this is the near perfect book to curl up with and escape with some wholesome writing and many an endearing tale to tell.

Whilst light in tone for the most part, there are some serious topics delved into that add real substance to this read. On the base level this is a book about family and fallouts, mixing things up in the hope of finding your place in life with a strong sense of community involvement. Where it really steps up is when themes such as loneliness, loss/grief, mental illness and domestic abuse are touched upon in really sensitive and touching ways.

‘Never been one for worst-case scenarios,’ Jackson says. He crouches to dip his roller in the tray; his wrists are flecked with paint now, new, brighter freckles. ‘When they happen, you cope. And it’s usually one you’ve not thought of that gets you, so why worry?’

How would it be to not only switch places with someone else for a time but add to the mix the generational gap and it makes for many an amusing scenario. It’s great! Eileen may just be the winner as what is not to love with a 79 year old shaking it with the young ones in London - but its the sage advice that she brings with her that dusts the encounters with magic. In Yorkshire, Leena learning to face her grief is real and raw. Another plus to this tale is the depth in secondary characters - there are many here you will learn to love and some despise. I want to sit and eat biscuits on the Neighbourhood Watch committee! Similarly Beth accurately portrays the two distinct locales as you feel the buzz of London compared to the quirky charms of village life.

Covering a range of subjects with a cast of characters, not once does Beth confuse her readers - I was invested in each and everyone of them. You will smile and you will tear up - clever writing to lose yourself in. The message here is one of healing and hope, not only for the three generations of women, but also for their wider community of friends. Do yourself a favour and immerse yourself in this tale of fun and serious moments as they walk the path to find the missing piece in their life. Eagerly anticipate what Beth comes up with next.

‘I take a shaky breath and go on. ‘When people talk about loss, they always say that you’ll never be the same, that it will change you, leave a hole in your life.’ My voice is choked with tears now. ‘And those things are undoubtedly true. But when you lose someone you love, you don’t lose everything they gave you. They leave something with you.’




This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Full review posted on Booklover Book Reviews: https://www.bookloverbookreviews.com/2020/05/the-switch-by-beth-oleary-book-review-a-feisty-charmer.html

I really loved The Flatshare when I read it last year, so I was really excited for this. Maybe too excited, as I do sometimes get, because it makes it so hard for a book to live up to your expectations. This didn’t reach the heights of O’Leary’s first book for me, but maybe that is very much because of me, rather than the book.

The premise sounded really good. Leena has been struggling at work – she has a pretty high pressured job and her performance has slowly been sliding. When she suffers a panic attack in a presentation, it’s enough for her boss to enforce a 2 month sabbatical as it seems that Leena has not been taking her standard annual holiday. She decides to visit her grandmother, who, after being left by her husband of some 50+ years, is dipping a toe back into the dating game. But the rural pickings are slim, so Leena suggests a life swap.

The idea is cute. Leena takes over her grandmother’s responsibilities – the local neighbourhood watch, organising the MayDay fete type thing, etc. After her job, it should be a breeze however Leena discovers the complexity of small village life and relationships and the set ways that things are done. And in return, Elaine is exploring the single men that London has to offer and finding some surprising options for a lady of her situation. She’s also getting to know Leena’s flatmates and deciding that the modern way of life and pretending your neighbours don’t exist, isn’t for her.

This book was good – but I didn’t love it. It felt very slow in the beginning, like it took quite a while to get to the swap and then there’s quite a lot of just…..detail, as Leena and Elaine settle into the other’s surroundings. Leena has been dealing with a mind numbing grief for the last year or so, well I suppose Elaine has been as well. They lost someone incredibly important to them in a long, drawn out painful way. Leena has buckets of resentment toward her mother (who also lives in the same place her grandmother does) over it and has been avoiding her ever since, restricting their interaction to brief phone calls where she can escape when the fury threatens to overwhelm her. Her grandmother wants her to take care of her mother, which means that Leena will have to deal with her – and probably confront the horrific elephant in the room that is destroying their relationship.

I felt like a lot of things took too long to come to the point and most of the ‘problems’ were solved really easily. Elaine barely struggles in London really, she has a few moments of being slightly out of sorts and then she just settles in living with 2 thirty year olds and revamping everything about London living. At times it felt like any issues were contrived to add humour, but it didn’t really feel natural – such as Leena being completely overtaken by a dog that her 79yo grandmother manages to walk once a week without incident. I thought there’d be a much stronger romantic element in this but it’s only at the 11th hour that anything really happens. And if felt like I was just reading pages and pages waiting for things and they weren’t happening! This was actually I think, much more serious than I had expected. I think I thought it’d be much funnier but a lot of it is devoted to Leena’s grief, the loss that they all experienced and how that has affected them all in the time since. It’s done a lot of damage to Leena, who clearly buried herself in work to deal until she simply couldn’t anymore. Her body almost refused to allow her to keep shoving it aside and working every hour in the day. The break did her the world of good in a lot of ways, it helped her confront her grief, her feelings for her mother and also reassess her career because she was definitely in a rut, using it as a crutch.

But quite a bit of the time I was just….a bit bored. I think sometimes, too much was packed into this (Leena’s flatmate’s lives, her workmate’s attempts at dating, the various ins and outs and problems of the people in the village, etc). To be honest, most of the circle of the Neighbourhood Watch group became interchangeable to me, apart from Betsy and later on, Arnold. I think a lot of the more interesting stuff is going to happen after the end of the book – and I’d rather have read about some of that.

6/10

After reading The Flatshare last month, The Switch soon became one of my most anticipated reads of the year and it lived up to the high expectations I had for it going in.

The story centres around Leena an overachieving, hardworking twenty something woman living in London and her grandmother 79 year old Eileen who lives in a tiny Yorkshire town.

When Leena is ordered to take a two month vacation, she switches places with her Eileen and leaves London in search of some rest and respite.

Eileen is newly single after her husband recently left her and wants to broaden her horizons, possibly find a new love interest and explore London and what it has to offer.

I loved the supporting characters and the relationships and joy they bring to Eileen and Leena’s lives. I particularly enjoyed the reconciliation between Leena and her Mother.

Overall I really enjoyed this delightful, beautiful and heartwarming story that although was sad at times was also very uplifting and I would definitely recommend it.

I want to thank Hachette Australia and Netgalley for generously providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review.

"Grandma... what if we swapped? What if I came up and looked after all your projects and you had my flat in Shoreditch and I stayed here?"

the Switch follows 29 year old Leena and 79 year old Eilleen, who after a botched presentation at work and a wish to try something new, decide to swap lives. Overachiever and constant do-er, Leena gets the chance to slow down and enjoy country life, and Eileen is thrown into the bustling life of London.

I haven't read Beth O'Leary's debut, The Flatshare, but now my excitement has increased tenfold. If she can make me enjoy this book, (which I admittedly would never have picked up if not for her name attached to it) she can do no wrong.

I was initially a bit nervous about the Eileen's POV, because she is so out of the normal age range I read. (I know, I know- ageist right? But considering my typical protagonists are teenagers- an almost 80 year old is a big jump) But my worries were for naught, because Eileen was so fun to read about! I loved reading about her life, and the gossip filled neighbourhood watch meetings she attended. She was such a lovely, bright and honest character that I couldn't help but love.

"Grandma, what are you doing?"
"Medding!" I yell cheerfully. "It's my new 'thing'!"

Leena was a character I related to quite a bit. Always doing doing doing, to the point where she couldn't physically do anymore. She had been almost on autopilot since the death of her sister, Carla. A change of pace was well overdue, but at first she finds it difficult to adjust to the slow life. Gradually, she begins to develop relationships with the people around the town, which was precious.

"Arnold is basically Shrek, I've concluded: a grumpy green ogre who's forgotten how to be nice to people. And I plan on being his Donkey"

There were two whole casts of characters, as the story is told in dual POVs but I loved each and every one of them. From the dog to the next door neighbour- they each had a unique and loveable personality.

the overall tone of this book was really enjoyable. It put a smile on my face the whole time I was reading it. The Switch is truly the perfect wholesome, pure and feel good read for times such as these. While it may not be anything life changing, it is perfect escapism.

Although, it was not completely happy-go-lucky. There were emotional moments, and some important issues were tackled. I almost cried at one point, partly out of sadness and partly out of happiness. I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge Betsy- the original badass.

Overall, this was the perfect read for me at the perfect time. If you are looking for a relatively slice of life, character driven book- look no further!

Thank you to Hachette Australia for this ARC

Release Date: 28 April 2020