The Flatshare by @betholearyauthor was one of my favourite reads last year and I was BEYOND excited to get my greedy little hands on a copy of O’Leary’s latest, #TheSwitch. 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 overdue rest. 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. Leena proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love. Meanwhile Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire. But with gossiping neighbours and difficult family dynamics to navigate up north, and trendy London flatmates and online dating to contend with in the city, stepping into one another's shoes proves more difficult than either of them expected.

Leena learns that a long-distance relationship isn't as romantic as she hoped it would be, and then there is the annoyingly perfect - and distractingly handsome - school teacher, who keeps showing up to outdo her efforts to impress the local villagers. Back in London, Eileen is a huge hit with her new neighbours, but is her perfect match nearer home than she first thought?

I adored this book! Once again, O’Leary nails the feelgood fuzzies, with a story that will make you want to move to a charming little English village. I loved both Leena and Eileen, and the host of supporting characters were quirky and fun. The story is wholesome and sweet, but also touches on some more emotional issues, which I thought were handled brilliantly. Definitely add this to your list if you are looking for a charming, feelgood read!

Thank you to @netgalley and @hachetteaus for the free copy of this book

This was an amazing wholesome read. It is full of emotion, romance, comedy and drama.

It's a great contemporary novel that I sped though in one sitting. This story is told from two characters points of view, and both of them are very likable. I usually have a clear preference on which storyline/protagonist that I favour most, but I really enjoyed reading both sides.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this E-book to review via Netgalley.

Eileen Cotton OMG what an amazing woman, I need someone like her in my life, we all do!

When Leena is asked (told)to take a couple of months leave from her corporate job in London. After a chat with her grandmother Eileen she decides to head home to the Yorkshire Dales and swap lives with her. Eileen moves to London for two months and this is where all the fun begins as both fit into the others space.

Its written as a dual narrative alternating between the two, the conversations and banter between all the characters is fabulously written.

If you are a fan of Beth O’Leary’s debut novel The Flatshare you are going to love this one. Without a doubt it’s a five star read! I am very much looking forward to her future novels!!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A big thank you to @hachetteaus @quercusbooks & @netgalley for gifting me an advanced ecopy!

Eileen is wanting a grand adventure, the one she was meant to have over 50 years ago. Before she became a wife and mother she was planning to move to London and work for a charitable organisation. However things didn’t go to plan and she stayed in the countryside bringing up her family.

Leena needs to stand still for a moment. London is not the ideal place for stillness. She has been running for almost a year, away from her Mum and the overwhelming grief of the death of her sister.

When Leena is told to take a two month holiday from work, she sees this as a perfect opportunity for her grandmother, Eileen, and herself to swap houses.

Can swapping homes change your life?

After reading The Flatshare, which became one of my favourite books of 2019, I was really excited to read this. I loved every word and didn’t want it to end. I really can’t say enough about it.

May we all have an Eileen Cotton in our lives!

The Switch by Beth O’Leary was absolutely charming, emotional and witty and I adored it!

Leena and her grandmother, Eileen are both stuck in a rut and decide to switch lives with hijinks to ensue! This may be a premise that has been done before, but the author’s skill with writing memorable characters that you root for really makes this really special.

Eileen in particular simply shone with her joie de vivre and I was very invested in her attempts to find love/companionship over 70 and in a digital world. Her compassion, kindness and determination to make her friends and neighbours (and even strangers!) come together as a community in a bustling city also made for a very engaging plot line.

That is not to say I was not also interested in Leena’s story. I really enjoyed her transition into a slower pace and all the shenanigans
she got into in village life. Leena’s interactions with her grumpy curmudgeon of a neighbour and her rivalry with hot teacher and village golden boy, Jackson was just comedic gold.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

For my fellow romance readers, I would say this book was more on the Women’s Fiction shelf for me, but it does have a satisfying strong romantic thread.

OMG I loved The Switch so much! I adored O'Leary's first novel The Flatshare when I read it last year and I've been looking forward to The Switch since I heard about it, so I was especially excited to be lucky enough to have received a ARC from Hattchet Australia and Quercus.

The premise of The Switch is unique for a contemporary literature/romance, the idea of Leena a twenty something switching lives with her her grandmother Eileen who's in her seventies seems at first like a bit of a strange concept, and I didn't know how it would work. But of course it does work and it was fantastic and so well written. I loved how much I felt for both characters and loved the facts the novel was narrated by both of them. O'Leary just writes such a fantastic and engaging story! so if you're at all wondering if you'll enjoy reading from both characters perspectives, to be honest I wondered before starting it if Eileen's perspective would be interesting, just know that it will work and that Eileen is such an awesome character. I truely hope I'm as cool as her when I'm in my 70s. I thought that it was great how the characters go through a lot of development and deal with things they've been struggling with, in a sense this was reminiscent of aspects of the characterisation and the things I liked about the character development of The Flatshare. Leena especially goes through a lot of changes and has realisations over the course of the novel, I liked how she developed so much.

The progression of the story was so good, to me the swapping of houses was fascinating and I really loved how they both learnt a lot about themselves and each others lives by doing so. The romance aspects were lovely, and I was rooting for the men Leena and Eileen ended up with in the end. I loved all of the secondary characters, I thought they were all interesting and dynamic. I really enjoy it when there is development of the side characters as well, I feel like quite often in novels they seem a bit bland and that's certainly not the case in The Switch.
So I hope when The Switch is released that everyone who reads it enjoys it and I'll be over here enthusiastically shouting at people to read it!

The Switch is just a wholesome book and perfect for the uncertain time we are in right now. It was entertaining, lighthearted and fun whilst also dealing with a few harder topics such as grief.

The two protagonists are Eileen and Leena Cotton, they are a grandmother (Eileen) and granddaughter (Leena) duo, who swap houses since both of them are going through a rough patch. Eileen is going to Leea's flat I London whilst Leena stays at her grandmothers home, located in a small village in the Yorkshire Dale. Both female characters were strong and had their own amazing traits and personalities. I felt the characters were both very relatable especially Eileen navigating the online dating world.

Overall it was such a charming read and I have no idea why or how it took me so long to read it!

With the release of her second novel, Beth O’Leary has easily scooped herself up a position in my fave authors list.

I adored her debut, The Flatshare, but I loved The Switch even more. And actually, even though I have already read it I will probably buy a physical copy on its release just to keep on my shelf…I loved it that much.

So what did I love about it so much?

Everything!!

Poor Leena….overworked, mentally and physically exhausted, grieving the loss of her sister to cancer, has an anxiety attack at work (oh how I can relate) and is essentially forced to take a two-month sabbatical. Lost, not knowing how to fill her days without work (oh how I don’t relate… 😉 ) she decides to visit her grandmother…..

Eileen….disenchanted in old age, lonely and looking for love.

When the two come together, they decide to help each other out by switching places….not only swapping houses but also exchanging phones, laptops, friends and lives. While Leena takes over Eileen’s role in The Neighborhood Watch and The May Day Festival, Eileen takes up internet dating and creates the Silver Shoreditchers’ Social Club. Laughs, adventure and love ensue.

While I loved both Eileen and Leena – two wonderful, well-meaning human beings dealing with their grief the best way they can, fiercely protective of each other and honest in their flaws; the secondary characters were just as wonderful with real backstories and flaws of their own.

Written exactly as I expected, with Beth O’Leary’s signature heartfelt style, The Switch is a charming, warm and life-affirming story. A little predicatble, particularly when it came to the romance, but oh so sweet! It was everything I wanted in a novel and will be a definite re-read.

This was a charming book with a lot of humour and heart. I really enjoyed reading Beth O'Leary's previous novel, The Flatshare, and this one was written with that very more-ish quality too. I was a bit sad when I realised I only had a couple of chapters to go!

I appreciated both of the main characters but I found myself wanting to read about Eileen more than Leena at times. It was a lot of fun seeing Eileen take to London so well, and I liked how the book highlighted the loneliness that can come with old age and that a bit of kindness can go a long way.

The build-up between Leena and Jackson was good, though. And I liked that her gran's town had that Gilmore Girls 'Stars Hollow' quirk about it. The family dynamics were interesting too with Leena's mother.

Thank you for the chance to read the ARC! It's another winner from Beth O'Leary for me.

I DIDN’T WANT THIS BOOK TO END! Honestly if I could give this book 10 stars I would.

A great story about family and taking back control of your thoughts and emotions post grief.

The characters Leena and her Grandmother Eileen offer us all something we can relate to. They are both supported by a myriad of friends and frenemies, you will wish you had and didn’t have.

PEach character is well thought out and relatable, be prepared to laugh out loud at some characters who might remind you of real life loved ones.

Like chewing a gooey caramel treat, The Switch is sweet, comforting and warm read. I loved Beth O'Leary's debut The Flatshare, so I was so keen and excited to dive into The Switch...and it didn't disappoint. I loved the two main characters, Grandmother Eileen and her granddaughter Leena. Their separate adventures gave me lots of laughs and pulled at my heartstrings in all the right ways.

O'Leary has such a gift at crafting interesting, rounded characters - especially in the supporting cast. They are easy to connect with and love or hate according to the role they play. While this story is mostly a light hearted, feel good read, at the centre of it, are the themes of grief and loss and how we deal with that throughout of life. While there were elements of the story that felt very predictable, I couldn't put this book down and I'm still smiling about it as I write this review.

Thank you NetGalley, Hachette Australia and Quercus books for the free e-copy in exchange for this review.

Eileen and Leena, a grandmother and a granddaughter who decide to switch their life for awhile. Would it work for each of them? The story presents family relationship, grieving, love, friendship and community life. It reminds us that no matter what age you are, you need someone else to rely on. Overall it's a sweet funny read. Thanks Netgalley for an electronic ARC.

This book tackles a difficult subject in a light hearted manner. Leena and her grandmother Eileen are struggling with the loss of Leena’s sister Carla to cancer. They decide that would be beneficial to both of them to switch lives. Leena to her grandmother’s life in the country and Eileen to Leena’s London life.
The village that Leena moves to is full of eccentric characters and there are many mishaps. Eileen’s move to London is also full of different characters and entanglements.
I found the book a little difficult to get into at first, but I enjoyed it more as I went on. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, and quite a lot going on. Considering the subject matter, it is quite a lighthearted read. Overall I found The Switch interesting and reasonably enjoyable.

Leena Cotton is forced to take a sabbatical from her job after having a panic attack during a meeting.
She decides to switch places with her grandmother Eileen who wants to fullfill her young dream of living in London after her husband left her.

This is a fun light read, but is a bit predictable. What I loved the most is all the mini backstories of Leena and Eileen’s family and friends.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for an advanced coy.

Oh Beth O'Leary - you've done it again! After The Flatshare, I wasn't sure if you'd be able to write an as good follow up but boy, you truly have!

In typical O'Leary style, we are introduced in depth to the major characters - Eileen and Leena. They switch cities, houses, phones, laptops and friends. Each minor character also has their own mini plotline which I loved. In this heartwarming novel told in the POV of both major characters, we follow how they scale back from their old lives, making new friendships and having their own adventures. In the process of finding themselves they also learn to deal with grief.

Absolutely loved this! I don't think I've ever read a book where one of the main characters is nearly 80 so it was an interesting perspective. If I am half the lady Eileen Cotton is at 79 I will be very happy. I loved this all so much Beth O'Leary is amazing!

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 overdue rest. 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. As both women start to explore themselves (and others) they will have to question everything they know to be true to them.

I am such a big fan of Beth O'Leary's writing style. It is so easy to read, with humour and lightness. While I did enjoy The Flatshare more than The Switch, it was a still a really lovely story. I loved watching both Eileen and Leena grow. Despite being years apart, they both had amazing adventures and growth throughout the story. If you're looking for a lovely, uplifting story, than I cannot recommend this enough!

I am very privileged to be given a copy of this book to read and review before it's published.
This was a very easy book to read, it makes you feel good, makes you feel at home while reading it, hard to put down. I loved how it had the right amount of romance, humour and drama in it and it was all too much at once. There was also family love involved, and I loved that. Lots of books these days are only about 'couples' love and not so much about family, well this had both, The characters in this book were very easy to like, Grandma Eileen especially. Everything that she had to learn while she was living in London, and how she took that on board was great. I also loved how she opened herself up more towards the end of the book, it made me happy to see this, like she was apart of my own family. Everyone in the town of Hamleigh will do anything for any of its residence and I love that, it reminded me of Stars Hollow in Gilmore Girls, so great. I am excited to see what else Beth can come up with in her book writing career!