Great book!

First, I love listening to British voices, so reading the audiobook version of this story was really a treat. The actors are phenomenal. They really drew me into the story.

Second, I enjoyed the "Freaky Friday" concept of two people with totally different lives switching places for a bit. It's much less of a magical way that they switch, of course, but no less magical in terms of how it feels. I found myself smiling throughout, cheering for the meddling grandmother needing an adventure and the grieving granddaughter trying to heal.

Sweet, totally endearing story. Wonderful narration in the audiobook!

#TheSwitch #NetGalley

Leena is overworked Londoner who on the brink of a nervous breakdown returns home and changes lives with her grandmother Eileen.
Eileen goes to London to try the dating scene there and to try out Leena’s life.
Switching lives turns out to be the best decision they’ve ever made.

I really enjoyed this book. The story plot is brilliant and I really like how much good they manage to do in each others lives. It is also interesting to see how they work through the grieve they all have. I mean that is the inner point of this book in my opinion. The different ways people try to get through grieve. The book has both deep and serious and humorous and light tones to it. And all those tones make the book the brilliant piece of literature it is.

The characters are also interesting. I have not read too many books with an older lady as the main character so this was a new experience for me. I quite liked reading the dating adventures of Eileen. I also like Leena a lot, although her plain trust in Ethan frustrated me a bit, especially in the end. And speaking of Ethan, I really disliked him from the start. He just never gave me positive feelings.

All in all I enjoyed this audiobook. It is super cool that there is too different narrators, to give Eileen and Leena their own voices. It gives story more layers and it’s also a lot easier to follow.

After reading The Flatshare in March of 2020, I was so excited to read The Switch by Beth O’Leary. I love the whimsical nature of her books and the cheery English setting. This novel follows granddaughter Leena and grandmother Eileen Cotton who are both desperately in need of a change, especially after the emotional passing of Leena’s sister Carla who died of cancer. Leena is starting to have troubles at work and is ordered to take a two month sabbatical to relax and reset while Eileen is wanting some excitement in her life and is bored of the men in her village. So the grandmother-granddaughter duo decide to switch roles so that Leena can relax in her grandmothers house and Eileen can look for love in London.

This was such a light-hearted novel that made me think a lot about my relationship with my family and also realize how beneficial a change of scenery can be. Especially this year, I have been very confined to my house and my routine and this book made me realize how much I could benefit from a bit of a break or a change of pace. I really loved both Eileen and Leena and it was really powerful to see how they healed throughout the book. There were also so many different side characters that I really loved and would want to hear more about. I felt like we were really immersed into each characters town and life and I felt like I knew each neighbor well and what was going on with them. I don’t often read books with so many elderly characters and I found them to be some of my favorites and I really appreciated the contrast between Leena’s life as a young adult and Eileen's as a 79 year old and how each character was able to interweave into the others life.

I would highly recommend this book! Thank you to NetGalley for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Leena Cotton is still learning to cope with the death of her sister.  When she has a panic attack during an important presentation, her boss, much to Leena's horror, sends her home for a three-month vacation.  Eileen Cotton, Leena's grandmother, is feeling the need for a change.  What follows is the switch - they exchange keys and phones, move into each other's homes and attempt to walk a mile in one another's shoes.

O'Leary has done it again.  A charming read with lovely characters - Fitz, Leena's roommate, and Letitia, the elderly woman upstairs with whom Eileen forms a close friendship, as well as the members of the Shoreditch Social Club who put Leena's sanity to the test.  The characters are well developed, leaving the reader wishing that they could be part of this lovely circle of friends.

It is a rainy morning in my neck of the woods and I just finished listening to The Switch. The rain has slowed for a bit and the sun is peeping through the clouds. This is a wonderful book, full of sadness, grief, anger, love, hope and the joys of community living where neighbours look out for each other. The ending is just like the sun peeping through the clouds to give you that sunshine of hope that a dreary day may turn into a wonderful bright and sunny day.

The book tells the story of Leena and Eileen, her grandmother, switching roles for two months. Eileen to London, Leena to Yorkshire. Both needed a change, Leena’s sister and Eileen’s granddaughter, Carla passed away from cancer and they were all still struggling to move on, especially, Leena and her mother, Marion. I like the strong relationship between Leena and Eileen and the eventual reconciliation between Leena and Marion. There are lots of funny moments especially with Eileen looking for love and playing match maker.

With audio books, the narrator is the most critical element for me in deciding the purchase. The narration of this book is great. You feel the various emotions. I am not a “softy”, but the Epilogue almost made me cry.

I accidentally clicked listen now on NetGalley. I am glad that I did since I purchased both audio and eBook when the book was released in August but had not had a chance to read\listen. This is a great listening experience especially via airplay to Sonos speakers which enhances the listening experience. I highly recommend this audio books. Enjoy!

This book has left me so perfectly happy that I wish I could just live in its pages and be friends with all the characters for the rest of my days.

Beth O'Leary has flooded her novel with characters that are unique and so lovable that I can barely stand it. Leena is wonderful, filled to the brim with cleverness and strength. Eileen... Well, Eileen was my favorite character by a mile. Witty, hilarious, quite over societal conventions, and ready to take any task by storm. I absolutely adore her. In many ways, she reminds me of my own grandmother, which makes her all the more endearing.

This is so much more than a romance novel or chick-lit. It's about loss and grief, about the power of changing your perspective and getting out of your comfort zone, about friendships and family, and about listening to your heart. It had me laughing out loud (mostly during Eileen's bits), shouting "GET IT GIRL" to precisely nobody, and generally just smiling a lot.

The audio production for this book is also excellent! Both the narrators do an excellent job of bringing Leena and Eileen to life, and they even do special sound editing for phone calls to make them sound more real, which I thought was quite fun.

I loved this book. My initial thought about this book was Eileen and Leena actually switched in every way, but this storyline was SO much better. I loved the characters and their development. The growth and changed each of them develop during the time they are living the other's life is great, and not unbelievable for a grandmother and granddaughter to experience outside of the pages of a book.

Having two narrators made listening and understanding the characters easier. So many times this is not the case, and I really liked the two distinct voices.

Thank you for allowing me to listen to this book. I highly recommend this book and can't wait for Ms. O'Leary's next book.

Leena is your typical workaholic who suffers a panic attack one day, after giving a presentation at work. This leads her into a forced two month break by her boss. Eileen is a 79 year old grandma who’s husband left her for a dance instructor. Leena needs time to relax and recharge, and Eileen wants to find love, which is slim pickings where she lives. So the two of them decide to trade places for two months. Leena will move into her childhood home, and Eileen will move to London. This will give them a chance to find what they both need and want.

This was such an adorable story. Leena and Eileen were such wonderful characters. They felt like someone I would want to be friends with. I loved the dual POV between Leena and Eileen. This book was heartwarming, sad, bittersweet, and absolutely amazing. I did not want it to end. I would highly recommend this book if you’re looking for something sweet and warming!

3.5 stars.

Aww, this was a sweet and cute story about a girl who switched 'lives' (actually just house/apartment and phones) with her grandma for a period of time. Leena (the granddaughter) and Eileen (the grandma) Cotton learnt to adapt to their new environments and found some things about themselves along the journey.

The story pretty much unfolded as you'd expect. Lots of cliches ensued, such as internet dating and city diversity for grandma, ad country living and cooking for granddaughter. It also included the usual city-girls-are-snobs and corporate-work-is-boring-and-evil tropes.

It was heartfelt and definitely entertaining. Yes, I think some of the tropes were overdone, but I still enjoyed the book tremendously. I'd recommend getting your hand on the audiobook as well, because it was narrated by the lovely Alison Steadman and Daisy Edgar-Jones (who starred in 'Normal People').

I also appreciated the resurgence of older (60+ years old) main protagonists like Eileen Cotton. Keep them coming!

This was such a delightful romance. A grandmother and granddaughter swapping lives and discovering new side of themselves. I listened to this with a smile on my face. The narrators were excellent. I highly recommend this charming novel!

This books follows a grandmother and granddaughter as they swap lives for two months. Leena, a business minded woman, who is still struggling after the death of her sister, has blown a big presentation at work and is given two months paid leave to get her life together and to properly grieve. Eileen, whose husband left her, believes it’s finally time to start dating again, but there are no eligible gentlemen her age in her quaint Yorkshire village, so off to London she goes.

I absolutely loved Eileen. She is definitely the best part of this book for me. I never thought I would be so invested in the love life of a 79 year old woman. I loved seeing her learn how to navigate dating in this new age of online dating apps and texting. She is everything I want to be when I get older. She is so witty and numerous times I found myself smiling and laughing while reading her sections in this book. I absolutely love her drive to help the community and make new friends, which leads to some very funny interactions.

Leena fell a little flat for me as a character. I found her a bit annoying and couldn’t really connect with her. I feel her romance plot line was a bit forced, we definitely could have done without it and the book would have still gotten its point across. I did enjoy all her interactions with her grandmother’s friends and nosy neighbors though. It was nice to see Leena grow as a person and I definitely liked her a whole lot more in the second half of the book.

Overall I loved this book and if you are looking for a feel good, funny, enjoyable read then this is for you.

A wonderfully narrated story of be careful what you wish for. A young woman and her grandmother, both unhappy in their current lives, are looking for a different kind of excitement to change their lives for the better. Each thinks the other's life is pretty close to perfect, so decide to trade settings and find that one person or thing that will make them happy. The voices matched perfectly the moods and ages of the characters without making them seem unreal. The scenes were realistic when voiced, the characters emotional remarks and reactions perfect.

A really good story told by some first rate narration. Loved this!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was the first time reviewing an audiobook through NetGalley using the app. The app has a significant flaw in that you need the audio stops at the end of each chapter and you need to return to the app to press play on the next chapter. I listen while I’m driving, so this was especially problematic.

4 stars

This was an interesting premise and I liked the parallels between the two leads and their generational differences. I think I could have listened to both narrators all day. The story took its time and I enjoyed watching the characters grow. I will read more from this author.

This was a book about a Grandmother, Eileen who was the most interesting character to me and her Granddaughter. Both need a change in their lives. So, they decide to Switch residences for a while to see how life will be.

It was a good concept and interesting book, but I did want more from the characters. The author wrote The Flatshare, so expected more from this book. It was good.

I can’t believe I’ve stayed up all night finishing this but it was such a compelling story, I couldn’t put it down.

The premise is refreshing and not something I was expecting to enjoy, I’ll be honest. However, I find that Beth O’Leary can do no wrong in my eyes and I’ll love everything she writes. It’s a heartwarming story about family, both biological and chosen, new beginnings and forgiveness.

I usually write long reviews but I really can’t think of anything I disliked other than Ethan and Ceci because they’re fucking cunts.

If you’ve loved The Flatshare, I’m pretty sure you’ll love O’Leary’s newest novel. I highly recommend it to everyone looking for something different.

The Switch made me seriously want to switch

Sometimes I wish I could switch lives with someone else. The problem, however, is no one wants to switch lives with me.
Perhaps I have shared too much …

Regardless, The Switch, by author Beth O'Leary was just what the doctor ordered to tame my raw nerves after a long day's work.

As a commuter, I listened to the Switch on audio, a treat that utterly enchanted me, leaving me spellbound by the character voices of Allison Steadman and Daisy Edgar Jones.

Published by Macmillan Audio and Flatiron Books, The Switch hit the shelves of booksellers in August 2020.

In this story, three generations of Cotton women face vastly different lives from the ones they lived at the time of 20-something family member Carla's death.

Now estranged from her once-close mother, 30-something Lena tries to bury herself in work to avoid dealing with her deep grief as grandmother, Eileen, picks up the pieces of her daughter's devastating life.

Lena faces her emotional breaking point after having an anxiety attack at a corporate meeting while Eileen reels from the abandonment of her life-long husband, who left in haste and never returned.

Boy, can I relate.

Eileen and Lena, who share a special closeness, decide it's time for a break and the result is shocking.

Hmm.
Secretly, if I wanted to be one of these characters, I'd choose Grandma Eileen. So classic. So reserved. So … shocking.

Set in both London and rural England, The Switch is like most other fish-out-of-water stories that successfully entertained readers and moviegoers through the years.

Lena's textured and trendy friends move this story forward and Eileen's friend set are cliché but truly wonderful.

What do you expect from old people? (Just kidding. I'm old.)

The Switch's characters transform what could have been another formulaic story into a stress-reducing pass time worthy of this commuter's long drive.

Heck, there were a few days I took the long way home to hear a few more chapters.

Though this story is somewhat predictable in its nature, the Eileen storyline is original and often surprisingly fun.

I give The Switch a 9 on my stress-reducing scale.

The Switch is perfect for young and … ah, older women reader's who want to relax with a good read, escape the kids for a 30-minute soak in the hot tub, or hide from their own lifelong husband.

Loved this audio narrator, they brought the book to life! Such a delightful story as well. This was exactly the light content I needed right now and I finished this one in less than 24 hours. I couldn't stop listening!

I really enjoyed these sweet characters, funny situations they got into, and while parts were sad, it wasn't overwhelming with emotion. I quickly got sucked into their lives!

I received an advanced copy of The Switch on audiobook from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Honestly this was probably one of the least exciting audiobooks I have listened to. It was well done and the story was fine but I was never excited to pick up this book to listen. It was relatively feel good but overall I won't remember this book next week.

I thought The Flatshare was a better story, but this was still cute. I listened to the audiobook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Burned out grandma and granddaughter switch homes for 2 months in order to get a break from their current lives. I really enjoyed how this process helped them to discover themselves and brought their family closer together.

Unfortunately, this didn't make it for me. I think the concept is adorable and I loved the narrators- but I think it's the "time of corona" that made it hard for me to get invested in the drama. I did love seeing an older woman with a robust life on the page- they are so rarely represented, and when they are represented, it's usually as a background. It was also hard for me to listen to them speak about the sister who passed away from cancer- as I find that a personally triggering storyline. Overall, most definitely not a bad book, but one that was not for me at the time.