I absolutely LOVED this heartwarming, tear jerking, entertaining and laugh out loud story! The narrators were perfection and made this book even better (if that’s possible!) I firmly believe everyone needs to read/listen to this book. This was a new author to me and now I want to go back and check out her other stuff.

Story rating:
This was a very sweet book, and I appreciated reading a romance that wasn’t too incredibly steamy for once. I appreciated that the focus was on the healing of the main characters after they experienced a great loss. Overall, I thought the book was too long and needed to be edited a bit as the middle dragged for me.

Audio narration:
I love when there is more than one narrator, especially when the story is told from multiple perspectives. I appreciated that both narrators’ voices felt age appropriate for their characters. My only complaint was that with both narrators you could definitely tell when they were swallowing which bothered me a bit. I also listened to most of the narration at 1.25x or 1.50x speed because the natural speed felt too slow.

"The Switch" by Beth O'Leary is a fun and easy read (well, in my case, listen). I very much enjoyed the audiobook read by British actors Alison Steadman and Daisy Edgar-Jones.

The premise is sweet. Very beach-read like.

A bored and wanna-be-happenin', recently divorced grandma lives in the countryside. Due to unforeseen circumstances, she ends up swapping homes with her burned-out, corporate-ladder-climber granddaughter who lives in London.

It's a test. Can both of these ladies find joy and fulfillment during their 2-month trial?

Eileen, the grandmother, ends up finding that, yes, she can find fellow octogenarians to date. She just needed a larger pool to choose from. And London surely delivers! And Leena, the twenty-something, uptight granddaughter, who desperately needs a chill-pill, gets to hang out with her grandma's friends and neighbors. (Who bring their own fun energy to the plot).

Each chapter alternates between the two generations, and I very much found myself rooting for Eileen. She becomes quite the ladies man! I found it such a relief to know that dating and sex don't end after menopause. You can shake things up well into your 80's!

I was much less fond of Leena's story and kept wanting to get back to her Grandma's plotline.

In the end, all worked out and each found themselves in a better place. But did they make the permanent switcheroo? Or did they go back to their respective lives? You've got to listen to find out for yourselves!

A special thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for gifting me a copy in exchange for this unbiased review.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishing house and the author for the opportunity to read a complimentary advance audiobook copy of this book in return for a review based upon my honest opinion.

What a wonderful summer audiobook. It was cute, it was heartwarming, it was funny and just all together lovely. Lena and Eileen granddaughter and grandmother, respectively, both decide to switch things up and trace spaces for a few months. Lena, will stay in her grandmothers small town for two months and get herself sorted out, she is still hurting from the death by cancer of her sister, Carla. She is to take over her grandmothers many responsibilities with the local townsfolk and look out for her mother, Marion, who she is will so angry with, she feels that she should have fought harder to get her sister to try other cancer treatments. Eileen, whose husband left her, is ready to get out there and live life again but feels like their is no eligible men in her small town. She agrees to stay in Lena’s flat with her roommates and get out there and enjoy life.

I really enjoyed the way the story is told, the narrator did a wonderful job in telling the story.
It was a great book to listen to while I laid on the patio and enjoyed the sun. This is my first book by this author, I will definitely be looking for more.

In the Switch, we travel to England and get to Eileen and her adult grandaughter, Leena Cotton. Leena has been forced to take a two-month sabbatical from work after a big failure during a presentation. She decides to escape to her grandmother's house in the country for some R&R.

Eileen is newly single and getting ready to turn eighty. She wants a second chance at love but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn't offer many eligible gentleman.

They decide to do a two-month swap.

Eileen will head to London to look for love while living in Leena's apartment. Leena will look after Eileen's cottage and social responsibilities in the the small town. What ensues is a cute, romantic and funny journey of self-discovery for each of them. One of them sets out to find love and the other one to rest but along they way, they'll each find out more about themselves and see things in a new life.

This is a heartfelt story about love, loss, losing yourself along the way, finding yourself again.and family.

The narration is fantastic and you'll love quirky Eileen and awkward Leena.

An adorable story set in idyllic Yorkshire village and a flat in Shoreditch. Eileen and Lena are grandmother and granddaughter who switch accommodation when Lena's job puts her on two months' leave. What follows is hilarious shenanigans that change the lives of those closest to them in each setting. A really lovely listen and great way to spend a few afternoons.

I absolutely loved this book! I added it to my list because I remembered enjoying The Flatshare and had to see what else O'Leary was capable of. Beth O'Leary did not disappoint.

I was having trouble starting a new book after reading Where the Crawdads Sing and I’m so glad I read this next. (The books are totally different in terms of emotions and style)

The first thing I have to comment on is the production of the audiobook. The performance was phenomenal, down to the breaths and swallows taken by the narrator. The narration definitely added to my experience of this story. Compared to other audiobooks, I engaged with this audiobook a little differently. I often read along with the ebook version and highlighted certain passages I found amusing, or true (stay tuned on rukhsandbooks.tumblr.com). If I didn’t have the ebook with me, I often went back and re-read the chapters I already listened to. It was just too good a tale and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This story gave me all the mid-summer Christmas movie feels without Christmas! It left my heart

glowing and I looked forward to picking it up.

I will definitely be adding this book to my “feel good, read again” list.

I thought my favourite character dynamic was Eileen and Bee, but by the end of the book it was hard to pick a favourite duo, all the characters are just so wholesome.

Thank you Netgalley for this audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Love books with two POVs. And I had never read one that involves a grandmom and her grandaughter which was very endearing. I may have a weakness for that trope. Having loved The Flatshare I could not help but want to read more of Beth o Leary's work. And i was not dissapointed. What a wonderfully written book! Laid back and just what I needed although I could have used just one more chapter to get more of a closure of sorts but that did not ruin my experience. I may just be too excited about liking this author so much.

Thank you Netgalley and publishers! By the way, this is the first audiobook I am reviewing and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the voice narration on top of the storyline.

I'm really enjoying this book but finding that the audio is perhaps not the best format for it. For me. The narrators are fantastic, but it's moving slowly for me on audio. It's such a good slice of life that I think I would prefer to read this in print. I intend to purchase a copy once it releases. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to try it early on audio!

I love the concept of this book; a grandma and granddaughter switching lives for two months. I think this book had so much potential but unfortunately it fell flat for me. I was bored most of the time. There were a few scenes that were funny and cute, but most of the time I wasn't super engrossed with this audiobook.

I loved that each chapter alternated between the grandma and granddaughter narrating. However, the narrator who played the grandma drove me crazy! It sounded like she had a wad of spit in her mouth and all times and desperately needed to take a break to swallow. As someone who is sensitive to sounds, this made it really hard to listen to. I thought the granddaughter's narration was great though.

The Switch is a charming story about a woman and her Grandmother switching living arrangements for two months, one for the purpose of relaxation and reconnecting with her mother, the other to start dating again. I received an audio book copy through NetGalley for an honest review.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The story was sweet and seems like the perfect fit for a Hallmark movie. The two narrators were brilliant, the only downfall here was that there were a lot of swallowing and other noises that came across very loudly that made my skin crawl quite a bit. Because of that I was entirely unable to listen to the audio book with headphones on. This is certainly a speaker only kind of audio book. It did not keep me from finishing it, as I thought that it was a quite interesting story line.

This was super cute! I loved that we saw Eileen’s sexuality and romance play out equally to Lena’s, because I think that’s something that’s not portrayed enough in romance. I enjoyed both of their actions to find themselves and where they belonged, it had me really missing my grandma.

Who can I swap with?! What would I give for a change. Two months. Wearing someone else's shoes. Come on, who's in?!?

I just finished the audio for The Switch by @betholeary I really enjoyed it. Some charming characters. Fun story. Slightly predictable. But a feel good story.

Thank you #netgalley and #macmillanaudio for the advanced copy of this audiobook

I adored this book!

Somehow I always love hearing from two main characters perspectives - in this case a grandmother finding love later in life and her granddaughter finding herself after great loss.

The audio was amazing too!! Do yourself a favor and give this one a listen or read ❤️❤️

I liked this one, but didn't love it by any means. I found the writing went on and on a bit too much and I got quite bored throughout. Having lost both of my grandmothers, I really enjoyed reading about the relationship between a grandmother and granddaughter. It was so bittersweet to me. The story overall, however, just didn't hit the mark as much as I was wanting it to when I picked it up. Still enjoyable though! The audiobook was great, except for one narrator, who you could hear swallowing. It was like mouth sound ASMR noises. It actually made me cringe.

*Thank you to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy.*

I loved the way this book was written, but loved the way it was told even more on the audio. The chapters were written in different perspectives and each character had such strong, fun personalities. I fell in love with all the characters so quickly & it was such a cute, fun story to listen to! The relationship between granddaughter and grandmother is so beautiful and the grandmother is so comical! Definitely recommend if you’re looking for a fun and easy read or audiobook! The book is about a grandmother and granddaughter who switch places. The grandmother learns to online date and the granddaughter learns to take over all her grandmother’s projects.

This story of a grand daughter and grand mother switching living arrangements so they both get a change of scenery was really enjoyable. The grand daughter needs a break from her highly stressful job in London. Grand mother is interesting in dating but lives in a small village with an extremely small pool of dating candidates. They do The Switch and the two narrators tell this story so well. The voices are spot on. The fact that they change the sound to make their voices believable as a phone call voice really won me over. If you want a humorous story with great narration, listen to The Switch by Beth O'Leary.

After reading The Flatshare last month, I immediately ordered The Switch! I also saw that @Netgalley had it on audio as a listen now, so of course I downloaded it too!
This was a sweet story of Leena and her grandmother Eileen! They switch lives, one living in London and the other in rural Yorkshire! They are both at crossroads in their lives, and it’s so fun to follow on both of their journeys. They both learned so much about themselves and each other. I listened/read with a smile on my face and with the thought that this would make a great feel good movie!
The audiobook was perfectly narrated, and I enjoyed the little touches of the phone calls and how the narrators added little touches to their voices to show emotion!

This novel about a Grandmother and Granddaughter who swap lives for 8 weeks is the most intimate look at the mother/daughter dynamic that I've ever read. I adored the audiobook, Daisy and Alison do a marvelous job at bringing both the characters to life (even if it was a little peculiar to here Marianne and Pam exist in the same world.. if you know, you know).

I think Beth O'Leary did a wonderful job at writing two female protagonists with such depth and range, which is something that I've struggled with in the past when reading a female/female duel narrative - one character always seems to lack. In fact, all the female characters in this book were unique in their own ways. There was no 'blank wall' character - incredible!

I also appreciated the various topics that this book covers - domestic abuse, grief, depression, loneliness, gay rights, cheating, etc.

This book is definitely worth a read.

The Switch is a "brain candy" read that I enjoyed a great deal. The writing is fun and breezy, but the subject matter touches on real issues. O'Leary shows talent in balancing the the light and the serious to create a winning story. Fans of The Flatshare will very much enjoy The Switch.