User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Beth O'Leary proves that her brilliant debut The Flatshire was no fluke with this smashing follow up, the perfect reading material for our anxious and self isolated times. 79 year old Eileen Cotton's husband, Wade has recently left her for a dance instructor, and for the tree climbing Eileen, she is far from addled, she is searching for sex, love and another man. Living in the Yorkshire Dales and the tiny village of Hamleigh-in-Harksdale, there are slim pickings, as Eileen reflects on how she had planned on going to London before pregnancy and marriage. Living in a warehouse flat in Shoreditch, London, over achieving Leena has a panic attack during a presentation to a client, forced into a two month sabbatical by her boss, she visits her grandmother, Eileen, in Yorkshire. Upon learning of her grandmother's dilemma, she suggests they swap lives and switch homes.
The Cotton women are still heavily in the throes of an unbearable loss and grief, one that has resulted in an estrangement with Leena still raging against her mother. Both Eileen and Leena are indomitable organisers, with Leena pitching in with local gossiping Neighbourhood Watch Committee, their activities and May Day celebrations. After an initially disheartening experience in London, Eileen is aided by Leena's friend Bee in compiling a profile for dating apps, and before long she is juggling men like there is no tomorrow. An inveterate meddler in the lives of others, Eileen is a hit with well nigh everyone, particularly Leena's flatmates like Fitz, becoming a veritable whirlwind as she plans and sets up the Silver Shoreditch Social Club after discovering the elderly isolated Letitia. Whilst there are the odd flies in the ointment for both women, such as a scamming attempt, both women have a whale of a time.
O'Leary has a remarkable talent in writing with wit, charm and humour whilst creating the kind of characters you cannot help but adore. The real star of this novel is undoubtedly the unforgettable and strong Eileen, willing to do the right thing by protecting her granddaughter even whilst knowing that will once again bring heartbreak to her. Life will never be the same again for either woman, the new adventures, love and challenges in their lives offer them the opportunity to process and come to terms with their grief whilst allowing them opportunities to evolve their identities to be who they are now. It is worth mentioning whilst so many of us are pushed into enforced isolation at the moment for who knows how long, many of the elderly have loneliness imposed on them at all times by families and communities. Which explains why I found Eileen's recognition of this and her efforts to establish the Silver Shoreditch Social Club so wonderfully amazing. Highly recommended! Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC.
Rating: really liked it
this is exactly the kind of wholesome, endearing, and sweet content everyone needs in their lives right now.
so it makes me so sad that i didnt love this as much as i wanted to, but its definitely not the books fault. i just wasnt in the mood for such a slow, character driven novel.
the entire story is explained in the synopsis - nothing new is given to the reader, everything that happens is mentioned in the blurb. so there really wasnt anything for me to look forward to in terms of plot because i already knew how the story would play out. thats not always a bad thing, especially if a reader is able to connect to the characters, but i definitely need more from this. i checked out here and there because there wasnt anything happening. i almost felt bored, which is a shame because this has such an adorable message.
i think those who are enjoy unhurried stories, quaint english villages, and likeable characters who want what they deserve will really appreciate this.
↠ 3.5 stars
Rating: really liked it
I absolutely loved the authors debut
The Flatshare. I remember gobbling that book up in a day. While
The Switch had the same easy and effortless-to-read writing — I never felt the same enthusiasm while reading this. Maybe it was just me though.
What came as a nice surprise was how much I preferred the older characters in this book to the younger ones! I found them hilarious and charming. Eileen especially was a favourite. She was just such a joy of a character!!
These people. There’s such a fierceness to them, such a lovingness. When I got here, I thought their lives were small and silly, but I was wrong. They’re some of the biggest people I know. Leena on the other hand was not really to my liking. It's nothing against her, I just felt I couldn't connect to her character and she felt very one dimensional.
In all, this book was delightful but
not the shining star that I was expecting. Make no mistake, I'll definitely be reading more of O'leary's future books.
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Buddy reading with Ameerah and May 🌸
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I thought this was going to be like a Freaky Friday movie body switch. And then I reread the blurb and realised it's
a place swap not a body swap *face palms*
That's what I get for skimming through blurbs.
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My review of The Flatshare
Rating: really liked it
A book is a 5-star read if you end up hugging it by the end, right?
This made my heart feel utterly warm! It made me laugh and I was completely charmed by the characters, especially Eileen. She’s who I want to be if I ever get to the age of 79. Heck, she’s who I want to be right now! The elderly folks really have no shame or filter. And they use those traits with wisdom too. And wit.
Beth O’Leary continues to write a world I don’t want to leave. This story had the perfect balance of heartfelt and emotional moments, whilst making you laugh out loud. Plus, I was convinced these people were a part of my life. I didn’t, and still don’t, want to let go.
The main premise of the story is that Eileen and Leena swap lives after Leena has a breakdown at work and you only have a breakdown once life catches up to you.
Through this, they live a different life to the one that they’re used to, which ultimately leads them to the life they do want to live.
If there are two words that sum up the essence of ‘The Switch’ for me is that it’s healing and about community. Beth O’Leary perfectly captured all of those aspects in every sense of the word and more.
The whole thing was just clever. I loved that it felt so goddamn British - there was so much tea drinking present! - and charming. Everything about it felt real. Every time I picked up to read this book, I was there, in a trance, but there.
Sigh.
Now, I’m off to make myself some Yorkshire Tea and mope around for a bit. I don’t think I’ll ever forget these characters. I can’t wait to revisit them.
Rating: really liked it
The Switch by Beth O'Leary, narrated by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Alison Steadman, is my second audio book by Macmillan Audio via NetGalley Shelf. My first book was glitchy so I wanted to give this method another try and this time the book worked perfectly. What a joyful treat this one was, very cute and heartwarming, which are things I normally don't get to say because of the type of books that I usually choose.
Grandmother Eileen switches locations for two months, with her granddaughter, Leena. Leena experienced a panic attack during a very important presentation at work and was forced to take a two month leave of absence. Seventynine year old Eileen is finally ready to jump into dating since her husband left her for a much younger woman.. The thing is, the dating pool in the small community where Eileen resides is much too small for there to be a chance to find anyone to date and Leena needs to get away from the hustle and bustle of her city life or she'll never be able to unwind enough to recover from her anxiety. So they swap homes and start doing their magic in their new locations. The synopsis makes it sound like this swap was hard for both women but I didn't see it that way at all. I feel like it revived them despite the difficulties (or because of them) of learning new things in each life. Both women brought people together and helped people change. But, both women are also still mourning the death of Carla, Leena's sister, and being back in her grandmother's little town, where Carla died, makes Leena face the grief that she had been stuffing down with work and busy-ness.
This book is full of the people from both women's lives and the author and narrators brought them all to life. I need to read/listen to more books like this one because it certainly put a smile on my face. I also know that I'm beginning to get attached to audio books because of this experience.
Publication date: August 18th 2020
Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this ARC.
Rating: really liked it
From this day forward, I should only read about elderly people.
Yes, I am only 22, and no, I do not enjoy the real-life opinions or habits of our society’s most aged individuals, but I am tired of the antics of young people.
This book, for example, follows a grandma/grandkid duo who swap lives, and I ran out of energy for the younger half of the cast on approximately page 7. Which is unfortunate, because Leena (the aforementioned grandkid, who is actually a grown woman in her 20s) being extremely stupid and trusting all the wrong people and then realizing 15 pages before the end that this is billed as a romance novel and she wasn’t in love and would therefore have to mash her face into what seemed to me to be a random man...anyway, all that nonsense took up way more than half of our page time.
Tough for me, because this would have been at least 4 stars if it was even mostly about Eileen, a badass octogenarian finding herself and having casual sex in the big city. Alas, I am doomed to a life of suffering.
Plus there’s only about a 9% chance I would have picked this up if that were the synopsis, so. Upsides and downsides.
In conclusion, I loved Eileen but Leena’s character arc was the bane of my existence and I would like to find one of those rubber-sticky-hand toys from my childhood (that were extremely fun for all of 15 minutes before they lost their stickiness and got dusty and gross) and hit her with it.
Like. SPOILERS, but. (view spoiler)
[You’re telling me she thinks her grandma made up seeing her boyfriend kiss another woman? You’re telling me she rejects her crush because she loves her boyfriend and only settles for the crush when she confirms that the boyfriend cheated on her? (hide spoiler)] Unsubscribe.
And that’s not even the only annoying thing about this!!!
I mean, I sometimes don’t think books have room for both a romance plotline and a finding-yourself plotline, so no shock that jamming two of each into 400 pages wasn’t the most stellar reading experience of my life, but still.
I also get frustrated when the lead characters are Two Perfect Angels who have Had Their Hearts Broken But Never Did Anything Wrong, Ever, In Their Lives. Let’s get some screwups going, people!!! If I wanted to read about saints I would pick up religious texts, not newly released British romcoms!!!
Bottom line: Only old people deserve rights.
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didn't think i'd ever prefer the second-chance romance of an elderly woman to the christmas movie style high-powered consultant who moves to a little village, but it turns out anything's possible.
review to come / 2.5 stars
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so maybe i only read british rom coms now...and what about it???
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i found out about this book 5 minutes ago and approx 4 minutes and 58 seconds ago it became the only thing i care about
Rating: really liked it
This is delightful, heartwarming, poignant, beautiful novel with different likable narrators/heroines: grandma and granddaughter.
I have to admit: I wasn’t a great fan of Flatshare. It was good written story, both in my opinion the characters and the progression of their romantic involvement failed me during my reading. So I have second thoughts when I decided to try another novel of the same author but surprisingly this book worked so much better for me because its genre is a women’s fiction and family story with romantic vibes. So romance parts of the book are a little overshadowed by two women’s self-discovery and new beginnings, making peace with their past theme.
It has promising premise with the idea similar to Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet’s “Holiday” movie: But this time: the women are related and they don’t switch places between the houses at the different continents. And I have to admit: this book’s characters are more realistically portrayed than the movie’s soap opera style predictable rom-com story-line.
Let’s meet with two protagonists: 79 years old, smart, sarcastic, vivid grandmother (reminded me of mash up Golden Girls’ Blanche and Sophia) Eileen, feeling alone, abandoned when her dear partner cheated on her and ran away with a dance instructor, wanting to get drown in the dating pool but there are not much great candidates she may choose and she is too old to kiss rotten frogs and wait for them to turn into kings.
In the meantime her granddaughter who shares the same name with her ( her own daughter thought she was going to die so for showing her appreciation she named her own girl with her mother’s name. But guess what: stubborn Eileen won the duello against grim-reaper and as a solution: they start calling her granddaughter “Leena”) suffering from panic attacks resulted with mandatory two months leave from her job ( at least she didn’t get fired and during two months leave, she will still get paid.), fighting the guilt feelings and grief after her sister lost her battle against the cancer and she still blames her mother, rejecting to visit her.
Two of them need a quick break and seize their opportunities of their lives so during Leena’s visit, Eileen offers her switch places. Changing scenery may be helpful for both of them to have clearer vision about their lives: Eileen may have more dating opportunities with more eligible candidates, getting rid of her daily life routine. And Leena can have more opportunities to spend her time instead of staying at her flat, pouting, getting bored. When she accepts to switch places with her grandmother, she also accepts to attend “Neighborhood Watch” Meeting, bingo days, reconnecting with her mother and of course May Day Festival organization. But as soon as she moved her new place she starts having hard time to adapt and she starts having problems with her long distance relationship with Ethan who works at the same company with her. And charming, mostly annoying Jackson starts confusing her mind and gives her excitement she hasn’t had for a long time. Their freenemies to friends then lovers story is great addition to the story’s general progression.
I also enjoyed dating adventures of Eileen which were entertaining and eventually romantic.
The conclusion of the story was also well-written, tear jerking, heart melting.
So overall: this is sweet, entertaining, well-crafted, humorous, romantic enjoyable family, self-discovery, grief, life and happiness story. We need more feel good books like this in these days which put smile on our faces and help us there is still hope out there!
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Rating: really liked it
Can I compare this book to my cat? I want to because both are warm, cuddly, and super adorable.
I decided to read this specifically because I wanted a simple, feel-good story and it was perfect for that.
I really enjoyed Leena's half of the book. She's fun and feisty. And I thought the author did a great job portraying her grief over her sister and anger at her mother in a positive and endearing way. It also gave the book more depth than I was expecting.
I also liked Eileen, and appreciate the qualities her character represented. I did find that 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 she was a bit 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 and that, at times, it bordered on gimmicky.
Also, this was my first time listening to an audiobook! Once I stopped over thinking it I fell completely into the story. It was great! I could listen while doing chores. I listened a little bit at work 🤫, I even listened while reading a different book off my Kindle. Joking about that last one!! My brain hurts just to imagining doing that!!!
Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.
Rating: really liked it
Eileen makes me miss my gran 😢 she’s so courageous and witty and encouraging ❤️ she was such a likable character. I loved the idea of this granny and granddaughter swapping lives. While it was predictable, it was still entertaining! 🙂
Rating: really liked it
Rounded down from roughly 4.5 stars ⭐️ This was my first Beth O’Leary book but it absolutely will not be my last.
The Switch follows Leena and her grandmother Eileen who are struggling in their daily lives and in need of a change. So they decide to swap lives, with Eileen trying online dating in London, and Leena going back to her rural home village.
This was just the charming and easy read that I needed right now. I found myself smiling much of the time, laughing occasionally and with tears in my eyes towards the end. This book tackles grief in such a real way that I found I personally connected so much to the experience of grief by the characters. I fell completely in love with all of the characters in this book, but particularly the quirky and different characters from the village. Arnold was a particular favourite of mine as he reminded me of my grandad! A tough exterior with such a warm and tender heart.
I absolutely love easy reads based in small villages so the setting of this was perfect for me. It felt so vivid and real, I felt a great sadness at saying goodbye to the characters. I love that this book was easy to read whilst tackling the difficult topic of grief. It managed to strike a perfect balance with not being too serious but not being insensitive either. I cannot believe I’ve waited so long to try this author, but I am really excited to delve into their other books now!
I would recommend this to any fans of light novels, with a focus on family, friends and romance.
Rating: really liked it
After falling head over heels for
The Flatshare last year, this was quite possibly my most anticipated book of 2020. I am so, so happy to report that this completely lived up to my expectations and that I absolutely adored it. Beth O'Leary has a way of writing characters that feel so completely REAL and true to life and I think I can now confidently call her a favorite author. My only real complaint about this one is that I feel like the romantic relationships weren't quite as flushed out as I would have liked them to be, but I also recognize that they were not intended to be the main aspect of the story so it would make sense that they would pale in comparison to the relationships between Eileen and Leena and Marian. Also-- I listened to this one partly via audiobook (thank you, NetGalley & Macmillan Audio!), and it too was SO well done. The voice actors were incredible and really brought Eileen and Leena to life in the BEST way. Honestly, y'all, this book was just an absolute delight and I can guarantee that I will be re-reading it for years to come. I highly, highly recommend.
TW: cancer, death of a loved one, severe grief/depression
Rating: really liked it
UPDATED ON 3/11/22
I loved EVERY SINGLE MINUTE of this delightful audio book, narrated by Alison Steadman and Daisy Edgar-Jones of Hulu's "Normal People"! I definitely recommend listening if you enjoy AUDIBLE!
The Flat Share was a 5 star book for me last year, so, I have been eager to read (or listen to) this latest offering by Beth O’Leary, and it did not disappoint!
In fact..I enjoyed it even more!
So, I am thrilled to update this review and share this news!
The Flatshare, which sold over half a million copies, and her second novel, The Switch-both now have small and big-screen deals– The Flatshare was just commissioned by Paramount+ as its first UK comedy series and will star Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abbey, Brave New World) and Anthony Welsh (The Great).
The Switch is in development for a studio feature film by Amblin Partners (Steven Spielberg's production company) and starring Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel).
So, what’s this one about?
29 year old Leena Cotton has just been ordered to take a 2 month Sabbatical from work.
Her Grandmother, 79 years young Eileen, would like a second chance at love but she has known all of the eligible gentlemen in her tiny Yorkshire village forever.
The solution? Swap lives for 2 months!!
Leena moves into Eileen’s house, and Eileen moves into Leena’s Flat, with Leena’s roommates who help her to set up a “profile”, swipe right, and try “casual dating”!
This is contemporary fiction at its BEST!
It’s not a typical “romance” as the joy of this charming story is how the two women embrace their opportunity, and the people in their “temporary” lives, with wry and witty observations!
Their narratives alternate, and though I enjoyed both women, Eileen’s chapters were my favorite! I absolutely ADORED her! ??
These are characters I already miss!
Available Now!
Rating: really liked it
It's only fitting that I review this wholesome and heart-warming love letter to Yorkshire on actual Yorkshire day, whilst drinking a cup of Yorkshire tea!
Eileen is 79 and wants a change, and to start dating again,
Leena needs a break, she's tired, stressed and grieving,
So they decide to swap lives for two months!
Will a change of scenery help the two women?The Switch was just what I needed! It was like having a cuppa with an old friend! The plot was nothing new (hello 'The Holiday') but this charming, heartfelt book was all about the characters and their relationships. It won't be a book for everyone, it's quite a slow building character driven plot, and more about family and friendships, than a full on romance read, but I really liked it! Last year The Flatshare ended up being one of my favourite reads, despite it taking a while for me to get into it. This book charmed me from the very start, with its lovable characters, charming village life, witty banter and feel good storyline!
Told from both Eileen and Lina's POVs, I was engaged and entertained no matter which one of them I was reading about! However, Eileen really shone out of the pages! She was hilarious, wise and just an amazing character. I really want to be her when I'm 79! I really liked both characters, and hoped for the best for them, on their paths of self discovery. I also loved many of the side characters, from grumpy Arnold (I ❤️ him!), snarky Nicola, sharp Betsy, easy-going Jackson, Basil and Hank the dog in Yorkshire, to Bee, Martha, Fitz in London! This book was all about family, friendship and the importance of a community. It had some important things to say about loneliness, and how hard it can be for the older generation, when sometimes their house becomes more of a prison than a sanctuary. It also looked at grief and anger at the loss of a loved one, and family estrangement. I laughed and I cried at both the village life antics like the May day fair and Hank the dog taking Leena for a walk, and also loved Eileen learning about internet dating, and figuring out London.
I had heard great things about the audio, but was in the mood to read it, but I can totally see what a good audiobook it would be!
Basically I just want to visit Hamleigh-in-Harksdale, to sit and have a cuppa with all of these characters! This book made me smile, it made me feel good. What more can you ask for?! I see that Beth O'Leary has another book out next year, The Road Trip,and I will definitely be reading it!
Rating: really liked it
Last year (Jan 2019) I had the good fortune of reading Beth O'Leary's debut novel, The Flatshare, as an ARC from NetGalley and it was a book that really gave me great hope in her abilities as a writer because she managed to find a fresh and unique spin on the romantic dramedy genre of fiction...
And with this new novel The Switch she has once again shown that she is a brilliant storyteller in this area.
I loved this book.
Utterly loved it.
It gave me all the feels I could ever have hoped for and I genuinely squeaked with joy when I closed my kindle on the last page. It's rare that a writer comes along that knows how to marry memorable characters with a warm, inviting storyline and that also knows how to sprinkle it with the right touch of both bittersweet emotion and romance.
But that's exactly what I got from The Switch.
I completely lost myself in this book: I giggled like a little schoolgirl, I brushed away delicate tears.... I just loved it! Utter feel-good central!!!!
The premise follows a grandmother, Eileen Cotton and her granddaughter Leena who agree to swap lives for a number of months.
Seventy something year old Eileen needs to jazz up her life and find a new love after splitting from her difficult husband Wade. So she comes to London and moves into her granddaughter Leena's flat complete with her flatmates Fitz and heavily pregnant Martha. Leena's best friend Bee also becomes besties with Eileen and together with this cast of characters Eileen gets involved in the world of online dating, but more importantly, she brings the sense of community she had in her Yorkshire village to London and makes it her mission to bring together isolated older Londoners to form a little club of sorts.
This might sound a little like something you've read before but honestly it's the characters that make this book. In Eileen Cotton O'Leary has created a most lively and charming character. She has this wonderful sparkle and joie de vivre that practically bounces off the page and I was 100% invested in her storyline. Definitely going to feature in my list of favourite fictional characters of 2020 for sure!
So while Eileen is off living in London her granddaughter Leena moves into her home in her small village in the Yorkshire Dales. Leena is on an enforced sabbatical from her job and to help take her mind off this, her grandmother has left a long list of errands and activities that she needs to take part in. Including walking local hottie Jackson's exuberant dog Hank, getting involved in the neighbourhood watch with the most wonderful array of eccentric pensioners including my fav Basil and Eileen's best friend Betsy, and helping to organise the annual village May Day celebrations. But my fav interactions on Leena's side of the story were her getting to know grumpy Arthur next door...gosh I loved that crotchety old timer!!
But the real emotional centre point of the story comes from the absence that Leena feels in her life due to the death of her sister Carla from cancer prior to the novel's start point. The grief and anger that stems from this loss is what has driven Leena to burning the candle at both ends at work and has also put an enormous wedge into the relationship she has with her mother Marian (who also lives in this Yorkshire village). This in turn has deeply affected Eileen who hates to see her daughter and granddaughter not getting along.
Once or twice this part of the story bordered on a little too much melodrama but it also served to ground the novel and was the real measure of how far Leena had become a different person since her sister's illness and death. And it was through this storyline that Leena experienced growth of character and ultimately gave this novel an incredibly satisfying endpoint.
There were a lot of other plot lines running through the novel that made the whole storyline of these two women very entertaining, and kept me turning those pages as quickly as I could! These other plot lines also imbued the book with a real sense of community as so many of the side characters were involved in these more minor storylines.
I thoroughly enjoyed this read and am rating it
four and a half stars rounded up to five. After this I really can't wait to read Beth O'Leary's next novel. She has 100% just become an auto-buy author for me.
*An e-copy of this book was kindly provided to me by the publisher, Quercus, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
For more reviews and book related chat check out my blog
Rating: really liked it
This is a romance book. I listen to the audiobook of this book, and I have to say I like to listen to my audiobooks at a faster then normal speed. There was two narrators (Alison Steadman and Daisy Edgar-Jones) for this book. I have to say I love the narrator that did Eileen's (The Grandmother) parts, but the narrator that did Leena's (The grand-daughter's) parts I did not love or hate. The story was so fun or good. I loved the characters, and they have so much personally. I was kindly provided an e-audiobook of this book by the publisher (Macmillan Audio) or author (Beth O'Leary) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review about how I feel about this book, and I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.
