Grandmother Eileen and granddaughter Leena switch lives in hope of change, adventure and reconciling. Eileen lives in a small Yorkshire village and is dealing with separating from her cheating husband, and Leena has been asked to take leave from her job in London. Switching lives at first fills them both with dread and guilt of leaving each other’s friends and responsibilities behind them. After time they both adapt to their new lives and make new friendships and revelations along the way. As she mastered in her debut The Flatshare, O’Leary brings us fantastic side-splitting humour, sentimental moments, and relatable scenarios of our own. For me O’Leary is my favourite comfort read author besides Austen. I love that I don’t want to put her books down, and yearn for peace and quiet so I can devour them! I can’t wait to read more from this great author.

Lovely story and good characters. I especially enjoyed Eileen's chapters. Though world building and character development are good, the writing style for me is not as good as some others.

Eileen is 79 years old and a few months ago her husband left her for a dance teacher. Eileen is being independent but she misses male company and, after making a list of all the pros and cons of each eligible man in her age group, realises there are no suitable men for her in the rural Yorkshire village where she lives. She laments over the life she could have had before her husband. Leena is in her twenties and has worked herself stupid. After her sister died of cancer, rather than allow herself to grieve Lenna has thrown herself into her job. Then, one day she has a panic attack in the middle of presenting during an important client meeting. This causes her boss to discover that Lenna has not taken any annual leave in over a year! As such, she forces Leena to take two months off on paid sabbatical. Although Leena has barely spoken to her mother since her sisters’ death, she is in daily contact with her grandmother (Eileen) and agrees to visit her in Yorkshire. Upon discovering Eileens list, Leena suggests that Eileen could come and stay with her in London for a bit, but Eileen is having none of that. Her daughter (Leena’s mother) needs her. Leena does not believe her mother is as fragile as Eileen makes out and so suggests they switch. She will fill her grandmothers’ shoes in Yorkshire and Eileen can stay at her flat in London and do the ‘London thing’, promising that she will take care of her mother. Eileen has been heartbroken about her daughter and grandaughter not getting along and jumps at the chance to force them together and agrees to the switch. ================ After reading ‘The Flatshare‘ by Beth O’Leary last year, I had high hopes for ‘The Switch‘, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. The atmospheric description of the both soft and fierce Yorkshire Dales, in contrast with the brash and loud descriptive of London, was like poetry. *Spoiler warning! Leena was OK as a character, a little annoying. Her instant belief in her boyfriend over her grandmother was infuriating* However, Eileen as a character was an absolute delight. I loved her side of the story and her adventures. There was one line in her story where she is dating an actor in London, and he sends her the following message: ” Tomorrow night, my house. The black lacy underwear. I insist upon it.” My note was simply “GAH!”

The Switch is the charming multigenerational story of the Cotton family. Leena Cotton and her grandmother, Eileen Cotton, decide to switch places for two months: with Leena leaving London to live in her grandmother’s home located in a small village in the Yorkshire Dales, and Eileen going to live with Leena’s flat mates in London. Both Cotton ladies represent identity loss. Eileen has woke up from her life of complacency that comes with living through habit, and realised she wants an adventure to find herself. And Leena represents a character who’s lost her way through grief, as well as having a strained relationship with her mother, Marian, and has buried herself under work to cope. This made both women relatable in their own right, and it was emotional to see their moments of realisation, their healing processes etc. I enjoyed this story - it was mostly breezy and easy to read. It was such a cosy book, all the while dealing with serious problems like adultery, bereavement and depression. There were moments where Eileen really made me laugh. She was sassy and unabashedly shameless. O’Leary captured the small village sentiment well, where everybody knows everybody’s business. There were supporting characters that were all well illustrated as to make them easily memorable, that is to say, as soon as they came into a scene, I wasn’t confused for a moment as to who they were. In fact, the supporting characters were probably my favourite thing about The Switch. So, at the heart of The Switch is a sense of community and family values, that makes this a kaleidoscope of emotions to read: hurt, sympathy, elation, warmth and heart. It’s about human connection through family ties, neighbourly ties, romances and friendships in all the good and bad. Leena’s earlier chapters were a little dull in comparison to Eileen’s, but this improved as the read went on. As well, I felt the happily ever after climax and epilogue could have been smoothed out more. Something I have to praise was the clever use of other pieces of work, and British culture. I LOVED Eileen’s cats names (read the book to find out what they are!) And I really loved the metaphorical roles Leena gave herself and Arnold. Truly a heartwarming story about the journey of healing from bereavement and coping with life upheavals. Perfect for fans of Grace & Frankie and The Holiday, or if you’re simply looking for a pick me up read, The Switch won’t disappoint. Thank you so much to Quercus Books and Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

What a delightful book! I could not put this down, and stayed up to 1am finishing it. I loved every character in this book and feel each character brought something new and enjoyable to the story. And if I take anything from this story it is to be more like the Cotton women. I have not read Flatshare but if it is anywhere near as good as this I defiantly understand all the great reviews! And we will be reading very soon. Thanks to Netgalley for sending me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.