For a short break in the land of fantasy fiction you could go much further wrong than reading The Switch by Beth O'Leary. Eileen and Leena, grandma and grand-daughter, swap homes for two months and discover lots about themselves and their neighbours in the process. This is how we'd like family, friends and locals to be. Sadly it's rarely real life but I loved my visit to this make-belive world.

Sometimes you just want a story that's like a warm hug from your Nan telling you that everything will be ok, and that's exactly what this book delivers.

Uplifting and life-affirming we meet a lot of lovable characters throughout this story of a house-swapping grandmother and granddaughter. So charming that I'm willing to forgive it a few over the top moments. There are some important issues in the book that are dealt with quite sensitively, but really this is just an entertaining story and sometimes that's what you want. Thanks to netgalley and Quercus for a review copy in exchange for an honest review. Fans of The Flatshare are sure to enjoy this second novel from the author.

Management Consultant Leena is still reeling from the death of her younger sister. She makes a hash of an important client presentation and is sent on a 2 month sabbatical. Meanwhile, grandmother Eileen's husband has left her and she's looking for romance. Leena suggests that there's a bigger dating pool for 79 year olds in London than a Yorkshire dales village and proposes that they swap lives for 2 months....

It's a pretty good story, a light undemanding escapist read, with a dash of humour. Its uplifting.

If you’ve read Beth O’Leary’s first book, The Flatshare, you already know what an incredible talent Beth is.
This book is everything I was expecting and hoping for. It’s beautiful, it’s life-affirming and it’s addictive. It’s joyful but it doesn’t shy away from pain and grief. It feels light/uplifting but it’s not overly fluffy. It’s modern and funny without feeling like it’s trying too hard to be.

I have every confidence that this book will be as successful as The Flatshare - and it deserves to be!

I won the @netgalley lottery and received The Switch by the brilliant Beth O’Leary, published by the equally brilliant @quercusbooks to review.
The Switch made me cry, just a little. Once, in a scene between mother and daughter, shouting at each other, furious with grief. And then again, at the end, a tender moment, a quiet ending.
I stayed up too late to finish all 300 and something pages of The Switch in one day- as soon as I knew I could read it, I felt I had to. Beth O’Leary, to me, is an author buoyed by her community - bookstagram supported Flatshare with fervour, and as a result, Beth’s second novel is even better, even brighter.
Beth knows her characters. She writes bad men brilliantly,good men wonderfully, and she writes women of all sorts realistically. Every character written into The Switch feels like a real person, there are no filler characters. Everyone has a part to play, whether that is providing colour to village life or a homely touch in the city. No character feels like they have been shoe-horned in as plot device, which can happen quite often with romantic fiction. The Switch is marketed as a story of two women, Eileen and her granddaughter Leena, as they switch lives. I’d say it’s a story of three generations of women, living with grief and finding their own selves. Don’t be fooled, this isn’t a Jamie Lee Curtis Freaky Friday situation, this is a house-phone-friend swap that provides such a great premise for a lovely book.

Read this book when you can, you’ll be better for it.

The Switch will be published 30th April 2020.

This is a great book! And a very worthy follow up to The Flatshare. It focuses on two women who find themselves wanting to live the others life. I don't want to give too much away so I'll just say that this is a must-read for 2020. Will definitely be purchasing copies for my library.

I loved this just as much as the flatshare if not more!! The characters were great and loved all the interactions, so much fun and a great light and fluffy read for the holidays! The loss of Carla was the underlying motivation for everything but it didn’t draw the mood of the book down at all, but was a lovely way for everyone to come together and learn how to grieve in their own way - and to appreciate life for what it is not what you think it needs to be, C Can’t wait for future books from Beth! Thanks for the reading copy I’ve been dying to get my hands on one since I saw on Instagram their were some!

This was a beautiful, feel good, positive read. I truly cared about all of the characters and enjoyed every moment.