Leena is living a fast paced life in London and nearly has a nervous breakdown. Her grandma Eileen is living a slower paced life in the country, yearning for a bit of excitement following the end of her marriage. In a new take on the movie The Holiday, the two leading ladies swap lives.

It was so fun to experience Eileen letting loose, I can only hope I have that much spunk as a grandma some day.

This is a fun sweet book, made even better in audio format.

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

SADLY DNF"D AT 30%
I went in to this with a whole lot of expectations, it just didn't hold up to The Flat Share.

The feel good audio book I didn’t know I needed!

Eileen and Lena decide to switch locations and perspectives as a way to finally find a new normal after losing Carla, their granddaughter and sister respectively.

It was such a joy to see an older woman embark on dating and sex in a realistic and straightforward way, no jokes about sex drives or blue pills. And I absolutely loved the way Lena connected with her Grandmother’s circle in such an honest way.

This is my second Beth O’Leary audio and I am thoroughly charmed by her writing style and the narrator choices so far. I can’t wait for more!

This was such a wholesome, lovely book !
I found the idea of The Switch really interesting, but I was a bit scared the plot would fall into a cliché love story. Thankfully, it's everything but: yes there's love, but that's not the main subject of the story at all. What Beth O'Leary really focuses on is the switch: as Eileen and Leena discover each other's daily life, we follow their surprise and their adventures. With their endearingly genuine voices, we embark on a dual journey that's full of surprises, laughter and emotion. Along the way, Beth O'Leary manages to shine some light on difficult subjects — grief, guilt, and the letting go.
A note on the audiobook: the narration was really enjoyable. However, I was a bit distracted by some "mouth" noises from time to time…

DNF @ 22%. This audio didn’t suck me in, I found the saliva and swallowing of one narrator to be too distracting and I just wasn’t interested in continuing. I may try a physical copy at a later date.

Life can be truly hard and overwhelming as a twenty-something business woman. What better way to SWITCH things up than swapping lives with your 79 year old grandma? It just so happens that this grandma is newly single, and looking for love. Leena Cotton and her grandma Eileen decide to find themselves by living each other’s lives and neither of them are prepared for the experiences and relationships they are about to go through.

This book warmed my heart!! Beth O’Leary has created the perfect characters. I really loved them all! She does superbly at balancing grief and sadness with humor and romance. I’m a “grandma’s girl” and I could relate to every single bit of their wonderful journey. It filled my heart with love and laughter.

I really enjoyed this audiobook of The Switch! I first started listening to it on a trip to my brother’s wedding out of town. I was eager to see what happened to Leena and Eileen who decided to switch places and responsibilities while Leena was temporarily out of work. The narration was fantastic, especially for the character of the grandmother.

A grandmother and a granddaughter agree to temporarily swap lives following Leena (granddaughter) struggling at work and her manager suggesting that she takes up to 8 weeks off (paid leave). The audiobook switches from Eileen to Leena alternately and describes their adjustment to the area they now find themselves in (e.g. London to the Yorkshire Dales and vice versa). They both experience tests to intimate relationships as well as experience of their own self-awareness. Eileen at 79 takes the plunge joining a dating site hoping to find someone to connect with. The story continues with both describing their journey and concludes with the 2 going back to their normal lives, changed in subtle but encouraging ways.

It was difficult to write this review as I found the book really quite mundane and the only time I had much of a reaction was when Eileen described having sex as a 79 year old. I felt quite green listening to this and didn’t find it necessary. I got through this audiobook quite quickly as I listened to it whilst doing other things to stop myself from drifting off. It may be that had I read this from a physical book I would have found it a more interesting read. It’s a simple book that will appeal to many I’m sure but wasn’t really my thing.

𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝...

𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 - The switch

𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫 - Beth O'Leary

I saw this audiobook on netgalley and thought it would be a perfect opportunity to do another buddy read. Unfortunately, the netgalley app was playing up and I was unable to listen as an audiobook so I downloaded the ebook for 99p on the kindle app.

The story is told from two point or views, Leena and Eileen Cotton. Eileen is 79 years old and is Leena's grandmother. Leena lives in London with a successful job and boyfriend. Eileen lives in the Yorkshire dales by herself but also looks after her daughter (Leena's mother) who resides close by.

With a bad episode at work, Leena is offered 2 months paid off work.
Eileen and Leena decide to swap lives for two months. Eileen lives to London and Lenna lives in Yorkshire dales.

Eileen hopes to find a companion and is soon signed up to a dating website with the help of her granddaughter.

I will be honest and say this book was a real struggle for me to read and a fight to finish. By the time Nicola had finished I was only about 20/30% through.

I felt like like I had not connected with any of the characters which made me like the story less. I managed to finish to book but I found there wasn't much to the storyline and I was hoping for a bit more.

Title: The Switch
Author: Beth O’Leary
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Romance
Published: April 16, 2020
Pages: 336
The Carpenter Confessions Rating: ★★★★☆

Finding light-hearted books with a meaningful purpose behind it, can be hard to find. They are usually one or another and we can be left wanting more. The Switch had it all and more! It has a different twist that gives two different perspectives in two different worlds. You find yourself laughing at one point and feeling worried the next. A wonderful book that gives you that something different.

The Switch is really a fun book to listen to. It was the first audiobook I have finished and feel it was the perfect book to start with. The switch of the book made the story all the more interesting. You don’t think that different ages really do live different worlds and when you have the chance to switch, it can give you a fresh view on the world. The Switch was a great book to show that sometimes getting out of your normal routine is the perfect scenario to find who you are.

I gave The Switch a four star because while I really liked it, I did feel it could have been a little more fast paced and adventurous. It did get to be slow and repetitive at points and I wished something exciting would happen next. Also, I felt like I didn’t get to know Eileen or Lena as people in general and not just in the moment. Other than that this book was a fun change to my normal reads.

P. S. Thank you @netgalley for giving me a copy of The Switch, I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to read more books through you guys!

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. I can honestly say I didn’t want this audiobook to end - I wanted to carry on with the journey of Leena and Eileen! I was rooting for them both throughout this book.

Leena, a high flying consultant working in London, feels worlds away her grandmother Eileen, who is tucked up in a cottage in rural Yorkshire. Eileen has very different commitments from Leena, like looking after Leena’s mum, planning the May Day Festival, dog walking, and attending neighbourhood watch meetings.

When Leena is granted 2 months paid leave from work to “rest” after having a panic attack, she has the idea to swap places with her grandmother. So Eileen heads off to the big city, and workaholic Leena to the idyllic Yorkshire hills. They both have a lot of adjustments to make!

This book switches between the perspective of granddaughter and grandmother as they both experience new homes, people and technology too! Alison Steadman and Daisy Edgar-Jones did a wonderful job with this narration and I really felt the personalities of the characters throughout.

Through it all, the reality is that they are both still reeling from the loss of Carla, Leena’s younger sister. This is a journey leading them back to themselves, and also one where they discover more about each other. This book was sweet, sad, heartwarming, and at times I was laughing out loud!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to The Switch by Beth O’Leary.

This was my first audio book and I couldn’t have gone for a better start. I loved the book!
First of all, I loved the characters. I saw a little of me in some of them and the rest of them I could definitely associate with people of childhood environment.
Eileen’s story just warmed my heart so much and made me miss my time with my family. And how can you not love her?! She reminds us, through the book, of the values we sacrificed for the modern world and at the same time how to use them for the better.
In Leena, I can actually see myself. The stress, the worry, the anguish to prove myself, to be accomplished, while somewhere along the road you loose yourself in the process.
I have found this book to be a book of life. It teaches as a lot about love, life, loss, family and personal relationships.
Ohh I’m so glad I read this!

I like Beth O’Leary’s writing style and her characters. Eileen was an especially fun character. I also loved both of the narrators for this audiobook. The Flatshare, by the same author, was a 5-star read for me. This one did not have the same propulsive quality that novel did, but it’s still an entertaining story. I will give anything O’Leary writes a try because her characters are so well-drawn.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audiobook of The Switch by Beth O’Leary narrated by Alison Steadman and Daisy Edgar-Jones.

I requested a copy of this book after reading Flat Share by the same author, I think she will now be listed as one of my go-to authors from now on, I have already recommended her books to friends as they are humorous, loving and the characters are so well described that you can really imagine how they react to situations.

I really enjoyed listening to this book, I’m usually a bit sceptical when it comes to audiobooks whether I would take it all in and enjoy it as much as I would when reading, but my views are changing because I absorbed every word of it.

I’m quite a sucker for lovable old people and Eileen is definitely one of those! She was, by far, my favourite character in the book. I couldn’t think of anyone better than Alison Steadman to portray Eileen.

Not only are the main characters, Eileen and Leena, both great but the additional ‘oldies’ and the dreamboat that is Jackson were wonderful too.

The book is about Leena and Eileen, Granddaughter and Grandmother who swap lives for two months. Leena moves to Yorkshire to a quaint little village where everybody knows each other’s business and Eileen moved to a ‘cosy’ flat in the heart of London.

Whilst the book is funny, it also has some depth, delving in to grief and emotions of not dealing with death and complicated relationships.

I absolutely loved listening to every second of it, I didn’t even risk giving it a little listen before bed, just in case I nodded off and missed anything.

This is my review of The Switch by Beth O'Leary, narrated by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Alison Steadman.

This story is such a wonderful treat! Listening to this book is like opening a box of sprinkled icing chocolate cupcakes. A rather interesting story about a grandmother and her granddaughter switching places. Leena Cotton was burned out from her job in London. Her boss recommended, or I should say ordered her, to take a leave for two months to recuperate. Workaholic Leena was unprepared for this quick turn of events. There’s nothing she can do to change her manager’s mind. So then she decided to use this sabbatical leave as an opportunity to visit her grandmother in the countryside.

Meet the charming and delightful Eileen Cotton. Leena’s 79-year-old grandmother. Eileen’s husband left her for another woman (their dance instructor) and has been keeping herself busy with small projects within her community. Eileen has been taking care of her daughter, Marian, who’s having mental health problems since one of her daughters died—Carla. Leena’s sister. Eileen is on an online dating quest. She was telling Leena about her dilemma of finding a date in their neighborhood because there are not too many men within her age group. While Leena is helping her grandmother with her online dating, that’s when she got this idea of them switching their lives so her grandma could find a date in London where there are more men to date.

So their adventure begins. Eileen left Leena her to-do list, even asked Leena that they swap smartphones and laptops. Hesitantly Leena agreed if she wanted for this to work. Before they both know it, Leena is saying goodbye to Eileen inside the tube off to London.

The story is narrated in two points of view—Leena and Eileen. I listened to the audiobook in NetGalley so please pardon the misspellings of the names. I immensely enjoyed Eileen’s narration. The narrator gave life to Eileen’s character. While Leena’s narration is not so bad. I would say that it was narrated a bit too fast as most British narrators I’ve listened to speaks. This is my pet peeve though the beauty of an audiobook there is a control to decrease and increase the narration speed.

The narration is just half of this review. The story in itself is marvelous. Beth O’Leary has the skill to put the everyday mundane life of a person into something very enjoyable and interesting. Every day, I look forward to listening to Eileen and Leena’s life. This is one of those stories I never wanted to end. I will read and listen to this every day and will never get tired. A lot of Eileen’s parts of the story had cracked me up so hard I had stomach cramps. Like I did 100 crunches without the hard work. Leaving me breathless in a good way. I like everything about this story but if you would ask which is my favorite it would be Chapter 8 when Eileen arrived in London and had five times near-death experiences. This is also the chapter where Eileen first met Leticia. I listen to this over and over again, always have a good laugh. I must say that I love Beth O’Leary’s sense of humor.

There are so many things I love about this book. The story about the familial relationship: grandmother, mother, and granddaughter, women supporting other women, finding love at any age, rekindling feelings, friends, community, neighbors, and loss.

I guess there is only one thing that made me sad that is how Leena has a weak faith towards her grandmother. I will not elaborate any more. But I guess this is Beth O’Leary’s way of making her characters human, frail, and relatable.

I can’t stop going on about how I adore Eileen’s character. She likes to read Agatha Christie’s books that’s why she plays little old lady detective in this story. She makes friends easily. She talks to her neighbors. She has good manners. She’s funny. I want a grandmother like her! Period.

There are so many quotes I loved from this book. I just shared a couple of them here in my review. It is a happily-ever-after where everybody will be together in the end. I laughed. I cried. I daydreamed. I felt like I am part of their lives. Listening to the last part left me teary-eyed. Most of all, it left me feeling so alive.

My wholehearted thanks to NetGalley, publisher Macmillan Audio, and author Beth O’Leary for making the audiobook available, allowing me to listen to this heartwarming story and performance. I plan to purchase the Kindle book and audiobook in the next few days. For now, I am still thinking about the ordinary yet fascinating characters in this book, especially the two amazing women, wondering what is going on in their mundane lives.

This is the second book I’ve read by Beth O’Leary. I read The Flatshare last year and loved it, so I was excited to get started on this one.

I will say, I didn’t love this one as much. It was a cute, predictable and charming novel mostly because of the characters. I think Beth O’Leary has a knack for creating characters that you want to know more about! I felt like the idea of switching houses was a little boring, made mildly interesting by changing up who’s involved in the switching. In this case, it was Eileen, the grandmother, and Leena, the granddaughter. There was a common thread between them of loss and heartbreak, and I felt like that did a lot to add to the story and make it more interesting too.

Overall, if you’re looking for an easy light read, this is a great book.

I was initially drawn into the characters and their separate stories. Reminded me of the movie “The Holiday”. But then I was ready for it to be done! Good book, not fantastic.

20-something Leena Cotton needs to escape her corporate life in London, and 79 year old Eileen Cotton is evaluating her love life. After venting to each other, Leena suggests switching places with her grandma for her 2 month sabbatical. Leena tries to relax in a small village with a fun cast of characters, while Eileen casually dates and organizes group events in London.

The Switch was an adorable story, I really enjoyed both points of view. Leena proves that sometimes working hard and living the city life isn’t everything. Eileen shows us that it’s never too late for love and new friendships. The Switch would make a great movie.

I’d like to thank NetGalley & Macmillan audio for the chance to listen in exchange for an honest review!

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌠

My Thoughts:
This was such a wholesome, happy & fun story to read. I absolutely loved the concept of grandmother & granddaughter living each others life for 2 months. It was an interesting & refreshing concept.

Out of the two MCs I enjoyed Eileen's part of the story more & her personality was super fun. This is a book for almost all ages. I loved that the author explored various aspects like family dynamics, love, friendships, the relations with the neighbors in the book. There was lots of character development to see in all the characters as the story progressed.

The narration was really good for both the characters. But I faced a lot of issues initially on the app & it made me feel disconnected from the story intially in the 1st quarter. That was the only minus for me while listening to this audiobook. Everything else was awesome.
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Disclaimer: Thanking Netgalley & the publishers for providing me with an audiobook of the book in exchange of an honest review. The thoughts expressed in the review are therefore completely my own.

The loss of a child or sibling can be one of the hardest things that a family can endure and this novel takes a look at the way that loss affects three generations of women- grandmother, mother, and daughter. After her sister Carla dies, twenty-nine year old Leena throws herself into her work to the extent that she almost suffers a breakdown. After a panic attack while working on a major account, her London-based employer takes the unusual step of forcing her to go on holiday rather than terminating her employment. Leena's grandmother Eileen, age seventy-nine and recently divorced, feels lonely and stifled in her small town in the Yorkshire Dales. At loose ends, Leena travels to visit her grandmother, carefully avoiding seeing her mother Marianne, who lives in the same town. Leena and Eileen hatch a plan to switch homes for a time, so that Leena can relax in the countryside and Eileen can go to the big city to see if she can rekindle her dating life.

This is a nicely written, if a bit cliché, contemporary romance. You know everyone will end up fine and happy again, that grandmother and granddaughter will find romance, and the mother will ease her heartache over the loss of her other daughter. While not treading a lot of new ground for this genre (women's contemporary fiction/romance) the novel is well-written, and the secondary characters are interesting. I very much enjoyed the focus on older characters, who get to have their own interesting lives, and the insight that just because someone lives in a small town or in the country doesn't mean they can't have had a fascinating and useful life. The injection of pragmatism about Eileen's online dating experience near the end was a welcome development, as there was so much I found unlikely in her experiences to that point.

The audiobook of the novel, voiced by Alison Steadman (Eileen) and Daisy Edgar-Jones (Leena) is very well performed and engaging for the listener.

I received digital audiobook copies of this book in exchange for an honest review.