Fans of Beth O'Leary's first book The Flatshare, will not be disappointed by her newest novel, The Switch.

It was a fantastic story of love and loss, of three generations of women in a family discovering themselves and navigating their relationships with each other as they each deal with grief, but also enter their own different life stages. Readers looking for some more mature aged characters will be pleased by the Grandmother and Mother's roles in this book. The audio narration was well done, and this book was a great read.

This was such a beautiful depiction of two women at different points in their life as they trade places and find what really matters to them both. I loved both Eileen and Leena on their own and the way they related to and learned from each other. The audio narration was fantastic! I also enjoyed the romance side of the story and how well it fit with each woman’s personal journey. Exploring grief, heartbreak, self-discovery, The Switch is a gorgeous piece of women’s fiction that I know so many readers will love!

A lovely book about a grandmother and a granddaughter that swap lives. I especially enjoyed Leena's life in the tiny Yorkshire village and the cozy feeling of the setting and the characters. An enjoyable read that touches on the heavy subject of grief and moving on. But this is a book mostly on what a wonderful and fulfilling life you can have if you stand up for yourself, tell the truth and search for joy even if you are 80 years old!
A fantastic audiobook where the voices of Alison and Daisy really brought the book protagonists to life.
Charming and uplifting.

The Switch by Beth O'Leary is the second book I have read by this author, the first one being The Flatshare. I would like to put it right upfront, I really liked this book. It was written beautifully! It is about coming to terms with the circumstances/ tragedies in your life, coming to terms with them, learning to live with them, and learning to stand up for yourself and be your own person!!

It was a splendid experience in the form of an audiobook! When reading a book, you imagine a lot of things but rarely the voice of the character. Alison Steadman and Daisy Edgar- Jones as voices for Eileen and Leena Cotton somehow made the whole experience a lot more personal.

What did I love about this book?
The premise, the flow, the depth of each character, the hilarity of their situations on switching, and the finality of all of it. It gave me a sense of peace and contentment and left me craving for more (happy sighs..). I wish to be like Eileen Cotton when I am 80 years old.!! The dialogues were really witty and intelligent!

What did I not like about this book?
It ended too soon!!

Beth O'Leary is becoming one of my go-to authors for when I want to ground myself gently.
#NetGalley #TheSwitch and Macmillan Audio for making my first audiobook experience memorable.

Readometer rating - 4****/5

Definitely recommend reading if you are looking for something light but meaningful !! :)

In ‘The Switch’ we follow Leena Cotton, a successful business woman in London and her Grandmother Eileen who lives a simple life in a Yorkshire village called Hamleigh.

Leena is working tirelessly to the point of her experiencing a panic attack during an important boardroom meeting. Following this she’s being given two months paid leave to get herself back into a healthy mindset.
Meanwhile Eileen is looking to start dating again after separating from her ‘less than ideal’ husband. The only problem is Hamleigh doesn’t offer any suitable men.

As the title suggests Leena and Eileen decide to switch lives for two months seeing as they could both do with a little break from their lives.

I thought this was a cute and charming story albeit predictable. I liked how it covered the topic of grief in a relatable way without being too heavy. I also found Eileen to be incredibly endearing, I warmed to her almost immediately and found myself longing for an Eileen like grandmother of my own.

The audiobook narration was my favourite part of this reading experience. I found the two narrators brought their characters to live perfectly, their performance was very believable.

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced readers copy.

Twenty-something Leena is an absolute go-getter who never stops. After the death of her sister, it all becomes too much. Leena takes a "mandatory" two-month vacation after having a panic attack at work.

Grandma Eileen is 80, traumatized by deaths of her daughter and her granddaughter. If that's not bad enough, her husband has just left her.

Leena returns home, but Eileen is headed to Leena's old haunts in London, looking to recapture her lost youth. Leenna shacks up in grandma's house and adopts her friends and responsibilities as her own. Eileen is doing much of the same, befriending Leena's closest pal and navigating the new world of online dating.

The book was really charming. It definitely had me smiling and giggling at times. The dialogue is fun between the characters. The grandma, Eileen, reminds me of Blanche from "The Golden Girls." It was a light, enjoyable read.

While the narrator did a great job of making the listener feel they were in the story, I could hear every bit of moisture in the older narrator's mouth -- which was distracting. You can tune out her loud, audible breaths, thankfully. Whenever they talk on the phone, it's a recording within a recording and the quality is tinny.

The Switch by Beth O'Leary is a romance, contemporary fictional novel which is a story about finding love, self-love, family, and much more. I had high expectations from this book after The Flatshare.

We see Leena, who is in her 20s, Eileen who is in her late 70s. Both of them are tired of their regular life and are looking for a change. They both change their places in life and end living eachother's life for a while. Leena swaps with Eileen to live at her grandmother's place whereas Eileen goes to live in London for a while and finding new love in her life.

I enjoyed the book overall no doubt, but I expected more from this novel, after reading The Flatshare. And I am not gonna lie, The Flatshare was way better. The story is sweet, with tint of humor at required places. But the message potrayed by the author could have been way better explained and narrated considering her potential from previous novel.

This was a really adorable book! Nothing very exciting happened but it was just one of those stories that was enjoyable to read and you wanted to know how things turned out. I really enjoyed the characters especially Eileen and thought all the supporting characters were great. I would definitely recommend giving this one a read!

This was a sweet story, a quick read, and I loved the characters. It was also so interesting to hear the point of view of a woman in her late 70s along with a woman in her 20s. A little predictable but that was totally okay. Loving this author for original, and fun stories.

I just adored Eileen’s story line! I found her more fascinating than Leena’s storyline. I felt like Leena’s chapters kind of dragged in the beginning until her major drama happened. We alternating chapters while telling this story.

Audio Experience: I LOVED that there were two characters to do the reading for this. Since this is a character driven book, I highly recommend the audio. I find slower books work best for me with audios. I enjoyed how there were several parts in the story that the characters spoke on the phone and they clearly portrayed that in the audio. I wish the narrators had done some voices to emphasize when other characters were talking so I could tell right away who is saying what.

You Guys!!
I loved this book so stinkin much!
Even more than The FlatShare- which I adored last year.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for my advanced copy on audio.

This past year I have been loving audios and this one was absolutely amazing. There were two narrators and they both did a fantastic job of bringing the story and the characters to life. I was engaged and entertained throughout the entire book.

Other Things I Loved -

The Premise- I loved that Eileen and Leena Switched lives. It totally made me want to watch the movie The Holiday lol. ( This book and that movie - which is absolute gold- have nothing in common other than the fact that the two main characters swap living spaces)

The Characters- were well developed and likeable. I loved reading about both the main characters and side characters.

The Relationship- This book totally gave me all the warm and fuzzies. I loved Eileen and Leena's close relationship.

The Romance- Romance took a back seat in this book and I have to say- I am not mad at all. The romances featured in this book were adorable.

The Writing- this book is fun and easy to follow. I found myself easily sucked into the story and unable to stop listening. I usually listen while getting ready for work and during my short commute. Once I started listening to The Switch, I could not stop.

Heavier Topics- this book deals with loss, grief and forgiveness. This may be a bit of a spoiler so I will flag this review. This is the first time since my father's diagnosis that I have read a book that deals with cancer and haven't completely fallen apart. The story was very moving and ended beautifully.

Overall- I highly recommend this book. It will be in my top 10 at the end of the year.

Beth O'Leary is now an auto-buy author and has a book already listed to be released in 2021 called The Road Trip. I need it now!

I enjoyed this book! It was an enjoyable book to listen to while I was driving!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced audio version of this book!

The story reminds me of the movie The Holiday with Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet, but with a greater focus on friendship. I really enjoyed her debut novel, the Flatshare and this was another sweet, endearing novel.

I enjoyed this sophomore book by Beth O'Leary. It wasn't as engaging as The Flatshare though. I loved all the villagers and the quirks of village life. As intriguing as Eileen's plotline in London sounded it just didn't pan out for me. I think the book could have worked just fine with Leena coming to visit her grandmother for her two month sabbatical. I look forward to reading more from this author though.

Thank you to Netgalley for an audio arc of this book! This really isn’t my usual type of book but I recognised the author name from her other book The Flatshare which I haven’t read but have on my kindle.

It was a light, fun read. Although I did find myself getting annoyed by both Leena and Eileen.

The narrator was a bit difficult to get into, the Leena voice was fine but the Eileen voice was really annoying especially the Letitia voice!

The book had a very ‘Me Before You’ feel to it and it was a nice break from the constant thrillers I read

This book was a first for me, it was an audio book! I’ve always steered clear of these as I love to read but recently bought a cross stitch to do and thought this would be the ideal time to try an audio book out. I also had the book in my to read pile so .. two birds, one stone!

The book was narrated by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Alison Steadman. Daisy reading the part of Lena and Alison reading the part of Eileen. Both voices were nice to listen to, clear and expressive but overall I preferred Alison’s voice she has a lovely tone. The book is 10 hours which flew in, I listened to it in one day, I enjoyed it that much.

The story is about Lena who is struggling after her sisters death. She takes a sabbatical from her job and switches places with her gran, Eileen, who has recently split up from her husband, and is looking for an adventure. Lena goes to stay in her gran’s house in a Yorkshire village and Eileen goes off to London.

It’s a lovely story of how both women taken out their comfort zone adapt and thrive. There are a few laugh out loud moments and lots that tug at your heart strings. I love how Eileen is portrayed she may be in her 70s but shows you shouldn’t be put into any set category of what is “acceptable” for that age. Life is for living after all! Lena was also a lovely character and you feel her grief for her sister, it’s touching how the whole village helps her. The story also touches on domestic violence which is written sympathetically.

Thank you to Netgalley, Quercus Books and MacMillan Audio for the ARC

I loved the flatshare so I was super excited to read this one! While I did enjoy this one, I didn't love it quite as much. This one is much more about self discovery and family, with romance as a side story. That was fine with me but I felt like this one was missing a little of the quirkyness that I adored from Flatshare. This story is a bit slow, very character driven and has a whole lot of heart. It's a great feel good story with some entertaining moments but overall I just didn't love it as much as I had hoped. I am still looking forward to the authors next book. For the audiobook version of the book I did love the narrator and I think that helped to keep me listening, even during the slower parts!

Leena, young professional living in London, is grappling with the death of her sister. Meanwhile, her grandmother, Eileen, is not only grieving her granddaughter, but also her husband leaving her after a long marriage.

The two decide to swap places leaving Leena in the countryside at her grandmother’s and Eileen moving in temporarily with Leena’s flat mates in London.

While the story was a bit cheesy and quite predictable, I did enjoy listening to it. A nice get away from the real world. One thing I did not enjoy was the narrators talking in the phone. They tried to sound muffled and it was quite annoying.

Overall, I’d recommend as an easy listen with likable and diverse characters.

This was a unique idea of switching lives between a grandmother and her granddaughter. Even with that, it was a predictable story line. That does not mean it was bad, just predictable.
I am glad that I got an audiobook version of it because I would have been bored reading it. I really enjoyed the narrator, but wish there was a lot less lip smacking. It was distracting. But I really think the narrator did a great job.
Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for providing me with this audiobook.

"Eileen is sick of being 79.
Leena's tired of life in her twenties.
Maybe it's time they swapped places..."

I absolutely adored this audiobook. The narrators were fantastic and endearing to listen to. They truly brought the characters, especially Leena and Eileen, to life. The storyline was slightly predictable, though the events, characters, and dual narration made it enjoyable to follow along.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of "The Switch" by Beth O'Leary in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.