Eileen is sick of being 79
Leena's tired of life in her twenties.
Maybe it's time they swapped places...
When overachiever Leena Cotton is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, she escapes to her grandmother Eileen's house for some overdue rest. Eileen is newly single and about to turn eighty. She'd like a second chance at love, but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn't offer many eligible gentlemen.
Once Leena learns of Eileen's romantic predicament, she proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love. Meanwhile Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire. But with gossiping neighbours and difficult family dynamics to navigate up north, and trendy London flatmates and online dating to contend with in the city, stepping into one another's shoes proves more difficult than either of them expected.
Leena learns that a long-distance relationship isn't as romantic as she hoped it would be, and then there is the annoyingly perfect - and distractingly handsome - school teacher, who keeps showing up to outdo her efforts to impress the local villagers. Back in London, Eileen is a huge hit with her new neighbours, but is her perfect match nearer home than she first thought?
A year after her sister died, Leena Cotton is still grieving and struggling to move on with her life. She is angry with her mother, her job going down the tubes due to anxiety, and she thinks a big client is leaving the firm, thanks to her freezing during a presentation. Rebecca, Leena’s boss, calls her into the office to require that she take a two month paid leave. How is Leena going to survive? Work is what gets her through her day. Well work and Ethan, her longtime boyfriend.
Leena efforts to deal with days of nothing to do is depressing. Ethan, who works for the same company, gives Leena some tasks on his projects, but it isn’t the same. Leena decides that a trip to Hamleigh-in-Harksdale to visit her grandmother Eileen is what she needs. Eileen (79) is working through the sudden end of her marriage when her husband Wade runs off with another woman.
Once at her grandmother’s Leena realizes that Eileen needs something different too. Eileen shares that she planned to move to London when she was young to have a career, but that changed when she married and became pregnant. Leena comes up with a plan and convinces Eileen to switch homes for eight weeks. Leena will take over the neighborhood watch and planning the local May Day festival while Eileen can see what London offers her.
The Switch is a lovely feel-good story. Told in the alternating points of view of Eileen, and Leena; women from two very different generations. The story addresses many of the ups and downs of real life, including loss, divorce, dating, grief, friendships, and family. Eileen becomes a temporary grandmother to Leena’s roommates as well as befriends some of the elderly in the London area. At the same time, Leena is the young, energetic personality who works with Eileen’s friends. Both women learn a lot about what they appreciate in life, and adjust to their new friends.
Beth O’leary is a new author to me. I enjoy her writing style and her perspective on a twenty-something and a seventy something characters. She tells there story with humor, and flair that makes me connect with the main characters on many levels. Both women have a lot to offer their community, something we all forget occasionally. Leena learns how to face her grief and her mother, while Eileen learns that there is still life and love for a seventy-nine year-old divorcee.
This story has some exceptional support characters. Leena’s roommates and neighbors are excellent examples of that generation. The same for Arnold, Eileen’s elderly neighbor and his stepson Jackson. The people in the neighborhood crime watch are a hoot. I enjoyed listening to these two women’s adventures.
The narrators, Alison Steadman and Daisy Edgar-Jones from Hulu’s Normal People do a decent job. There are times when they pulled me out of story, mostly when talking on the phone. There was something about the way that is handled that didn’t work for me. However, overall, I enjoyed The Switch on audio. It is a beautiful story that works well in an audio format. I plan to look for more stories from Beth O’Leary in the future.
Audio book received from Netgalley for an honest review.
A year after her sister died, Leena Cotton is still grieving and struggling to move on with her life. She is angry with her mother, her job going down the tubes due to anxiety, and she thinks a big client is leaving the firm, thanks to her freezing during a presentation. Rebecca, Leena’s boss, calls her into the office to require that she take a two month paid leave. How is Leena going to survive? Work is what gets her through her day. Well work and Ethan, her longtime boyfriend.
Leena efforts to deal with days of nothing to do is depressing. Ethan, who works for the same company, gives Leena some tasks on his projects, but it isn’t the same. Leena decides that a trip to Hamleigh-in-Harksdale to visit her grandmother Eileen is what she needs. Eileen (79) is working through the sudden end of her marriage when her husband Wade runs off with another woman.
Once at her grandmother’s Leena realizes that Eileen needs something different too. Eileen shares that she planned to move to London when she was young to have a career, but that changed when she married and became pregnant. Leena comes up with a plan and convinces Eileen to switch homes for eight weeks. Leena will take over the neighborhood watch and planning the local May Day festival while Eileen can see what London offers her.
The Switch is a lovely feel-good story. Told in the alternating points of view of Eileen, and Leena; women from two very different generations. The story addresses many of the ups and downs of real life, including loss, divorce, dating, grief, friendships, and family. Eileen becomes a temporary grandmother to Leena’s roommates as well as befriends some of the elderly in the London area. At the same time, Leena is the young, energetic personality who works with Eileen’s friends. Both women learn a lot about what they appreciate in life, and adjust to their new friends.
Beth O’leary is a new author to me. I enjoy her writing style and her perspective on a twenty-something and a seventy something characters. She tells there story with humor, and flair that makes me connect with the main characters on many levels. Both women have a lot to offer their community, something we all forget occasionally. Leena learns how to face her grief and her mother, while Eileen learns that there is still life and love for a seventy-nine year-old divorcee.
This story has some exceptional support characters. Leena’s roommates and neighbors are excellent examples of that generation. The same for Arnold, Eileen’s elderly neighbor and his stepson Jackson. The people in the neighborhood crime watch are a hoot. I enjoyed listening to these two women’s adventures.
The narrators, Alison Steadman and Daisy Edgar-Jones from Hulu’s Normal People do a decent job. There are times when they pulled me out of story, mostly when talking on the phone. There was something about the way that is handled that didn’t work for me. However, overall, I enjoyed The Switch on audio. It is a beautiful story that works well in an audio format. I plan to look for more stories from Beth O’Leary in the future.
Audio book received from Netgalley for an honest review.
3.5 STAMPS
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