Leena is forced to take a 2-month sabbatical work after her nth panic attack almost costs them the client, so she visits village where her grandma Aileen and her semi-estranged mother live. While visiting Grandma, the two decide to pull a "The Holiday" and switch homes and lives-- and even mobiles: Leena will stay at Aileen's and do her community work such as the May Day celebration and busybody/neighborhood watch while Aileen will live in Leena's flat with her roommate and have the grand London adventure she dreamed of before she got married. Being in the different environments encourages both Leena and Aileen to do things outside of their normal lives, and they both learn about themselves, do some healing (Leena on grieving her sister's death and Aileen on moving beyond her cheating husband), and make their communities a better place because of their presence.

The Switch isn't nearly as rom-com-like as The Flatshare, but it's still a cute romance. It really reminded me of Evvie Drake Starts Over because they are both very much about healing and have the same tone/energy: calm yet determined to not let life run over them. The Switch drags a bit, but that could have also been because I wasn't in the right state of mind while reading. Aileen is a hoot of a character-- she definitely embraces the "let's be the embarrassing old person" and doesn't care about faux pas that would embarrass Leena or the other Millennials she's hanging out with.

The audiobook is done well. I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars. Aileen and Leena talk on the phone, and the production has the audio sound slightly muffled (?) during those parts. While this does add to the atmosphere, it's unnecessary.

After really enjoying the audio of 'The Flatshare' earlier this year, I knew this was one I needed to get my hands on!

'The Switch' was yet another quaint and unique story, and Leena and her grandmother, Eileen, were such charming and genuine characters! I really enjoyed their different points of view, and I loved the refreshing look into the thoughts of an elder yet very vivacious woman. The narrators with their British accents were such a delight to listen to as well- especially Eileen's sweet voice who made me reminiscent of the conversations that I used to have with my Memaw before she passed years ago.

While the story was definitely lighter on the romance scale, this was such a fun and heartwarming read. I definitely recommend it and know I’ll also be grabbing up O'Leary's next book, 'The Road Trip', which releases next year!

I will start by saying, I normally hate audiobooks. The narrators never sound like the voices of the characters in my own head. However, I wanted to read this book so badly that I ignored that it was an audiobook. I’m so glad I did. The duo that read for Leena and Eileen did a fabulous job, and they made the story even more enjoyable.

When Leena is forced to take a 2 month sabbatical from her job, she decides to switch places with her grandma, Eileen. Eileen will go to London and experience what she missed out on in her youth, and Leena will take on her grandmother’s responsibilities in Yorkshire.

At first, I liked Eileen so much more than Leena and looked forward to Eileen’s chapters over Leena’s. By the end of the book, I loved both characters and didn’t want the story to end. All the supporting characters were great, and I found myself laughing out loud at many things they said.

I LOVED that there was romance at all ages. And that it wasn’t just companionship - as if sex is meant only for the young.

Trigger warning: LOTS of cancer talk

I give this book a 4/5. Thanks so much to Netgalley for the audiobook!

I was really late to the party when it came to The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary. I wanted to read it but there are always so many books to read and then my library didn't have a copy of it. How rude! I finally listened to it on audiobook while commuting earlier this year (remember driving places?) and adored it just as I expected. In an amusing twist, I also listened to O'Leary's latest novel, The Switch. I don't often listen to audiobooks so to have listened to both of O'Leary's is rare. Happily, I was just as in love with the new book and thoroughly enjoyed listening to it.

Here's the synopsis:
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 long-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.

So they decide to try a two-month swap.

Eileen will live in London and look for love. She’ll take Leena’s flat, and learn all about casual dating, swiping right, and city neighbors. Meanwhile Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire: Eileen’s sweet cottage and garden, her idyllic, quiet village, and her little neighborhood projects.

But stepping into one another's shoes proves more difficult than either of them expected. Will swapping lives help Eileen and Leena find themselves…and maybe even find true love? In Beth O'Leary's The Switch, it's never too late to change everything....or to find yourself.
One of the reasons I don't read audibooks is I'm a super fast reader and find audiobooks take longer for me to read. The other is I review so many upcoming/not yet released books that I don't often have time for other books that aren't on my review list. That's starting to change now for book reviewers as there are new options to receive advanced copies audio titles. NetGalley just started their audiobook program and that's how I snagged The Switch. A chance to try out their new system and read a book I was really looking forward to? Win! Slightly less win...the audiobook would decide to pause often whenever it decided my phone had been locked for too long so I would have to unlock it to get the file going again. I had tried updating the app and hope that it's just a bug that will get worked out as NetGalley figures out this audiobook thing.

The narrators of this novel were delightful. There were two, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Alison Steadman, and each chapter switched perspective between Leena and Eileen so having two narrators really helps the reader distinguish between the two characters. I've seen some people mention they had issues understanding their accents but I had no trouble at all. Though my inner voice now seems to have a slight Yorkshire accent...

This novel showed that just because you're above a "certain age," doesn't mean your life has ended and I absolutely loved that. The older adults in this novel have all sorts of personalities but dull or near death's door are not among the descriptors I'd choose for them. Eileen was full of spunk and she was such an intelligent and entertaining character. She was fiercely protective of her family but recognized she needed to do something for herself for once. It was an absolute joy to read her story as well as see the friendships blossom between all characters of all ages.

Leena was slightly more hesitant to throw herself into her new life in an idyllic small town than her grandmother was to take on the big city life. She seemed more bruised and battered from work and family issues than Eileen (I don't want to mention what had impacted the family as the synopsis does not and I feel like it should be unveiled in the way O'Leary intends it to be in the course of the first few chapters). She had to learn that just because her life was going one way, didn't necessarily make it the right way.

O'Leary's books are marketed as rom coms, and I've used that descriptor myself, but they're so much more than romance or comedy. There's an amazing family storyline woven through both her novels, and I especially loved it in The Switch. Three generations of Cotton women are dealing with major devastation and I loved what and how O'Leary wrote as they finally dealt with their grief. Leena also had to figure out what she wanted to do with her professional life and Eileen was taking stock of her newly single life and what parts of herself she had lost when she first got married so many years ago. Like with most books, The Switch is so much more than one narrow genre.

I really adored The Switch. Beth O'Leary is definitely going to go on my auto-read list because both times I've read her I've fallen a little bit in love with her writing, characters, and stories. Readers will have a lot of fun reading this new book while also having their heart warmed.

*An advanced audio copy of this novel was provided by the publisher, Macmillan Audio, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Oh my goodness, The Switch by Beth O'Leary was such a delight to read! I loved the viewpoint switches between Leena and her grandmother Eileen, although I honestly found Eileen to be my favorite POV. I listened to the audiobook and I loved both of the narrators (Alison Steadman & Daisy Edgar-Jones), they really brought the characters and plot to life for me and they were lovely to listen to. I also really liked the audio change for phone calls, although at times it did make the narrators harder to hear and I had to turn up the volume for them.

The Switch has so many elements I enjoy; there was romance, lots of endearing moments, serious subjects handled beautifully, and it was just so funny. I had a smile on my face for much of the book, but the topics that O'Leary tackled were sobering as well. There were so many great little lessons, and this novel is so much more than just a grandmother and granddaughter switching places for a couple of months. I loved how fresh the plot was and it made for a very unique experience.

I highly recommend The Switch for lovers of romcoms and women's fiction, and I would say you can't go wrong with either the physical copy or the audio. This book was a real treat and I know I'm not going to be forgetting it anytime soon. This was my first novel by O'Leary, but I officially can't wait to go back and read The Flatshare now. If you are looking for a quick, sweet novel The Switch is the perfect book to check out!

Thank you to Libro.fm, NetGalley, and the publisher for my advance listening copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

4.5 Stars! This was such an amazing audio book! I loved this story, throughly enjoyed the characters. This was such a heart warming story that felt real and relatable. Loved the dynamic between mother and grandmother also mother /daughter! The part of the story where the Grandmother was the narrator had me laughing out loud! I want to e just like her when I am a grandma one day! I have already recommended this to 3 people!

The reason I picked up this book was because someone related it to the movie The Holiday, which is my favorite holiday movie. The whole idea of switching lives and finding happiness, who doesn’t love that. Lena and her grandmother Eileen both need a break from their lives and decide to switch houses, phones, computers, lives... for 2 months as a sabbatical.

This totally made me what to do a swap, just like in the movie,, but this book was so much warmer and insightful to see the swap between a grandma and granddaughter rather than strangers. The multiple generation level to the story was such a cool element, the whole idea that the book surrounds. I usually don’t think about people my grandparents age using dating apps, but it was very cute. All the friendships that came out of this arrangement are the ones you know will last a long time. I laughed many times throughout this book, which is exactly what I needed.

I am so glad I listened to the audio version of this cozy little romance. Because so much of it is conversation, or texts, listening to the various voices lent a great deal of depth to the story. Told in alternate chapters by Leena and her grandma, 79-year-old Eileen. Leena’s been forced on vacation for two months because of a major panic attack, and her grandma is ready for a change, so they switch places. Leena leaves her shared apartment in London to live in her grandma’s house for two months, while Eileen heads to London and her daughter’s roommates. Alison Steadman and daisy Edgar-Jones are perfect choices for the narrators the young energetic voice and the more mature, measured voice clearly delineate who is narrating the chapter. And even if you know where the story is going from the first page, you’ll cheer when they both find the man who is right for them. Having lived in both rural towns and metropolitan areas, the author has done a great job capturing the essence of both lifestyles.

THE SWITCH follows Leena and her grandmother, Eileen, as they switch homes for two months, when Leena is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical from work. Leena is looking for some overdue decompression time after her sister’s death and Eileen is looking for a second chance at the life she never heard in London.

I loved the O’Leary’s first novel THE FLATSHARE and so when I saw this was coming out I was quite intrigued. Throw in that I love the movie the Holiday, which this reminded me of and I was sold right away.

This is downright charming. Both Leena and Eileen are complex characters. They have flaws and they are working through some big things. I loved that there were so many different elderly in this story. It was such a joy to see an author treat elderly characters with the same respect as younger characters and give them all voices and personalities that felt very distinct.

Overall, this has just sealed O’Leary as an auto-buy author for me. Her books always deal with complex issues while also being fun romps and her characters sing. This book was no exception.

CW: grief, loss of a family member, cheating

I really enjoyed this audio! It was a cute story between a grandmother and her granddaughter switching places to live. It honestly made me laugh,

Eileen being 79, was a hoot! Her online dating experience was really quit comical at times. I love how she took everything in stride and just rolled with the punches. And Lena, the granddaughter really learned a lot about herself while living at grandmas house. There was a horrible death that happened in their family a year before and had somewhat torn up the family dynamic. This moved helped to mend the rift and relationships became stronger.

Overall this was just a feel good book. It shows life’s up and downs, and how working together as a family can really fix the issues that life throws at us.

***the only thing I didn’t like about this audio was the phone conversations. In my opinion the audio would have been better if the other side of the conversation would have been normal and not muted like an actual conversation. It was just a little annoying for me. But really doesn’t ch age my overall opinion of the book***

Leena is in her late twenties and working a high-powered job in London. Eileen, her grandmother, is in her late seventies and stuck in a rut after her loveless marriage fell apart. When Leena takes a ‘forced sabbatical,’ they come up with the hairbrained idea to swap lives. Eileen will go and live in Leena’s Shoreditch flat, Leena will move to Eileen’s sleepy Yorkshire village.

But there’s also grief at the heart of the story – the loss of Leena’s younger sister Carla to cancer, a few years before we meet the characters. This devastating loss has driven a wedge between Leena and her mum, and subsequently Leena has thrown herself full throttle into her work. So this ‘switch’ is a chance for both characters to experience time away from their own lives, to gain fresh perspective and clarity.

There’s something about Beth O’Leary’s writing that is so charming without being saccharine, comforting without being sentimental. Eileen is an absolute riot, seventy-nine years ‘young’ who doesn’t bat an eyelid at dipping her toe in online dating and forming a ‘no strings attached’ relationship during her time in the big city. It was refreshing to see an older character portrayed in this way without it being a caricature or over-the-top.

‘Lying tangled in each other’s arms becomes slightly less practical when you’ve both got bad backs.’

Leena finds it a little harder to be welcomed into the Hamleigh village community, promptly losing her neighbour’s dog, causing upset at the committee meeting when she suggests a change to the May Day celebration theme, and being an all-round terrible baker. But she too comes to forge a deeper connection with the community, and an understanding of their values and experiences.

‘These people. There’s such a fierceness to them, such a lovingness. When I got here, I thought their lives were small and silly, but I was wrong. They’re some of the biggest people I know.’

Whereas The Flatshare felt like an entirely new and fresh concept, The Switch felt a little more derivative (shout out to one of my favourite Christmas films, The Holiday!) Because there were quite a few plates spinning in the air, it also felt contrived at times, with easy resolution of major conflicts (e.g. Leena’s relationship with her mother) and convenient solutions to thorny problems. Whilst the central premise is not romance, the romantic angles in the plot did feel a little hurried and underdeveloped, but nevertheless added a heartfelt dimension to the plot.

It’s perfect escapism for darker days and a wholesome, if uneven, novel to sink into.

Beth O' Leary, you officially have my heart.
Written by the same author of The Flatshare (another favorite of mine), The Switch is a lovely story about a granddaughter and grandmother who switch living situations for a few months. Lena, a young Londoner, needs a break from the grind of work and life in the city, and Eileen, an elderly divorcee needs a chance to get out of the country and try her hand at love. Rotating perspectives between Lena and Eileen, The Switch is a story about familial love and the importance of community. While there is a touch of romance in the mix, this is primarily an ode to the relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter (and how much the two have to learn from one another).
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This book is sweet, heartwarming, and is sure to make readers smile. I listened to this on audio and loved the cast!

I loved Beth O’Leary’s “The Flatshare,” so I was thrilled to receive the audiobook of “The Switch” from NetGalley.

I’m always a little nervous that if I really enjoyed the author’s first book the second will inevitably be a “sophomore slump.” But this was not the case with “The Switch”. I ended up really enjoying the book. The characters are charming and funny and right off the bat, the plot is so quirky and cute. The idea of a grandma and granddaughter “switching” places is just the type of COVID distraction I need. However, it did take the character a little bit more time to develop and feel a little bit more 3-dimensional, but by the end I loved them.

As far as the audiobook goes, they choose to do a few strange things. There are two different narrators for the book, one for Leena and one for her Grandmother. When a phone call took place, they made the person on the other end of the line sound like they were on the extension by putting the voice in a “tunnel” type effect. This was incredibly frustrating as a listener. The volumes were on two different levels, and the other person almost sounded like they had a bad 70’s connection. I noticed at one point during the Grandma’s chapter, they had the actor voicing Leena inserted when she called her grandma, but that did not happen during the Leena chapters. That type of inconsistency would throw me as a listener. But by the end, they seemed to find their stride and stuck with one narrator at a time.

Overall, I would recommend “The Switch” as a cute getaway.

3.5 Stars. I listened to the audio. I received the audio ARC from Netgalley.
This is 1st person POV. Lena & her grandma Eileen.
I really enjoyed the narrators. The sound was a little tinny & faint at times. I'm new to using the Netgalley app. I had some technical issues with the audio stopping & then going to the home page.
I'm sure that the bugs will work out very soon.
Alison Steadman (Mrs Bennet in Pride & Prejudice- BBC version) narrates grandma Eileen's voice.
I love Lena's part narrated by Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People). I need to check out the Normal People on TV.
I know, I know, I'm behind on this! I googled her, she's only 22 y/o. She has a lovely voice, reminds me a little of actress Emily Mortimer.
I had a little difficulty with the rapid dialogue. I had to listen to Lena at 1.0 & could listen to Eileen at 1.25. I sometimes have to slow it down for British accents. Daisy & Alison's accent was great, but there was so much of it. A lot of characters all at once. Was I supposed to already know them?
I love that grandma Eileen 79 y/o, is so active and has a busy life in her town in Yorkshire.
Eileen and Lena have a close relationship. Lena's mom Marianne hasn't been close with either of them. There's a sad event that brings them even closer.
I would love to have this adapted for a BBC mini series.

Narrators Daisy Edgar-Jones and Alison Steadman perfectly portray this granddaughter and grandmother. I particularly enjoyed Steadman’s Eileen the grandmother. I could see the twinkle in her eye as I listened to her narration. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The story was a delight. Eileen finds herself single at 79, and Leena finds herself exhausted from overwork. Both are coping with the loss of a beloved sister and granddaughter. They switch homes and lives for the two months of Leena’s sabbatical from work. Hijinks ensue.

There were laugh out loud moments, but also a look at how we all process grief differently. Eileen builds a community in London, Leena learns to be a member of her grandmother’s community and finds healing there. I loved the warmth of the intergenerational relationships each develops in her new home.

Also, God Bless Her- Eileen does online dating and gets more action than her 29 year old granddaughter and I am here for it! 😂



This was a warm cup of tea with plenty of sugar and cream. Perfect for reading in 2020 when it feels like the world has gone mad.

Humorous and laugh out loud fun! I loved the narrators voices in this audiobook! In an attempt to change their lives and take a break, Leena switches homes with her grandmother Eileen. They spend a time in different cities with their switch. There is new drama in both of their lives, but they meet new people and experience whole new situations. The characters are absolutely delightful! Throughout the story, Leena and her mother and her grandmother have their own issues with their relationships between them. They have lost their closeness. Can they learn to understand each other and rebuild their relationships?

I found this book easy to listen to and the story line intriguing. For me listening to an audio book needs a compelling story, but even more important, the narrator has to be someone I could listen to. This book meets both of those important requirements.

The Switch was one fun read, it was a warm and fuzzy, and in parts hilarious. The book tells the story of Leena who was, up until a year earlier, at the top of her professional game, living in London with the perfect job, the perfect boyfriend, and the perfect group of friends. But Leena lost her sister Carla a year earlier to cancer and her mother’s unwillingness to even consider trying to prolong her life with experimental treatments abroad caused a deep rift in their mother/daughter relationship. Leena began slipping in her presentations at work and her very understanding boss, forced her to take a two month fully paid leave from work to allow herself to heal. Leena’s maternal grandmother Eileen (age 79), too, was trying to come to terms with her own grief while trying to be supportive to both her daughter and granddaughter. Eileen was caught in the middle trying to help mend the ties between mother and daughter.

Thus came about the switch. The unwilling vacationer, Leena, travels to visit her Grandmother Eileen in Leeds. While snooping inn her grandmother’s notebook Leena sees that Eileen is looking for potential dating/sex partners. To make a long story short, Leena with a two months’ vacation on her hands, offers her grandmother to switch living accommodations so that Eileen can dip into a wider dating pool.

There’s a lot of predictable here, cheating boyfriend, hunky male love interest (old school chum), Eileen gathering friends and offering her mature perspective to Leena’s sphere in London, and Leena taking over her grandmother’s jobs within the Septuagenarian/Octogenarian Watch Group where she lives - while bringing her own talents and younger generation technological savvy to the community. Both bring their go-get‘em skills to pull off major projects in their respective, alternate communities.

The beauty of the book lies in the witty dialog, the humorous situations that Leena and Eileen fall into, and the quirky characters of both communities. There is also the predictable healing and rapprochement between Leena and her mother.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for enabling me to download an audio of The Switch by Beth O'Leary, narrated by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Alison Steadman, in exchange for my honest review. Although this genre in not my normal reading preference, the book was lovely, and I truly enjoyed. I loved Leena’s narrator and I loved Eileen’s less - I cannot say which voice was which because the NetGalley App does not seem to have detailed enough credits information listed for viewing. I loved the technique employed for narrating the telephone conversations between the characters.
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I liked this quite a bit but not as much as The Flat Share.

I didn't find Eileen's story all that interesting, and I definitely enjoyed Leena's side a lot more.
A lot of this I would say is due to the narrator for Eileen who I struggled to enjoy, which is unfortunate.

I really think that O'Leary weaves fun tales that are semi-realistic but also very imaginative, her writing is easy to get through and I always like the characters.

This was an okay book for me. I liked it and I liked the plot, the idea for the two characters switching lives, but I just had a hard time connecting to the characters. I did like the family dynamics within the novel. Overall, an enjoyable book, but not a favorite.