this was such a wonderful read. i loved the premise.
i have to say i think me and my siblings would come up short living each others lives. im constantly in awe of their lives in one way or another. the job, well one is saving little corners of the world. and one is working in a field i hate but more because i dont like thinking of them having to thrive amongst that ses-pit work arena. the lives of ours again would clash. and i know within minutes we would understand the other a bit more. then again, we do hold space and think of the other in that way already. if we were estranged like our sisters in this book i wouldn't do a life swipe as my first choice to bridge the gap! but our sisters also need this. for one needs to be in the others world to earn some money because house costs are drowning her. her opportunity lands right into her sisters world. and the other to come and be the single mum world? well, ha im not sure why Sarah thought her immature sister was going to be a great pick for soul charge of her children???
so do we believe it will work. well actually....
i was full of love for these pair. the exasperated love but still fierce love was still there. and part of why you feel so tense with them is because of the strength of love. but these two were in their own kind of overwhelm in their own lives. where nothing was as it seems looking in. the sister assume so much of the others lives. and its not that, and they are about to find that out.
Sarah the single mum learns how to let go.
Sinead learns how to stay, be there and be responsible. c
and in their own way they still lend a bit of what makes them who they are into their sister roles too.
this isn't all fun and frolics though. its not some Disney movie. there are still challenges and real human emotion and walls to climb over and i felt for both of them as they did this. i didn't like the tensions or separation that had grown between the pair and genuinely wanted them to be ok with each other.
the understanding that can come only with sibling is all here. and also the misunderstandings. its so easy especially with siblings to have that comparison being the thief of joy effect.
i loved this book so much. Jeananne kept it so real and so very applicable to siblings, to people you love that i felt this story with my whole heart. i felt like i could be an older sister to the pair looking down and wanting to bash their heads together but also give them one huge cuddle and help.
a gem of a read and just what i needed. and yes it made me want to contact my own and ask how they are.

I loved this story of two, semi-estranged Northern Irish sisters forced by necessity to step into each other’s shoes.

Sinead is a young, single woman living with flatmate-friends in Belfast. Although she works in marketing, her hard partying lifestyle hasn’t changed much since her university days. But lately, her flatmates are finding her hangovers less amusing – and so is her boss. When Sinead loses her job, she wonders if her straight-laced sister, Sarah, with her lack of financial concerns and easy life, can help her out.

Although she’s fortunate to have the Dublin home her boyfriend inherited from his grandmother, nothing else in Sarah’s life is easy. Said boyfriend abandoned her and their six-year-old twins. He rarely pays child support, let alone visits. And Sarah’s burgeoning career as an actress has had to take a backseat to the demands of single motherhood. Commercials and voice-overs allow her to work within school pick-up times. But when she gets an offer for a role for a famous film director, expensive home repairs force her to take the offer, even if it’s in Belfast. Then again, since her sister lost her job, babysitting the kids might force some responsibility on her for the first time in her life.

For financial reasons, Sinead and Sarah exchange lives, and begin to build a better understanding of the sibling they’d earlier dismissed. This was a lovely story, and I enjoyed following along on Sinead and Sarah’s life swaps – and to see how their new sense of understanding helps to change their own lives for then better, too. Also accompanied by great Irish humour and atmosphere. Highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy - all thoughts are my own.

‘The Life Swap’ tackles complicated relationships with characters who are flawed and real and who you can really get behind.

These are characters I will think about for a while, working through how I first viewed them through the development the author grants them.

The author avoids a trite and simplistic ending, instead giving us a sense of hope for the future launched from where we leave these characters.

Love discovering an author I will look for in coming works.

I was grateful to read this through NetGalley and the opinions are all mine.