The Audiobook Version
Beth O’Leary
August 18, 2020
Macmillan
Blurb: 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 80. 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.
Purchase Links:
Amazon Audio | Amazon Paperback | Shop your local indie bookstore
I finally finished The Switch by Beth O’Leary! First off, the fact that it has taken me since August to finish this book is by no means a reflection on the novel, but rather the fact that it was an audiobook and I seemed to have forgotten how I used to “read” my audiobooks in the past. Ha. Fortunately I remembered.
The Switch is about Leena Cotton, a one-time wunderkind who has hit a brick wall after the death of her sister and experiences a panic attack during an important meeting, and her grandmother, Eileen, who is looking to start over after her husband leaves her. Given the title, you can probably imagine that they switch lives with Leena returning to her Yorkshire home and Eileen setting off for Leena’s life in London. So we have not one but two fish-out-of-water stories.
While The Switch might be classified as a romance, I found the story to be more about general relationships, even the relationship that a person has with herself, finding oneself, evolving into oneself or who one may be meant to be. Neighbors in both locales learn about each other. Mothers and daughters create a gateway to understanding. Men and women come to know each other a little better, even sorting through previous misunderstandings.
Most of the outcomes were not surprises, but still it was delightful to see how they were achieved. And the ending brought me to tears, especially as the actress narrating Eileen choked up with tears.
While there were many, many characters, I did not have a difficult time keeping track of them, even with an audiobook. Most were well-drawn characters, although I did have some difficulty keeping track of some of the background neighborhood watch characters in Yorkshire.
Both actresses did a wonderful narration job, bringing the story to life, making me laugh and cry as the situation warranted. I have not read any previous Beth O’Leary novels, but I will certain to seek them out after this sweet story.
The Switch is for fans of British chick lit/relationship novels.
I received an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
rating:
4 butterflies and a ladybug out of 5 butterflies