** I received an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.**
There is something about the way this author writes characters. Last year, The Flat Share was such a delightful surprise that I could not wait to get my hands on this book. I was so excited when I was given the audiobook through NetGalley.
Although this book does have romantic elements in it, it is not a romance. It is a book about how loss reshapes a family and all the people in it. When a close family member is no longer physically present, the family has to learn how to reshape around it. Sometimes finding who you are without that person can be very difficult. It may create a space that can never be filled.
This book focuses on a family of women who have been dealt several blows. First, they lost a granddaughter, daughter, and sister and then the grandfather ran off with a dance instructor. Leena has lost her sister to cancer and has been slowly self imploding ever since. She is over working and has a panic attack in the most important presentation of her life. Her employer forces her to take a sabbatical to sort herself out. Her grandmother Eileen not only lost her granddaughter but also her husband and is finding her small hamlet not very conducive to finding love again. After a weekend together, they decide to switch lives for a time and see if they can each find what they need,
I loved that this book looks at this 79 year old woman as a vibrant, sexy woman. Here is no pandering to her age. She is a full, beautifully written character who still desires and loves and makes mistakes. I loved her point of view so much.
I loved that Leena has to learn to work differently in the small hamlet and also has to learn to forgive her mother. IT is really hard to be angry at a person who has died. It is much easier to blame someone you can still touch. Her journey is not an easy one but it was very well written.
This book touched me in a way that is difficult to define. My family lost my uncle when I was about 3 years old and it reshaped itself around a wound that never healed. My mother, her sister and my grandparents did not talk about him much and they certainly did not talk about his death. It was just something that was always there. I often wonder who they all were before he died. I understand how that change how an entire family works.
This book is beautifully written and the two main characters are fully developed women whose hopes and dreams have been knocked off track. They are not cardboard cut outs. I just really enjoy the way this author writes characters with such nuance and humanness.
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I laughed, cried, and grieved for my own losses
Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2020
The Switch follows Leena Cotton, a workaholic who lives in London, is forced to take a two month sabbatical, and decided to switch houses/places with her grandmother Eileen Cotton, because she is tired of her life and is ready for a change. Eileen is about to turn 80 and is wondering if all her life is made of managing the retiree committee for the “over 70s” in her Yorkshire village. After a divorce from her cheating husband, and constantly watching her daughter after the loss of her daughter, Eileen needs to find herself, and what better way to do so than to escape away to Leena’s flat in London… where the bachelor pool is a little less shallow.Thank you Netgalley, Beth O’Leary and Quercus for my advanced Audio Copy of <I> The Switch After reading The Flatshare I knew I had to get my hands on this book.Leena’s POV was enjoyable and it the beginning was my favorite. I felt for her as she navigated through her feelings and grief after losing her sister, and the grudge she held against her mother Marian who she blamed for her sister’s death. Leena goes from surrounded by people and friends her age, a job she thinks she loves, a boyfriend who has been her rock and safety blanket and a world a touch away with all the technology at her fingertips to a slower paced village, a new friend (actually the only one her age in the community) Jackson, and the rest of her friends over the age of 60. Her closest touch to her old reality is the brick phone her grandmother left her. Leena must learn to heal… and healing sometimes is the most raw and vulnerable feeling we can put ourselves through.“You were healing. You’re still healing. You’ll maybe always be healing. And that’s OK. It’ll just be part of what makes you you.”Eileen ended up being my absolute favorite. Her strength, resilience, and kindness had me leaning in closure to hear her story. Her friendships were my favorite and I loved her being so adventurous trying out online dating. From seeing genitals in her tea leaves, receiving private pictures of mens “unmentionables” and the moments of acceptance she found in her time away from home, Eileen had me laughing out loud as I cleaned my house and then she had me crying.Eileen reminded me so much of my grandmother with her free spirit and bold personality. There were so many things Eileen got to experience that I wish my grandmother would have had the chance to if she wouldn’t of lost the battle to COPD. Traveling, wearing clothes she never thought she would, living without limits or fear, making new friends, dating, flirting, and just living❤️.“When people talk about loss, they always say you’ll never be the same, that it will change you, leave a hole in your life. ( . . . ) But when you lose somebody you love, you don’t lose everything they gave you. They leave something with you.” – EileenThank you Beth O’Leary for sharing a beautiful book with us as readers. I cried for the ones Ive lost and loved, I laughed for the hysterical moments you wrote, and I smiled for characters I fell in love with.
Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2020
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Carly Findlay
Bravo Beth, you’ve done it again!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 22, 2020
Audrey Haylins
Much more than mere puff and fluff
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 6, 2021
