BOOK REVIEW: THE SWITCH, BY BETH O’LEARY

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.

 

The Switch was such a delightful way for these two women to change their lives, just by swapping them out for a couple of months. For Eileen, in the countryside, approaching her eightieth birthday, there would be few chances for the kind of adventure she needed.

For her granddaughter Leena, who was burned out at work and struggling with the loss of her sister Carla, a new perspective was sadly needed.

In alternating chapters, Leena and Eileen switch voices, sharing their thoughts and adventures as they navigate the lives they have adapted.

Each brought something unique to their new circumstances…and found something hidden within themselves. Can Eileen find love again? Will Leena discover that what she thought she wanted isn’t it at all?

I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in the lives of these characters, enjoying their discoveries and their deepest thoughts. 5 stars.

***