THE SWITCH by Beth O’Leary releases in the U.S. on August 18th but you can read an exclusive excerpt below!

 

About the Book:

A grandmother and granddaughter swap lives in this charming, romantic novel by Beth O’Leary, hailed as “the new Jojo Moyes” (Cosmopolitan UK)

Eileen Cotton’s husband of sixty years left her four months ago, and good riddance. After all these decades of sleepy village life, Eileen is ready for an adventure. She’d like a chance at real love, too – and she wonders if maybe the right man is up the road in the big city…

Eileen’s granddaughter (and namesake) Leena lives in bustling London, where she is overworked, overscheduled, and overcaffeinated. When Leena collapses and her office sends her on a mandatory vacation, she wants to escape to her grandmother’s inviting, picture-postcard little village.

So they decide to switch lives.

Eileen will take Leena’s flat, Leena’s laptop, and Leena’s glitzy twenty-something London lifestyle. She’ll learn all about dating apps and swiping right, the best coffee shops, and paper-thin apartment walls. Leena can have Eileen’s sweet cottage, her idyllic Yorkshire village, her little projects to help her neighbors, and her nice, quiet life. But neither finds that her new life is exactly what she’d imagined.

Will swapping lives help Eileen and Leena become more truly themselves, and can they find true love in the process?

 

My Review:

 

I throughly enjoyed reading Beth O’Leary’s The Switch, a warm and delightful book about Leena, who has just been forced to take a two month leave of absence from her job, and Eileen, her grandmother who needs a little change in her life. They both agree to swap lives, with Leena moving to her grandmother’s charming Yorkshire village and Eileen taking on the big city of London. Such a cute idea! What I thought would be a breezy and light read turned into much more, with the author tackling subjects such as grief, self-esteem and even domestic abuse. There is a wide cast of characters of all ages which all added lots of flavor to this absolutely charming romance.

And I am thrilled to read that Rachel Brosnahan will star in the making of ‘The Switch’ for the big screen! You can read more HERE

I am looking forward to reading Beth’s other book, ‘The Flatshare’!

(Thank you to the publisher for providing an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.)

Excerpt:

“Grandma … what if we swapped?” I say. “What if I came up and looked after all your projects, and you had my flat in London, and I stayed here?”

Grandma looks up at me. “Swapped?”

“Swapped places. You do the London thing! Try dating in the city, have your adventure … remind yourself of who you were before Grandpa Wade. And I’ll come up here. Switch off for a bit in the countryside, try to—to get my head around everything that’s happened, and I’ll look after your little projects, and … help Mum out if she needs it. I’ll do whatever it is you do for her, you know, any errands and stuff.” I feel a bit dizzy, all of a sudden. Is this a good idea? It’s quite extreme, even by my standards.

Grandma’s eyes turn thoughtful. “You’d stay here? And be there for Marian when she needs you?”

I can see what she’s thinking. She never says as much, but I know she’s been desperate to get Mum and me talking again ever since Carla died. As it happens, I think Mum is coping a hell of a lot better than Grandma thinks—she certainly doesn’t need to be waited on hand and foot—but if Grandma needs to feel I’ll do everything she does for Mum, then …

“Yeah, sure, absolutely.” I twist the laptop her way. “Check it out, Grandma. Four hundred men just waiting to meet you in London.”

Grandma pops her glasses back on. “Gosh,” she says, looking at the pictures on the screen. The glasses come off again and her gaze drops to the table. “But I have other responsibilities here too. There’s the Neighborhood Watch, there’s Ant and Dec, there’s driving the van to bingo … I couldn’t ask you to take all of that on.”

I suppress a smile at Grandma’s grand list of responsibilities. “You’re not asking. I’m offering,” I tell her.

There’s a long silence.

“This seems a bit crackers,” Grandma says eventually.

“I know. It is, a bit. But I think it’s genius too.” I grin. “I will not take no for an answer, and you know when I say that, I one hundred percent mean it.”

Grandma looks amused. “That’s true enough.” She breathes out slowly. “Gosh. Do you think I can handle London?”

“Oh, please. The question, Grandma, is whether London can handle you.”

 

About the Author:

 

Beth O’Leary worked in children’s publishing before becoming a full-time author. She is also the author of The Flatshare. She can be found on Instagram @BethOLearyAuthor and Twitter @OLearyBeth.