The Switch Spiral-Bound | 2020-08-18
Beth O'Leary
★★★☆☆+ from 50,001 + ratings
The Switch
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?
--Booklist, starred review
"The Switch was refreshing, engaging and thoroughly enjoyable. This story has everything you could ask for: witty characters, strong female relationships and a view about love that'd make anyone hopeful." --Helena Hunting, New York Times bestselling author
"I am SO LOVING The Switch! It's so sweet and uplifting and SUCH a balm in these wretched times." --Marian Keyes, internationally bestselling author (over 35 million copies of her novels sold)
"Reading this felt like checking in on old friends. A bright, life-affirming story with beautifully rich characters." -Abby Jimenez, bestselling author of The Friend Zone
Praise for Beth O'Leary's The Flatshare:
"Add this to your summer reading list (and get out your checkbooks, Hollywood)...Everyone needs to devour immediately." --USA Today
"O'Leary's tender, funny debut is a millennial romantic comedy with an old-fashioned twist: You'll never look at a Post-it the same way again." --People
"The new Jojo Moyes…This has all the ingredients of Me Before You… seriously funny." --Cosmopolitan (UK)
"Set to become the romcom of the year with its lovable characters, comic situations and deeply satisfying love story - a Sleepless In Seattle for the 21st century." --Sunday Express Magazine (UK)
"A charming love story to warm your heart…Even skeptical readers will be surprised by the thoughtful way Beth O'Leary faces not only new love but also the traces of individual pasts." --BookPage
"The Flatshare is the novel equivalent of a cup of hot tea. It'll warm you up -- and heal you if you're hurting." --Refinery29
"The Flatshare is undeniably a romance between Tiffy and Leon; it will give you butterflies, and make you laugh. But it's also a deep-dive into the realities of relationships gone wrong, and what it truly takes to dig oneself out of the depths… An empowering look at resilience and healthy love." --Bustle
"Its breezy prose and fun plot will have you hooked from the first page." --RealSimple.com, 5 Best Summer Beach Reads
"This quirky romantic comedy has surprising depth…Colorful storylines, generous-hearted characters, and British banter make this a refreshing novel." --Christian Science Monitor
"The story is a delight from start to finish, full of eccentric side characters (including Tiffy's friends and co-workers) and sexual tension…With likable main characters, spot-on dialogue, a fun premise, and plenty of drama, there's a lot to like in this sweet story. A warm, enchanting love story perfect for fans of classic rom-coms." --Kirkus, starred review
"Delightful…This charming debut features lovely characters being nice to one another. It's easy to root for them to get together and solve the problems in each of their lives. Be prepared to hand-sell this one. It's a sweet romance that will win over readers once they discover it on the shelves." --Library Journal, starred review
"O'Leary's debut is a sweet, quirky novel about two complete opposites falling for one another under the cutest of circumstances...Perfect for fans of Helen Hoang's The Kiss Quotient and Sally Thorne's The Hating Game." --Booklist
"Clever debut…O'Leary's story packs plenty of laughs and gasps; fans of Bridget Jones's Diary will want to give this a look." --Publishers Weekly
"This is such a great book to take on vacation and read in one go with your toes dug into the warm sand."
--Christina Lauren, Publishers Weekly's 11 Essential Summer Romance Novels
"Utterly charming. Written with care and love for her characters, O'Leary manages to conjure up a Richard Curtis rom-com that also has its feet firmly planted in real life. The concept isn't stretched beyond credibility and, above all else, it's funny and winning. A real treat." --Stylist (UK)