A few years ago, Beth O’Leary debuted with her novel The Flatshare. This book got lots of praise, which I can’t judge since I haven’t read it yet. Her following novel The Switch again got lots of praise and hype. This one I recently read. Do I agree on this hype or was this book not for me?

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• Title: The Switch
• Author: Beth O’Leary
• Publication date: August 18, 2020
• Publisher: Flatiron Books
• ISBN: 9781250769862
• Number of pages: 336
• Genre: General Fiction, Contemporary, Romance

Eileen, newly single and about to turn eighty, would like a second chance at love, but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn’t offer many eligible gentlemen. Then in bustling London, Eileen’s twentysomething, overachieving granddaughter Leena is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work.
Once Leena learns of Eileen’s romantic predicament, she proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen will live in London and look for love. Meanwhile Leena will rest and take care of things in rural Yorkshire.
But trading places isn’t as easy as either of them expected. Will swapping lives help Eileen and Leena find themselves…and maybe even find love?

Unfortunately, this book didn’t meet my – probably way too high – expectations. Due to all the reviews I’ve read, I expected an emotional story with some deeper layers. There were deeper layers indeed, but they were just briefly explored and were not the main part of the story. That was the switch in lifes with Leena and her grandmother Eileen. Eileen is looking for a new romance and she tries internet dating. This is not really working in the Yorkshire Dales. When younger, Eileen dreamt of living in London. Swapping lifes with her granddaughter Leena makes this dream come true. Leena on the other hand is in desperate need of a sabbatical after blowing a huge presentation at work. Her family went to a tragic event recently and Leena needs to “heal” from this. Furthermore, her relationship with her mother suffered from this as well. She doesn’t want to face it, but spending a while in the Yorkshire Dales might do her some good.

So, Eileen and Leena are the main characters of this story. I liked Eileen better than Leena. Eileen finally is living her dream life and is not afraid to tell others her opinion. She finally steps out of the shadow of her former husband she always lived in. Leena on the other hand was a bit boring to me. She takes over Eileen’s projects, but in my opinion shows less growth. I just didn’t connect to her and this influenced my reading enjoyment.

The writing style was okay, not outstanding. Nor was the plot. There were many predictable things happening and some events were outright unbelieveable. I rolled my eyes a lot, especially at the start. Literally everything that possibly could go wrong went wrong and everything got fixed way too easy. This annoyed me greatly. I just couldn’t get into the story. Therefore, I put the book aside for a good week before deciding to power through it. I just wasn’t intrigued at all. I also was a little confused from whose POV I was reading, even though the chapters have names at the start of them.

Unfortunately, The Switch by Beth O’Leary didn’t meet my expectations. I expected more emotions and deeper layers. Although there happened quite a lot, everything felt so shallow to me. It felt to me like the author fixed everything way too quick and easy. I liked Eileen better than Leena, the latter one was so boring to me. It was easy for me to put the book aside and leave it there for about a week. I just wasn’t intrigued by and invested in this trory and it therefore didn’t live up to the hype it got to be honest. I still have The Flatshare and The Roadtrip to read, I hope they will fit me better.