Goodreads

Release date: August 18, 2020

Publisher: Flatiron

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Blurb:

Eileen is sick of being 79.
Leena’s tired of life in her twenties.
Maybe it’s time they swapped places…

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 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.

Once Leena learns of Eileen’s romantic predicament, she proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love. Meanwhile Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire. But with gossiping neighbours and difficult family dynamics to navigate up north, and trendy London flatmates and online dating to contend with in the city, stepping into one another’s shoes proves more difficult than either of them expected.

Leena learns that a long-distance relationship isn’t as romantic as she hoped it would be, and then there is the annoyingly perfect – and distractingly handsome – school teacher, who keeps showing up to outdo her efforts to impress the local villagers. Back in London, Eileen is a huge hit with her new neighbours, but is her perfect match nearer home than she first thought?

Review:

Last summer I fell in love with The Flatshare, it was such a charming read and I listened to it on audio so I was super excited to get my hands on an audio copy of her latest as well. I’m a huge sucker for an accent, I could listen to someone talk with one all day and this was just as wonderful on audio as the last book. I did flip back and forth between the audio and the book so I can safely recommend both versions, basically you cannot go wrong here!

Leena and her grandmother Eileen decide to switch places for a few months, Leena has been working herself way too hard in London and Eileen wants to start dating again but the pickings in her small village are very slim. I’ve often dreamed about switching places with someone else (right now it’s anyone without tiny kids tbh) so I loved the premise of this one. The story unfolds in alternating chapters from each woman and I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I adored Eileen’s chapters. There was something sweet, vulnerable and endearing about a woman pushing eighty dating in a big city and she completely won me over almost immediately. Leena was a fantastic character as well it’s just that Eileen now holds a special place in my heart. This was such a lovely read, it was heartwarming, funny and so so charming. I can’t recommend it highly enough and know it’ll be one of my favorites this summer.

Overall rating: 5/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.