Doesn't it?
BETH O'LEARY BOOKS ARE MEANT TO BE FUNNY THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO MAKE ME CRY WHAT EVEN WAS GOING ON THERE
Right. Now that that's out of the way...
I loved this book. It's funny, sweet, touches on important things without being too heavy. Leena has lost her sister, Eileen's granddaughter, about a year before the events of this book, and she, her grandmother and her mother are all coping in different ways. The book makes a point of saying that people grieve in different ways and that even if those ways don't make any sense to you, it doesn't make them less valid.
Leela and Eileen are fabulous characters. I love how their points of view and lifestyles, although completely out of place in their new situations, end up being exactly what's needed in those places. The supporting cast is fantastic as well; although both are brilliant, I think I like the London crew just a little bit more. How can you not love a crew that has Fitz on it, after all?
I'll be looking forward to reading more from Beth, and I absolutely recommend this to anyone who wants something funny and touching.
(I'm out of the habit of featuring a quote, but I may have to start it back up again. I couldn't let this one pass.)
'If a woman needs a place to stay, and I've got a bed to offer, then, well. That's that.'
Nicola is already opening the rear passenger door. I move to help her in, on autopilot.
'Let's get you back to my house, eh, love,' she says to Betsy as she settles. 'I'll put the kettle on, we can have a nice hot cuppa. then I'll do us fish pie for tea.'
It takes all my effort not to cry as I take the keys from a very worried-looking Penelope and sit myself down in the driver's seat. These people. There's such a fierceness to them, such a lovingness. When I got here, I thought their lives were small and silly, but I was wrong. They're some of the biggest people I know.
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?
(I'm out of the habit of featuring a quote, but I may have to start it back up again. I couldn't let this one pass.)
'If a woman needs a place to stay, and I've got a bed to offer, then, well. That's that.'
Nicola is already opening the rear passenger door. I move to help her in, on autopilot.
'Let's get you back to my house, eh, love,' she says to Betsy as she settles. 'I'll put the kettle on, we can have a nice hot cuppa. then I'll do us fish pie for tea.'
It takes all my effort not to cry as I take the keys from a very worried-looking Penelope and sit myself down in the driver's seat. These people. There's such a fierceness to them, such a lovingness. When I got here, I thought their lives were small and silly, but I was wrong. They're some of the biggest people I know.
UK cover US cover
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?
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