Beth O'Leary
Reviewed by Helen
I loved this story so much, truly it made me laugh out loud and yes I cried as well, when you lose someone that you love people react differently and when the Cotton family suffer a loss Grandmother Eileen and granddaughter Leena decide that a switch in their lives might be just the thing to get everyone back on track or will they find the new me.
Leena is in a high powered position in a company working in London she has a boyfriend Ethan, but life isn’t going as well as it was for Leena and she is ordered to take a two month sabbatical from work and she decides that a trip to her grandmother’s house in a small village in the Dales of Yorkshire will hopefully get her back to normal.
Eileen is nearly eighty years, she is now a single woman and decides that she just may want to see if she can find love again and when her granddaughter Leena arrives in the village they think it might be a good idea if they swap lives for a while, and Eileen is off to London and Leena stays put in the village and takes over the things that her grandmother normally does.
Eileen arrives in London and starts looking for a man and online dating is just what she needs, with the help of Leena’s flat mates Eileen is finding her way around the site and some men that are very interesting, meanwhile back in Hamleigh in Harksdale Leena is learning a lot about the neighbours and their gossip and the dynamics of running a May Day festival with a lot of the locals who are set in their ways, there is much laughter and there is also Jackson the handsome school teacher.
MS O’Leary has written a fabulous story that has a lot of emotions throughout she has also bought into the story some issues about loneliness, grief, and things that can affect everyone but there was so much laughter and love flowing through as well, I loved Eileen and Leena what fabulous characters they are honest and true to life, they are strong and caring. Leena finds it hard with her relationship with Ethan from this distance and discovers that life and love can be found in this small village, and Eileen helps so many people while in London and finds that home is where she really wants to be.
I loved The Flatshare and was eagerly awaiting MS O’Leary’s next book and it is a big hit with me, this is one that I would highly recommend, it was such a fun read with honest feelings running through the storyline, it left me feeling very happy such a fabulous ending I am sre any reader will be smiling at the end.
5 stars
Published
April 28th 2020
by Hachette Australia
