Jamie Jack
This book is actually their first fiction audiobook that I've listened to—ever. The narrators, one for the younger heroine and one for the older one, did such an amazing job that future audiobooks will have a high standard to live up to. I felt like I was listening to an old school radio drama or just closing my eyes and listening to a good movie that also happened to tell you what the characters were thinking. (I wish movies did this more often… LOL!) Both narrators did an amazing job. But now to the story. This is British chick lit at its best, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes serious, sometimes poignant with a large cast of quirky characters--but always a good time and certainly delivering all the feels. We meet young Leena when she is at a very low point, botching what would have been a normally well-done presentation at work. Her company essentially forces her to take a two-month holiday; she has not had a vacation in years. We soon find out that Lena has lost her sister 18 months prior but has just kept working through it, not taking any time to process it or grieve all. She and her mother have become estranged. In talking with her grandmother, they decide to switch places for the two months. Leena is coming back to her home base in the Yorkshire Dales, and her grandmother is going to come to live in Leena's London flat with her flatmates. Grandpa left Grandma some time ago, and Grandma is interested in dating again but her choices are limited in her small Yorkshire town and she figures that London will have more to offer. They are both fish out of water at first, of course, but what's interesting is how they make their way, coming to appreciate what each place has to offer. Grandma even gets a London boyfriend and gets lucky (offscreen) before Leena does. I loved how sex-positive the book is for older women! By the way, while intimate scenes happen for both women, we don't see any detail and typically only hear about them afterward. Throughout all this time as well, there is an underlying tension between Leena and her mother because of Leena's sister's death from cancer. Grandma feels like she needs to come back several times because of issues with her daughter. There does seem to be a little codependency between Grandma and Mother, and the family has not truly worked through their issues because of the other daughter's death; we do see how this improves through the book; like real life, it isn’t easy or a straight line. I thought it was fun how Grandma Eileen became such fast friends with Leena's flatmates and friends. She became all their adopted grannies. Eileen also makes friends with the elderly ladies in the apartment building and helps them come out of their shells. Eileen even starts a community center in their building; she was very community oriented in her hometown, so it makes sense for her to create a community in London. Leena, of course, had a boyfriend in London, who now promises to visit weekly while she is in Yorkshire, but he only visits a couple of times and doesn't really fully engage while he's there. Grandma's got a sneaking suspicion about him, but I'll let you read or listen to the book to see how that turns out. I loved the characters in this book, both the three generations of Cotton women and their friends in both places. The author was able to make all these people seem so real, vibrant, and alive and ultimately believable and relatable. They each have their own individual quirks, hopes, and motivations. I particularly loved Jackson, who was so incredibly kind and gentle; does such a guileless, forgiving, good-hearted person exist? All in all, I found this to be a delightful audiobook with great characters and a story that kept me listening into the wee hours of the night. I loved these characters and their world so much that I would love to see a second book that shares how Leena and Eileen's lives continue after what happened in this book.
