Book Review: The Switch | Lily Samson

Lily Samson’s new thriller, The Switch, just published and I predict this book will be heating up discussions in book clubs all across the country. Unapologetically salacious and entertaining, this is the type of thriller that is quite simply fun to read. It’s like peeking behind your neighbor’s doors and seeing what they really get up to! Grab your popcorn for this one!

What is The Switch about?

Two couples. One twisted game of love and obsession.

When young couple Elena and Adam are offered the chance to house-sit in their dream neighborhood for a few months, they jump at the opportunity. The leafy South London enclave is a world away from everything they know, complete with grand homes, lush gardens, and quaint local coffee shops.

Soon Elena crosses paths with the beautiful and enigmatic artist Sophia and her husband, Finn, and she and Adam are pulled into their orbit. Sophia is everything Elena isn’t—glamorous, alluring, successful—and Finn exerts a mysterious pull on Elena that she can’t seem to shake.

Elena’s infatuation with Finn grows stronger by the day, and when Sophia proposes a thrilling game to her new friend—to swap partners in secret—Elena quickly agrees. It’s not long before Elena experiences a sexual awakening that blossoms into an illicit love affair, but Sophia’s plans are far more dangerous than Elena could ever have imagined… (Goodreads)

What did I think?

Plan to suspend some disbelief and also to think that what all of these people are up to is absolutely wrong, and buckle in for the wild and salacious ride Samson takes the reader on. The book centers around two couples and they couldn’t be more different. Elena and Adam live with modest means and have a nice but somewhat routine relationship. Meanwhile Sophia and Finn are rich, glamorous, and charming.

The couples meet when Elena and Adam are housesitting in a posh neighborhood in London. Elena and Sophia meet by chance, and Elena is thrilled when Sophia accepts her social media request. Sophia is glamourous, alluring, and everything Elena wishes she could be.

When the couples meet up, Elena can’t deny her attraction to Finn. Then Sophia proposes a dangerous and thrilling idea—they should switch partners without telling them for an elicit night of fun. When they get away with it, they can’t seem to leave it at just the one time. And slowly, Elena develops an infatuation with Finn. She knows they need to stop, but she can’t give him up.

Elena starts spiraling deeper into her infatuation with Finn, and further away from her previously happy marriage to Adam. Jealousy and mistrust fracture the tenuous balance between the two. Meanwhile Sophia hasn’t shared her ulterior motive for the swap…

This is the type of book that needs a cold beverage, a bowl of popcorn, and a distraction-free evening because you won’t want to put this absolutely juicy thriller down. The arrangement between Elena and Sophia is entirely unhinged, but fun to explore how it plays out in the safety of fictional characters in a book. This is peak entertainment and a fun (if outrageous) story that will have everyone talking.

No one in this book is exactly a hero, but there is still something forgivable about Elena that Sophia doesn’t have. She’s as complicit as Sophia, but Sophia has a lot more going on than she is telling Elena and somehow that made her worse. The swap isn’t the only thing going on in this book—things spiral quickly once they get going and there is so much for you to discover on the journey through this story. The ending was off the rails and a lot of fun. I loved it!

Thank you to Viking Books and Pamela Dorman Press for my copy. Opinions are my own.