The No-Show Review

E-Book, 341 pages
Romance/ Contemporary
By: Beth O’Leary
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟 1/2

“I don’t want you to be perfect. Why would I want that? I want you. I want all the parts of you, the broken ones, the ones you’ve kept hidden away.”

Every year, there is a new romance writer that writes a best selling debut and become a fan favorite instantly. O’leary was that author when she wrote The Flatshare which I haven’t read yet. But when I saw that she released a new book with a very intriguing -very chaotic- synopsis. I knew I had to read it.

The story follows three main characters who are Siobhan, Miranda and Jane who has dates on Valentine’s date. The thing is they all have a date with Joseph and he doesn’t show to any of the dates. The story jumps between these three POVs to explain what happened and what follows after.

The writing was very accessible, I think the three female characters are all fleshed out and well written with Jane being the most relatable for me but Miranda was my favorite to read. The real problem is with the male main character, Joseph. The three women loves him and we are told again and again of how he is handsome, nice, smart but we are never shown that which made him a dull protagonist for me.

The second criticism is the convoluted narrative jumping between the three characters. The story seems to be very predictable from the first three chapters then a twist happen -and it was a good twist- and things seem a bit different. I think there was so much focus on this twist and the suspense element which derailed the narrative from the romance and contemporary feeling it should have. And to be honest, I still think it was predictable because I thought about it for a minute and it was the only logical ways for things to unfold.

Summary: Overall, it was a good story but a bit atypical for a romance novel. I usually read these stories for something light and funny but this was not the case here. It seems there was a bit of telling rather than showing and a focus on the plot twist that took a bit from the story for me. I still had fun with it though.