The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads)Published by FlatIron Books on May 28th 2019
Genres: Fiction, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Women
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
Tiffy and Leon share a flat
Tiffy and Leon share a bed
Tiffy and Leon have never met…
Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy’s at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time.
But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet, they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window…
When I read the premise of this book I just knew it was going to be my kind of read… I immediately purchased it and shoved it on my bookshelf. Where it sat. For far longer than it should have.
I’m so happy I finally grabbed this off my shelf and started it and the rave reviews are well-deserved. This story isn’t as light-hearted as it may initially appear to be. There are some serious things happening in the background of this story that made me really appreciate the witty banter and lovely characters that O’Leary managed to create.
Tiffy is one of my new favorite characters I’ve read. When we first meet her she’s kind of at a crossroads. Her recent ex has decided he’s moved on…even though he and Tiffy still live in the same flat. She’s determined to move out, but her choices are a dump of an apartment or possibly sharing a flat with someone she’s never met and most likely never will… in person anyway. Tiffy’s personality just jumps off the page when you’re reading her side of the story, but you can tell she’s almost been stifled in her relationship with Justin and seeing her become her true self as she becomes more and more removed from him was so lovely to experience.
Leon… man he gives me the feels for sure. His chapters were so … him. If that makes any sense at all. O’Leary’s characterization of him was just perfect. As a reader I felt like I was standing in front of him while reading his chapters, learning about his past, his family and his personality. While he’s not outgoing and talkative, that made me appreciate his expressiveness all the more when he really was feeling things.
I adored getting to see these two get to know each other through sticky notes. Their personalities complemented each other and there were times where I found myself giggling to myself when Tiffy put something in a note or sighing happily when they recognized that the other may have had a bad day and they did something nice for the other. It’s amazing how well you can get to know someone without ever having met them in person.
O’Leary also did something else that made me so incredibly happy… while this is Tiffy and Leon’s story, the other characters in the book were so very much a part of the story. Tiffy’s friends and the patients at the hospital and Leon’s family… they all impacted these characters in a way that wasn’t just a blip in the story and it was so lovely to get to know them as well. I personally would love to see Richie get his HEA. (I’m just saying).
As I mentioned this story does tackle a few serious topics… emotional abuse, stalkerish ex’s, death and dying, and falsely imprisoned family just to name a few. Nothing over the top for sure, but surprisingly that’s a lot for a book that isn’t 700 pages and honestly I like that there were some very serious undertones to this story.
Overall, I really loved this one – I gave it 5 stars after all – and immediately went online to purchase O’Leary’s other novel The Switch which is giving me major THE HOLIDAY feels so I’m quite hopeful I’ll love it just as much as this one.
If you are a fan of Contemporary Fiction I highly recommend this one!
About Beth O'Leary
Beth studied English at university before going into children’s publishing. She lives as close to the countryside as she can get while still being within reach of London, and wrote her first novel, The Flatshare, on her train journey to and from work.
You’ll usually find her curled up with a book, a cup of tea, and several woolly jumpers (whatever the weather).
Recent Comments