The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary
Rating: ★★★★☆
Links:
Amazon •
TBD •
GoodreadsPublication Date: April 10, 2019
Source: Borrowed
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…
I think I’ve seen about 12,000 positive reviews of The Flatshare, but it took me a while to pick it up because I just couldn’t wrap my mind around how this flatshare thing would work. I know, I know, if I’d just read the book right away, my question would have been answered. But it just seemed so weird! Strangers sharing a bed? But not meeting? What?
Well, this turned out to be a very good book. After the first couple chapters, the whole flatshare/bedshare thing seemed perfectly normal. I loved watching Tiffy and Leon’s relationship develop through little notes they left for each other. That was so cute! But this book isn’t just fluff. There’s plenty of darker content in it, which I wasn’t really expecting, but it was handled really well and felt very realistic.
Both Tiffy and Leon were really likable characters. Tiffy, a generally upbeat and quirky person, has to come to terms with the fact that her last relationship was incredibly unhealthy and emotionally abusive. Leon, a quiet, laid-back nurse, is trying to help his wrongfully imprisoned brother as much as he can. The two of them together make an unlikely pair, but the support they give each other (if only through short handwritten notes) was so heartwarming.
The book is very, very slow burn. Most of the book goes by without Tiffy and Leon ever meeting, but their eventual meeting and the development of their relationship was so worth it.
I can’t wait to get my hands on The Switch, O’Leary’s next book.
Have you read The Flatshare? What’s the last book you read that lived up to the hype?
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