Book #17: The Flat Share by Beth O'Leary
The Flat Share by Beth O'Leary
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was a book that I read based on a recommendation.
Through a slightly confusing series of events, Tiff and Leon end up sharing a flat. Tiff has just split from her boyfriend, while Leon is still in a healthy relationship with his girlfriend.
Through some slightly bizarre arrangement, the two of them use the same bed, but at different times, with the agreement that due to their work shifts, neither will be in the flat at the same time. At first, they communicate with each other by writing letters and notes, but you can probably guess that they will eventually meet.
There are a couple of subplots as well; one involving Tiff's manipulative, and clingy, ex boyfriend, and another involving Leon's brother being in jail for a crime he did not commit. Also, Tiff and Leon spend some of the book attempting to track down the former boyfriend of a patient from the hospital where Leon works as a nurse.
This is a book I thought was okay, but I wanted to enjoy it a bit more than I did. I liked the two main characters, who narrate different chapters, in a style that felt like diary entries. I had to get used to the fact that a lot of the conversations were in a screenplay type format, and I noticed that Leon often seemed to narrate in shorthand, missing out some words, so some of his sentences would be something like: "Went to work."
I really enjoyed the first half of the book, particularly the early chapters with Tiff and Leon trying to figure each other out without having met, and their bizarre ways they imagined their new housemate. The second half of the book was still readable, but it started to feel predictable, like a standard romcom format, where I was left in no doubt about how it would end.
So, great characters, decent writing style, but a plot that I'd seen many, many times.
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