The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
After a bad breakup, Tiffy Moore needs a place to live. Fast. And cheap. But the apartments in her budget have her wondering if astonishingly colored mold on the walls counts as art.
Desperation makes her open minded, so she answers an ad for a flatshare. Leon, a night shift worker, will take the apartment during the day, and Tiffy can have it nights and weekends. He’ll only ever be there when she’s at the office. In fact, they’ll never even have to meet.
Tiffy and Leon start writing each other notes – first about what day is garbage day, and politely establishing what leftovers are up for grabs, and the evergreen question of whether the toilet seat should stay up or down. Even though they are opposites, they soon become friends. And then maybe more.
But falling in love with your roommate is probably a terrible idea…especially if you've never met.
What if your roommate is your soul mate? A joyful, quirky romantic comedy, Beth O'Leary's The Flatshare is a feel-good novel about finding love in the most unexpected of ways.
Review: Tiffy just got out of a relationship and needs a cheap place to live fast. But the only one she can afford is a flatshare with Leon, a night shift worker. He will take the apartment during the day, and Tiffy will be there on nights and weekends. At first, the arrangement works out great! The two have never met, and it's a little weird sharing space so intimately with a stranger. But they quickly bond over notes they leave each other around the apartment.
This was a cute, fairly clean romance. I liked that Tiffy and Leon have rich, complicated back stories and challenges they are both independently trying to overcome. Unlike their previous partners, they accept each other the way they are and have a natural connection. I thought it was so cute that they initially got to know each other and bonded over handwritten notes. The main point of contention in this relationship is Tiffy's controlling to the point of abuse ex-boyfriend. He was absolutely horrible, and it is only over the course of the novel that Tiffy comes to terms with how unhealthy that relationship truly was.
That being said, I don't know how realistic the plot was. Do people really share one-bedrooms and just sleep on separate sides of the bed?? It seemed unreasonable or at least unhygienic. And it didn't make sense that their schedules were that wholly separate that their time in the apartment would never ovelap for so long. I think I would have bought it more if they had just been roommates that rarely saw each other and still mostly bonded over notes they leave each other. But it was a cute premise.
I listened to the audio version of this book and really appreciated that they had two narrators to read the alternating chapters from Tiffy and Leon's perspectives. However, the characters talk to people on the phone a lot. And the audio version gave this strange, tinny affect to phone conversations to make the other person that was supposed to be on the other end of the line sound distant that was very distracting to me. Not a deal breaker but it wasn't my favorite technique and felt unnecessary.
Stars: 3.5
Comments
Post a Comment