a.m. Siobhan’s been looking forward to her breakfast date with Joseph. She was surprised when he suggested it – she normally sees him late at night in her hotel room. Breakfast with Joseph on Valentine’s Day surely means something… so where is he? I found myself frequently giggling at this book, and underlining my favorite phrases. There’s plenty of zingy dialogue and pithy noticings about social dynamics. Siobhan in particular is entertainingly self aware. Without giving away the major twist of the book and ruining the whole reader experience, I think it’s important that readers know that only 2 of the 3 women get a romance HEA. In retrospect I tried to think of how I would feel if I thought of The No-Show as a mystery. But it wasn’t a mystery, and I find it hard to apply the rules of a mystery to a book that while not a romance, had at its heart three romantic relationships. It was just hard not to focus on the journey and not the resolution, when the resolution was such a big question mark.

I read the final few chapters in public and let me just say, this was not a wise choice unless crying alone with a passionfruit margarita in hand is something you also aspire towards. Consider yourself warned. Once again I’ll be counting down the days to Beth’s next book already, and wondering what I can read to fill the void in the meantime. Recommendations on a postcard, please! Content warnings: self-harm, alcoholism, obsession, stalking, sexual harassment, miscarriage, dementia. I can’t even imagine how long it took Beth to write this book, the skill behind unravelling so many stories at one time and getting that onto paper is remarkable to me, she is so unbelievably talented and her work is such a pleasure to read. This book is 100% worth reading this Summer, if you like romance, drama and a large plot twist that makes you audibly gasp, you’ll love this!The author’s last book, The Road Trip, also featured a plot where the reader doesn’t learn everything that transpired until late in the book. I’m not totally opposed to that sort of plot, but The No-Show takes it to extremes, with instances of intentional misdirection. Which, again, is the sort of thing I expect more from a mystery or thriller. The No Showis O’Leary’s savviest book to date (and dare I say her best), and although it’s not quite as ‘cosy’ as The Switch, it’s equally as heartwarming and joyful. Kudos to O’Leary for her meticulous plotting too. This is the most satisfying conclusion I’ve read in a long time and a wonderfully original take on the romance novel. My advice? Go into it blindly, and avoid spoilers because when you get to the plot twist you will launch your book across the room. Ladies and Gentlemen, Her!

I loved every female character in this book, but I must admit my heart really did fall for Jane! Darcey So, when I first read the blurb, sometime before starting the book, I made a few assumptions. Rereading the blurb, it’s clear that to some degree I didn’t read closely enough, because one of the assumptions was that this was going to be “three women get together and get revenge on the cad who broke all of their hearts”, which is actually not indicated. As the blurb states, each relationship continues for some time after the standing-up in the beginning of the book, and in fact for the majority of the book none of the three even knows about the other two. These three women are strangers who have only one thing in common: They’ve all been stood up on the same day, the very worst day to be stood up – Valentine’s Day. And, unbeknownst to them, they’ve all been stood up by the same man. Janine: I think the only reason the manipulation didn’t bother me as much is because I was expecting *something.* It was clear that things were not as they seemed.Once they’ve each forgiven him for standing them up, they are all in serious danger of falling in love with a man who may have not just one or two but three women on the go…. At first, I didn’t want to like Joseph because he felt like a combination of the leads from Sister Wives and Dexter, a charmingly manipulative man with his own moral code. As readers, we slowly unpeel the ways his life intersects with the three very different women. And the more I learned about Joseph, the more he wormed his way into my heart just like the heroines. Joseph works in IT in London, but spends most of his time in his hometown of Winchester. He’s a lovable nerd, who just happens to be drop-dead gorgeous, and takes care of his mom with dementia even though she can’t help calling his girlfriend by the wrong name. The three romances are on different timelines (the Valentine’s Day no-shows all occur in different years – 2015, 2018 and 2019, IIRC), though the misdirection really tries to make the reader believe that they are simultaneous. For instance there is a scene with heroine #2 directly after a scene with heroine #1 in which heroine #2 finds a receipt for breakfast for two that seems like evidence of cheating – Joseph had had breakfast with heroine #1 in the previous scene. But they actually occur in completely different years and Joseph’s reason for hiding the fact that he wasn’t alone at breakfast has a reasonable explanation. FURTHER SPOILER The three women are distinctly different types. Siobhan is a former aspiring actress, confident and successful in her current career. She had a bad breakup with her last boyfriend, which makes her wary of getting into another relationship, but she has a lot of close friends, the closest of whom is her longtime roommate and bestie, Fiona. Siobhan is the glamorous one of the three protagonists.

there’s a half-drunk double-shot oat-milk latte on the table in front of her. If she’d known she was going to be stood up on Valentine’s Day, she’d have got proper milk. Siobhan is only vegan when she’s in a good mood.” So, pluses: O’Leary is a funny, engaging writer, and the story was compelling. The three main female characters were likable as were several secondary characters (especially Miranda’s sisters and the friends that Jane does end up making/realizing she had all along in the course of the book). Minuses: the structure of the story and a plot development late in the book. O’Leary writes about women who are healing from abuse, both work and personal, exceptionally well. Each of the women resonated with me in how they exhibited a different common dynamic of the past couple of years—Siobhan’s overwork causes her to burnout, Jane is rebuilding her sense of self after a toxic work situation, and Miranda is learning to trust her strength and beauty, because she isn’t sure if she’s posh enough for Joseph. In each case, the women’s relationships with Joseph help them grow and heal, even if they don’t end up with him at the end. It might have been the mystery of how Joseph was going to get caught that kept me reading, but it was spending time with Siobhan, Miranda and Jane’s journey that made me enjoy the book along the way. Is there more to him than meets the eye? Where was he on Valentine’s Day? And will they each untangle the truth before they all get their hearts broken?Three women who seemingly have nothing in common find that they’re involved with the same man in this smart new rom-com by Beth O’Leary, bestselling author of The Flatshare.

I’ve read all of O’Leary’s books so far and this is my favorite since The Flatshare. I agree with alot of people that this doesn’t fit the structure (or really the tone) of a Romance novel, but O’Leary has always skirted the edge of that definition IMO. I gave The Flatshare an A, The Switch a B+ and The Road Trip a B-. Maybe more than other authors, I compare O’Leary’s books to each other, perhaps because I’ve read them in fairly close succession over the past couple of years. The Flatshare is still the gold standard. I probably found The Road Trip a bit more compelling than The No-Show, but it also had hugely problematic character issues that brought the grade down. This book is pretty comparable to The Switch, but because of the problems I’ve mentioned with the plot, I think I’ll give it a straight B.Because of the unusual plot structure, I find myself having trouble working out how exactly I felt about The No-Show. Throughout the book you get to know the three leading ladies Siobhan, Miranda and Jane, I really enjoy a book from the different characters’ perspectives, I find it incredibly interesting as it really speeds up the pace of the book for me. I loved every female character in this book, but I must admit my heart really did fall for Jane, the sweetest character with a lot of self-doubt and worry, I was really rooting for Janey and so the ending (if you’ve read the book) made my heart swell!