The ever-popular English author, Beth O’Leary, is back with another wonderfully clever novel. The No-Show follows three women, who all have dates planned with a man, the same man, and the aftermath of him not showing up.
Siobhan has a breakfast date planned with Joseph Carter. It is a first for them as they usually spend their time together late at night in a London hotel room when Siobhan is visiting town for work. Miranda has a lunch date with Carter booked in for Valentine’s Day. They have been dating for five months and it’s getting serious. She is also excited to celebrate her new job at a very expensive restaurant. Jane is waiting for Joseph to show up to her co-worker’s engagement party, he is meant to be pretending to be her boyfriend. Jane is new to Winchester, but her weekly book club meetings with Joseph are definitely her favourite part.
This book moves away from Beth O’Leary’s usual theme of two intertwined lives to three. Each of the three women are unique and strong. Their stories, personalities and pasts are very different, but O’Leary swaps between the stories of the three women effortlessly.
The No-Show is heart-felt, charming and easy reading but simultaneously compulsively engaging. I raced through this book, desperate to know what was going to happen next. I found myself laughing then crying, then laughing again along with the characters, rooting for all of them and wishing for a happy ending. But it turned out to be an ending that surprised me.
This is the perfect book to read curled up in bed with tissues to dab at the tears of joy and sadness. Maybe even while it’s cold and wet outside, just to make it feel a little more English.
Reviewed by Amber Sawyer
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Beth O’Leary is a Sunday Times bestselling author whose books have been translated into more than 30 languages.
She wrote her debut novel, The Flatshare, on her train journey to and from her job at a children’s publisher.
She now lives in the Hampshire countryside and writes full time.
0 Comments