The Flat Share by Beth O'Leary | Review

It's not often that I'll want to stay up past my bedtime because a book is so gripping (I'm a stickler for a routine) but The Flat Share* was one of them. While slightly predictable you were so involved in Tiffy and Leon's lives that you didn't care, you felt it was only right that these things were to happen because you knew them, you'd been with them through all the moments of their lives that everything made sense.

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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…

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This was Beth O'Leary's first novel and it did not feel like a newbie's work. I want to read everything else that Beth can produce, and have added her next novel The Switch Up (out some time next year) to my want to read pile! I have mentioned before how I'm not really a fan of books that switch protagonist each chapter, some books can pull it off but most can't. This was one of those books that definitely pulled it off. The chapters alternated between Tiffy and Leon's point of view and the writing was done so well that you didn't need the chapter headers, you could tell from reading the words who's voice it was.

For the first part of the book, approximately 150 pages, Tiffy and Leon haven't even met each other. Leon's girlfriend organises the whole flat/bed share thing so other than a quick phone call, in the beginning, they've never talked to each other. What they do begin to do though is write post-it notes to each other. Sometimes it's hard to imagine the number of post-its all over their flat when mentioned but the amount of adorableness in the notes is incredibly cute. Their unique voices come through even in these notes which again is great writing in my opinion. Of course, the further we get through the book the more these notes develop which brings us onto the characters.

For a fluffy contemporary romance, these characters have a fair amount of development, not just Tiffy and Leon but the minor characters too. There's a lot going on in this novel, not just romance and heartbreak, there are so many underlining stories surrounding both Tiffy and Leon and their friends and family which overlap and entangle but everything is necessary and nothing feels half-heartedly thrown in. You really do fall into their world and feel a part of everything that's going on, I actually miss reading about these characters I need more. They have genuine feelings and back stories (who would've thought????), the seriousness is cleverly balanced with the amount of humour happening and it's just truly a great book that exceeds fluffy rom-com expectations!

It's hilariously funny, definitely guaranteed five stars. The only thing that would make this book any better is I've now since found out that Carrie Hope Fletcher narrates the audiobook, so I'm going to jump on that when I get a moment!

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*Gifted