The Flatshare

The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary

Publication Date: April 18 2019

Rating: 4.5/5

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…

GOODREADS—BOOKSTORE LINK

Honestly I read this SO FAST because I just couldn’t stop. At first it was because I was having sleeping problems, but then I just wanted the two characters to MEET ALREADY and then it was just too good to stop until it was done so… yeah.

The reason it’s not an absolute 5 stars was just because in the beginning I loved Tiffy’s voice and reading her chapters, but Leon’s POV chapters were written in such a strange format. It just took awhile for me to get used to that style. Other than that, everything about this book was just really fun!

I loved reading about Tiffy’s day to day life. She had such interesting friends and it was great to see what shenanigans she’d get up to because of them and her job. Other than that, it was great seeing her get stronger and realize that she doesn’t need her ex (I wanted to punch him several times and have already blocked him out of my memory). I’d like to add that her ex-boyfriend was emotionally abusive and that those who need to know should know that going in so trigger warnings for abusive relationships.

Leon’s character development was also great to see. The way he is written makes him seem all closed and reserved but then you get to see him when he’s allowed to be open and himself and that was really nice!

I’ve seen other people talk about the book and complain about how it took so long for the eventual (it’s not a spoiler if we know it has to happen because it’s a rom-com, right?) meeting of the two main characters. I personally liked seeing them apart because it made the two characters more likeable and easy to pair. I honestly shipped them so hard because of the way they were when they were apart.

Of course, my favorite scenes were later in the book though, but I can’t talk about them right now because I don’t want to spoil all the fun! I honestly want to listen to this in audio format just to have a complete experience because it would be SO. INTERESTING.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants to read about the “THERE’S ONLY ONE BED” trope but with a little twist. If you enjoy leaving lots of sticky notes around the apartment as notes to your flatmate, having lots of DIY knitted scarves lying around, hunting for someone else’s soulmate who happens to have one of the most common names ever while also getting to adventure to different beaches and also staying overnight at a castle, this is the book for you! I would recommend this to anyone who wants to read about crazy ex-boyfriends as opposed to girlfriends, great brother relationships, and coming home to find that your flatmate that you’ve never met has added a beanbag chair to the apartment (alsong with a bunch of crazy “decorations”) that also provides you with dinner/breakfast… you should definitely read this book!