One for anyone in need of an uplifting story. 4/5 stars.

Thank you to Quercus Books and NetGalley for providing me with an e-copy of this book.

The blurb:

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.

My take:

This book serves up everything you’d expect from the blurb and cover, and sometimes it’s great to get exactly what you were hoping for.

Bibliotherapy is actually a thing, and this is the sort of story I would prescribe to anyone who needed cheering up. The Flatshare is a fabulous happy hug of a book in which dragons are slain and everything gets wrapped up nicely. If that sounds like the sort of uplifting read you need right now, I wouldn’t hesitate in seeking this book out.

I was also pleased with how the book dealt with the tricky subjects of gaslighting and other forms of psychological abuse within a story which has an overarching comedic structure. The main character’s experiences are never dismissed or swept out of the way quickly as some sort of inconvenience, but are rather dealt with sensitively and thoroughly.

The main characters are very loveable. From the get-go you are rooting for them and quickly get behind their relationship.

My highlight was the section of the book in which Tiffy and Leon are communicating only through notes. In fact, I never felt the story was quite as good once they met in person! Personally, I would have kept them apart and had them only writing to each other until a few chapters from the end 🙂 However, I do appreciate this would have kept the story back (!) and there is plenty of drama surrounding both the main characters to keep you interested once they have met.

Overall: a happy, uplifting book which all romance fans will enjoy.

Claire Huston / Art and Soul

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