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
Wonderful review! I’ve got a copy of this and keep putting it off for the right moment.
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Thank you! It’s definitely worth saving until you want to read something happy 🙂 Perhaps after something really depressing!
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Glad you enjoyed this book! I thought it was brilliant. It’s actually a few months since I read it, but it’s still in my head.
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I was a bit worried it wouldn’t deliver on the brilliant main idea, but it was great. I’m sure this is going to be one of the year’s bestsellers.
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I think I would’ve gone insane if they’d kept the note writing going much longer. I did love the notes, and the baking but was desperate for them to meet.
It is such an uplifting book and was just what I needed.
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I know, I’m an oddball!! But I could have had them just missing each other for ages – haha!
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You make it sound a most inviting story. I love the premise. Definitely now on my (huge) TBR pile.
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You will really enjoy it, I’m sure. It’ll be one of this year’s biggest successes
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This sounds like a great read! Wonderful review.
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Thank you!
I think you’d really like it 🙂 x
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See, I wasn’t sure about this book, but you just told me to buy it! :p
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Yay!! I think you’ll really enjoy it 🙂 xx
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I know what you mean about how their meeting could have been a bit more delayed!
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Glad this was such a happy romance! Wonderful review!
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Thank you!
I can see why this one is tipped to be one of the big successes of 2019. I can’t see anyone taking against it (unless they’re not a fan of the genre, in which case they shouldn’t bother reading it anyway!).
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