Publisher: 8th April 2022 by Hachette Australia
Pages: 389 pages
How I Read It: ARC book
Genre: contemporary, women’s fiction, romance, realistic fiction
My Rating: 5 crowns
Synopsis:
Three women. Three dates. One missing man...
8.52. Siobhan's been looking forward to her breakfast date with Joseph. She was surprised when he suggested it - she normally sees him late at night in her hotel room. Breakfast with Joseph on Valentine's Day surely means something ... so where is he?
14.43. Miranda's hoping that a Valentine's Day lunch with Carter will be the perfect way to celebrate her new job. It's a fresh start and a sign that her grown-up life is finally falling into place: she's been dating Carter for five months now and things are getting serious. But why hasn't he shown up?
18.30. Joseph Carter agreed to be Jane's fake boyfriend at a colleague's engagement party. They've not known each other long but their friendship is fast becoming the brightest part of her new life in Winchester. Joseph promised to save Jane tonight. But he's not here...
Meet Joseph Carter. That is, if you can find him.
The No-Show is the brilliantly funny, heart-breaking and joyful new novel from Beth O'Leary about dating, and waiting, and the ways love can find us. An utterly extraordinary tearjerker of a book, this is O'Leary's most ambitious novel yet.
My Thoughts
Where is Joseph Carter on Valentine’s Day? Three women and he’s not with any of them … we think. He misses a breakfast date with Siobhan, a romantic lunch with Miranda and fails to show as Jane’s fake boyfriend at her colleague’s engagement party. What is going on here? Is all as it appears to be?
‘He isn’t here. Siobhan breathes out slowly through her nose. She’s aiming
for calm, but it reads more angry bull than zen. She cancelled breakfast with a friend for this. She curled her hair and wore lipstick and shaved her legs (not just to the knee,all the way up, in case he fancied running a hand up her thigh
under the table). And he isn’t bloody here.’
Beth O’Leary is one of the ‘hot’ authors currently with everything she writes under the microscope. I loved some of her previous books as much as I did not love previous books. People are divided on this latest offering as well. Me … well I am happy to say, The No-Show … wow! She is back! This one was just …. Wow!
‘He’s going to rue the day he stood her up. Siobhan doesn’t know what ruing is, not yet, but she’s going to find out. And he’s not going to like it.’
There is such a phenomenal twist in this book that I cannot allude to anything here except to say, read it! With the blurb, and indeed the first good chunk of the book, you feel lulled into a sense of, ‘here we go … poor girls … horrible Joseph’. Until you begin to consider, how will Beth dig herself out of this. I did not see, nor was I prepared for how she did it. Wait! What! Hang on … far out!
Does she trust him? Though it’s completely hypocritical of her to hold Joseph’s secrets against him, the first thought that comes into her head is: He won’t tell me what happened on Valentine’s Day. Does that make him untrustworthy? It shouldn’t. But that secret feels important. Jane can’t help feeling that until she knows it, she won’t truly know Joseph.’
This book is clever … so, so very clever! I loved it! The plot … bloody brilliant! The web Beth weaves here would be admired by even the most ardent thriller fan. Is this a rom-com …. well yes , but …. It is so much more. This book has depth with characters and situations that just feel so real. Take the time to work through how cleverly Beth sets it up and then be prepared to change your opinion on how things actually eventuate.
‘By early November, Siobhan feels like a china cup that’s been smashed and glued back together. She’s painfully aware of all her new joins, the places where she cracked - but she would tentatively describe herself as whole again.’
If you are looking for a romance book with a twist. Look no further! This is oozing authenticity with all the feels in both the heartbreak and heartwarming departments. This is not your usual light and breezy chick lit - you will laugh, you will cry and you most definitely will pause and wonder why. I highly recommend checking out The No-Show.
‘Hermitting yourself away and sticking to your routines was never intended as a life change, was it?’ Aggie asks gently. ‘Just a coping mechanism, right? I wonder if you needed some time to process some stuff, and you needed quiet for that, but now maybe you don’t need quiet any more. Maybe you’re at a point with your process where you need to talk.’
This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.
1 comment:
This sounds like good reading. Thanks for the post.
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