Beth O'Leary

When I read Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare I fell in love with her writing style and her storytelling ability. I’m glad to see she continues to write feel-good novels with complex characters and satisfying character arcs. I tend to read more bleak genre fiction than fun real-world novels, so discovering a non-epic that I enjoy is a huge deal to me. The Switch further established the fact that I will read anything that O’Leary writes.

The premise of a grandmother and granddaughter who switch lives after huge life upheaval is great fun. While Eileen lives with her granddaughter's flatmates in London, Leena takes part in the small neighborhood watch council alongside the village busybodies. Eileen’s adventures in online dating and Leena’s determination to fill her grandmother’s shoes in the community often create laugh-out-loud scenarios. It was ironic that this book was set in 2020 (I think the year was mentioned once) since the novel is all about reconnecting with humans in person, with an emphasis on community for seniors. It’s either a nice parallel world for us to see while social distancing, or an exercise in the suspension of disbelief--for me it was the latter.

Although this novel is labeled as a romance, I’m not sure that it fits completely into that genre. Romance is a part of the plot, but it’s more focused on Eileen and Leena and the family, friendships, and community surrounding them. Romance is secondary to that. It reminds me of Sense and Sensibility by the way the author makes you think it’s about romance and then replaces it with personal growth and the power of female relationships. Psych! It’s not that it’s a bad thing (on the contrary!) but genre expectations mean that I was disappointed we didn’t get more from the love-interests who were pretty darn cute. Perhaps I’ll be more content when reading it a second time.

One aspect that I struggled with is that I didn’t connect with the characters like I did in The Flatshare. I’m not trying to compare the books, simply the feeling I had when reading them which are completely subjective. I’ve been wondering ever since I read the book why the characters don’t feel as real to me and the only answer I have is that this novel follows two almost entirely separate stories, while the previous one followed two people whose lives were intersecting. Perhaps the nature of the story means that there’s not as much time to connect? I don’t know.

I really enjoyed The Switch. It’s a feel good-novel that the majority of readers will be glad they picked up. I didn’t love it as much as I hoped to, but it was really good and I can see myself reading it again. It’s too cute to be just a one-time read.

*Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review… (altro)

I’ve read every Beth O’Leary novel and had very different reactions to all of them—I hated The Road Trip, loved The Flatshare, and The Switch was somewhere in between—as they are all radically different books with different interests. What I really love about O’Leary is her focus on writing what is been labeled as relationship fiction. Yes there is romance, but it also focuses on friendships and family and the emotional state of the characters. All of the characters come alive on the page and feel real. The No-Show has been my favorite since The Flatshare. I don’t often read contemporary fiction, yet O’Leary has pulled me in once again with this book.

I will admit that about half-way through the book I was impatiently waiting for something to finally happen. I came to the book with my own ideas of what the story would be, but she somehow managed to build a lot of suspense just within the everyday moments of these characters lives. The twists and turns and slow reveals were brilliant and I was really impressed with this novel. And at the end of it all were the fuzzy feelings that made me smile.

I’ve had some ups and downs with O’Leary’s books, but I’ve always said I would read everything she wrote and The No-Show is a reminder of why that is: complex characters, interesting relationships, a balance of serious issues and warmth, and an overall great reading experience. I can’t wait to see what O’Leary writes next. Based on her previous books I can only assume it is going to be entirely different from what’s she’s written before.

*Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.… (altro)