What if your roommate is your soul mate? A joyful, quirky romantic comedy, Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare is a feel-good novel about finding love in the most unexpected of ways.Tiffy and Leon share an apartment. Tiffy and Leon have never met.After a bad breakup, Tiffy Moore needs a place to live. Fast. And cheap. But the apartments in her budget have her wondering if astonishingly colored mold on … her wondering if astonishingly colored mold on the walls counts as art.
Desperation makes her open minded, so she answers an ad for a flatshare. Leon, a night shift worker, will take the apartment during the day, and Tiffy can have it nights and weekends. He’ll only ever be there when she’s at the office. In fact, they’ll never even have to meet.
Tiffy and Leon start writing each other notes – first about what day is garbage day, and politely establishing what leftovers are up for grabs, and the evergreen question of whether the toilet seat should stay up or down. Even though they are opposites, they soon become friends. And then maybe more.
But falling in love with your roommate is probably a terrible idea…especially if you’ve never met.
more
I am SO glad that I have the annoying habit of having to finish a book or else this would have been a 1 star for me, maybe a 2. Tiffy came across as annoying in the beginning and I really didn’t like how the author wrote Leon’s chapters, very choppy with hardly any pronouns. Both characters grew on me and I enjoyed this one a lot more than I had thought I would when I was 25% in. A pleasant surprise
The Flatshare is an unconventional romance with a slow build that’s worth the wait. Tiffy is such a fun character who pushes Leon out of his comfort zone in the best ways. Clever and full of hope, The Flatshare is a great, easy read during a stressful time.
Such a fun and cute story! I loved it!
An adorable and very interesting read. Kept me on the edge of my seat and I felt devastated that it came to an end.
The Flatshare is a well-written truly cute romantic comedy/chick-lit fiction. The tone and the wittiness reminds you of Get a Life, Chloe Brown but of course, the story is totally different. The romance part is a slow burn, but the chick-lit portion has all kinds of story and action to keep you entertained. Love this one!
I loved this book! The characters, the set-up, the story, everything. The way the author showed the effects of emotional abuse on Tiffy was spot on, without being overwhelming or ruining the lighthearted tone of the book. Highly recommend.
My review:
I truly loved and enjoyed reading(listening to) every second of this book. The Flatshare is one of those stories where the characters stay with you for many days after you’re done reading. Beth O’Leary has written a unique love story that portrays how you don’t have to have met a person to begin to understand and cherish them. It was great to see the characters personalities come through in their notes to one another and how they managed to begin to trust each other from these short interactions.
Leon and Tiffy are two very different people, who happen to compliment each other perfectly. Tiffy is funky, full of color and life while Leon is thoughtful, quiet and reserved. They manage to make each other laugh and work in so many lovable ways. They each come with some baggage but are willing to fight to be in each other’s lives. Talk about a slow burn romance worth waiting for!!!
—————
Short synopsis:
After a tough break up with an abusive boyfriend Tiffy finds herself in need of a place to live at a good price. While Leon who is helping his brothers who has been falsely incarcerated needs to make some extra cash to help pay the legal fees. This is how the two end up sharing a flat and bed…
Leon is a hospice nurse who works the night shift while Tiffy works a regular 9-5 as a book editor. They will share the flat while not having to interact or meet. This is a rule Leon’s girlfriend has made as she wasn’t too keen on the idea to begin with. The only way for the two to interact is through the notes they begin to leave one another throughout the flat. These notes lead to a mingling and coming together of lives in ways they never expected
Tiffy and Leon were simply adorable! Unique characterization and all those post-it notes…I loved the sweet closeness the notes created between these two so much!
Review of audiobook version of a fabulously unique romance
The author never states directly how old the two protagonists in this novel are, but based on their life situations, I’m guessing this is meant to be a New Adult novel, and they are somewhere in their mid-twenties.
Tiffy Moore is a minimum-wage assistant editor at a kooky small publisher of craft books which is located in London. Leon Twomey is a night-shift nurse who works in a hospital for patients who need hospice care. Tiffy is a bubbly extrovert and Leon is a quiet introvert, but they have one big thing in common: They are both broke.
Tiffy has been cheated on and kicked out of the flat where she’s been living for years with a long-term boyfriend, and she can’t afford an apartment on her own. Leon needs some extra money to help pay the legal fees of his younger brother, who has been wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he did not commit.
Because Leon can’t stomach the thought of having a regular roommate who will always be underfoot, he comes up with the idea of sharing his flat with someone whom he will never see. He will use the apartment during the day hours, and his flatmate will use the apartment at night.
At the start of the story, Leon currently has a longtime girlfriend, and he plans to stay at her apartment on the weekends and allow the flatmate to have his apartment during that time. Because she is jealous, Leon’s girlfriend says she will handle the entire transaction and pick his roommate, and Leon will never need to meet her at all in person. Being an easygoing person, Leon agrees, and Tiffy has no problem with that arrangement at all. The presence of a possessive girlfriend in her flatmate’s life makes the situation seem a lot safer.
In spite of never meeting each other and never talking to each other, a relationship begins between Tiffy and Leon when she leaves him a friendly little note on a post-it, and Leon reacts with a friendly little reply. From then on, the notes take off, until there are post-it notes all over the small apartment. They both come to enjoy those cute little communications to such a degree that, little by little, over time, a sweet, fanciful friendship begins to form.
I was afraid when I first started reading this book that it was going to be a slapstickish, chick lit story, which is a genre I’m not personally very fond of. But happily, that is not the type of book this is at all. As the story progresses, with the two exchanging notes, we also experience many scenes within the thoughts and lives of the two protagonists. In the process, it becomes extremely evident that both Tiffy and Leon have a huge heart and go way out of their way to compassionately help others.
This is the slowest of slow-burn romances, and there is not a single graphic sex scene in the entire book. Perhaps some romance readers may miss the sex scenes, but I personally found that a refreshing change from so many romances these days that seem to be about 90% sex, with very detailed and often crude descriptions of the sex.
The subcharacters in this book add a great deal to the development of our understanding of and connection to both Tiffy and Leon. Tiffy has three best friends who are completely devoted to her, and whom I really liked. They are her extended family and as such are a terrific addition to the book.
On Leon’s side, we get to know his jailed brother through his phone calls with both Tiffy and Leon. He is a delightful character, too. We get to meet Leon’s mother as well who, though she plays a very small part onstage in the book, is pivotal to the plot.
We also encounter lesser characters who are part of the work life of Leon and Tiffy, some of whom are friendly acquaintances, and some of whom are antagonists, but all are important to the overall plot. Normally I get really bored when romance novels spend too much time in the workplace of the hero and heroine, even if the two of them work together, and it’s an important setting. But this story is so well done, the work scenes are both interesting to read in and of themselves, and valuable additions to the book overall. Through them, I was able to get to know these two wonderful protagonists in such a well rounded way, that I found myself fully invested in those scenes as well.
There is a major antagonist in this book in the form of Tiffy’s ex-boyfriend, who emotionally abused her while they were together via gaslighting her and becomes her stalker in the story. That crucial subplot is also handled very well with a satisfyingly just conclusion.
One of the highest compliments that can be given to a book is to say that it makes the reader both laugh and cry, and that is definitely the case with this story for me. There are moments of laughter at the wittiness of the communications between Tiffy and Leon, and between these two protagonists and other subcharacters. And there are moments of tears in the poignancy of the tense situation of Tiffy and her evil ex, and Leon’s unremitting efforts to save his brother from his tragic, unjust jailing.
Even though there is no overt sex on the page, with the sex scenes blanked out beyond some passionate kisses, there is still plenty of sexual chemistry between Tiffy and Leon. And Leon is so sensitive and compassionate toward Tiffy that it is obvious, without it needing to be spelled out on the page, that he is a fantastic lover to her.
I experienced this story as an audiobook, and it is recorded with a male narrator for the chapters in Leon’s point of view and a female narrator for the chapters in Tiffy’s point of view. Both narrators are outstanding. Leon is Irish, and it was especially enjoyable to me hearing the male narrator do his Irish accent and that of his brother and mother. As a bonus in this audiobook recording, at the very end there is an interview of the author done by the female narrator. It was quite fun listening to that as well.
Overall, this is one of the best romance novels I’ve read in a very long time, and I’m sure I will want to experience it again and again in the future. It is a true keeper.
I rate this book as follows:
Heroine: 5 stars
Hero: 5 stars
Subcharacters: 5 stars
Romance Plot: 5 stars
Heroine’s PTSD Plot: 4 stars
Hero’s Social Drama Plot: 5 stars
British Setting: 5 stars
Writing: 5 stars
Audiobook Narration: 5 stars
Overall: 5 stars
An absolute delight of a book. O’Leary writes Tiffy and Leon with such distinctive voices, they really feel like they come alive on the page. I can’t recommend this book enough, especially if you’ve ever gone through the stress of finding housing in a major city. It has the fairytale ending you’ll wish you had.
Beth O’Leary’s debut novel The Flatshare made my heart happy. Tiffy is too nice for the man who initially breaks her heart. And Leon has the biggest heart of any romance hero I’ve ever read–including Fitzwilliam Darcy. The set-up is quirky and original: two people share a flat but never at the same time. He lives in and uses the flat during the day; she lives in and uses the flat during the night. They only meet in a series of post-it notes they leave for each other concerning roommate issues that come with sharing a flat. Until the notes evolve into so much more. This one was a super way to start my 2020 reading year.
*4 Stars*
I really liked this book, and it was completely not what I expected at all. Tiffy and Leon were completely opposite characters, and yet they worked so well together.
The whole idea of being flatmates yet never seeing or even meeting each other was very interesting. Sharing the apartment and a bed and all the other things that go hand in hand with living with someone, yet they haven’t even met in person.
I loved all the littles notes between the two of them, and the intricacies that came with their story, even though it wasn’t in person. Both have serious things going on in their lives and the author has written these quite well. I wasn’t expecting this book to deal with such serious topics, yet it does, and it does it with finesse. The issues are highlighted well, but they just roll with the story. Its kind of hard to explain. But you will understand if you read this book.
There were a whole host of interesting secondary characters, and some of them I loved, and some of them I hated. And a few little sub stories hidden behind the bigger parts of the plot.
I enjoyed this one, and I would recommend.
I loved this sweet, poignant novel. It portrayed the very real effects of emotional abuse balanced with humor, fun and romance. With wonderful characters and secondary plots that kept me fully engaged, wanting to know what would happen while not wanting the story to end.
A very enjoyable read
Very refreshing to see a quiet nurse as the male hero.
A modern semi-epistolary! I enjoyed this novel very much, especially the slow-burn-ish way the romance unfolds (through Post-it notes!). Once I got going, I did not want to put this book down. I thought the way the protagonist’s past relationship was handled was well-done and between that and the justice system subplot, there was a nice weight to an otherwise very cute and sweet British romcom.
A quirky fun, touching read that left me wishing Tiffy and Leon lived in a flat near me. O’Leary is on my auto-read list from here on out.
This is a clever and charming romance with characters you can love (and hate), a good sense of humor, and a good eye for what matters. It’s so well constructed to fit its genre that I felt a teeny bit like it was TOO damned ready for its screenplay. (This is a hazard only noticed by other writers, I suspect, and how much of that might be sheer jealousy?) Would I watch the resulting movie? Sure. And I’d look out for more novels by this author, too. A fast and pleasant read.
The Flatshare is one of the most compelling and original love stories I’ve read in a long time and one of my favorite books this year. It’s funny and touching and smart, but what makes this books so special is that its protagonists are lovely but imperfect in realistic and truthful ways. They live in the real world, one I recognize. I especially appreciate the unstereotypical representation of Leon. Unlike many love interests in novels, Leon defies common gender conventions. He’s an attractive partner because of his intelligence, sweetness and sensitivity, and yes he’s also handsome, but he’s not a movie star, billionaire or any sort of alpha male. Yet he is also strong in his own way. He’s supportive of the heroine’s struggle to come to terms with an abusive ex-boyfriend, but he’s no savior. And he never resorts to violence when challenged, even when others suggest that’s what a man in his situation would do. That alone is refreshing, and unusual. The book also does a great job of integrating socially relevant challenges in a way that feels organic and real.
Loved this quirky romance from the first page. Tiffy is a clever, flawed and
slightly awkward flirt. Don’t let the unusual style of Leon’s point of view throw you – his voice shines through the narrative style choice. I can’t wait to read more from Beth O’Leary.