Book Review: The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary

"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..."

I never thought I was someone who wanted to read romance books, but somehow, somewhere I stumbled upon The Flatshre. To be honest before this year I didn't even know that there was a whole genre of contemporary romances that were just waiting to be read. As someone who hadn't picked up a book in years before 2020, I was honestly shocked to find I genuinely enjoy romances. It started with Normal People by Sally Rooney which I had to read the first few chapters twice to get into, but I'm sure it was after that I was recommended The Flatshare.

Within the first chapter I already knew I was going to love this book, The main character Tiffy is just so relatable to me, having worked in similar office environments as her and knowing people in my real life who remind me of her close friends it just made the whole book come to life for me. The way  the author has the main characters communicate between notes for the majority of the first half of the book really allows you to get to know the characters well just by the way they respond to each other.

I really liked Leon's character because he had a lot of baggage, something that I love about contemporary romances is that they often reflect the reality of love, and deflect the traditional 'knight in shining armour' romance trope, although at some points Leon is without question a knight in shining armour, it's nice that Tiffy can also help him work through a lot of his issues! I also liked the inclusion of Leon's brother in the story, his character had a really interesting backstory and brung good humour from the offset.

I think this is a really hard book to review in a sense because I don't want to let onto anything as I don't want to spoil it, but I can honestly say I never stopped smiling throughout this whole book, and nearly cried in several parts. I think this book really moved me because I can see so many similarities between myself and Tiffy, more so the past relationships Tiffy has had are similar to my own, so for Tiffy to get some sort of resolve made me thankful.

My Rating: ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

If you're after a beautiful contemporary romance with relatable characters The Flatshare is the next book you should pick up!

Megan x