The No-Show by Beth O’Leary | #audiobook #bookreview | @QuercusBooks @audibleUK

I’m a big fan of Beth O’Leary’s books with The Flatshare probably my favourite. Or at least it was, I think that The No-Show might be even better!

About the book

Three women. Three dates. One missing man…

8.52 a.m. Siobhan’s looking forward to her date with Joseph. Breakfast on Valentine’s Day surely means something … so where is he?

2.43 p.m. Miranda’s hoping that a Valentine’s Day lunch with Carter will be the perfect way to celebrate her new job. But why hasn’t he shown up?

6.30 p.m. Joseph Carter agreed to be Jane’s fake boyfriend at a dreaded engagement party tonight. But he’s not here…

Meet Joseph Carter. That is, if you can find him.

An unexpected love story, The No-Show is an utterly extraordinary tearjearker of a book, a heart-breaking and joyful novel about dating, and waiting, and the ways love can find us.

My Thoughts

First of all, I listened to this as an audiobook and it was a great way to really fix the personalities of the three different women in my head. The three narrators were very different so of course, I could easily tell whose story I was listening to at each part. Evanna Lynch, Heather Long and Kathryn Drysdale were all excellent.

Siobhan, Miranda and Jane were so very different that you wonder how Joseph Carter would be involved with all of them. Siobhan is a life-coach full of confidence and self-belief. Jane is almost her polar opposite. A charity shop worker, she’s quiet, reserved and very set in her ways. Miranda is somewhere between the two with a most unusual job – she’s a tree surgeon.

Joseph is such an interesting character too. You feel that should not like him. He’s involved with three women and lets them all down on what should be the most romantic day of the year. And yet, he seems a really decent guy so I was hugely intrigued to find out what was going on there and what the explanation for his behaviour was.

The No-Show is such a clever book and probably not at all what you will be expecting when you begin it. It’s one of those that you really need to read without knowing much about it so I’m not saying any more about the plot at all. It’s compelling. moving, warm and will probably surprise you a lot. Highly recommended whether you read it or listen to it.

If you are listening to the book, make sure you listen to the interview at the end between Beth O’Leary and Evanna Lynch. It’s so interesting hearing about the process of writing the book and the thinking behind it. I found it fascinating that even the author didn’t know some of the major things that were going to happen to her characters when she started writing. But don’t skip to that if you haven’t read or listened yet as there are major spoilers!

The No-Show is published by Quercus. I listened to the audiobook from Audible.

About the Author

Beth O’Leary is a Sunday Times bestselling author whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages. Her debut, The Flatshare, sold over half a million copies and changed her life completely. Her second novel, The Switch, has been optioned for film by Amblin Partners, Steven Spielberg’s production company. Beth writes her books in the English countryside with a very badly behaved golden retriever for company. If she’s not at her desk, you’ll usually find her curled up somewhere with a book, a cup of tea, and several woolly jumpers (whatever the weather).