The No-Show

Product Information

I finished this last night and have mixed feelings about this book. For the record I DNF The Flatshare and thoroughly enjoyed The Switch. I haven’t read her other book. I felt that this book really suffered from poor editing. The characters all felt really flat. Siobhan in particular was just glossed over. Her past relationship was only mentioned twice despite it being a major plot device. The other two female characters were interesting but again, never really fleshed out. Joseph was just a conduit to explore these women’s flaws and growth. It didn’t quite work. Joseph himself was frankly kind of boring. Like the women, I never felt that I knew him or his motivations. Throughout the book you get to know the three leading ladies Siobhan, Miranda and Jane, I really enjoy a book from the different characters’ perspectives, I find it incredibly interesting as it really speeds up the pace of the book for me. I loved every female character in this book, but I must admit my heart really did fall for Jane, the sweetest character with a lot of self-doubt and worry, I was really rooting for Janey and so the ending (if you’ve read the book) made my heart swell! O’Leary writes about women who are healing from abuse, both work and personal, exceptionally well. Each of the women resonated with me in how they exhibited a different common dynamic of the past couple of years—Siobhan’s overwork causes her to burnout, Jane is rebuilding her sense of self after a toxic work situation, and Miranda is learning to trust her strength and beauty, because she isn’t sure if she’s posh enough for Joseph. In each case, the women’s relationships with Joseph help them grow and heal, even if they don’t end up with him at the end. It might have been the mystery of how Joseph was going to get caught that kept me reading, but it was spending time with Siobhan, Miranda and Jane’s journey that made me enjoy the book along the way. Prediction: Many patients would re-book or cancel the appointment instead of accepting it and then not attending.

The three romances are on different timelines (the Valentine’s Day no-shows all occur in different years – 2015, 2018 and 2019, IIRC), though the misdirection really tries to make the reader believe that they are simultaneous. For instance there is a scene with heroine #2 directly after a scene with heroine #1 in which heroine #2 finds a receipt for breakfast for two that seems like evidence of cheating – Joseph had had breakfast with heroine #1 in the previous scene. But they actually occur in completely different years and Joseph’s reason for hiding the fact that he wasn’t alone at breakfast has a reasonable explanation. FURTHER SPOILER I found myself frequently giggling at this book, and underlining my favorite phrases. There’s plenty of zingy dialogue and pithy noticings about social dynamics. Siobhan in particular is entertainingly self aware. A review of all available slots on the morning before the clinic date and replacing cancelled slots by patients from the urgent waiting list. Without giving away the major twist of the book and ruining the whole reader experience, I think it’s important that readers know that only 2 of the 3 women get a romance HEA.Content warnings: self-harm, alcoholism, obsession, stalking, sexual harassment, miscarriage, dementia.

Do: to our surprise around 40% of all patients requested a re-book or informed us that they don't need the appointment The success of the first intervention identified another area for improvement as the number of cancellations created space for urgent patients. This in turn further improved attendance and reduced the overall waiting time for clinic appointments. I gave The Flatshare an A, The Switch a B+ and The Road Trip a B-. Maybe more than other authors, I compare O’Leary’s books to each other, perhaps because I’ve read them in fairly close succession over the past couple of years. The Flatshare is still the gold standard. I probably found The Road Trip a bit more compelling than The No-Show, but it also had hugely problematic character issues that brought the grade down. This book is pretty comparable to The Switch, but because of the problems I’ve mentioned with the plot, I think I’ll give it a straight B. Janine: I think the only reason the manipulation didn’t bother me as much is because I was expecting *something.* It was clear that things were not as they seemed. I’ve read all of O’Leary’s books so far and this is my favorite since The Flatshare. I agree with alot of people that this doesn’t fit the structure (or really the tone) of a Romance novel, but O’Leary has always skirted the edge of that definition IMO.

Is there more to him than meets the eye? Where was he on Valentine’s Day? And will they each untangle the truth before they all get their hearts broken? Because of the unusual plot structure, I find myself having trouble working out how exactly I felt about The No-Show. At first, I didn’t want to like Joseph because he felt like a combination of the leads from Sister Wives and Dexter, a charmingly manipulative man with his own moral code. As readers, we slowly unpeel the ways his life intersects with the three very different women. And the more I learned about Joseph, the more he wormed his way into my heart just like the heroines. Joseph works in IT in London, but spends most of his time in his hometown of Winchester. He’s a lovable nerd, who just happens to be drop-dead gorgeous, and takes care of his mom with dementia even though she can’t help calling his girlfriend by the wrong name.