In The No-Show by Beth O’Leary, How three women who have never met before ended 
up in a tangled relationship with one man is a bit of a mystery. But Siobhan, Miranda, and Jane each fall for Joseph Carter–a man with hidden depths as well as many things happening in his life all at once. Then Valentine’s Day changes everything. When the three women are all individually stood up by him, none of them with any clue as to why Joseph left them waiting, their decisions in how to handle the situation gives them each different results in where things go next with him.
‘He won’t tell me what happened on Valentine’s Day. Does that make him untrustworthy? It shouldn’t. But that secret feels important. She can’t help feeling that until she knows it, she won’t truly know Joseph.’
Siobhan, with her life planned out to the millisecond, doesn’t need a complicated fling. But she can’t get Joseph out of her head, even as her personal life spirals out of control. Miranda loves the adventure of her job as a tree surgeon but craves the stability of a loving romantic partner. A job she’s not sure elusive Joseph can fill, even though their chemistry is wonderful. And shy Jane, a volunteer at a charity shop, leans on her routines, books, and lack of social life for comfort. Something Joseph seems to understand. But is he too good to be true? That is a question that all three women will need to sort out on their own.
“I don’t want you to be perfect. Why would I want that? I want you. I want all the parts of you, the broken ones, the ones you’ve kept hidden away.”
The No-Show was a clever romance that seemed to be one thing and then turned out to be something totally different. Confusing? At times, yes. But a stunning plot twist made the last third of the book a page-turner that captured and broke my heart in equal measure.
‘For the last few months, she’s had this awful niggling feeling that Joseph Carter isn’t the man he seems to be.’
Trigger warning: View Spoiler »
Beth O’Leary has a knack for pulling the rug out from under her readers’ feet at some point in each novel, but not in a bad way. More of an eye-opening, change of perspective way. And boy doesn’t that encompass The No-Show. Told from our three heroines’ POVs: Siobhan, Miranda, and Jane (and the epilogue in Joseph’s POV), I will admit that I was a tad confused as to what was truly going on and had so many questions. Was Joseph really running around on *all* three women? What was he hiding? What was happening in his life to make him so harried and out of sorts all the time? And it took until about two-thirds of the way through the book before the “Aha!” moment finally came. What a game changer that was. After that, I could truly cheer on Joseph because there was a definite reason for everything he did–or didn’t do.
The way O’Leary fleshed out each character as we learned about their strengths and weaknesses, I think readers will find at least one, if not multiple, people they can relate to easily. In a nutshell, Siobhan was a workaholic with a troubled past and was nearing her breaking point as she fell for Joseph. Miranda was usually a take-charge person and was smitten with him as well but could tell something was off, so she wasn’t sure if she could trust Joseph. And introvert Jane had been through quite the ordeal and basically wanted someone to love her for herself. Whew. A lot at play. And so many twists that totally made sense by the end–which made me want to turn right around and re-read this to see it from a whole new viewpoint.
QOTD: Have you read a book where you think you have a handle on what’s happening and then a plot twist changes the narrative completely?
Book Info:
Publication: April 12th 2022 | Berkley Books |
Three women who seemingly have nothing in common find that they’re involved with the same man in this smart new rom-com by Beth O’Leary, bestselling author of The Flatshare.
Siobhan is a quick-tempered life coach with way too much on her plate. Miranda is a tree surgeon used to being treated as just one of the guys on the job. Jane is a soft-spoken volunteer for the local charity shop with zero sense of self-worth.
These three women are strangers who have only one thing in common: They’ve all been stood up on the same day, the very worst day to be stood up–Valentine’s Day. And, unbeknownst to them, they’ve all been stood up by the same man.
Once they’ve each forgiven him for standing them up, they let him back into their lives and are in serious danger of falling in love with a man who seems to have not just one or two but three women on the go….
Is there more to him than meets the eye? And will they each untangle the truth before they all get their hearts broken?
