Skip to main content

The Flat Share - Beth O'Leary (Book Review)

I've been reading like I've never read before. The past week was just me with my nose buried in one book after another. I read John Grisham's Camino Winds and it was...er....not as expected? I mean, it was awful. It was. 

So, I am not going to share what I think about it here. 

After the disappointing and confusing fiction novel by Grisham, I decided to pick something light instead - The Flat Share by Beth of Leary. Sounds like a rom-com I can enjoy without too much judgment. 

The Flat Share - Beth O'Leary

It was a good idea. 

The premise was a little weird, granted, we don't have a bed-share practice here in Malaysia. I don't know of anyone who would be willing to share their flat/bed with a stranger they've never met, really. Not even when I am really desperate for money. 

Putting personal 'thoughts' and 'common sense' aside (please enlighten me if this is common in your country or culture), it kind of makes sense for a (male) nurse who works nights (because it pays more) to offer to share his empty flat/bed with another person who works days. 

I went to O'Leary's website and her intro says it all - she writes love stories that you can pick up and read about when you need a hug. 

The pace is great because she spent a lot of time developing the characters and she used a rather strange 'writing voice' when depicting Leon's part of the story. I guess it describes how quiet, reserved, and introverted he really is. It works because Tiffy is loud, outspoken, and over-optimistic.

I loved the nice touches in the form of Richie, Leon's brother who was waiting for his retrial in jail, and of course Tiffy's friends, Gerty, Rachel and Mo. Enough time was spent on them that it gave Tiffy the layers that her character needed. 

Leon was a loner so, he basically was alone most of the time, except for his critically ill patients. 

On the other hand, the uncovering of Tiffy's love-life situation was a little unexpected. Her madcap ex-boyfriend who was initially such a winning character, was a surprise. Also, I had a really different picture of what Richie would look like (because he was never properly described throughout the book), so when he appeared, I was like 'wth'. #LOL

The situations were animated, of course, with it being a rom-com. You can almost see it (in your mind) being played out as an OTT movie starring Jennifer Aniston or something. 

All in all, it was a fun-to-read book. 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Liberating Activity - Guess What Mine Is....

When asked what’s my one single favorite thing to do in the world, I would usually name a whole list of things that I love to do when my work is not screaming at me. Something that takes my mind COMPLETELY off of everyday tasks and relaxes me. Take a guess what it is…. If you say ‘ reading ’, yes, I love reading (especially soppy love stories with lots of sex scenes, please. Hee hee hee ….) and I also love mystery novels but it’s not the first on the list. If you say ‘ playing the piano ’; yes, I love playing the piano. Creating forms a huge part of my life and whenever I play the piano (as inept at it as I am), there’s this tiny little girl inside of me jumping up and down with glee, clapping her hands. It’s my childhood dream to be able to play the piano! And thumping on the keys gives me a sense of satisfaction when I hear the music. If you say ‘ writing ’; You’ve got to be kidding me! You mean I don’t write enough as it is? Case closed. If you say ‘ playing with my kids ’; Yea...
20 comments
Read more

Malaysian Election 2008 - Malaysians ready for change

The political wrestle is over, here in Malaysia, and thankfully too because it earned me a hangove from watching the news, and reading all the readily available blogs on cyberspace all night long. With a spilting headache from squinting into the PC screen, watching the TV for news on the results from the ballot boxes, anxiety, uncertainty and HOPE lingers in the air..... BN, our ruling party in Malaysia, who has been flexing its political muscles for a long time now with the confident (and ever sleepy and gay) PM convincing Malaysians that BN is the only way to peace. Opposition cannot hold the fort properly, though, because the formation and coalition between them is too loose. But with BN denied the 2/3 majority it needed, all I can say is that Pak Lah tore a tendon while flexing his political muscles. Fed up, fed up, fed up - Malaysians are fed up A lot of Malaysians chose not to vote for the oppositition IN THE PAST because we wanted unity, we resisted change because of a date w...
3 comments
Read more

Demanding a Balanced Lifestyle

We live in a world choked with demands….demand for more money, better lifestyle, more holidays, smarter kids, bigger house, posher cars….etc. People walk around with spiritually unimportant goals in their minds driven by the need to succeed and be better than others around them. Hong Kong. South Korea. Japan. Most Asian countries suffer from this ill-fate which have caused a horrific rise in the number of suicide rates in the said countries. Malaysia is no exception as well although we’re very slowly gaining ground on our neighbors. Just picking up my son from school can become a stressful affair. I’ve mentioned this to a few friends of mine over the phone and all of them cluck their tongue shake their head. It’s end of the year and the kids are getting their test results back by now. I overheard a couple of tai-tais (housewives) gripe about their kids’ results. Mom: I don’t know-lah. My kid did not do very well this term. The best also got 95 only. (NINETY FIVE ONLY???) ...
7 comments
Read more