Reviews with content warning for Stalking - The No-Show

Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

bookforthought's review

dark emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I went into this book expecting another rom-com-style story about a two-timing guy, a serial cheater of sorts and had fully built in my head a John Tucker Must Die kind of plot flowing from that (I know, weird). But! Knowing Beth O'Leary after having thoroughly enjoyed The Flatshare, I should have guessed it just could not be that simple.

It's tough to review this book without spoilers, so I'll already apologise if everything I say sounds super-vague but I really don't want to risk giving anything away since the way the story developed was definitely a key factor in my enjoyment of this. This is one of those stories where it's best to go in blind, but just be mindful that there is some heavy content and it's not a super fluffy and light-hearted read. For me, it was definitely heart-warming and heart-breaking at the same time, which really shows the author's talent!

The three main characters are amazing women, each in her own way and with her own flaws. I loved how their individual voices came through in the multiple POVs and they really sounded like different people. To varying degrees, I grew to care about all of them and I loved following along for a part of their journey.

Despite this, at times I felt as though they weren't 100% fleshed out as characters: maybe it's because of the need to juggle three main characters and a full cast of secondary characters, but there were points in the novel where the three women definitely felt like characters instead of real people, boxed in their key distinguishing traits and not moving away from them. This didn't happen all the time, but it was often enough that it took something away from me in the enjoyment of this.

Their relationships with Joseph were also annoying at times. Yes, he's charming but he also doesn't always behave fairly towards them and all three women certainly put up with a lot of stuff without questions. Much is explained by the end, going a lot way towards his redemption in my eyes, but it was not enough to justify some of his behaviour.

I loved the experience of reading this book, as the writing fully drew me in. The beginning and end had me rushing through, but I felt some steam was lost towards the middle, which bored me slightly. Still, powering through it was certainly worth it to get to the ending! Some of the side plots were also brilliant and definitely added to my enjoyment.

The No-Show is a very clever book that is likely to appeal to anyone who likes a good romance with depth in plot and themes tackled. There is plenty going on just underneath the surface, and it was a delight to get to it.

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lauramparis's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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hazelgirl21's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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nathalialvs's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I don't know how much I can gush over this story without spoiling it, but God, what a journey. It was so easy to fall in love with these characters and to care about their stories. This novel was fun and heartbreaking and infuriating at times, because I just wanted to flip through the pages to understand what was really happening, but every single revelation came at the perfect time (and even though I had guessed a few of them, it didn't make it any less satisfying to see how the author pulled it off). I read it so fast, I had to resist the urge to go back to the first page and start over.

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kbea88's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I devoured this book in one 6-hour sitting. I loved all three women and their evolution to discovering themselves and what they want, I loved Joseph and his very different relationships, and while I had predicted a few of the plot points, I literally screamed out loud during several scenes. This was so cute and so good!

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laurenkimoto's review

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I am so conflicted as to what to rate this book because I spent the first half thinking it was one man dating three women and I could not do another infidelity romance book but it’s Beth O’Leary so I knew it could be but couldn’t?!?!? And in typical Beth O’Leary fashion it actually worked? I think what makes her books good is that they are somewhat realistic that there are ups and downs to romance and there isn’t instant love or insane grand gestures and people don’t always forgive and forget

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amyjoy's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense

2.5

I have loved all of Beth O'Leary's other books, so I was really primed to love this one. And I did not! A large part of it this is that I found the love interest, Joseph, to be extraordinarily bland and boring and not worth anyone's time.

I am SO GLAD Miranda ended up with AJ; I liked him about a thousand times more than Joseph from the beginning. And I also found Jane to be fairly dishwater dull. She was the least interesting or fleshed out of the three main characters, so I'm kind of annoyed that she is the final love interest. And poor, dead Siobhan! I really liked her, and HOLY WOW, did O'Leary really need to be quite so descriptive in her death scene???

And credit to O'Leary, I wondered at the very beginning if all the women might be in different timelines, but then I accepted that they weren't, so I was a tiny bit surprised when she revealed that each Valentine's stand up was a different year. HOWEVER, I was able to piece everything else together pretty easily after that.

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jelavision's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The book is cleverly written. You don’t expect

the twist with the timeframes

. However it is a slow read. At times the characters are unlikeable. You wonder why you should root for these relationships. By the time the author adds some nuance, 75% of the book is done.

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