A review by marylinaris
The No-Show by Beth O'Leary

emotional slow-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

Going into this book, based on the synopsis, I expected something completely different, maybe something more in the vein of John Tucker Must Die, definitely something more fun and more romance-focused. I did not expect to start a giant spreadsheet to keep the timeline straight and several pages of notes to keep track of all the characters, though. 

The start of the book dragged a little, following three women, who each have a handful of supporting characters, in their individual stories took a while to get used to. Having three main characters was just a little too much and kept me from being fully emotionally invested during the first half of the book. Especially since I felt that the three women, at that point, lacked distinct character voices. Once we’ve hit the 60%-ish mark though, the story started to pick up and really had me hooked. 

Several of the twists were easy to guess, while some were well hidden through the evasiveness of the narration. Guessing any of the twists didn’t take away from the suspense of it all though.
The emotional damage I received after guessing the end and having to watch him delete the ‘My day :)’ calendar entries though, I will never recover.
 

Overall less romantic than the whole of it would suggest, and more of a realistic, emotional slice of life with an incredibly strong end. 
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