The No Show by Beth O'Leary

Let’s suppose you’re standing with the other two cohosts of the #AmWriting Podcast at Bear Pond Books in Montpelier one recent Saturday. And your friend K.J. Dell’antonia plucks a book off the Staff Picks table and literally puts it into your hands. “You’ll like this,” she says.

It has a pink illustrated cover, so it’s marketed as romance. But—and this is a big but—this book has three heroines and they’ve all just been stood up on Valentine’s Day by the same man.

You, an experienced romance reader, will note that is not a typical setup for a romance.

Yet K.J. often has to listen to you chatter and rant about books that you like and dislike, so you figure she knows your taste. Also you are having a rare Saturday out on the town so you are in the mood to slap down your credit card.

Reader, you buy the book.

You open the pink cover many days later wondering about this book’s certainty that it belongs on the romance shelf. The book is in the UK and Ireland, and the three women are so well drawn that you enjoy getting to know their lives.

However, they’re all in love with this guy. And the experienced romance reader inside of you is getting increasingly worried. How can this possibly end in a satisfying way.

And then… it does. The author slyly shows her hand, and you notice a few things you missed before, and suddenly you can totally see how she’s can land this plane, and how you will applaud when the wheels touch down.

This book was surprising in all the best ways. Thank you Ms. O’Leary for the wild ride.

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