JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary

Tiffy and Leon share a flat
Tiffy and Leon share a bed
Tiffy and Leon have never met…

Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy’s at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time.

But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly-imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet, they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window…

The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary is a gorgeous, uplifting romantic comedy about two London flatmates who share a bed but have never met.

Leon is a palliative care nurse who works evenings and spends all his weekends at his girlfriend’s house. His brother is in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, and Leon is using whatever money he has to pay his brother’s lawyer. Leon decides to advertise online for a roommate. The arrangement makes perfect sense — Leon would have the flat during the day, and the roommate would have the flat to themselves on the weeknights and weekends. They’d never even need to meet!

Leon chooses Tiffy to be his flatmate. She’s a quirky, upbeat book editor at a publishing house with a passion for reading and a habit of baking and cooking too much food. Her boyfriend Justin has dumped her for the girl he cheated on her with, and she needs a new place to live that doesn’t cost a fortune.

“I was so lucky to have him. Justin was always so…fun. Everything was a whirlwind; we’d by flying from country to country, trying everything, staying up until four in the morning and climbing on to the roof to watch the sunrise. Yes, we fought a lot an dI made a lot of mistakes in that relationship, but mostly I’d just felt so lucky to be with him. Without him I feel….lost.”
TIFFY

Leon and Tiffy slowly build a friendship in a most unconventional manner, bonding over post-it notes, text messages and leftover food. The book moves through the year quite clearly, consistently switching back and forth between Tiffy and Leon’s POV. Leon is shy, punctual, factual and to-the-point. He’s observant and logical and practical.

Tiffy is a chaotic person — hopeful, energetic, cheerful and always trusting. She worries a bit too much about things she shouldn’t need to worry about, and she’s caring and considerate towards her friends and colleagues.

Beth O’Leary has done a fabulous job of capturing Leon and Tiffy’s unique voices from their internal and external dialogue, and the various post-it notes that each characters leaves around the apartment.

“Letter is crumpled in trouser pocket. Tiffy asked me to read it before I send it on to Richie. But haven’t, yet. It’s painful. Feel suddenly sure that she won’t understand. That she’ll say he’s a calculating criminal, just like the judge did. Say his excuses don’t add up, that given his character and his past he’s exactly what we should all have expected.”
LEON

Admittedly, I felt there were a few flaws. It’s quite a long book and three-quarters of the way through the story I felt like it was a bit too slow. There are a lot of post-it notes and text messages, and a lot of chapters that felt like they were being dragged out.

There’s also a particular scene at the end of the novel involving Tiffy and her ex-boyfriend that felt unrealistic and quite cringeworthy. And the friendship between Tiffy and Leon’s brother, and her involvement in his appeal is all a little bit ‘Hollywood’ that is a bit hard to believe at times. It’s nice and pleasing, but I do think you have to stretch the imagination to go along with the story.

I recommend The Flatshare to readers of romance comedy, light-hearted and tender novels about family and relationships. It’s fun and cute, but it is also emotional and heartfelt. By the end, you’ll want to move in with Tiffy and Leon.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Flatshare
Beth O’Leary
May 2019
Hachette Book Publishers

The Woman in Darkness by Charlie Donlea

As a forensic reconstructionist, Rory Moore sheds light on cold-case homicides by piecing together details others fail to see. And while cleaning out her late father’s law office, she takes a call that plunges her into a forty-year-old mystery. In the summer of 1979, five Chicago women went missing.

The predator, nicknamed The Thief, left no bodies and no clues behind – until police received a package from a mysterious woman named Angela Mitchell, which uncovered his identity. But before police could question her, Angela disappeared.

Forty years later, The Thief is about to be paroled for Angela’s murder – the only killing the DA could pin on him. But a cryptic file found in her father’s office suggests to Rory there is more to the case than anyone knew.

Soon Rory is helplessly entangled in the enigma of Angela Mitchell and what happened to her. Drawing connections between the past and present, she uncovers dark truths about the reclusive woman, her own father, and the man called The Thief.

But not even Rory is prepared for the terrifying secrets about to emerge…

The Woman in Darkness by Charlie Donlea is a suspense thriller about a young woman trying to manage her deceased father’s old case work, and a prisoner who was accused of murdering his wife 40 years earlier. The book is fascinating and compelling and fast-paced — a real page-turner.

The book switches between 1979 and 2019. Angela was a young wife living with her husband Thomas. She’s autistic, although that term wasn’t created back then and so people treated her horribly because they didn’t understand why she was different to everyone else. She is fascinated with the recent disappearances of young women in her area, and starts collecting evidence in an effort to discover who is behind the crimes.

“Angela didn’t need to look into Bill Blackwell’s eyes to see the disgusted look on his face. She sensed it. It was an expression that sent Angela back to her childhood. Most people looked at her this way throughout her adolescence, and today Angela felt much of the confidence she had learned in the last few years slipping away.”

In 2019, we meet forensic reconstructionist Rory. She’s trying to find out what happened to a young woman who was murdered 1 year earlier, but that case is put on hold when her attorney father dies and she goes through all his open case files. One of the prisoners he was defending is set to be released on parole. Forty years earlier, he was jailed for the murder of his wife. He was suspected of murdering dozens of other women, but they could never prove it was him.

There’s a strong connection between Rory and Angela — similarities in their personality and their compulsions, and their manner. They’re both strong protagonists, inviting the reader in and keeping them engaged until the final page. Both of them are incredibly intelligent women with brilliant minds — they’re simply misunderstood by the people around them.

The writing is tight and cohesive, the dialogue realistic and relatable. The characters draw you in, but also keep you guessing. There are so many people who will love this book.

“She’d spent the entire evening suppressing her obsessive-compulsive needs. Angela’s freshly learned self-restraint had done her well. It opened up a new world with Thomas, and had allowed her to forge a friendship with Catherine. But Angela knew she could not completely ignore the needs of her mind and the demands of her central nervous system, which screamed for her to organise and list and break down the things that made no sense.”

A small flaw with the book is that Rory is signed on to solve that case about the murdered woman
one year earlier, and there is no development in it at all in the entire book. And then there’s an
open end about it. Perhaps that’s to allow for a sequel, but it actually just felt really disappointing.
That side storyline didn’t even need to be in the book, and there could’ve been other ways that
Rory was written into the premise.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who loves crime and thriller novels. The premise draws you in
and the characters keep you there. Angela is a fantastic character, and her story is not only well
written, but evocative and interesting and enthralling. I loved reading about her.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Woman in Darkness
Charlie Donlea
April 2019
Penguin Random House Publishers

A Universe of Sufficient Size by Miriam Sved

I have wished so many times that I had acted differently.
I wish that I had been more worthy of you…
Eventually the war will end, and then we will find each other.
Until then, remember me.

Budapest, 1938. In a city park, five young Jewish mathematicians gather to share ideas, trade proofs and whisper sedition.

Sydney, 2007. Illy has just buried her father, a violent, unpredictable man whose bitterness she never understood. And now Illy’s mother has gifted her a curious notebook, its pages a mix of personal story and mathematical discovery, recounted by a woman full of hopes and regrets.

Inspired by a true story, Miriam Sved’s beautifully crafted novel charts a course through both the light and dark of human relationships: a vivid recreation of 1930s Hungary, a decades-old mystery locked in the story of one enduring friendship, a tribute to the selfless power of the heart.

A Universe of Sufficient Size by Miriam Sved is a literary novel that takes the reader through multiple narratives — pre-war Hungary in 1938, Brooklyn in 1950 and Australia in 2007. It’s a complex and tender novel that I couldn’t help but adore.

The book explores trauma, war, family and relationships, but it’s also about a devoted group of young Jewish mathematicians in 1938 and how their choices and decisions shape not just their future, but their families’ futures decades later. Mathematics is one of the strongest links between the two timelines, connecting two major characters and allowing them to bond over their shared love and knowledge.

There’s a fair bit of detailed mathematics in the book that I didn’t understand, so I developed a habit of skipping over it. I imagine most readers would do the same, given that many people won’t understand the complex equations and formulas that the characters are discussing. But Miriam takes something that many people would find uninteresting — mathematics — and weaves a story that’s inviting and evocative.

“The day the photo was taken was stamped bright in my memory: an early autumn day in our first weeks at the university. We went on a hike in the hills around Buda: not just the five of us but the whole large crowd in which we moved during those week. I felt very glum around that time.”

The characters are one of the biggest strengths in the book. They’re three-dimensional, relatable, engaging and Miriam Sved has crafted a book that completely draws you in.

In 1938, Europe is engulfed by Nazism and they’re on the brink of war. These Jewish university students don’t quite realise just how much their lives are going to change. They’re experiencing a shift in how they’re being treated and what they’re allowed to do because of the Hungarian government’s anti-Jewish laws, but of course they don’t realise the scale of change that’s coming. They’re idealistic, hopeful, and actually really naive.

There was a small flaw I couldn’t help but come across in the story. Every now and then there was something in the 2007 timeline that didn’t quite work with the time period. For example:

“Josh strokes the phone screen. If he could just get the phone out of his pocket and download some more apps — there’s supposedly one for Myspace and another for Facebook — he might even be able to update his page here and now without leaving the reception.”

I’m fairly certain apps didn’t exist in 2007, much less the ability to download an app on an iPhone. In fact, The App Store wasn’t launched until July 2008. I’m not even sure if Myspace had its own app until much later on.

Despite this, I really enjoyed the novel. I’d recommend this book to anyone with a particular
interest in wartime novels — novels about love during difficult times, and how circumstance plays a
huge role in friendships and relationships.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

A Universe of Sufficient Size
Miriam Sved
April 2019
Pan Macmillan Publishers

The Aunts’ House by Elizabeth Stead

Sydney, 1942

Recently orphaned, Angel Martin moves into ab oarding house populated by an assortment of eccentric and colourful characters. She’s befriended by the gregarious Winifred Varnham – a vision in exotic fabrics – and the numerically gifted Barnaby Grange. But not everyone is kind and her scrimping landlady, Missus Potts, is only the beginning of Angel’s troubles.

Angel refuses to accept her fate and focusses her affections on her two maiden aunts. Despite their resistance, she is determined to forge a sense of belonging. Her visits to the aunts’ house on the Bay soon expand her world in ways she couldn’t have imagined.

Elizabeth Stead brings her classic subversive wit and personal insight to this nostalgic portrait of wartime Sydney. In Angel Martin, she has created a singular and irrepressible character. A true original.

Literary fiction novel The Aunt’s House is a quirky, charming tale of family, legacy and identity. Sydney author Elizabeth Stead brings warmth and wit to the novel, and a three-dimensional protagonist who readers have no choice but to adore.

The novel is set in 1942, and eleven-year-old Angel Martin is an orphan and the newest addition to a boarding house run by Missus Potts. Her father died many years earlier, and her mother has just passed away whilst living in a sanatorium. Angel is unwanted by her paternal aunts because they believe her mother was responsible for their brother’s death years earlier.

The novel was a bit of a slow start for me, the direction of the story a little unclear and my faith in the story wavering. But, over time, I grew to love little Angel and her resilient personality. The book is written from Angel’s perspective, but in third person, and so we learn to love her voice. It’s a bit stream of conscious, but also really hopeful and glass-half-full. She’s quite a quirky, strange girl and so her narration reflects that throughout the book.

There are moments of humour peppered throughout the story, amidst moments of darkness. A few of the men in the boarding house either try, or succeed, to sexually abuse Angel. She doesn’t seem to dwell on the assault much and pushes it out of her mind, and perhaps this is her method of avoiding and ignoring what happened so that she doesn’t have to confront the events.

“Angel liked to think B and K truly loved each other — she wanted them to love each other and she wanted them to be married and have lots of babies. But perhaps the whole thing might have been just a dream and nothing happened at all. It might just have been hearts on fire at first sight between stops.”

Mental illness is a strong theme throughout the book. Angel’s mother was living in a sanatorium when she died, and a lot of people in Angel’s life think she’s inherited her mother’s mental instability. Angel does what she wants, when she wants, and people find her tough and hard to manage.

Another strong theme is family and companionship. Angel forms friendships with numerous people in town and their bonds strengthen over the course of the novel. In the boarding house, she strikes up a friendship with the insightful Barnaby Grange, and the interesting and eccentric Winifred Warnham. She also regularly takes the tram to see her Aunts, who do not want her in their home. But Angel is determined and loveable, and soon, a connection is formed.

“She tried to remember what her father looked like before the accident but her remembrance was more a smell. Not a tram smell. Sunday was a tram smell, the electric smell of wood and rails and hot cables. No, the smell of her father she remembered was motorcycle racing fuel and the sight of it in leaked black patches on the backyard grass.”

The Aunt’s House is about the complexities of humans, and the importance of not passing judgment onto others. The characters in the book are all very unique, but they’re a clever and fun bunch of characters and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about them all.

I’d recommend this to readers of adult fiction and lovers of literary works. This is incredibly character-driven, and so perfect for fans of complex and dimensional fiction.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Aunts’ House
Elizabeth Stead
April 2019
UQP Publishers

Gaslighting by Dr Stephanie Sarkis

Mental health expert Dr Stephanie Sarkis sheds light on ‘gaslighting’ – the manipulative technique used by sociopaths, narcissists, and others, offering practical strategies to cope and break free.

Gaslighting. What it is, how you can spot it – and how you can break free.

He’s the charmer – the witty, confident, but overly controlling date. She’s the woman on your team who always manages to take credit for your good work. He’s the neighbour who swears you’ve been putting your rubbish into his bins, or the politician who can never admit to a mistake. Gaslighters are master controllers and manipulators, often challenging your very sense of reality. Whether it’s a spouse, parent, co-worker, or friend, gaslighters distort the truth – by lying, withholding, triangulation, and more – making their victims question their own reality and sanity. Dr Stephanie Sarkis delves into this hidden manipulation technique, covering gaslighting in every life scenario, sharing:

Why gaslighters seem so ‘normal’ at first
Warning signs and examples
Gaslighter ‘red flags’ on a first date
Practical strategies for coping
How to co-parent with a gaslighter
How to protect yourself from a gaslighter at work
How to walk away and rebuild your life

With clear-eyed wisdom and empathy, Dr Sarkis not only helps you determine if you are being victimized by a gaslighter – she gives you the tools to break free and heal.

Gaslighting is mental manipulation that causes a person to doubt themselves and their actions — it can occur within many different types of relationships. Sometimes it’s within a romantic relationship, sometimes it’s between siblings, or parents and children, and sometimes it’s between colleagues.

Mental health expert Dr Stephanie Sarkis has worked with countless victims of gaslighting over her long career — she’s witnessed the effect that gas lighting can have on victims, and how difficult it can be for someone to escape or extricate themselves from their situation.

“Before you even get involved with a gaslighter, there are usually a number of signs you can learn to spot. In fact, signs present in the early stages of dating gaslights will often tell you everything you need to know about how sticking with the will be detrimental to your well-being.”

This is an incredibly detailed, exhaustive guide to the various types of gaslighters and how you can avoid them. I was surprised to learn that one of the most common forms of gas lighting is parent to child, and often that child grows up to be a gaslighter themselves because they’ve learnt (either knowingly or unknowingly) the art of gaslighting from their parent.

Stephanie Sarkis lists a lot of warning signs about gaslighters, but also helps us understand why gaslighters act the way they do — what it is they want and what they hope to get out of a situation. As a result, it’s a lot easier to understand how to remove yourself from their grasp.

Gaslighters distort the truth, and they’re often very good at it.

One of my favourite parts of the book was reading the testimonies on the sides of each page, the confessions from real-life victims who talk about how they were gaslighted. It’s fascinating.

“When I was a teenager, my mom would tell me that I was ‘getting pudgy.’ Then she’d make brownies or cake, and leave it out on the kitchen counter.”
JALISA, 34

Each chapter of the book is broken down into a different type of gaslighter, from relationships, to politics, cults, parents, siblings, and friends. There’s also a very long and helpful list of resources at the back of the book for anyone who wants further guidance and help after reading the book.

“In case you didn’t already have enough to worry about, the risks of violence with gaslighters is very real. They are more prone to getting violent because their frustration threshold is so low and they generally don’t have good coping skills. You should be prepared to protect yourself.”

I felt there was a slight oversight in the packaging of the book. Some victims of gaslighting are with potentially violent partners, or have been lured into a community or cult where their every move is watched. And it’s super obvious what this book is about. How are those people meant to read this book and not get caught?

Most of this book talks about the extremes of gaslighting, but it’s very informative. I was interested in reading this to expand my knowledge of what gaslighting is. For victims of gaslighting, I imagine this would be a very valuable tool.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Gaslighting: How to Recognise Manipulative and Emotionally Abusive People…and break free
Dr Stephanie Sarkis
March 2019
Hachette Book Publishers

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