James Bailey, The Flip Side, Paperback, 358 pages, Waterstones, £7.99
Who says you can’t leave love to chance?
The Flip Side begins straight in the disaster zone for Josh. It’s New Year’s Eve and Josh has thought long and hard about proposing to his girlfriend Jade. However it’s only when Josh is left single, with no job or home to go to, that we really begin to go on this heads-or-tails journey. Every choice he makes from this point onwards will be made through the flip of a coin. The Flip Side follows Josh’s journey of finding his confidence and the right girl, in this life-changing year.
Narrative
Interestingly this is the first rom-com I’ve read with a male author. It’s therefore no surprise to be told that it’s written from a male’s perspective. This has quite a different approach to what is normally considered as a rom-com. The reader may find it unusual to hear about Josh’s feeling towards #Sunflowergirl as the readers of rom-com never really see this type of story from a male’s point of view. It really did make me wonder what goes on in the mind of male characters from other books I’ve read!
Pace and Structure
At the beginning of this book, the pace was really fast. It was gripping as you could see the story developing rapidly and it was flooded with humour. At times, the pace did seem to slow a little and I began to feel that the driving force for the remainder of the plot felt more like a to-do list.
Some of the scenes didn’t seem realistic to me which made me question the characters’ choices. I really liked reading about Josh and his #sunflowergirl however I would’ve liked the book to contain more of this at times. Their conversations were so interesting that it made me question why we had to wait so long to finally reach this point. I was initially reading this book in the hope that I would see their relationship blossom. However the novel’s focus tended to be more on finding #sunflowergirl rather than their relationship.
I did enjoy this book and found it a pleasant read but it wasn’t the book I thought I’d picked up. I wanted to know more about Josh’s relationship with #sunflowergirl, the types of problems they’d faced and how they felt about the coin toss. For me though, I felt that it ended a little too quickly as I felt like I was just starting to get to know #sunflowergirl. It was as if she wasn’t considered a main character to the novel and I would’ve liked her to be.
I would still recommend this book to my friends and family but perhaps with a bit more insight into the structure of the novel.
Charlotte Anne Barker 