The Man Who Didn’t Call, by Rosie Walsh {Book Review}

The Man Who Didn’t Call is a #NadiaMadeMeReadIt moment! I love being influenced by my fellow book bloggers, and especially ones I know, share a similar taste in books to me. If you’ll recall, Nadia and I have done some buddy reads together before, so when I saw her review this book…. I needed it! The title of the book alone though, conjures up an image of somebody, sitting and waiting by the phone. I remember when I was a teenager, I used to wait at our neighbour’s place for my husband (then boyfriend) to call. We had to arrange a day and time, because… #TheStoneAges. So if I missed that call, I’d probably cry all week! Or imagine the worst….as Sarah does, in this book….

What is The Man Who Didn’t Call about?

Imagine you meet a man, spend six glorious days together, and fall in love. And it’s mutual: you’ve never been so certain of anything.

So when he leaves for a long-booked holiday and promises to call from the airport, you have no cause to doubt him.
But he doesn’t call.

Your friends tell you to forget him, but you know they’re wrong: something must have happened; there must be a reason for his silence.

What do you do when you finally discover you’re right? That there is a reason — and that reason is the one thing you didn’t share with each other?

The truth.

My Review

Characters and Storyline

The protagonist in this book is Sarah….and Eddie too I guess. These 2 people, who seemingly fell in love at first sight. The story is told mostly from Sarah’s POV….there are also letters written by an unknown person, as well as draft emails. I’m not going to elaborate, but it was an interesting way to read a book.

Sarah has more friends than I can keep track of! There’s Jo, there’s Tommy, Rudi (a kid), Jenna…. There’s also her ex-husband, his new girlfriend. Quite a few side stories…were they necessary? I’m not sure.

The storyline….there’s no explanation needed. They met, they fell in love….he never called. Why?

My Review

I felt like the first half of the book dragged a bit…. as we go from present day, back to those magical 6/7 days. I wish the 6/7 days were dealt with in one go, so we could really experience this ‘love at first sight’ romance. By alternating so much, I felt I couldn’t really immerse myself into this love story. I did know that Sarah was miserable though, and desperate to know, for some sort of closure if that was the case. We, as readers needed that closure too, even if only because we’re very nosey.

Rosie dropped a lot of breadcrumbs….so much so that I started wondering if Nadia was insane. The book was obviously SUPER predictable, and there was no mystery. Only….Rosie was too clever for me! I literally had to go back and read the revelation moment about 3 times! THREE TIMES! After that, I felt like she tried to trick me again, but by then I knew her M.O. so I think I was ready….but I was still left wondering if it would turn out this way, or that. Would this happen? Would that happen?

My rating

The Man Who Didn’t call is short, it’s sweet and it has a good shock moment. There was some character relationships that I felt could have gotten some more screen time, but of course I am not the author. The Man Who Didn’t Call has a Goodreads rating of 3.78 stars and I do put it at a solid 3.5 stars myself. This is the perfect I’m-going-on-holiday-so-let-me-take-an-easy-read-book sort of book! It’ll have you hoping, it’ll have you sad, it’ll have you laughing (Eddie is really funny)…a really good all round kind of book. Also, you’re left thinking….would I have called? I don’t know…. I really don’t know……

Read Nadia’s review over HERE.

Disclaimer: This book was sent to me by Pan Macmillan SA in exchange for an honest review.