The Name Game by Beth O’Leary

This story is told in a mix of epistolary (the two main characters’ journals in present day) and third-person (for flashbacks to the past). Although I’m not usually a huge fan of epistolary fiction, this was well planned and helped the story in multiple ways: distinguishing between the voices of the two main characters (both named Charlie Jones), clearly demarcating jumps to the past, and setting us up for the twist.

For me, the multiple perspectives and past/present story lines made for a very compelling read — the jumps to the past filled in gaps instead of distracting from what was happening in the present — and I loved how the twist made me replay everything I thought I knew. However, it didn’t hold up quite as well when I actually went back to re-read some of the sections (the setup and initial meet just isn’t plausible to me) and by the end I was really irritated by how one character’s actions and withholding of information had caused distress for others (dislikable characters are fine with me, but I felt like I was supposed to like this one and I just … didn’t really). That said, it’s absolutely worth the experience of the first read and it was a pleasure to puzzle through, although the romance itself took a bit of a backseat to the individual character growth and how the characters’ stories fit together in the end.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for providing an advanced reader copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. The Name Game is out today, April 7, 2026.