You Belong With Me is very definitely a sequel. A good one, but still. Do read Who’s That Girl first. Even with McFarlane’s decent attempt to catch the reader up on what came before, you’ll miss out on the full force of the events and the characters’ subsequent emotions if you skip the first book.
When Elliott appears unannounced at Edie’s door months after their breakup, they resume their relationship, one that previously struggled to get off the ground. In her usual witty, insightful way, McFarlane explores the issues surrounding long distance relationships, being a couple made up of one famous person and one relatively unknown, supporting two careers and trust issues in such a relationship.
I’m a huge Mhairi McFarlane fan. I zoomed through this book with pleasure. However, in the end i felt a little less invested in the story and more like I’d been subjected to an analysis of the difficulties of a relationship.. it was rewarding and humorous and had her unmistakeable flare for drawing characters, both major and minor. I just wasn’t quite as drawn into Edie’s and Elliott’s relationship.
My advice? Read it. But not until you’ve read Who’s That Girl?

Sadly, this was not my favorite Mhairi McFarlane book. A departure from her with a sequel to a previous book, this one tells the story of what happens after a normal girl starts darting a movie star. There were too many miscommunications and contrived drama for me here, with me often reading just to finish the book rather than being eager to find out what happens next. Even the resolution of the interesting "mystery" of the book was a bit of a let down. If you enjoyed the first book, definitely recommend reading the follow up for closure on the story.

A quick read because you can’t put it down. The wit and swoon are too notch. It left me wanting to reread the story. Cute characters and story flowed well. The banter was perfection. No one does it like a Mhairi McFarlane.

A sequel to Who’s That Girl? This book opens with what happened after Edie opened the door on Christmas (thank goodness). Elliot Owen has come back for her and insists on giving their relationship a proper go, and Edie adjusts to being on the receiving end of fame-adjacent. All the fun ensemble cast is back from the original story as well as new people to love and hate.

I was delighted to read what happened after Edie opened the door, as the first installment left readers wondering whether Elliot made it back to her or not, even though it was implied. I found this sequel did a LOT of catching up the first fifty pages - there was an exorbitant amount of summarizing the OG work - and at first I was a bit bored. The story does pick up, and when it does we get to see Elliot and Edie try their hand at a relationship, full of transatlantic flights, paparazzi, and fickle friends. While this story did not do it for me the same way that the original did (it was a fun five star read for me), I do believe that I wanted resolution with many of the characters and that was beyond fun for me, especially Fraser, love that golden retriever of a human! I didn’t really know what to do with the insert of Declan. He was such a charming character and the whole thing was sort of tossed aside toward the end. What happened? Did they still work together? He was too charismatic to be left unresolved! All in all, I needed this book, but I feel like it wasn’t as tight or as funny as the first, although it did have its moments.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This book was amazing and I devoured this book in just a few sittings! I loved the character development and how the story progressed.

This is McFarlane's sequel to her novel "Whose that Girl?" and I should have gone back and reread the it to really have enjoyed this one. There are enough reflective/recap moments to remind me of Edie's backstory (and not overt or repetitive like some novels, so thanks for that!) but I don't remember the chemistry and dynamic of Edie and Elliot very well. I think that is a bit of a hindrance when trying to treat this novel as a stand alone. I'm still a Mhairi McFarlane fan and I feel like she maybe wrote this one for the fans but this one would rank lower for me on the rec list.
Overall, Edie has character growth and gets her HEA. She finds her footing and I happily cheer for her. The plot is just a lot of back and forth dialogue of doubt and self sabotage between Edie and Elliot who are (?) clearly (?) in love with each other (we have to take her word for it) and dealing with rejection and abandonment issues on top of 'real world' complications like long-distance dating.
Summary - Read "Whose that Girl?" first. Then follow up with this immediately. McFarlane is a very skilled author and I love her intellectual but accessible writing style.
Thanks so much for the ARC!

I'm admittedly biased; I am a long-time fan of McFarlane's work. She never shies away from conflict and the uglier side of human emotion while still bringing to life a realistic and tender romance, and this book was no exception. I loved Edie and Elliot's relationship and I loved the chemistry between them. I have not read the first book that this is the sequel for but I'm very excited to get started with it. It's another winner for me!

I haven’t had the opportunity to read a book by this author until now, and I figured an ARC might be okay. I unfortunately couldn’t finish it: maybe it was the Notting Hill trope, maybe it was just all a bit too fantastical without any realism given to Elliot from the start. I might try another Mhairi McFarlane another time, but this one wasn’t the one for me.

I love Mhairi McFarlane, and this was no exception. I didn't remember reading the first book, so I had to go back and review a bit, but it was a satisfying follow-up, even if I was a bit confused by Declan's role!

this was pretty good! I thought it was fun but it was missing something? it seemed ok but when i finished i felt like it lacked a vibe or something? im not sure but i loved elliot

You Belong with Me by Mhairi McFarlane, a follow up to Who's That Girl?, was entertaining and funny. I made sure to reread the first novel before diving into this one and I'm glad I did because while I remembered the overall plotline of the story, I had forgotten a lot of the little details. You Belong with Me was just as funny as the original but I didn't enjoy it as much as the first. I definitely think you'll have to read Who's that Girl? before reading You Belong with Me. It kind of goes over the events that happened in the first one but it doesn't provide a lot of context so it might be a little confusing. I was glad to be back with these lovable cast of characters but I felt like the story lacked something. You Belong with Me starts off right where Who's That Girl? ends and we see the two main characters decide to give the relationship another go and that's pretty much all we see happen? Elliot continues being a big time Hollywood actor who falls in love with 'normal person' Edie and Edie spends the entire book wondering why Elliot likes her and if maybe he'll leave her and end up with some beautiful actor. Things happen because Edie still can't trust the relationship and that's about it. I did enjoy this but I did believe it lacked an overall event that wasn't' Edie working about why Elliot was with her.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for providing this book, with my honest review below.

You Belong with Me is a well written book but ultimately not for me. We started in a confusing place for me as I felt I was in the middle of the book and didn’t get a proper introduction. As a result the rest of the book felt a little jarring and like I was playing catch up. Edie and Elliot’s relationship is written meaningfully but the flow never clicked for me and as a result I couldn’t really buy in to their relationship and, with it, the rest of the plot. I never got the ‘why is this important’ and ‘why should I be engaged’. Mhairi McFarlane is a talented writer, I know from reading her other books, and the books opening and flow may work for other readers but for me this ended up being confusing.

I’ve found out upon follow up this book is a a sequel to another Mhairi wrote in 2015 so I’d highly recommend having read that before this as I believe it would solve my feedback on the confusion and subsequent flow.

Another delightful story from Mhairi McFarlane. She has a way of writing banter that is rivaled by few, and the British-isms make me feel wonderfully nostalgic. The conflict for this one was painful and arduous to read, but definitely understandable. I really liked the way she approached the premise of someone ordinary and famous being in a relationship with quite a bit of realism. It was difficult for your standard romance novel because I think that trace insecurity and tenuousness is kind of infectious. I was just as convinced that the relationship was too precarious to last. I think I would've liked more piece of mind given the sheer onslaught of conflict than a brief speech at the end and a consequent engagement. There's something very unsatisfying about finishing a romance novel and feeling lingering doubt over the couple's lasting power in spite of the wedding. I definitely would've liked for Edie's insecurities to be unpacked in a more significant way as this felt like the most glaring ongoing issue still waiting in the wings. On the whole though, the characters had wonderful chemistry as always and it's always refreshing to read a romance novel where the characters genuinely communicate like adults.