This was a quick read. I lived the setting and the characters were fun. It was a little bit of a twist on a popular story line and I thought the author did a good job with it. It was a good winter weekend read.

I started reading this book, but did not finish it. I read a few chapters but did not connect with the characters, so I wasn't interested in continuing.

Don't You Forget About Me is about hitting rock bottom and trying to rise up from it. Georgina is at a dead-end job that she hates, a boyfriend who cheats on her, and extremely low self-esteem. An opportunity to be a barmaid comes up quickly and she finally feels some satisfaction by being good at it. Georgina soon realizes that her high school crush is one of the successful owners of the pub, Lucas McCarthy. The clever banter with the various characters will draw you in and not let you stop reading until the very end.

Don't You Forget About Me made laugh out loud and shake my head from disbelief throughout the entire book. That was just what I was hoping for in Mhairi McFarlane's novel. Being my first novel of hers, I will be investing in her previous once next.

Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins Publishers for allowing me to read this book. I received this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Georgina is having the second worse night of her life when the story begins.

First, her boss fires her without a real reason. Then, when she goes to see her boyfriend, she discovers him with another woman. He doesn't feel guilty because he tells her, he thought they were seeing other people. He never thought they were exclusive despite being together for six months.

Without a job, Georgina takes a job as a bartender at a new pub. Everything is going well until she realizes, that the co-owner of the pub is none other than Lucas McCarthy, the boy she fell in love in high school. At first, she has no idea how to behave around him but soon she discovers, he has no idea she was the girl from school.

Georgina doesn't have a great relationship with her mother and an even worse one with her stepfather. Same goes with her sister but she does get along with her brother in law. There are some secrets she's keeping from them and they feel like Georgina had ruined her potential after dropping out of college. Luckily, Georgina has a set of amazing, supportive friends.

I liked Don't You Forget Me. It was more a story of self-discovery than a romance. I love Georgina's friends and how they had her back. The book made me laugh and teared up at times too. Lucas made me mad for the longest time but the end had me forgiving him and I might have swooned a little bit too.

Cliffhanger: No

3/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by William Morrow Paperbacks via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I did enjoy this book, but it felt more like literary fiction than a romance. There were a lot of characters to follow, which I didn't mind I just feel like it took away from what I wanted from the book. While it wasn't my favorite book, I still recommend giving it a read.

This was delightful. Entirely too long and slow in the beginning/first half, but picks up in the second half and the end really was all sorts of adorable. There's a lot going on in this book, lots of triggers, lots of sad thrown in with the light and fluffy. also, it's important to note, not really a romance. Yes, there's a HEA, but the book really isn't about the couple for the majority of it. I knew that going in, so it didn't really bother me, but it would have if I'd not known. I identified with Georgina and really felt for her. I really liked her friends and family as well. Lucas was fabulous and sounded too good to be true. Devlin sounded like a hoot. Anyway, overall, not a huge fan of how slow it was, but the ending made up for it and I do really enjoy this author's writing. It's very comfy and cozy and realistic. I already have the ARC of her new one and I'm super excited about it!

This is the combo of the slower burner of “Say You Still Love Me” meets the quirkiness of “Bridget Jones Diary”.

I loved this book. It was a sweet story about your first love and second chances.

I have read great things about Mhairi’s books and for that reason, I had been meaning to them for quite some time. When I had the chance to read Don’t You Forget About Me I was thrilled.
However, I have to say that it was not easy at first. Georgina is an exceptional character with a unique voice. It took some time to get used to her as a narrator, but once I got into the story, it was perfectly fine, very funny and enjoyable.
I love reading books talking about England; nevertheless, I have to admit I have my limitations in understanding some words and references, so I had to look up plenty of things (but, hey, I know more now!).
The story is fun and entertaining, the pace is also great and it is a fast read; I could not stop once I pass the first third of the book. I even stayed up until late on a workday to finish the book because I honestly could not wait. The final part is charged with things happening and it gives the story a different and more profound meaning.
I liked the way Mhairi combines light and funny moments into a tory talking about real-life and serious struggles. I will definitely continue reading McFarlane’s books, past, and future.

Don't You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane tells the story of Georgina who used to work as a server in one of the nastiest Italian restaurants in town until she is unjustly fired from her job. Georgina accepts a job working as a bartender, meets a man who offers her a position at a pub he owns with his brother. When she meets the brother her past come tumbling back to her. Her first love, Lucas is her new boss.

Slow, slow, slow. Pages and pages leading up to Lucas finally admitting he remembers Georgina from their shared past. Their are some interesting moments but they are too few and far in between to really keep you invested in the story.

I would read another book by Mhairi McFarlane given the opportunity as her writing held my interest; the story just did not live up to my expectations.

My first Mhairi MacFarlane and I now consider myself a fan! At first, I wasn't sure if the writing style was for me because it's definitely more in the lines of stream of consciousness. But Georgina is such an honest, likeable narrator and MacFarlane writes a compelling story, so the style actually worked perfect for the story and became less rambling as the story continued. My favorite part of this book was definitely how realistic, genuinely funny, and unflinchingly honest Georgina is with herself and those around her, the dialogue and such felt very authentic. The second chances storyline was well developed and provided a good slow burn that had me rooting hard for Lucas and Georgina. I liked that this was a story about Georgina learning how to move forward and come to terms with her past. All in all, this was an immensely satisfying and lovely read! Cannot wait to read more of MacFarlane's work.

I’ll start by admitting that sadly I had never actually read one of Mhairi McFarlane’s books. Whenever I’d read the descriptions of her books in the past it seemed like they lacked a certain depth that I enjoy. I now realize that this was a great misunderstanding on my part. Mhairi enjoys the slow crawl, reminding me of another beloved author Marianne Zapata. I genuinely feel like she has fun writing and might even make a game of it. Like, I could see her sitting and giggling to herself as she wrote this, well maybe if she was an American. I won’t lie, there were a lot of British references that I didn’t completely understand but could still get the gist of, even so I still looked some of them up for clarification. Anything about Brexit was hilarious.
This novel is so contemporary that it even threw me at a few points, reminding me that I’m no longer a spring chicken, but with a laugh regardless. More than anything else, I appreciated Mhairi’s honest and hilarious portrayal of the 30 year old woman. In fact, the main character initially reminded me of Bridget Jones from her Diary because she is such a disaster. And maybe I’m being a bit hypocritical because while I related to this nightmare on a personal level, I don’t like my characters to be messy. I guess I just prefer to read about someone who is my opposite. Honestly, the storyline was so dreary initially that I wasn’t sure I wanted to go on reading. I just kept saying “ugh, terrible, where is this going.”
Once you step out of the white and black box and look for the good in the grey area, you see that the “wins” in the book are so perfectly understated. It’s not like a big to do to show that the character is morally good but it’s there in the undertone of everything she does. These are two good people that bad things have happened to. Mhairi seemingly slowly weaves her storyline, giving you more details than completely necessary, rather than being completely straightforward. The book definitely won me over by the end, but it took a while to get there. Just as Marianna Zapata isn’t my go to author, neither is Mhairi McFarlane, but that doesn’t mean I won’t read another of her books and end up enjoying it even more than this one.

ARC provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

Rom Com books are my bread and butter. I love them so much. This book didn’t disappoint. It starts off with a flashback to high school which leaves so many questions. So of course, you keep going to read to try to figure out the mysteries and the answers to the why. Seriously, if you like this genre, you will inhale this book!

Synopsis:
If there’s one thing worse than being fired from the grottiest restaurant in town, it’s coming home early to find your boyfriend in bed with someone else.

Reeling from the indignity of a double dumping on the same day, Georgina snatches at the next job that she’s offered – barmaid in a newly opened pub, which just so happens to run by the boy she fell in love with at school: Lucas McCarthy. And whereas Georgina (voted Most Likely to Succeed in her school yearbook) has done nothing but dead-end jobs in the last twelve years, Lucas has not only grown into a broodingly handsome man, but also has turned into an actual grown-up with a business and a dog along the way.

Meeting Lucas again not only throws Georgina’s rackety present into sharp relief, but also brings a dark secret from her past bubbling to the surface. Only she knows the truth about what happened on the last day of school, and why she’s allowed it to chase her all these years…
⠀
I received this book for review purposes from NetGalley.

DNF

I got more than 20% along, and I just can’t read any more. The narration is too stream-of-conscious-y and rambling. The MC hates on herself too much (she also doesn’t realize that her ex gaslights her, and I’m sure this is all set-up for a wonderfully dynamic character, but at this point, it’s too much drivel for me to continue).

My library purchased because it was on LibraryReads last/this month.

Although billed as a rom-com, this story belongs in the women’s lit genre, being more a journey of self-discovery than a second-chance romance. Georgina Horspool is having a bad day. First, she’s fired from her waitressing job at a crappy trattoria after taking the fall for her boss’s lousy food, then she walks in on her boyfriend having sex with his assistant. In desperation, she accepts a job at a newly-opened pub only to find that the co-owner is Lucas McCarthy, her first love from high school who she hasn’t seen in 12 years. For a girl who was voted “Most Likely to Go Far” in high school, it’s a mystery why, at 30, she is so underachieving. Her family sees her as a failure and Lucas doesn’t even remember her. The ex-boyfriend, a self-absorbed prick who fancies himself a great stand-up comic, gaslights and harasses her by using their relationship to promote his career. The one positive in her life is her group of friends, reminiscent of the dynamic in “Bridget Jones’ Diary.”

When Georgina hears about a writing competition taking place at the pub with the theme of “Sharing Your Shame,” she decides to enter as a way of kickstarting her writing career. In the final week, after confronting her ex and quitting her job when Lucas rejects her, admitting that he remembered her all along, she shares her “Worst Day at School”: the night of the prom when she made the mistake of going off with the Golden Boy and losing not only her innocence but also the boy she loves. It’s only when she’s finally able to share her story with her friends and family for the first time that she’s recognizes how that night derailed her life.

Aside from the lack of romance up until the final pages, the other major problem is the plethora of British references and slang that make it hard to understand much of Georgie’s internal monologue (ex., “…after my quitting the Kilner jar hipster hellmouth” and “Oh, I’m psychically disintegrating like wet bog roll draped around a tree for a student prank, I should see a counselor.”) Although sprinkled with humor, the story covers some heavy topics (sexual assault, emotional abuse, etc.) and disappoints with its lack of backstory details concerning Luke and Georgina’s relationship. If you go into it with eyes wide open, it’s a decent story, but still lacks the humor of Sophie Kinsella’s books to which it’s been compared.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from William Morrow Paperbacks through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

I received an advance digital copy of this book from the author, Harper Collins William Morrow Publishing and Netgalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I went into this story thinking it was going to be a semi-typical romantic comedy. I was wrong. This is a novel of very real and flawed characters with a strong, resilient female lead. Laugh out loud funny and heartbreaking in equal parts. An enjoyable read.

4 out of 5 stars. A very good read that could have been a few chapters shorter.

While I enjoyed this book, there were parts that fell flat for me. A story told in first person can be one dimensional at times, and I would have enjoyed seeing Jamie's point of view in some of the scenes. Nevertheless, I am appreciative of this new and inclusive trend featuring characters with diverse backgrounds and I hope this trend continues to stay strong.

I really enjoyed this book. Second chance stories are among my favorites and I thought this was executed very well. The humor was great which made up for the tame "romance" in the story. This was my first McFarlane book and I'm looking forward to reading more.

Unfortunately this book was not what I wanted it to be, and maybe that falls on me and not this novel. I think the cover is a little misleading because it very reminiscent of the many illustrated romance covers that are very trendy in the publishing industry at the moment, which was why I had assumed it was romance. I’d say this is a bit more toward literary or woman’s fiction as opposed to romance.

At the time, I did enjoy the story overall. It took me awhile to get into it, which is why it took me several weeks to finish it and that’s unheard of for me. It didn’t keep my attention and fell flat for me. After some time, I was able to get into the story and finish it. I did find it funny, but it wasn’t what I wanted it to be.

Georgina Horspool is having a pretty awful day. She gets fired from one of the crappies restaurants in town, then goes home and finds her boyfriend in bed with someone else. But it turns out those might have been blessings in disguise, since that leads her into a job at a new pub. Except it turns out her ONE TRUE LOVE from high school, is one of the owners. Only, it turns out he doesn’t remember her. George can’t decide if she’s thrilled or heartbroken about that. As she learns from past mistakes and tries to go forward is a positive way, she finds herself falling in love with this boy all over again…

Holly: I got the audiobook so I could listen while I was at work and on my commute. I enjoyed the narrator, but she had a pretty heavy British accent that was hard to understand at times. I listened to about half, then read the rest.

What did you think?

Rowena: I read my eARC of this book so I had no problem with the accents in my head. LOL. I really enjoyed this one. Right from the jump, I was invested in what happened between Georgina and Lucas. There were parts of the book that moved slowly but for most the part, I wanted to know what happened at every turn. Sure, I wanted knee Lucas in the balls a time or two but in the end, I really liked him and Georgina together.

Holly: I wouldn’t classify this as romance. It definitely read more like women’s fiction. The book was more about Georgina’s personal journey and her relationship with Lucas was a side-note. I thought it was really slow in parts, too. The middle especially seemed to drag. But, like you, I was invested in Georgina’s journey, and wanted to see how things would turn out for her and Lucas. I really liked the way the end played out, though I didn’t fully buy into their HEA. I don’t think we saw enough on-page development of their current-time romance.

Rowena: I agree I wouldn’t call this a romance either since the focus of the book was more on Georgina’s growth as a person, finally moving on from her past.

I really loved seeing Georgina’s growth. I loved seeing her really grow into an actual relationship with her sister and her mother and then eventually, with Lucas. She had a great support system and my heart hurt for her when the people in her support group found out the truth about her past. I hurt for them all. I loved her personality and seeing her really rock it up there on stage at the open mic nights. Her Mom and sister annoyed me right up until they started supporting Georgina. I couldn’t stand the Step-Dad but loved seeing Georgina’s sister really step up when Georgina needed her to.

Holly: I couldn’t stand Georgina’s step-dad either, and I felt sorry for her mom, but I’m glad she came to a good place with her family. Especially her sister, Esther. I was pissed at her a good portion of the book, but she really came through in the end.

Man, I definitely cried at the end. Her last open mic night had all the feels.

Rowena: I agree. That last open mic night made me cry and love Georgina all the more. I’m glad that everything worked out for her in the end. She definitely deserved it and I thought Lucas handled entering her life again well.

I really connected with Georgina, right from the jump and enjoyed seeing her really come into her own. I also like Mhairi McFarlane’s writing style and enjoyed the way that she brought Georgina’s world to life. I definitely want to read more books by her.

Holly: I liked McFarlane’s writing, too, and I’ll definitely be looking for more books from her in the future.

Rowena: This one was one of my favorite reads of the month and I enjoyed it so much, I’m giving it a 4.5 out of 5. What about you?

Holly: I enjoyed it, but not as much as you did. I’m going to give it 3.75 out of 5. I really liked Georgina’s personal growth, but the romance was lacking and it was really slow in the middle.

I was expecting a cutesy rom-com and instead I got a story about female resilience and how to cope with bad men, bad family members and bad career luck. Hilarious and adorable!