Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the Advanced Copy of Between Us by Mahairi McFarlane. It is definitely another really strong publication from McFarlane!

Between Us is a well-written and enjoyable book. I finished it in a day, because Mhairi McFarlane's writing really absorbed me.

However, it is NOT really the book advertised. I expected a friends-to-lovers romance, focused on Roisin's new relationship as she heals from her breakup. Instead, it is a really intense look at the implosion of her old relationship and efforts to heal afterwards. The romance is, at best, the B-plot, rather than the A-plot. Again, it's well-written and engaging, but not really the romance I was looking for.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the opportunity to read the ebook ARC. All opinions are, for better or worse, mine alone.

Another great one from Mhairi McFarlane. I enjoy her writing and this latest one is another solid performer.

Between Us is an engrossing story and the cast of flawed but likeable characters made this a hit for me!

Between Us deals with the inevitable shifts in long-standing friendships as a group of young adults navigate the turbulence of growing up. Personalities change and relationships evolve. How much value should be placed on the history of a relationship - is it enough to forgive a significant act of betrayal?

Our main character Roisin is meeting up with a group of friends, which includes her long-term boyfriend Joe, for a weekend getaway. Events over the weekend trigger tension in the group and Roisin is faced with evidence of Joe's deception. Forced to reevaluate her life and relationships, Roisin returns home only to now also have to deal with dysfunctional relationships there as well.

I found Between Us a real page-turner. Once I became involved in Roisin's life I was hooked and the great writing kept me reading. I felt real empathy for Roisin and really wanted things to work out for her. I enjoyed the surprising romance in the book but also appreciated it was not the main focus.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for providing me with an ARC for my review.

I have only read one other Mhairi McFarlane book before, but I have heard nothing but good reviews for this author, so I was excited for the chance to read an early copy of this book!

This book was a sloooooo slow start for me. I don’t have to have a book grab me from the start, but this one took a long time for me to be connected to the story and characters. If I’m over halfway through and I STILL don’t care about the book, then I know it’s not going to be a winner for me. I was determined to finish it, though.

The premise of the story revolves around Roisin with her long term relationship with tv writer Joe, their friends, and what happens when real life seems to play out on screen. I was intrigued by the idea of this plot, but I just could not stand now manipulative and gaslighting Joe is. I know that’s the point and the reason WHY they broke up, but it really was off putting. Also, we saw more of the dissolution of Roisin’s relationship with Joe than with the growing of her new HEA relationship with Matt. It just didn’t feel like there was a deep enough reason for Roisin and Matt to end up together.

Thank you to NetGalley, Mhairi McFarlane, and Avon and Harper Voyager for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

My rating: ⭐️⭐️.5 stars, but rounded up since there’s no half stars.

I had a hard time putting this book down. I needed to know how it would play out! The friend group was great…mostly. I love strong friendships, and seeing Roisin interact with the various friends. It was a little repetitive in the did he/did he not part of the story but not terribly. That being said, the book felt a little too heavy because of some of the subject matter. It seemed like all the relational problems were sexual in nature, not in a descriptive on-page way, but in more of a traumatic way. Such as a child witnessing sexual activity, potential cheating, possible molestation, etc. It was a bit much.

Content: some language and crass jokes. Mentions of abortion, infidelity, “swingers”, death of a parent, gaslighting, molestation

Between Us follows Roisin as she contemplates the demise of her 10-year relationship and the fact that her boyfriend may not be who she thought he was. But it’s also about their friend group and the impact their relationship has on the group dynamic.

Mhairi McFarlane does it again! There is no author who writes stories I enjoy and relate to as consistently as she does, and Between Us was no different. I will forever recommend her books.

Before you even realize it, you are halfway through the book … and loving it! I have always loved the characters that I meet when reading Mhairi’s books. They are so relatable and lovable in all their truth between the pages.

Between Us follows Roisin Walters, a school teacher, and her longtime partner Joe. Roisin and Joe head to a weekend getaway with a group of friends to watch the pilot of Joe's new screenwriting project. As they watch, Roisin realizes that Joe used a traumatic moment from her childhood in his show without consulting her about it. Their weekend soon turns into a mess and Roisin's reality continues to shift as each episode airs.

This wasn't the fluffy romance I was thinking it would be but Mhairi's writing is so compelling. I was gripped the entire time. She really highlights what it's like to live with a toxic person. The twists and turns were next level. I couldn't put it down.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Another amazing Mhairi McFarlane book!

Rosin starts to realize that her boyfriend Joe, has been using her private life for script for his television show.. Every week she watches her now ex’s show, to find out what other secrets of hers will be revealed. Needing to get away from all this, she returns home to help run the family pub, but now family drama follows. She’s worried about the friend group she shared with Joe and what her future will be like now. She finds comfort from someone she least expected in their friend group, Matt.

This is a such beautiful story about love, loss, and friendship. Mhairi McFarlane is one of my favorite authors and this book did not disappoint! Someone once said that her books are like a gift, and I couldn’t agree more. This was beautifully written. The characters were great and I loved watching their growth throughout the book. This book is witty, funny, and just overall wonderful!


📘: Between Us by Mhairi McFarlane
🗓️: August 8, 2023

Thank you to NetGalley, Mhairi McFarlane, and Avon and Harper Voyager for this ARC!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

*Reviewed on NetGalley and Goodreads.

DNF. Man. Mhairi McFarlane is hit or miss for me. I've enjoyed a couple of her books and others not so much. This was a not so much situation. I expected something more based on the synopsis and it just didn't deliver to me. The story was very slow and I found myself bored throughout it. I just didn't care much about the characters. I'm sure others would like it. It's just wasn't for me.

Thank you to Net Galley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The premise of Between Us had a lot of potential. At the start, we're introduced to Roisin and Joe, a long-term couple who share a tight-knit friend group. Joe, a writer, has recently written a television show that's been picked up. However, upon watching it, Roisin starts noticing a lot of really unsettling similarities between the characters and scenes depicted, leading her to realize that Joe might be hiding things from her.

All the while, we're given a lot of background information on each of their friends and the various dynamics that have formed between them. Roisin feels conflicted about digging into the inspiration behind Joe's television show, as it could very well disrupt the group.

At no point did I feel any real attachment to Roisin, Joe, or any of their friends. There was something about the writing style/dialogue that really didn't work for me. A large portion of the beginning felt tedious to read. My investment didn't really start picking up until the halfway mark and, even then, I was only loosely interested.

It would seem I'm in the minority on that (so take what I say with a grain of salt). If this were edited down a bit (and didn't ring in at 400+ pages), I may have enjoyed it more. As it was, it felt long-winded with very little payoff.

I chose this to read McFarlane for the first time and I do not regret it! The twists and friendships present in this book made it so enjoyable I didn't want to stop reading!

I have to say I’m a bit disappointed with this book, it really wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. I thought that it was going to be more about Roisin watching her boyfriend’s television show and finding out that he used all of these secrets against her… but the tv show doesn’t even first come up or happen until 1/3 of the book is already done.

The book felt like it dragged on and on and went in way too many directions for me. First it was about Roisin and Joe and the tv snow, but also here’s a background and information about all of her group of friends, and hey maybe her one friend Dev has a new spending addiction rather than a drug/alcohol problem, oh but Roisin is convinced Joe doesn’t love her, but also here’s her mom and she needs to go back home for a while… it was all over. It felt like it was many half thought of or half finished books instead of one book all together. I had to force myself to finish it once I got to the 2/3 done mark.

[author:Mhairi McFarlane] is one of those authors for me. As close to a must-read as I get – among the top, if not <i>the</i> top romance writer. As someone who reads hundreds of romances, but actually owns very few, it says rather a lot that I ordered her last book shipped from the UK because I couldn’t bear to wait the extra six months it would take before it came out in the US.

To say my expectations for [book:Between Us] were high would be a mild understatement.

It’s probably not a surprise, then, that it didn’t manage to meet those sky-high hopes. In part, I think, because it turns up to eleven what makes McFarlane’s books stand out from the crowd: While so many romances, even great ones, feel like they’re hitting particular trope-y beats, McFarlane’s somehow manage not to, while still being undeniably romances. If [book:Between Us] didn’t exactly break the letter of the law of the rules of romance, it felt like it bent the spirit of the law pretty far.

That is to say: [book:Between Us] is about the ending of a relationship (Roisin and Joe) much more than it really is about two people falling in love (Roisin and Matt). The latter love story – even though it’s the HEA and Matt is great and Matt and Roisin are great together – just isn’t as interesting (nor does it get as much air time) as the dissolution of Roisin and Joe’s 10-year relationship.

And how could it? Joe is a gaslighting sociopath whose success blinds most of the friend group he shares with Roisin from seeing his rather substantial flaws. He’s the writer of a wildly successful television series, in which he shows a barely disguised version of their friendships, his relationship, and his infidelity up on screen and then boldly denies any of it comes from reality. Matt is hot, sweet, rich, and the worst that can be said about him is maybe he’s commitment phobic. How can anything that happens with him possibly hold a candle?

Interesting there are two different covers that seem to indicate this book’s split personality: The UK one seems to show Roisin and Matt; the US one seems to show Roisin with <i>Joe</i>.

Like we’ve come to expect with McFarlane, the main couple(s) have off-the-charts chemistry, a riotously funny group of ride-or-die besties, unusual family backstories that color the MCs’ motivations (without making them full-on neuroses), and sharp, snappy prose. Maybe the problem is one of pacing – we needed to see shades of feelings developing between Roisin and Matt earlier. Any reader of romances knew to be on the lookout for their love story to develop; it created an odd sense of tension that we had to wait till more than halfway through for it to start.

[book:Between Us] by [author:Mhairi McFarlane]
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫 3.5 stars rounded up
🌶️ Roisin’s mom flirts with more heat than we see between the MC
🕵🏻‍♀️ Lots of detectiving!
🐈 Once again, I would die for Meatball
👩🏼‍⚖️ Justice for Meredith, the only friend not getting any
🗝️ McFarlane comes up with a whole new way for parents to traumatize their kids

<i>Thanks to NetGalley and Avon/HarperCollins for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Between Us is another great book from Mhairi McFarlane. When Roisin sees her fiance Joe's true colors following the premiere of the television show he wrote, she's faced with the difficult decision to either break things off or try and work it out with him. Her fear is that ending things with Joe will also alienate her from their mutual friend group. After she gets a call for help running the family business from her estranged mother, Roisin finds the strength she needs with help from another member of her friend group. She discovers that she can pick herself up and carry on without Joe, and that her friends will stick by her no matter what.

This book started off with promise, and I was looking forward to learning more about this group of 6 friends. It also seemed like there might be a bit of mystery to the plot. However, I was really disappointed in this book and it ended up taking me a long time to read, because I just wasn't interested.

Roisin is the main character, who starts to have doubts about her 10 year long relationship with Joe. During a weekend with their group of friends, they watch the premiere of his new show (he is a writer). Roisin notices far too many details from the episode that are similar to real life, including a family secret she only told Joe, and begins to wonder if the other details of the episode might be true too. Especially the part about the main character being in a long-term, committed relationship with his girlfriend, but is secretly a sex addict who has sex with strangers.

I really was curious at first about how it would all turn out, but honestly, I lost interest. I didn't really understand why Roisin and Joe had been together so long in the first place, and when she did finally discover he was cheating on her throughout their relationship, it felt kind of.....anticlimactic? And then suddenly, Roisin is in love with their friend Matt? And discovers he's had feelings for her for 10 years? It was just strange. And the whole story was pretty boring to me overall.

I gave this two stars because I really do like Mhairi McFarlane's writing, and I absolutely loved her book, If I Never Met You (a 5-star book for me). I will also still read more of McFarlane's books, but this one just didn't hold my interest and kind of fell flat.

Thank you to Avon, Harper Voyager, and Netgalley for this ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book.
3 lukewarm stars
I like this author so I'm disappointed I can't give a better review. This was very slow at first, really didn't pick up until more than 55%. I couldn't relate to any of the characters, and Joe in particular was mean and patronizing. I hope there are trigger warnings on the final copy for gaslighting - wow, it was rampant. Without spoiling, what happens with Roisin and another character was so fast and out of the blue, it didn't sit well with me, however I did like the very end of the book. Parts of it were very funny and the friendship among the 3 women was great. She's a wonderful writer, this one just wasn't for me.

I love Mhairi McFarlane and this book is no exception. I loved exploring the friend dynamics and did enjoy the slow burn romance. I did find the relationship transition to be a little quick after suffering years of gaslighting and manipulation. It's not my favorite of McFarlane's books but I will still recommend it to her fans,

I loved this one! I think many women can relate to the feelings of the MC even if they don't have a counterpart who is famous. Books where the characters are going through emotional personal discoveries always touch my heartstrings and reading this one was exactly what I needed. I'm excited to read more from the author based on this one.

Roisin and Joe have been dating for ten years and have a close knit group of friends from when they all met working at a bookstore. Roisin is a teacher and Joe at first, a struggling writer and now, very successful and sought after. His new TV series airs while at a weekend away with all the friends from the bookstore. The first episode shows an uncanny similarity to real life events, which shocks Roisin to her core and she begins to question her relationship and wonder if fiction and reality are one and the same.

I would classify Between Us as less romance and more women’s fiction. I struggled through the first half and almost DNF but stuck it out (but honestly it took me a month to finish). The pace and the intrigue got better in the second half and I finished it quickly once I got to about 60%. Joe and Roisin’s relationship is incredibly toxic and full of lies and gaslighting - but she truly didn’t see it coming. The story is a journey of friendship, self love, and finding one’s confidence. Without giving away the story, I have to admit I struggled to connect early on with the characters and the toxicity was unnerving. The end of a long relationship and the beginning of something new (love interest) was too fast for me and lacked depth. I’m surprised the title is being marketed as romance as there was very little of it. I did enjoy the side plot with Roisin’s mother and their relationship. I also struggled with the writing language, as I didn’t “get” a lot of the verbiage due to cultural differences. I do think a lot of readers will enjoy, especially if they’re familiar with McFarlane as the plot is unique and interesting. This was my first read and I’ve heard a lot of good reviews for her other books.

Read if you like:
🍸dysfunctional family
🍸women’s fiction
🍸self discovery
🍸found family
🍸redemption

Thank you to @netgalley, Mhairi McFarlane, @harpervoyagerus, and @avonbooks for the eARC. I received a complimentary e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.