This was my first book by Mahairi McFarlane, therefore, I'm unsure what her other books are like but I had a good enough time reading this one that I'd consider reading more.

Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of 3rd POV – unless it's like intense epic fantasy – which made getting into the story and connecting with these characters somewhat hard. It took me almost 3 times coming back to this book for me to really get into it but once the plot picked up I did enjoy it enough to finish. The characters were likable but no one really stood out to me so most of them feel at arm's length (again, this could be the 3rd POV). This was most evident when points of the tension began boiling over, especially (SPOILER) when Roisin broke up with Joe during which time things felt less emotional than I'd have thought. Don't get me wrong, I was rooting for her to cut this man off but I didn't feel as in it as I thought I would have.

Overall, I enjoyed it enough that it was more of a 3.5 read than a 3!

I had a hard time connecting with this book. The characters just weren’t what I really wanted them to be. I just couldn’t get into the story because of this. I’ve been joyed a bunch of her other books, and this one just left me disappointed.

Review in progress and to come.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I'm a huge fan of Mhairi McFarlane, so I was really grateful to receive an ARC of this book.

There's a lot to unpack in this novel which is themed about "between us" -- secrets that friends and lovers keep from each other and how they impact one another in sometimes very destructive ways. This is the story of seven friends who are known as the Brian Club (an inside joke). As the friends share a weekend to celebrate an engagement, a birthday, their ten year friendshipversary, and the debut of one of the friend's new tv series, tensions arise. Money and class play a part in the group tensions as some friends have endless money and others work normal jobs. As the weekend plays out, some secrets are revealed -- who in the group has had long term crushes on each other, as well as cracks in the foundations of solid relationships. The real focus is on Roisin and Joe who seem to have everything they should ever want, that is until Joe's new show begins to make Roisin doubt how well she really knows her partner and whether art might be closer to imitating real life than she would have thought.

This story started out a little slow for me, but being a fan I trusted the author and powered through and several chapters in I was genuinely hooked. There was recurring a theme of "It was slow but fast at the end." The way people die, the ends of relationships, the beginning of new ones. I really loved the way this theme kept popping up throughout.

SPOILER ALERTS: While the writing was engaging and I couldn't stop reading, there were times that I thought it was little drawn out and long. Roisin could have been a bit more emotional at the break up with Joe (she did end a ten year relationship and even if he was a total pathological idiot there must have been a reason that she fell in love with him -- even if it was based on manipulation -- and I didn't really feel any emotion or grieving from her walking away). I also felt the feelings for Matt were rather sudden but I bought into the whole theme of it was slow but fast at the end. There was a really well developed tension that always existed between Joe and Matt which worked well and fed into this idea that Matt always secretly loved her.

I genuinely enjoyed reading this novel.

I've enjoyed previous books from this author, but this one I kept putting down and having to convince myself to pick back up. The characters weren't engaging for me

I truly enjoyed this story and the exploration of love and friendship. Mhairi McFarlane never disappoints! I read this in about a day, unable to put it down. I love the ensemble cast and could easily see this in film or series form.

I will always love the quick wit McFarlane incorporates into her writing. I also love how she builds worlds for her protagonists outside of the interactions they have with their love interests. They work, have friends, have personalities, and activities outside of pining over someone - and to me that makes a romance fun... mundane moments that build up to the excitement of developing a crush on someone, or realizing someone else likes you. BUT with that being said, sometimes you still gotta sprinkle in those "butterflies" moments a little earlier in the story. However, I felt like some chemistry and buildup was missing between Roisin and Matt to make their ultimate relationship exciting. The expository writing with the dialog was also a bit too lengthy for my liking. The setup was perfect...we immediately know who not to like, but I think there was a disproportionate amount of time spent on the bad relationship instead of the new one.

I want to thank avon and netgalley for this amazing arc.

Now that I have set the expectation, let me say this was a wonderful setup and a uniquely different story to her precious works. It was nearest in plot to the flatshare in regards to the gaslighting.

Roisin and Joe are dating and things aren't looking good because Joe has recently become famous and has no time for her.
They end up going to a weekend party with their 4 friends including Matt whom Joe despises.

Things happen, words are spoken and everything is a mess at the end of the trip.
Roisin sees Joe's new TV series and starts to wonder if their fraying relationship is being played out on national tele.

What follows is her desperate attempt to piece hers and Joe's past with Matt's help and in the process falling in love with him.

While whatever Matt felt made sense, it didn't for Roisin. I think more time was needed to be invested for their relationship.
This was my only pet peeve in an otherwise excellent book.

⭐4/5
🌶️ just kissing

🙏 Thank you to Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for an e-ARC of Between Us in exchange for an honest review.

🎯 What I loved: Between Us was a complex book about friendship, fidelity, unrequited love and the bonds that tether us to each other. Anchored by a deep friendship between three girls and three guys, the book explores loyalty when love gets in the way. At times, it felt like I was reading three different genres: romance, contemporary fiction and mystery- tied together with just enough suspense that I couldn't put it down. This reminded me a little bit of a British version of Friends- but with more cheating and fewer one-liners.

I was intrigued by Roisin's conundrum and her recon efforts to figure out what parts of Joe's show reflected real life while simultaneously appalled at Joe and the way he could twist anyone's words in support of his goals. I also liked the dialogue between Roisin and Matt- it felt like their conversations actually had depth and I could genuinely feel their connection grow throughout the book.

🙅‍♀️ What I didn't: I was definitely confused about what was happening the first quarter of the book. I couldn't figure out the significance of everyone convening in the countryside and there were a lot of conversations that didn't seem to have any connection to the plot. Once they watched the first episode of Hunter, I started connecting the dots and liked the rest of the book, but it did take me a while to get into it. And a caution to anyone who, like me, isn't overly familiar with British slang: you may want to take this one slow. I had to look up a lot of words/slang that I hadn't been previously exposed but started getting it towards the end.
◾
Read if you love:
*friends to lovers
*unrequited love
*friend groups with a scandal, love and lots of inside jokes
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See also: Adelaide; The Two Lives of Lydia Byrd; Beautiful World, Where are You?

Mhairi McFarlane can do no wrong. It’s facts. She is perfect. Periodt. But on that note, I do have comments 😂

I was surprised that it took the whole first 3rd of the book to get to the main plot point mentioned in the blurb, and in that time we only covered about 2 days - but this didn’t bother me and I liked things being in depth. The bulk of the story is about Roisin coming to terms with the fact that her longtime boyfriend isn’t who she always thought, and he’s actually been treating her horribly for years. I thought all of this was done really well and it felt ✨complete✨ by the end. I also thought it was a pretty brilliant concept, having a writer boyfriend seemingly revealing all of his horrible secrets in a tv show he’s written, but denying that any of it is based on reality - this would be a great concept for more of a thriller too with actual murder and such involved. (Also every little moment of Joe made me so angry, I don’t know how she stuck with him for so long, major transgressions aside. Like if a partner treated me the way he-)

On the other hand!! I felt like some of the other side stories didn’t get enough time. I cared about all of the characters and didn’t want things glossed over. For instance, is Dev doing okay with his possible addiction to overspending? There was sort of a “light happy ending” without it really being addressed. And then I felt like Roisin’s relationship with her mother deserved more time - it all came to a head with a sudden medical emergency and epiphanies were had, but I would have liked them to have more time to talk and perhaps become closer.

I also have some complaints about the new love interest, Matt. He is such a good, sweet person, but I feel like everything we learn about him and his backstory and how he operates and how he feels about himself, just made him pretty tragic. I felt more annoyed than sympathetic. I wanted him to have more of a sense of himself and his self worth, more confidence. He just kind of lets outside situations dictate how he feels about himself and is so often just like, “well, I’ll go remove myself and hide myself away, I am always the problem,” like NO! I thought Roisin was more of the heroic character in the sense that she trusted herself and stood up for herself. I wish there had been more of that in Matt.

I’m also glad that Roisin’s suspicions about Joe were justified - it would’ve been an awful ride if we had gone along with all of her intuitions and gut feelings only for it to have led to nothing.

I do feel like some plot lines were a bit predictable and I could see where things were going. I also felt like some things were rushed towards the end, and put in more to keep us on the emotional rollercoaster of the ups and downs and keep us engaged, which I don’t think was necessary or done particularly well. I feel like the book could’ve been longer and different things could have been fleshed out so it wasn’t just big plot points left and right.

There was definitely also an element of the insta love with Roisin’s feelings for Matt, but I didn’t mind it as much since they had been friends for 10 years. There was already love there, she had just been in a relationship with someone else the whole time so it took her a minute to realize there was something ~more.~

I also feel like certain aspects of Mhairi’s writing is getting a bit repetitive in terms of topics and themes - for instance, both this book and her last (I think?) involved girls banding together, discussing how certain men have done them wrong, and then essentially getting justice. That’s all well and good, I just found myself being like. Oh, we’re here again?

This book wasn’t quite as much of a laugh riot as Mhairi’s tend to be but there was still lots of humor, and I just love the way she writes, the things her mind comes up with, and how intelligent she is and how she doesn’t dumb anything down for the reader. I spend so much time looking up different words and references that I’m not familiar with and I LOVE IT! I love her cleverness. It really makes the whole book, I haven’t found any other writers who can compare. (Although I’ll gladly take recommendations because I only have one of Mhairi’s earlier books to read and then I’ve read all of them!!)

This feels like a Coleen Hoover book if the writing was better, more mature, and with UK slang.

Overall I really did enjoy this book, and I loved the protagonist Roisen. I thought she was a very mature and well-rounded character, and all her actions and dialogue felt very right and not pushed. (I tend to have issues with romance books where the main character feels too childish with their actions, but this book had none of those issues.) It was just generally a very good main character to follow, and I have zero complaints about her.

This book is in one of those gray areas of the romance genre, where it's not the classic romance about a girl falling in love (though this book did have that towards the end). Rather it was more about her falling out of it, and recovering and getting over a toxic relationship. Along with the whole fun journey of uncovering the lies left behind. I say this is a tough area because for some it's not considered a romance, though I do count it. So I would better describe this as a fiction book or women's fiction book, compared to romance.

The only issue I had with this was the romance plot right at the end of the book because it sadly just did feel a little too sudden for my taste. Yes it was a slow drawl out to start it off, but the issue is then it just crashed into a full-blown, "I'm in love." I just wish it had been a bit more of a slow rise rather than slow steps into love, compared to slow steps with a giant splash before it really felt ready.

Overall though, a very strong book that was heavily enjoyable to read and experience.

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the ARC!

Mhairi McFarlane is an author I've enjoyed several books by, this one included, although I found myself wanting just a bit more. It's well-written and engaging, something McFarlane always succeeds at. I understand in the first half we're just getting to know the characters and their dynamics, but the beginning is quite slow. I liked Roisin and felt for her, and I despised Joe because I've unfortunately known a few people like him. McFarlane did a fantastic job of describing emotional abuse and gaslighting.

I will say the romance felt a bit rushed. While I enjoyed it, I still wanted a little more sexual tension and build up. Matt was an interesting character, and I wanted more of him and Roisin interacting.

I read this over two days because it pulled me right in and didn’t let go.

I haven't read many books by the author but I enjoy her ability to weave a story as well as craft a buildup to all the good that happens at the end. A lot of reveals among strong characters - yeah, this one was a really enjoyable and satisfying read.

Recommended.


Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the DRC!

This new novel by Mhairi McFarlane deals with infidelity and manipulative bastards. I don’t know if I didn’t love it as much as I loved her previous books because, sadly, I could relate, or because it wasn’t as funny as McFarlane knows how to be. It also tended to focus for a bit too long on that dysfunctional couple. Don’t put words in my mouth, I loved it and it’s brilliant, but it’s not her best work. I will be looking forward to next year and the next and keep reading her stories as the aficionado that I am.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyage for the early galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available to me.

The last 25% of this book easily makes this book worth reading. No matter how this book is marketed to the masses, it's not not so much a romance as it is a story of self discovery: a woman realizing that she's been gaslit (gaslighted? gaslightened? gaslittered?) by her partner for years, and how that realization ends up changing her relationships with her close friends and family. While some of the supporting characters could have been fleshed out a bit more, I felt the book was just the right length for the story being told, and it was wrapped up very nicely in the end.

I had higher expectations for this book as a devoted fan of Mhairi McFarlane, but don't get me wrong, I still devoured it and enjoyed her brilliant writing style. This book delves into gaslighting, exploring dysfunctional and manipulative relationship patterns that blend into emotionally consuming family dynamics.

The only thing that bugged me was that most of the book revolves around the unhealthy relationship of the heroine, who finds herself deceived by the illusion of their love life, leaving little time for her second chance romance. Indeed, her blooming romance with another man after getting rid of her toxic ex is too instant for my liking.

If you're looking for a book that explores healing after a toxic relationship and confronts family issues that revolve around self-growth and women's fiction themes, rather than lighthearted romance, then this book would suit your needs.

While I wished for more spicy romance parts, the author's brilliant mind charmed me enough to round up my rating from 3.5 stars to 4! I never dare to give any of her works less than 4 stars.

Here's the brief logline:

Rosie and Joe met while working at Waterstones, a British bookstore chain, a few years ago. After finding a job as a teacher, Rosie supported Joe to pursue his writing dreams for years. He finally makes his big break when his screenplay gets a green light from Hollywood producers. The TV series he's created has resemblances to GOT but with a better ending (I wish!). Rosie cannot believe their life's trajectory changes with this imminent success. They decide to celebrate both Rosie's birthday and their friends' engagement party by getting together with their longtime friendship group to watch the pilot together. But when Rosie starts watching her boyfriend's precious work, he realizes he wrote about them. She feels like she's punched in the face when her secret, which she only shared with Joe, is revealed on the episode, and this is not the only bomb he threw on her lap. The leading guy of the story is a liar and cheater, and even the supporting characters are carbon copies of their common friends.

Has she been gaslighted by a man who has been cheating and lying to her for years without giving away his second nature?

So far, the book has not bored me, even though spending so much time with the ex-drama is frustrating. I wished Nate and Rosie's romance took up more of the book, and I prefer more intimate, slow-burn romances to instant love stories.

At least I easily got into the story, enjoying the friendship drama, self-growth, and second chances theme.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Avon, and Harper Voyager for sharing this lovely book's digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Mhairi McFarlane has become one of my favorite authors. She writes character driven romance with lots of supporting cast members, and I always enjoy the ride she takes me on.

Mhairi McFarlane is an auto buy author for me and i was SO excited to see a new title from her! The pacing of this started a little bit slow but I stuck with it and Im glad. It picked up in the second half and I just adored the way this played out!!

As a fan of McFarlane I know her books don't truly start until about half way through, and even with that in mind, this book is still bizarrely slow. The romance is the most rushed and least convincing of her work. In general I don't think she writes with the depth needed to pull off such pacing. But I still enjoyed the book! Funny and filled with love, I'll keep reading McFarlane's work for as long as I live.

I love Mhairi McFarlane's writing style, and I think I'll always pick up her books for that reason, but with this one, I picked up on some flaws more than I had before. The first half of the book, when the friends are on holiday together, felt very tight and I could see where the story was going, but then the plot sort of falls apart after the holiday. I can't stand unnecessary characters who barely have their own plot, and all of the other friends very much felt that way after the story's first half. I didn't buy the chemistry between Roisin and Matt and thought that she put up with Joe's horribleness way too easily. On a less important note, including so many chapter breaks mid-scene was so silly and jarring.