Between Us
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Author: Mhairi McFarlane

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Avon Books and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: When Roisin and Joe join their friends for a weekend at a country house, it’s a triple celebration—a birthday, an engagement, and the launch of Joe’s shiny new TV show. But as the weekend unfolds, tensions come to light in the group and Roisin begins to question her own relationship. And as they watch the first episode of Joe’s drama, she realizes that the private things she told him—which should have stayed between them—are right there on the screen.

With her friend group in chaos and her messy love life on display for the whole world to see, Roisin returns home to avoid the unwanted attention and help run her family’s pub. But drama still follows, in the form of her dysfunctional family and the looming question: what other parts of her now-ex’s show are inspired by real events? Lies? Infidelity? Every week, as a new episode airs, she wonders what other secrets will be revealed.

Yet the most unexpected twist of all is Matt, the charming playboy of her friend group, who is suddenly there for Roisin in ways she never knew she needed…

My Thoughts: I had really high hopes for this book as a McFarlane lover but it fell a little flat for me. The following trigger warnings are gaslighting, toxic relationships, family dysfunction that trudges over into emotional toxicity. Roisin was so convinced of Joe’s love for her that she was blindsided when their innermost secrets ends up on the reality show he wrote the screenplay for. Feeling hurt and betrayed, she escapes home heading from one toxic group to her dysfunction family and through this, only one friend from the group, Matt, becomes more to her than she every could have realized. This follows the tropes of second chance romance, friends to lovers, small town, and a small amount of instalove flowing from toxicity into a potentially healthy relationship.

Most of the book was focused on Roisin’s toxic relationship and left little room for the second chance romance with Matt. I felt like Roisin jumped from Joe to Matt too quickly. I would liked to have seen more of a blooming, slower romance into Matt and some deep healing from Joe. Roisin was too invested into catching Joe in the act, even though they had already broken up. The complicated relationship between Roisin and her mother is one that I could appreciate. The first half was more slow with the second half being too fast, if that makes sense. The characters were developed well with complexities, witty banter, some chemistry, and were intriguing. The friendship group was heartwarming and even a little poignant at times. The author’s writing style was humorous, creative, charming, slightly poignant, and engaging. The author does a stellar job at exploring gaslighting and narcissism, and the effects it can have in a relationship. This book is more character driven than plot driven and contained subplots that were interesting.

While I do not feel this was up to typical McFarlane standard, it was still a good read. It is more chick lit than romance, but does have some romance within the pages. I will still read future McFarlane novels and would still recommend this book to readers, as I believe it will resonate with readers in more ways than one.

Great drama and love! The characters were great! I definitely will want to try another book from this author

Between Us by Mhairi McFarlane is another good read from this author but not my favorite. I liked the plot and the detective work and the humor and the emotional vulnerability and the various characters. I'm usually laughing throughout this authors books but this one felt a little darker and didn't catch my attention as much. However, I will still continue to read anything this author writes!

Mhairi consistently delivers books with complex characters and so much heart. I hoped I knew where this one was going and I was so pleased with how the story played out.

Roisin and Joe join their long-time friends for a celebratory weekend getaway - a birthday, an engagement, and the premiere of Joe’s new tv show. Roisin doesn’t expect to see things she shared in confidence playing out on the big screen and begins to wonder how much of the main character’s philandering is based in reality. She begins to call the last decade of her life into question as she seeks out answers.

Roisin is such a great character. I really loved the side plots with her family, and I was so here for her journey. Mhairi made her such an empathetic character, and I appreciate how much time we spent with her during her growth.

I loooooved this book, and I need to read more of Mhairi’s backlist ASAP.

Thank you to @avonbooks for an eARC. All thoughts are my own.

Roisin and her boyfriend Joe are spending a weekend with their closest friends, The Brian Club. Joe’s writing career is taking off and they plan to watch the first episode of a new series he’s written on the last night of their stay. Roisin is already questioning their long-term relationship when she finds he’s written an extremely personal anecdote into the show.

I had a harder time than normal translating all the British slang and spent a lot of time looking up words. I was feeling lost for the first third of this book, then suddenly, I’m sucked in and loving it. Joe is the ultimate gaslighting jerk, and you really wonder what Roisin ever saw in him. The rest of The Brian Club was endearing. I loved watching Roisin put together all the clues of what Joe had been up to during their ten years together. Loved Matt and I wish he’d been a bigger part of the book. But the real focus of the book was Roisin having the courage to make the right choice and speak up for what she wanted. It's so nice to read a realistic female MC with spunk and brains.

Roisin and her boyfriend, Joe, have a group of friends that have been friendly for over a decade. Their relationship together has been going for almost as long. But when TV writer Joe's new show airs, Roisin finds some eerie similarities between his characters and their friends, and when it ends with the Joe-like character starting a liason with a random person, and making comments about how cheating isn't really a big deal, Roisin starts down a path of concern and investigation. Their split leads to a lot of things coming out from their friends, and a lot of all new questions.

This book was... not great. I almost DNFed the whole thing about 10 different times. The first two thirds of the book was just a slog that took me nearly two weeks to handle, and the last quarter actually led to the only interesting parts of the book.

The author spends SO MUCH TIME talking about past times, and flashing back to parts of Roisin's chats over the last decade with Joe that eventually lead her to her suspicions, it's just dismal all the way through. There were no true "gotcha" moments that felt triumphant, like you're proud of her for finding the right bits of truth. I will say that the last quarter of the book was okay. There were a few things that Roisin figured out that were a surprise and well plotted. But getting TO those parts was just rough.

In the same way that Joe was able to twist a story and make you feel like it'll all be better now, I kept coming back to this book because I felt like I had no choice but to finish. Full disclosure: I had accidentally hit the "review" button for this book instead of another, and posted that review here, so I felt like I needed to give this one a full chance. But it was an absolute hardship, and while I thought it would be an interesting story, I had a REALLY tough time with it.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley in return for sharing my thoughts on this book. Thanks to the author and publisher for this opportunity!

Thanks so much to Mhairi McFarlane and Avon and Harper Voyager for the free ARC.

This was a great quick cute and easy read. Would definitely recommend to anyone. Definitely looking to read more of her work soon!

I've enjoyed previous books by the author and I thought I'd have a similar experience with this one when I read the blurb and requested it (even after I started reading it) - and there were elements here that I thought were done well, especially the friends group and their dynamic as a group as well as between the different members (always a Mhairi McFarlane strength). Where this book failed to capture my interest was in taking on too much so that most narrative threads received shallower treatment than I would expect in a book by this author. The pacing was all over the place, too. I was disappointed because I thought there was a minimum of at least three independent stories here that should have had their own books, instead of being rushed through in one. You might feel differently, so I'd still recommend you checking this out.

During a weekend at a country house with friends who met years ago while they were all working at Waterstones bookstore, Roisin finds it hard to ignore the growing cracks in her relationship with Joe. As they are all watching the first episode of Joe’s new TV show, Roisin realizes two things: 1) Joe has used something private that she shared with him about her family as a plot device, and 2) the cheating, womanizing main character of the show may be based on Joe himself. As Roisin deals with possible gaslighting from the man she thought she knew best, she starts to question everything that she thought was real.

I did not love this novel. It’s hard for me to pinpoint why, but I think it comes down to the characters. I just didn’t really like any of them. As a friend group, they didn’t have much in common except for having worked together once years ago, so it seemed like they were trying to keep something alive that should have already died a natural death. Things moved very slowly in the first half the novel, but Roisin’s second chance at love in the second half felt very rushed. It was all just ok for me.

Recommended as an optional purchase for adults. Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The weekend was supposed to be filled with celebration with beloved friends. It may have started that way, but quickly has Roisin questioning everything. The story encompasses so many emotions and has Roisin questioning everything as the weekend unfolds. Who and what can she trust? Great characters who are fully developed, real issues explored in realistic ways, not overly emotional, some humor peppered in, while she trying to Roisin is trying to figure out how to metabolize what she feels is a complete and total betrayal of her trust. I sat down to read it and didn’t come up for air for hours.

I enjoy all of Mhairi McFarlane's books and I enjoyed this one too.

Our heroine is a lovely young woman named Roisin. When we first meet Roisin, she has a circle of mostly lovely friends and a not so lovely boyfriend, Joe.

I can't imagine how this could be a spoiler but you have been warned. I HATED Joe. If a hemorrhoid could grow legs and convince you it was a "super nice guy," its name would be Joe. Seriously. I did not like Joe.

I found this book a little painful. At some points of the book, it was difficult to walk along side Roisin as she discovered the inconsistencies in what she believed her life with Joe was and what it actually was. In some ways, these discoveries reminded me of documentaries I've seen about people in cults. The reality they swallowed was not, in fact, actually reality. Not everyone is trustworthy and some people should be surgically carved from your life as quickly as possible.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Romances that can be a little bit gritty but still have a HEA.

A contemplative look at the end of a relationship and the messy details of understanding oneself and others.

I’ve had Mhairi McFarlane on my radar for a while as fans really bring the hype so I was disappointed that this fell flat. Now that I’ve finished and am reading reviews, it seems to be a common factor even amongst the die-hard readers.

The pacing really just didn’t flow well for me. It’s an incredibly slow moving read and while it does pick up, it takes a significant amount of time to feel invested (roughly 60% in). It’s hard to really conceptualize my thoughts on the book as I feel I forgot most just as I finished. The storyline premise is so intriguing and I want to like the characters but second-chance just isn’t my vibe. Miscommunication or lack of is almost always the driving force behind the break up originally.

The topic and themes of narcissism and gaslighting are important throughout the book and ones that should hold light in our reads however I didn’t feel that it was fully fleshed out. While a read I had moments of enjoyment, this just didn’t hold my attention like I had hoped.

I really liked this book. Unlike some of the reviews I've seen, I didn't see the romance coming out of nowhere, I pegged it from the beginning. I really enjoyed Roisin's character. I didn't like Joe at all, he felt slimy from the beginning. I loved Matt though. I felt their friends to lovers was very gradual and realistic.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Going into a Mhairi McFarlane novel I always have to remind myself that her books are more women's fiction and less romance (even though she's marketed/shelved under romance). This story is all about Roisin's (Ro-sheen) journey as she comes to terms with the troubling relationships in her life.

Roisin and Joe have been together for ten years. Joe is a screenwriter who's the subject of some serious buzz in the industry. When the first episode of his newest television show airs Roisin sees the private things she's told him come to light on-screen. To say she feels betrayed is an understatement. Add to that the central character is way too much like Joe which has Roisin questioning other parts of the show. Is the main character's infidelity based on fact or is it fiction?

While McFarlane's novels seem to start off slow it's worth persevering. About a quarter of the way through it became clear that the history of Joe, Roisin and their friend group needed to be established before the tension hit and from that point on it didn't let up. I was so invested in Roisin trying to suss out what Joe was up to that I couldn't put the book down. As always, there is a deeper story, and Roisin's journey had me wanting to ride shotgun as she strived for the truth in her family, friend and romantic relationships.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed reading this book. It was an interesting story. I liked the different friendships between the friend group.

I love Mhairi Mcfarlane books and this was another great one. It moved a little slow at times but when Nate and Rosie’s story began, it picked up for me. Lots of toxic relationship drama and confronting family issues. Not my favorite of the authors novels, but a solid 4 stars.

Between Us by Mhairi McFarlane is book is about relationships and how they grow and change over the years. I enjoyed how the story unfolded and the growth of the main character Roisin. The very essence of a Mhairi McFarlane book is that as the characters begin to grow and understand who they are, they are reminded that there is no magical age at which someone has everything together. There is growth well into your 30s and beyond, and that the relationship between family and friends are what is most important.

A well written enjoyable romance with likeable characters - all around a win. McFarlane had me smiling and enjoying this read which was super easy to get through.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon Books, and Mhairi McFarlane for providing me with an eARC this book. This is my honest review.
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I've been wanting to give Mhairi McFarlane's books a shot for a while now. I've heard great thing about her other work, so I thought Between Us would be the perfect opportunity to see for myself. Sadly this book just didn't pan out for me.
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I don't even know how many times I put this book down while reading it. Each time I went to DNF it, I convinced myself to keep reading in hopes that something would change. I think the issue for me was the pacing. I'm not opposed to a leisurely-paced book, but it felt like someone hit a slow-mo button for me. Upon its release, I tried switching to audiobook in hopes that ebooks and I just weren't agreeing at the time. After my fifth "let me rewind it because I may or may have not zoned out," I switched back to the ebook version and kept on trucking. I actually did find the characters compelling. But by the time things were set in motion and picking up speed, I think I had just checked out of this book mentally.
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I would like to give another Mhairi McFarlane book a shot in the future. Maybe I just wasn't in the headspace for this one in particular? I don't know. I know for certain it wasn't for me this time around, but maybe it'll be for you!
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Between Us is available for purchase in ebook, paperback, and audiobook format.