Eve, Justin, Susie, and Ed have been friends since they were teenagers. Eve has been secretly in love with Ed for years, and at one time, he loved her too. When tragedy strikes and one friend in the group dies, Eve has to deal with the secrets she finds and figure out what she wants out of life.

This was an amazing story. I could really feel the emotions that Eve was experiencing and the heartache she felt from losing a friend and finding out that that friend isn’t who she thought they were. Having to accept that the people you love aren’t perfect and can sometimes hurt you is very rough. I could empathize with Eve. The writing was very engaging and the story flew by.

I really like how this story ended. There was true reflection on how certain actions affected people and that’s really refreshing to read. The one thing that didn’t really work for me was the romance. I felt that these characters had strong feelings for one another, but it seemed so rushed. All in all a great story!

At age 34, Eve finds herself doubting many of her life decisions. She is trapped in a perpetual state of unrequited love for someone completely unavailable, she is in a job that she finds less than satisfying, and she is uncertain as to whether or not her Goth look, which was once so hip and cool is aging as well as she hopes. The only thing in Eve's life that she cherishes without question is her relationship with her tight circle of friends, Justin, Ed and Susie. After the unexpected death of one of these best friends, Eve finds herself lost in grief. When she accidentally stumbles upon a long kept secret, she finds herself questioning even the relationships she has long held so dear.
I had a bit of a hard time beginning this one, because I am a fan of McFarlane, and I know that once her writing pulls me in, I am unlikely to put the book down until I have finished every word. True to form, this is what happened. Now I am upset because I've finished the book and I wish there was more to read! There were so many elements to this novel: the backstory of Eve and Ed, the betrayal that was revealed, the conflict between Eve and Finlay, and the overarching story of grief and loss; yet it all came together in such a touching and meaningful way. It's no wonder I was hooked.
The novel is set in the UK, so just as with McFarlane's other novels there are some phrases and pop culture references that might go over the heads of American readers, but this in no way detracts from the story. The reason McFarlane's books resonate (at least with me) is because she knows just how to get to the heart of a situation. The feelings and emotions of her characters and the decisions they make ring true because we understand, we can relate. Eve is such a witty, clever, likable character. I appreciated the fact that even though the main theme of the book his dealing with grief, McFarlane never allows Eve to venture too far into self-pitying despair. There is always a glimmer of hope and optimism in Eve, which made her all the more likeable. This is possibly my favorite Mhairi McFarlane novel yet.

This book was a delight. JUST LAST NIGHT covers heavy topics - ones of grief, loss, identity, friendship, bothersome what-ifs and regrets - with grace and a refreshing lightness. Eve's story felt real and compelling on ever level. The dialogue was believable, hilarious, heart-breaking, and charming. JUST LAST NIGHT surprised me many a time and I flew through this book, so eager to see what would happen to dear, lovable, cynical, lovely Eve and her friends. I already miss these characters and will likely re-read this truly wonderful story, and more of McFarlane's work.

I highly recommend JUST LAST NIGHT for fans of Josie Silver, Emily Henry, or Rebecca Serle - or anyone eager to get swept up in a story about love, loss, family, friendship, growth and all the messiness that comes along the way.

I kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

6 stars, if it was possible.

This is the type of romance/quick read story that I love. Witty and cute with dialogue that is more than whining about a wonderful boy from the past.

Notice how a lot of reviews don't give away much about the story? There's a good reason for that-- open this one up and go along with the ride. MC 34-year old Goth girl, Eve, is everything I would want to be if I was the main character of a romance novel. She's smart, sarcastic, loyal, and loves cats.

Heart-wrenching grief is not something I typically associate with romance- although I suppose that a fair share of the romance books I've read recently are about rejection, death of a spouse/boyfriend/dog/what have you-- but Mhairi McFarlane's writing is memorable and her voice is very different from other romance authors that add grief as a plot device. I had to stop to re-read some beautiful quotes about life and love, highlighting sentences for what I hope will someday be a 2nd time read. This is my third book by her, and it has become my favorite.

Thank you Netgalley and William Morrow Paperbacks for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. And thank you Mhairi McFarlane for making me fall in love every time I read your stories!

Unfortunately I’ll be unable to review this book. I only got halfway through the first chapter when I knew this book was not for me. The authors writing style was not one I enjoyed and, I knew almost immediately that I would be unable to read this book and enjoy it.

I really enjoyed this book. Like other Mhairi McFarlane books it deals with parts of life we often gloss over or don't want to discuss, basically all the mess. This one deals with grief, loss, friendship, and how much you really know a person. While this isn't a light read, it also isn't so deep or heavy that it leaves you feeling mentally wrought in the end.

Well, I didn't see this heart-wrencher coming! 4.5 stars!

Just Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane is not your average fluffy romance - this story is more about loss, grief, friendships, secrets, and forgiveness. The romance aspect definitely takes a secondary role of self-discovery and truth instead of lust and immediacy.

If you know me, you know I'm picky about stories that deal with grief. Don't give me something glossed over, I want the whole real/raw/vulnerable thing. This is definitely it. I loved this book, from start to finish. This beautiful story unfolds around the constancy of friendship, and opens questions about secrecy, neglect, and abuse. Great characters, with complex emotions and witty banter to offset shared tragedy. I can't recommend it enough - and bring tissues!

CW: Unexpected death, abuse, absent parent

{Thanks to William Morrow and Custom House for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.}

In Just Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane, Eve has been in love with her friend Ed forever — and he has no idea, as far as she knows. But when he gets engaged to his long-time girlfriend and her very best friend’s secrets are suddenly revealed, Eve’s life seems to be crumbling around her and it may be more than she can handle. (TW: death, physical domestic/child abuse, affairs)

Wow, okay, so I was not sure I was going to like this one based on the prologue and first few chapters, because it seemed like unrequited love gone wrong, but damn it hooked me! There are two impeccably done twists that I had completely not anticipated and were absolute game-changers as far as my enjoyment of the overall book.

I totally couldn’t predict the plot’s progress and that’s so enjoyable for a romance, since many of them are formulaic. It is, I think, a little purposefully mis-marketed since the little blurb didn’t really prepare me at all for what I was getting — but thankfully, I enjoyed what I got much more!

There is a lot of grief in this book, so there are some heavy moments to handle in between the funner bits, especially when dealing with the (spoiler alert!) death aspect of the book. The complexities of friendship and romantic love presented between Eve and her friends remind me a bit of The Holiday, when Kate Winslet is pining and then finally manages to get her head out of her arse.

Overall, I just liked it! It made me grin and I wanted to read it, which given my recent reading slump is truly high praise. I’d recommend this one if you are looking for a slightly sardonic and heavier romance read! It’s out in early May — thanks @netgalley for the e-ARC!

this feels more like women's fiction than romance. She has a distinctive writing style that was hard for me to get into. This book took longer for me to get into. I will warn you there is some past abuse by a parent and sudden death, The main female character undervalues her and the main interest is a bad boy. This is friends to "lovers" and not really the typical romance story if you are looking for this. This book has tactful discussions about grief and loss.

Eve, Justin, Susie, and Ed have been inseparable since high school. Eve has been in love with Ed since the end of high school and that has directed a lot of her adult life. Everything changes in one instant. From that moment on, Eve isn't sure what to believe as secrets from the past are dredged up. It all takes an unexpected turn when someone from her past shows up to make her stand up for herself.

I loved this book. From the beginning to the end, the story unfolds in such a beautiful way. You never really know what's going to happen next, but you are along for the ride and ready for the next turn. This story about friendship and love will pull at your heart strings and make you glad you read this masterpiece.

Eve, Susie, Justin, and Ed have been best friends since sixth form. Eve and Susie go back even further. Now in their mid-30s, they are still as close as ever: losing at trivia together every week, sharing secrets, and supporting each other through everything life throws at them. Of course, they don’t share all their secrets - Eve has been in love with Ed for sixteen years, but Ed has had a long-term girlfriend, Hester, for nearly that same length of time. But to avoid friendship complications, life simply continues as normal. At least until just last night, when a tragedy suddenly upends everything they know.
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I wasn’t even halfway through reading when I knew I wanted to read this book again. My favorite part about McFarlane’s books has always been the focus on strong friendships. May we all find ourselves so lucky as to have friends like those in a Mhairi novel. I have found in other of her books that she reveals the importance of friendship as the plots progress, but in Just Last Night, we understand from the beginning that these friends are truly Found Family. When faced with insurmountable tragedy, each supporting character shines through as an individual, balancing Eve as the narrator. They are down-to-earth, with realistic flaws that make them eminently relatable; even when you see something distasteful in Eve, Susie, Justin, Ed, Hester, Finlay, or someone’s parents, it’s likely because you recognize traits from your own friends and family. As Eve says “there’s no rule that says the unavailable person you waste your life being in love with has to be the greatest human you ever met.”
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And what a profound way to address grief. Throughout the novel I felt sad, angry, upset at the universe (well, their universe, I guess, but it could be ours, too), and yet those emotions balanced with brevity, humor, and Eve’s wholly realistic stubbornness to cling to the past kept me turning pages. The fact that this book builds towards stronger friendships and a sweet, mature relationship is what is going to have me returning to it as a favorite in the future. 4.5 stars on my first readthrough, but I have a feeling this one will grow with me as I reread it.

Book Review: Just Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane

Rating: 4.5/5
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Adult Fiction, British Literature
Warnings: Unexpected death, abuse, absent parent
Read if you like: In Five Years


Review: Have you ever read a book and think you know what is going to happen but it goes in a totally different direction and it’s perfect? Yeah, this is that book. Just Last Night was heartwarming, gut-wrenching and oh so perfect to read on a Sunday afternoon.

McFarlane did an amazing job navigating hard things; grief of unexpected loss, adult friendships, abuse, family disputes, the lies we tell ourselves and love. This book might be qualified as a romance novel but it’s so much more, it’s a life novel than ends in some perfectly imperfect love.

Eve is a quirky thirty-something with a group of life long friends; Susie, Ed and Justin. Eve (and kind of Ed) have secretly, not so secretly been in love with each other forever but Ed has a longtime girlfriend/fiancé, Hester. Tragedy strikes the group, which leads Eve + the group to question all they thought they knew. Eve finds an unlikely alley in her journey, could a love story start in a single moment?

The dialogue is so wonderful, some amazing witty moments and the ability to be ironic in times of sadness (aka relatable to how we are in real life) is just what I needed. I can’t wait for people to read this book when it comes out on May 4th!

Thank you NetGalley for providing this ARC for my honest opinion.

#JustLastNight #NetGalley

Wow. I’ve read a few of Mhairi’s other books and really enjoyed the lighter romances, but Just Last Night was so wonderfully different, setting the romance as more of an undertone and taking a bit of a darker focus on grief, recovery, self-discovery, and discernment.

Every character is real, raw, and authentic, putting in work on their relationships, figuring out what they want from life, and owning who they are. They’re also charming and funny even as they navigate a major loss. I truly felt like I was a pet of this friend group throughout the book. Although this story is focused on grief and recovery, there is wit, love, and humor in all the right places.

I always enjoy McFarlane’s novels, but this one was a little dark and depressing. A group of best friends have to cope with the sudden death of one of them. Eve is especially hit hard. And then she’s also dealing with the sudden plans for marriage of one of the guys in her group for whom she’s been nursing a hidden love for 16 years. That’s a long time to be close friends with a guy who is living with another woman, especially when his girlfriend is clearly obnoxious.

And then Finlay, the estranged brother of their deceased friend shows up. He seems a cold, heartless guy, but of course there is more to him. Fin and Eve head off the Edinburgh to search for his dad who is suffering from dementia and has taken off there.

The most interesting character in this whole book for a long time was the deceased friend. I could feel everyone’s sorrow, but that just isn’t what I wanted to wallow in. The new romance developed extremely quickly.

However, McFarlane writes so well and her dialogue is always funny and witty. That helped balance out the depressing subject.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

Thank you, NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a hard one for me to rate. Did I love it? No. Is it worth reading? Sure. I honestly felt a little mislead by the cover and tag line as it really misrepresents the book. There’s a lot of depth and nuance to relationships of the main characters and this is definitely not the rom com you think you’ve signed up for.

Justin, Ed, Susie and Eve are a fun group of BFF’s that are so close knit that everyone else is an outsider. An unrequited romance amongst the group is more pervasive and destructive than anyone consciously acknowledged and it only comes to light after a tragedy.

I’ll admit that the prologue left me very confused about what I was reading and I could have done without it. I prefer books that draw me in from the first page and while that can be a hard order to fill, it took me about 10% of the way through to follow what was actually going on. In fact, the first 20% is a real disservice to the story because it actually picks up and is much more worth investing your time into after that. Some editing in those areas would have really made this a much better read.

I liked the idea behind this book, but felt somewhat detached from the characters. I especially think that Justin’s character was underrepresented as he was the truest friend out of all of them even though he was essentially the 4th wheel. I also really liked Finlay and wish that he hadn’t been crammed into the last chunk of the story.

There are also a few things that really bothered me in that they were just so unbelievable and it took away from the story. I don’t want to give away spoilers, but there were some things that could have been tightened up to make it all more plausible.

What an emotional rollercoaster! #JustLastNight is the first book I’ve read by the author, #MhairiMcFarlane but it won’t be the last. Well developed and intriguing characters, all manner of relationships explored, and a heartfelt well-paced plot. I couldn’t put it down.

Thank you #NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A story about friendship, trust and honesty. This novel is the story of a group of four close-knit friends who are shattered by the death of one of their members.
Eve, our main character, finds herself wondering where her youth has gone and what she is going to do with her future.
To me this got off to a slow start. But still wonderful. I read this quickly as I didn't want to stop!
Wonderful book! Loved the writing style!

"They say every love story starts with a single moment. What if it was just last night?" This blurb sold me.

I loved this book because it was so unexpected. Eve, sweet Eve, was someone I loved right away. She deserved more then what she was willing to let herself settle for. Mhairi did a wonderful job adding depth to every character. She shows us that not just loss, but also secrets can result in grief. I liked how the story slowly unfolded to reveal secrets!

I wish I had packed tissues when reading this book because I cried. This book was full of grief and how to get through grief, love, unrequited love, and death.

Mhairi McFarlane went hard with this one and made me feel all of the emotions. You definitely need to check this one out.

TW: death of a close one, Alzheimer's, physical abuse, cheating

I must admit that I was hesitant to start this book, being concerned that that it would leave me in tears when I was more in the mood for light hearted and uplifting. But Mhairi McFarlane knows how to beautifully write about loss and About Last Night ended up being a lovely read. Did I cry? Yes. Did I laugh out loud? Yes. I was also angry, shocked, uplifted and ultimately satisfied with this book.

The story follows a group of life-long friends as they navigate the shocking loss of one of their foursome. While this book takes you on an emotional rollercoaster, McFarlane kept me going with the incredibly well-written story full of witty banter and interesting characters.

I will say that I enjoyed the back story of the friends more than the romantic part of this book. I didn’t feel the chemistry, and maybe that was because it took forever for these enemies-to-lovers to get together and I didn’t get enough of them once they finally found each other.

Overall, this was a great read and I would certainly recommend this book!

Thank you William Morrow for the ARC!

HJ Top Pick!

In Just Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane, Eve cherishes any time she gets to spend with her long-time best friends: Susie, Ed, and Justin, with all of the shenanigans they get up to making up for her monotonous day job. And she knows they'll be there for each other, regardless of what's going on in their lives. Eve is also grateful that her crush on Ed hasn't come between them or caused any friction in their nights out as a group considering there was a time she thought they would end up together. But it seems they're not meant to be.

After a night of trivia, drinks, and lively banter, Eve and crew go their separate ways. But then tragedy strikes. Shaken and filled with grief, they trundle along as best they can to make sense of a senseless accident that cut short a life well-lived but left unfinished. Eve is further rattled when the truth comes out about people she thought she knew better than anyone else. It seems her whole life has changed in no time flat. As she begins the grueling process of sorting it all out, she realizes that she is capable of more than she ever imagined. Including forgiving and taking bold new steps towards her happy ever after.

A deeply emotional novel about regrets, secrets, friendship, and loss, Just Last Night wowed me with its layered storyline and Mhairi McFarlane's distinctive voice.

I really think Just Last Night is my favorite of Mhairi McFarlane's books I've read so far. It was impressive the way she handled the mix of serious issues with the hilarious antics of a raucous quartet of friends who'd known each other for over a decade. I will warn, though, that it wasn't easy to get through the somber parts of the story--have your tissues handy!!--but other parts had me giggling out loud in a way only McFarlane can do. The combination was a heady blend that quite honestly made me an emotional wreck...until the lovely ending.

Told strictly from our heroine Eve's (wonderfully, sarcastically British) POV, I liked her right away. She was unique, witty, still rocking the Goth look, and unfailingly loyal to her tight group of friends. The tragedy that altered their lives forever after a night out together gutted me and left me reeling, wondering how they would carry on. Eve and her besties all had some grieving--and some growing--to do, for sure.

The truths that came out in the aftermath was when it got really complicated. I appreciated that McFarlane cast them in a realistic light, letting Eve, Ed, Susie, and Justin all make mistakes over time and had them deal with the consequences. I also liked how Eve's perception of the people in her life changed as she grew emotionally. It took some heartbreaking moments, but she finally ended up exactly where--and with whom--she belonged.

Just Last Night will undoubtedly captivate with the raw emotions and perfectly imperfect characters Mhairi McFarlane created. The convincing narrative alone is worth a read but when paired up with such a stellar cast? It's unputdownable.