*Sigh*, I just love Mhairi’s books. They’re always so unabashedly British and her quirky, clever sense of humor and knowledge of pop culture always makes me feel at home. This book was definitely a slow burn like her others that I’ve read, but her character development and dialogue are always worth it to me. The common theme in her novels I’m noticing is the journey of self discovery for her female leads after a long period of settling for less and I am here for it. Her writing is breezy, sardonic, and self-analyzing and makes for such a cozy experience as a reader.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this copy to review!

Thank you NetGalley, author Mhairi McFarlane, and William Morrow Paperbacks for giving me a free arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
5 stars
What another amazing book by author Mhairi McFarlane.
This book is about the close-knit friendship of Eve, Justin, Susie, and Ed, who have been friends since they were teens. Now in their 30s, their friendship is stronger than ever. They spend Thursday nights at the pup for quiz night and Eve still hold a secret love for Ed even after all these years. Then one night, tragedy will hit the very heart of the group and change their lives forever. As the group deals with the aftermath in their own ways, Eve begins to reveal secrets held back from her that causes her to question how much did she truly know those she has called friends all these years. What is a moment in time led to a lifetime of love or is it just one night?
Although this book had a darker tone of grief and loss from her other books, author Mhairi McFarlane's writing still held the wit and engaging writing style that is true to the story and characters. The characters were well developed and relatable! Eve was a very likable character. The reader could tell she would be a great friend to spent time with as well as supportive to those in need. Their friendship was strong and full of imperfections, but held throughout the ups and downs throughout the years. Finlay, Susie's estranged brother, was another enjoyable character. He had his own secrets and past baggage, but was nothing like Eve had come to expect due to Susie's perspective she shared throughout the years. Eve and Finlay were such a wonderful couple. I had so much fun during their trip to Edinburgh. Their relationship development was slow and full of angst. I really enjoyed the self-discovery journey Eve had throughout this book. I liked how she was able to gain a better perspective on the past relationships with her friend group as well as how she wanted their relationship to look going forward. Finlay and Eve were well matched in wit and personality. The author also added some wonderful pop culture references that were such a treat interwoven throughout this book. The author did a wonderful job handling the stages of grief, sickness of a loved one, and childhood abuse with grace and care. Overall, I would highly recommend this book to those who wants a great book about friends, grief, and unexpected love. I can't wait for author Mhairi McFarlace's next book.

Just Last Night was an extremely emotional and beautiful book. This was more of a love story about friendship versus a traditional romance.

Just Last Night focuses on the very difficult topic of grief. It was told through Eve’s point of view and I thought it very accurately described the painfully emotional process that we all go through. Eve is facing how to live while someone beloved doesn’t get that chance and learning that everyone has secrets.

Yet despite how heartbreaking Just Last Night is, it also has moments of brevity and lightness. I loved the emotional journey that Eve goes on and the way her perspectives change along the way. Her friend group and Finlay all were worthwhile characters that were wonderfully written.

Just Last Night was beautiful and enthralling. Mhairi McFarlane is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.

Gah what an intense book. Full of grief, secrets and unrequited love. I flew through this book because I just had to find out what happened. Overall I enjoyed it but was left wanting more. The romance was good but I was more invested in the secret storyline.

Content warning: sudden death

I was so excited to read this book. I think of Mhairi McFarlane as a romantic comedy author. From the book description, this sounded like a second-chance romance. Turns out, it's nothing of the kind.

Instead, it's a slow-moving slog toward sudden death, followed by a slow-moving slog toward recovery. I don't want to read books about grief. Even if they weren't depressing, they're also boring. Grief has no forward momentum. It's just a weight.

This was a bait-and-switch of the worst kind. If the book is about death and grief, then SAY SO IN THE DESCRIPTION. Don't call it a romance when it's not a romance.

I received a NetGalley ARC, and this is my honest review.

4.5

Eve, Justin, Ed, and Susie have been friends since they were teenagers. Nearly inseparable until they each left for university, but never too far away. They're friendship has only grown into adulthood as they attend weekly trivia at their favorite pub. But Eve has been holding onto a secret: her more than platonic love for Ed. They had their chance years ago, but things happened (or didn't) and now Ed is in a long-term relationship with his girlfriend. Eve knows that Ed has feelings for her that are more than friendship, but she's loathe to disrupt cohesive group they've formed.

But in an instant everything changes. Eve's life is upended and secrets are revealed. The kind that make Eve question how well she knows her nearest and dearest. But when someone from the past comes back into Eve's life, she'll find her newfound knowledge putting her on the path to change.

This is going to be a difficult book to review because it all pretty much hinges on this huge event. The "instant that changes everything" for Eve and her friends. But I don't want to spoil anything because I went in with certain assumptions of what said event would be. And I absolutely loved that Mhairi McFarlane pretty much threw me for a loop.

What's important to know and remember about the story is the idea of how well we actually know those in our inner circles. I mean we can know people for years, but unless we are with them 24/7 there are going to be aspects of their lives that we're not privy too. They'll have another group of friends and / or family. That group will have their own history, their own memories and stories that might bring out a different side of someone's personality that is contrary to the one they have with you. So what's real? Mhairi McFarlane takes an in-depth, often heartbreaking look at this idea with Just Last Night. Through Eve's perspective alone we see one woman's entire belief system rattled. Questioning her experiences and her time spent with her friends. Looking back on years of conversations and seeing things with new eyes.

It's a beautiful story, even though it's rather heartbreaking at times, it's overall very hopeful in looking towards the future. I appreciated that Mhairi McFarlane exceeded how I initially felt the story was going to progress. All the pieces and elements fit and line up together so well.

This is the third book I've read by Mhairi McFarline, but she's quickly become an author on my permanent read list.

I did not know much about this book, so went into it mostly blind and I loved that I had no idea what was going to happen. It was a tad bit difficult to get into this book initially as it jumped around quite a bit, but once the characters were more developed, especially Eve the narrator, the book took off.

This book reminded me of a smash-up of Four Weddings and a Funeral and My Best Friend’s Wedding. It was all the British humor I love packed into a book much deeper than I expected based on the cover. Although it was partially classified as Romance, I would consider it much more Women’s Fiction. There were amazing friend relationships, complicated family relationships and even a budding romance relationship that I didn’t fully see coming.

The book centers around four friends who have been part of each other’s lives since grade school. Each of the friends has their own distinct personality, which makes the friendship so long lasting. Evelyn, Suzie, Ed, and Justin had a friendship to be envied. The book follows the friends as they experience tragedy and devastating grief. The exploration of grief was hard to read, but oh so beautifully honest and gritty. In the midst of dealing with the grief, secrets are revealed that have the ability to alter their future together.

This is the first book I’ve read by Mhairi McFarlane, but it definitely will not be the last. Her ability to interject humor into serious subjects was very much appreciated. Her character development was excellent, the relationship development incredible and the ending was satisfying. Definitely recommend – just remember that this is British romance, not American.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for allowing me to read and review an advance copy.

JUST LAST NIGHT - Mhairi McFarlane
Perfect 10
William Morrow
ASIN: B08FJKT2H9
ISBN-10: 0063036851
ISBN-13: 978-0063036857
May 2021
General Fiction/Romance

Nottingham, England - The Present

JUST LAST NIGHT starts with Eve, Susie, Justin, and Ed, who have been close friends since before ending sixth form (high school), enjoying their weekly pub quiz get together. Now at thirty-four, all of them are still single. Yet, Eve has loved Ed since leaving sixth form, and before they both left for different colleges, he indicated he loved her, too. Tonight, however, at the pub, the woman Ed has been with since his first year of college, Hester, makes a surprise speech at the bar. She asks Ed to marry her. Ed agrees.

Eve is reticent with everyone but her best friend Susie, who knows all her secrets except how she feels about Ed, and Eve believes she knows all of Susie's secrets. Seeing Hester propose to Ed with everyone in the bar observing his acceptance devastates Eve. Eve doesn't tell any of her friends how wounded she feels believing none of them know of her continuing devotion to Ed. The next morning, more bad news shatters her. She learns Susie had died when a car slammed into her while she walked home from the bar. The tragedy turns Eve's life inside out. The three remaining friends are planning the funeral when an outsider arrives. Susie's brother Finley comes back to Nottingham from the United States for her funeral. The friends judge him through all of Susie's prejudices. While they know of Susie's dislike for her brother, and they suspect his purposes, they must accept his decisions about the funeral as his and Susie's father has dementia.

The story is told from Eve's viewpoint and reveals that not only can one not know what is going on in another person's life, no matter how close they are, but also how initial judgments, even of well-known friends, can be wrong. Plus, as the title indicates, the story also shows how anything can dramatically change in a very short time frame. Initially, I had some difficulty getting into the story, but author Mhairi McFarlane writes with a magnetic draw that soon enveloped me and I could not stop reading. It is an amazing read about love and friendship.
Robin Lee

I loved everything about this book. From the cover to the plot to the characters involved, this was a really well written book. This is not a simplistic story. There is a lot of depth and heart to this one, I should warn that you might need tissues as there could well be tears.

Mhairi McFarlane never fails to entertain. While Just Last Night was not as light-hearted as previous books I've read from this author, it did grab my attention in a whole different way. The characters were incredibly appealing and their friendships/dynamics were irresistible. This book had romance, angst, mystery, and heartache and I adored every surprising page of it.

The best way to enjoy this book is to go into it not expecting a romance. Although there is a surprising and lovely one that develops along the way, that's definitely not the focus of the book. Instead it's an honest and sometimes raw exploration of grief and of moving on after the unthinkable happens, tempered by the author's trademark wit, brilliant and smart banter between the main characters, and the self-awareness with which they ultimately examine their motivations.

Eve is a 34 YO who feels stuck in her life. She wastes her days at a dead-end job and lives for the time she spends with her 3 best friends, Ed, Susie, and Justin. They've been an inseparable unit ever since they met in high school. Aside from Ed, who has a long-term partner whom the others tolerate for the sake of their friendship, they are all unattached. Unfortunately for Eve, she's been in love with Ed pretty much forever although she believes she missed her chance with him years ago. At the beginning of the book, Ed's girlfriend publicly proposes to him and Eve realizes she has to move on. However, this is the only the first, and the smallest, of the blows that Eve is going to receive as a result of that night. How she deals with them, and the emotional clarity that she gains as she does so, drives the book forward in ways that the reader does not expect. Eve learns a secret she was never meant to know, takes a road trip with a person she's predisposed to dislike, and learns how to forgive something that initially seemed unforgivable.

I went into the book unprepared for its darker tone and emotional turbulence, and found it to be rough going sometimes in the way that it invoked unresolved feelings of my own. Nonetheless, I was pulled into the story and didn't want to put it down. It was a beautiful exploration of the unbreakable ties that bind us to our friends even as we come to realize that we can never truly know them the way we know our own selves. This was not the book I was expecting, but it's a book I was happy to read.

This was so much more emotional than I expected. I love British romances because they have such a different feel than American romances. I love the setting and the way words are used differently. I enjoyed the emotions and the depth of characters created in Just Last Night. When Eve's friend group is shattered by loss, not only does she struggle through that grief, but with figuring out how her friends and herself are not what she assumed they were. The love story was much more than a romance. It was a friendship and self awareness story, too. I will definitely be back for more.

This book is so charming, heartbreaking, emotional, and ultimately unforgettable! I absolutely loved this title and I know that it will be incredibly popular on our shelves.

A new to me author. I found the story interesting. I would continue to read this author after giving this book a try. I will be looking for this authors backlist at my local library.

So I went into this story unsure. I had read Don’t You Forget About Me and I wasn’t the biggest fan. And I was worried about this one. On top of that, this is a serious book that deals with very difficult subject matter.

And it did take a while for me to get into it, but I ended up really enjoying it. The relationship dynamic isn’t crystal clear at first and it talks about a sort of different dynamic. It talks about not unrequited love, but love that simply can’t be. Or for Eve being Ed’s back up. 💔

I feel like A LOT of girls can relate to feeling someone’s second option or plan b. Your heart yearns for her. You go on the roller coaster that is Eve and Ed.

On top of that there is grief. It’s a situation in which you never want to imagine. And on top of that never getting the answers you need.

It was an intense, emotional ride, but I’m happy I read it. Sometimes you shouldn’t stop a book when you get uncomfortable or it’s emotional. It might be worth the read even more. 😍😍😍

4/5 🌟

Check it out May 4!

McFarlane does it again! If you need an emotional, touching, and honest novel, this is for you. Her characters are always so realistic and genuine, and it's nice to see that in a modern novel. Excellent job!

It was just ok. I did not connect with the characters and did not find the story engaging. I was initially intrigued with the story. However, for whatever reason, the reading became tedious about half way through. I did enjoy the direction the main characters life took near the end.

Just Last Night was a slow start for me, but then picked up nicely. I enjoyed the humor and the nuances throughout the book. McFarlane is a gifted and truly funny writer!

Ed, Susie, Eve, and Justin have been friends since their school days and close to 20 years later their relationships are still thriving. They are a tight knit group, but as time goes on, Eve begins to realize that there be secrets they've kept from each other. After a catastrophic event leads them into uncharted territory, they begin to reevaluate their relationships with others and their friendships with each other.

I wouldn't classify Just Last Night as a "romance"... more contemporary fiction. There were some elements of romance, but I felt it was mostly a cautionary tale more than anything else. I do feel like the big reveal was saved for the final few pages, and while I was pleased with the ending, I wish it had been expounded upon a bit more. If you're looking for a meet-cute rom-com, this is not exactly it. Overall, Just Last Night is a great book but with a heavy subject matter.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow and Custom House for providing me with an ARC of the book in exchange for my honest review.

I am disappointed to say that I am giving up on this one at 35%. I am so tired of modern romance books being advertised with romance being the first and foremost theme, when in reality, it's maybe the 3rd or 4th theme.

I did not want to read a heavy literary book when I picked this one up from NetGalley, therefore it soured my opinions. In my current mental health state, I do not want to read a book with these major themes. YES, a major life event is mentioned in the tagline and summary, but that could mean ANYTHING other than the seriousness that actually happens.

I really enjoyed McFarlane's Don't You Forget About Me because romance was the first and foremost theme. I will still continue to pick up her books.

I don't want to give any spoilers out, but please know that this is a heavy themed literary book with some slight awkward attempts at romance and witty humor thrown in there. If I had known that going into it, maybe I would have enjoyed this book more.

Thank you to NetGalley & William Morrow for an ARC in exchage for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

CW: death of a loved one (significantly featured), grief, Alzheimers, anxiety, physical parental abuse (briefly mentioned by secondary character), parental abandonment, cheating

So first of all I do have to say this is not a romance. This is fiction with a romance subplot. It does not end in HEA but more of a fade to black we'll see what happens, maybe a HFN but the romance is not the driving force of this one. (SPOILERS just in case).

This is a story about friendship and secrets. I enjoyed Eve, snarky, glass half empty, mostly hates everyone around her but her close group of friends. She's been pining away for her best friend for years, hoping that he'll end his relationship and realize they are meant to be together. But all of that changes when their lives are rocked by death. This book was complicated and made Eve relook at the relationships in her life, what she could change, what was forever the way it was and marked by grief.

While predictable at times, I truly enjoyed the ending when she stood up for herself with Ed. She saw what he was doing and called him on it, it was honest and open and I really appreciated it. My favorite character was Justin who was not featured nearly enough. He had all of my favorite lines.

This one is hard to rate because the fiction part was overall strong to me, but the romance fell flat. You could see where it was going and then it jumped into a bit of insta love. I would recommend this to anyone who's looking for a heavier read that is lighter on the romance but it is there.

Rating: 3.5
Steam: 1