I enjoyed this one, but it did take me a while to get into (about 100 pages). This definitely felt like women’s fiction more than contemporary romance to me. I liked the characters, story line, and FMC Roisin. She has a good group of female friends, which I always enjoy seeing in books (girl power!!). I’m not a huge fan of cheating/dishonesty in books, and that seemed to keep coming up in the story.

I did go into the story expecting romance to be the focus based on the cover, but that really was a secondary plot. I felt like Roisin’s journey to reconnect with herself and find her strength was the central point. She makes a lot of hard decisions but is never willing to compromise on what is best for her, which I really admired.

Overall an enjoyable read!

I had to put this book down at 40% it literally bored me. I think the pacing was just awful. Mhairi McFarlane is usually an auto read author for me but this one was just a total loss.

Thank you to NetGalley for an EARC copy in exchange for an honest review as always all words are my own.

Between Us is a fun read with a mysterious central plot point that drives the narrative and keeps both the main character and the reader guessing. (This is not at all a mystery, but there is one thing that the main character is trying to find out throughout the book.)

The story follows Roisin who has been with Joe, a successful screenwriter, for over 10 years. When Joe's new shoe premieres, Roisin recognizes elements of her life on the screen and confronts Joe about it. How much of his show is real and how much is fiction? We follow Roisin as she tries to find out and grapples with her love life, friendships, and family matters along the way.

The friend group dynamics in this were really fun. I struggled a little bit right away remembering who everyone was, but once I got it down, it was fun seeing them interact and all the shenanigans they got up to on a weekend away together.

The writing style is almost compulsively readable. McFarlane makes it easy to fall into the world and keep turning the page with her snappy sentences and short chapters. On that note, I don't mind short chapters, but there were some really odd chapter breaks that would cut up not only scenes but conversations into segments. This kept me reading, but it was also jarring.

The focus is much more on what happened in Roisin's old relationship than the start of her new one. I expected this a little bit based on the other two Mhairi McFarlane books I've read, but it felt way more pronounced in Between Us. We never saw any of the good parts of her relationship with Joe to understand why she would have stayed with him for so long, so I just wanted her to let it go and focus on something else. That said, finding out the truth was compelling, and I was totally cheering her on when she got there in the end.

Overall, I'd give Between Us a 3.5/5, which for me means I liked it.

Recommend especially if you like:
-female friendships
-contemporary with light romance
-pop culture references

This was so cozy and lovely and I could not put it down. I love the writing style and how witty the characters were. Mhairi’s writing feels so “for me” and I love all of her books! This one was no exception.

I think I say something along these lines EVERY time I read a book by this author, but GAH! She draws you in in such a way where you almost think "is this book for me? Should I continue?" Then you read one more word and all of a sudden you can't put it down, no chores will happen, no food will be consumed. Water will be taken, as long as it's nearby.

This is the story of a group of friends, a decade old. There are besties, there are enemies, there are other people joining as the groups couples off, and there's a couple within the group. Roisin and Joe. She's a school teacher, he is a very successful television writer. He hasn't always been so, and she had supported him for about five years while he was working his way up to a very talked about show, called Seen, which is ironic, since Roisin feels anything but seen in the past year of their relationship.

Anyway, I don't want to give more away, but reading this will fill your heart with joy. There is just something very special to me about a book about friendships. I will warn you that there is a lot of manipulating and lying in this book, and a touch of a swinger relationship, but that's in the background. Just mentioned in passing. ;)

As always, McFarlane knocks it out of the park with another charming romance. Sweet, tender, smart, sexy, this one hit all the right notes for a fave romance.

I love everything Mhairi McFarlane writes and this is no exception. This story, following Roisin as she comes to realize her partner Joe is not the great guy she thought he was, is so much more than a romance (though there's nothing wrong with "just a romance").

Things I loved: the ode to female friendships and their endurance beyond above and beyond romance; the nod to the difficulties of navigating changing class status within friend groups; the exploration of how hard it is as a woman to trust your gut, especially when people you love are encouraging you not to trust it; the validation(!!!!); the characterization, both those we love and those we want to kick right in the nuts.

Things I didn't love: nothing. 10/10

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Not quite what I expected from a book listed as romance - this is much more Roisin's story than it is Roisin and Matt's, and a lot more of the book is focused on Roisin and Joe's terrible relationship than it is the romance/friends-to-lovers aspect. I liked Roisin and her friends (especially Gina and Meredith), and this was a fun read that moved quickly. just not quite what I was looking for.

I wanted to love this book but I didn't. I found it difficult to finish and really didn't wow me in the beginning, middle, or end. This is my second read by this author and while Mad About You fared better, I am starting to think that maybe this author and I are not a match and that's ok—not everything is for everybody.

Roisin is a teacher whose boyfriend Joe is a screenwriter. Over a friends weekend, she discovers that moments of their relationship are part of his new show. She begins to question some of his other hit shows while other chaos ensues.

I feel like the bones of the plot were good and had potential but I guess I just wasn't a fan of the delivery.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for gifting me this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I love a Mhairi McFarlane story - in particular, I love that she introduces readers to the story's main character and immediately puts them through a heart-wrenching or life-altering event. As terrible as that is, it sucks me in every time.

I appreciate the friendships she depicts in every book. In this book, we glimpse a group of friends who, from the outside, seem perfect friends. Do a little digging, and you'll see everyone has quirks and sometimes issues with each other. Very authentic and relatable.

I also liked the air of mystery involved in this book. I hated that it came in the form of questioning fidelity, as that is never pleasant in the first place, but interesting nonetheless.

Notable mentions:
🍸 I'm trying my hardest to find the ingredients to try a Porn Star Martini, even though the description of the drink didn't make it seem appealing
🍾 Champagne Problems is an amazing song
🌺 The humor throughout the book helped lighten the sometimes heavy topics
😻 A pesky cat named Meatball - I always enjoy the presence of a cat in Mhairi's books
❤️ Loved that he fell first

Another incredible story by Mhairi. 💕

Thank you for Mhairi McFarlane, Avon Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book!

Thank you Netgalley and Avon for the ARC!

I have loved almost every Mhairi book that I’ve read. My favorite, Just Last Night, is one I recommend often to friends. So when Tony request for this was approved, I was so excited!

I love that Mhairi doesn’t write traditional cut and paste romance stories. Her books are more women’s lit for me rather than *romance* and having had that adjustment in my mind going into her books, it helps to not be let down when the romance isn’t the main focus.

That definitely helps with this book! The first half is a bit slow and the romance was a bit sudden but the overall message about beaming after toxic relationships was really great.

If you go in with thinking women’s lit + a side of romance then you’ll enjoy this one!

3.75 stars! My favorite book I’ve read by McFarlane. The plot was very unique and kept my interest throughout. Despite there being many characters in this book, I didn’t have trouble keeping them straight. I do sort of wish we had gotten more of the romance aspect between Roisin and her beau but I also feel this “lack of romance” (or rather the romance not being the main plot point/not taking up many pages) is more due to McFarlane’s style/intentions. This book ultimately isn’t about the romance but rather Roisin herself. I feel all of the books I’ve read by McFarlane tend to read more as fiction rather than specifically romance, the primary focus is often the main character themselves and their relationships/friendships compared to the entire plot being the main character and a love interest.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A complicated friends to lovers British romance that gave me TONS of Emily Henry vibes! If you're planning to try this on audio be prepared to dial down your listening speed by A LOT!! I found the narrator spoke VERY fast and I had to reduce my usual speed quite a lot. Other than that it was an enjoyable read but not my favorite by this author. A solid 3.5/4 star read. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

This book was cute, but not at all what I expected. I ended up giving it 3/5 stars, but I'm acknowledging that some of that rating has more to do with me likely than the book.

It was my first Mhairi McFarlane book. I'm used to quickly-paced romcoms and this one was a tad slower than what I am used to. It reminded me a bit of Jenny Bayliss and her writing. You have to slow down to savor her work vs speed through it. I attempted to speed through this one like I do most from coms and it was lacking for me in that way. I couldn't connect to either main character and I found some of the side details with the friend group to be less important and more distracting from the story. It took me awhile to get through.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a gifted earc of this book.

DNF. I really liked the premise but the writing did not work for me at all. It wouldn't be fair to the book if I finished reading and gave it a low rating.

As with other Mhairi McFarlane books, don’t get tricked by the cover into thinking this is a typical quirky romance. In fact, it would be a better book if the second-chance romance didn’t even exist in it.

And chapters break on weird places to keep them short. Trust your reader! They can be longer!! I won’t lose interest!!

Loved the friend group. Liked the main character well enough. Still want to murder Joe.

(But if my rich friend wanted to pay for my flights to his wedding events, I certainly wouldn’t feel weird about it. Hell yes, make it possible for me to go to Lake Como.)

3.5/5

3.5 stars rounded down

What would you do if your screenwriter boyfriend betrayed you by stealing a personal, traumatic childhood story, and aired it on national television? This is what Roisin must ask herself when her boyfriend of 10 years, Joe, blindsides her during a screening party at a weekend getaway with their friends group. To make matters even worse, the characters on the show seem to be not so loosely modeled after their group, and the lead male character is a serial philanderer, with one scene imitating real life enough to make Roisin question whether Joe has been faithful to her. Needing some time to sort through her feelings, and take the investigation into her own hands, Roisin returns home to her mother's country pub. She invites one of her friends, Matt, to come along, after he assists with her inquiries into Joe's nocturnal goings on. When faced with the gaslighting and lies by omission from multiple men in her life, Roisin must decide where she wants to go from here.

This was a tough one for me to get through. The pacing was slow, and the characters were intentionally not very likeable. Joe is mean spirited, selfish, and takes advantage of Roisin's support of his career, and it is frustrating to see Roisin put up with it for as long as she did. The first half focused a lot on the friend group as a whole, and then they mostly disappeared for the second half of the book, making them feel almost unnecessary to begin with. Having read several other books from the author, this one didn't feel like her others, and felt like I was reading a completely different author. It was more women's fiction than rom com, with strong friends to lovers and found family vibes.

Roisin is one of six friends that have been close since working at the same bookstore ten years ago. After one of them gets engaged, the “Brian Club” gets together for a weekend to celebrate. However, Roisin is not enjoying her get away. Fellow ‘club’ member and boyfriend of nine years, Joe, is behaving differently and suspiciously around her. After watching the premiere of Joe’s new show with the friends, Roisin is thrown a curve ball — he has written in events and situations from their relationship and the protagonist is not faithful to his girlfriend. What will she do with this new version of her boyfriend she has been exposed to?

This was a really cool idea for a novel. The self doubt and mental processing of the situation that Roisin goes through was well done and allowed the reader to empathize with her. Her network of friends, and even her mother’s character, did a good job of balancing her navigation. It really made you root for the good guy and want to punch the bad one. Overall a good read. 4 stars.

Review based on an uncorrected e-proof provided by HarperCollins/Avon and NetGalley. Thank you!

Roisin has been dating Joe for almost ten years, but things haven’t been the same for the past year. Things between them really start to unravel when Joe’s new tv show airs and she sees a scene from her past play out on screen. As Roisin knows that this is based on a true story, she begins to question what other elements of the show are based on true events. The book follows Roisin as she tries to figure out what is truth. As she is dealing with the aftermath of the tv show and breakup from Joe she finds unexpected comfort from a longtime friend.

I was really intrigued by the plot, but the pacing felt a bit slow in the beginning and it took me a while to get into the story. I wish we had more time to see Roisin’s new relationship. Overall, I still enjoyed the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I always look forward to a new Mhairi McFarlane book, and Between Us was no exception. Following a close-knit group of friends in their 30s, Between Us explores tensions between couple Roisin and Joe as Joe's hit new TV series pulls painful personal details from the couple's lives and as new love emerges in unexpected places. I love Mhairi McFarlane's voice as a writer so much, and it was such a pleasure to immerse myself in another of her worlds. Though it started a bit slow for me, the story definitely picked up at about 50-60%, and I'm glad I stayed with it. While not my absolute favorite by her, I would still recommend this book for fans of McFarlane or Emily Henry and look forward to her next book. 3.75 stars.