Is it even a Mhairi McFarlane novel if you don't feel ALL the feelings?

Mhairi is in a class of her own, as far as I’m concerned, and this book did not disappoint. She has a way of writing that builds rapport with the reader, a sort of familiarity that speaks to inside jokes and boozy brunches with close friends. This is what makes her writing magic - the actual storytelling is merely a bonus. And boy, does she excel at that too.

If you’re familiar with Mhairi’s past works, you’ll know that romance is usually secondary to character growth, and so I’d wondered what a full-length sequel about an existing couple would look like. Thankfully, the book still hits that balance between insightful self-discovery and romantic tension. I loved reading a book that acknowledges what so many romances do not, that real relationships are work, and their success or failure hinges on both parties being willing to set aside differences and insecurities to make the effort.

While I feel this book is fully worthy of 5 stars, I do wish that we’d seen a little bit more of Edie and Elliot loved up and on the same page, rather than navigating trial after trial. (Again, minor complaint, not worthy of knocking a star off of my rating.)

Some parting thoughts: Loved getting more of Frazer! The sleepwalking scene - holy cringe, I about died. Mhairi’s banter and social observations are always stellar. May Declan find the happiness he deserves, and may Jack fall into a large hole.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Avon, and Harper Voyager for the advanced reader copy of this book, provided in exchange for my unbiased opinion. (I squealed like a small child on Christmas when I found out I was accepted for this one.)

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this book!

I really enjoyed this book. Such a cute quick and easy read. I loved the storyline and the characters. Great writing style. Perfect summer read. My first my this author but won’t be me last!!

This book was great! I love romance books, and this one was no exception! The characters were wonderful and realistic, the plot was well written, and the setting was gorgeous. I cannot wait until this is published so everyone can read it!

This was a very interesting read, I had never read the original book (Who's That Girl) so I read it immediately before this one, and LOVED it, it may have been a 5 star. This one was so fun because I got to see the characters thrive and struggle more, but the situations felt very contrived and I was screaming at the characters to just TALK to eachother.

I'm glad I read it, but I don't think it needed to be a full novel.

i didn't realize this was a follow-up book to another one of this author's, so i was a bit lost at first. but her writing is so good and her characters are so genuine that i picked it all right up and really ended up enjoying the story.

I will start off saying it is probably best to read Who's That Girl first, I didn't and had a harder time understanding. This story is the sequel to that story. I did have a harder time but I could still enjoy the story. It had some fun and witty banter that I enjoyed between these two characters. I don't necessarily think I could feel the love between the characters but I did feel some humor. I enjoy love romance and humor but I wanted to feel something more for these two. I do this Mhairi McFarlane is a great author and look forward to reading more in the future!

I didn't realize this was a sequel to McFarlane's "Who's That Girl". Reflecting, I do wish I had read that one first to get the background of these characters but reading this as a standalone, I very much enjoyed this story and it was easy to pick up what led these characters to where we meet them.

McFarlane weaves an emotional story about two people who love each other, trying to figure out their relationship when they live very different lives. Yes, the comparisons to Notting Hill are inevitable: a celebrity in the tabloids falls in love with a "normal" girl who lives a much more private life. But the nuances of insecurities from both MCs and how they respond to the obstacles they face create a wonderful & unique story that I really enjoyed.

This story is told from a 3rd person POV, following Edie and her inner thoughts. Despite not having the dual POV, you get a sense of what both Edie & Elliot are feeling as they navigate their long-distance relationship. This was a little slow at first for me (hence why I think it might have been better to read the prior book first) but once I got attached to this story and these characters, I could not put this down. I was rooting for their HEA and it comes with some holding my breath, will they won't they make it events. Highly recommend this (especially for those who don't like the open-door spice because you will find none here).

💖 Second Chance
⭐️ Celebrity x Ad Exec
🫶 Found Family
💬 Text Banter
3️⃣ 3rd person POV

I really enjoyed this book and the witty banter. I caught myself smiling multiple times throughout the book. I could really imagine the emotions and feelings that dating a famous, heartthrob could bring. All of the feelings of inadequacy and worrying about beautiful costars that would come in that situation. Elliot was amazing through all of that. My only complaint is that I would've liked more of the ending and epilogue.

First off, this is a sequel to Who’s That Girl and once I realized this, I went and picked up the first book. Having been a fan of Mhairi’s writing for awhile, this was a welcome bonus. However, I feel that the first book could have ended with the Prologue added to the end and no other further details needed. The addition of 300 more pages of doubt and issues being thrown at this couple seemed unnecessary. The last book released by MM wasn’t nearly as good as Mad About You or Don’t You Forget About Me and now I’m not sure if this author is my auto go-to. I may need to proceed with caution. One feature of her writing that I’m noticing is the British slang usage in her writing that doesn’t translate well for American audiences. I’m lost a good bit of time trying to decipher the meanings.

I’m bummed that this didn’t work for me.

This book was not my favorite of the author, though I remain a huge fan! The book is difficult in that it picks up directly from the prior book, and doesn't give a whole lot of background if you didn't read that one. The story was a little awkward and I didn't love the relationship or the female main character that much in this one (especially compared to the first book!).

As a huge Mhairi McFarlane fan, it is just lucky for me that coincidentally, one of her final backlist books that I read, just within the last year, was the prequel to this ("Who's That Girl"), so with that book fresh in my mind, I 1) was looking forward to this and 2) could follow the plot. I do think it would be super hard to follow if you haven't recently read (or remembered really well) the prior book. So, given that I was the ideal niche reader for this book, I only found it to be okay. Dare I say my least favorite of hers. It was nice to get some closure on the relationship from book 1, but it could have been a long epilogue or something. In most books, I have confidence that it will all work out, but since it basically worked out at the very beginning, I was just worried the whole time that it would fall apart. I found the FMC to be a bit annoying in this story and it was just a stressful read. I am pleased with the ending and so I close the back page feeling content, but just don't feel like this is going to be on my list of favorites of hers. I appreciate her willingness to go back and give this couple more closure, but don't know that a whole book was needed. Nonetheless, I anxiously await her next book!

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for the ARC of You Belong with Me in exchange for an honest review.

I will first say up front that I did not/could not finish this book in it's entirety, which is the first time that has happened this year. While I understand that this is the second book in the series, I typically am able to hobble by even if I have not read the first book (which I learned after the fact was written about 10 years ago-even if I had read it, I likely would not remember the storyline). There's usually enough back story present that doesn't require me to back track and read the first book. However, that was not the case here. Even after the first quarter of the book, I really had no idea what exactly was going on or who the characters were. Color me absolutely confused. Clearly, this is not the fault of the author. I should have done my research ahead of time and learned that this is in fact a sequel and the first book really should be read to get a better context for where this one was picking up.

That being said, aside from being entirely lost in the story line, I found it incredibly difficult most of the time to actually understand what was being said or discussed. Whether it was slang or just poor sentence structure, I could not follow what was being talked about. It's entirely possible things were being said to be funny, but I clearly was not picking up on that from total lack of understand at times. Because of this complete disconnect, I just could not connect with the characters. Overall, this book just wasn't a good fit for me. Because I did not finish the entire book, I will not be reviewing it on Goodreads. They may be others who have recently read the first book and would very much enjoy the sequel. Unfortunately, I was not one of those.

This novel from Mhairi McFarlane had me in a vice for most of it but I couldn’t get enough. It’s her follow up from ‘Who’s that girl’. I have always loved her witty writing and uncanny ability to get emotional and real with her characters. Loved seeing the after story of Edie and Elliott. Thank you @mhairimcf and @netgalley for this ARC.

I have a few of Mhairi McFarlane's books so I was excited to get my hands on this one. However the start is very confusing. It's not til later that I discover this book is follow up to "Who's that girl" By Mhairi McFarlane (which was published in 2015 btw via goodreads info). Normally you still get the base information you need to understand the story in the next book. If the first book was about them meeting and the this one was them dealing with the in and out of their relationship. Then I should be able to read it with out reading the first one, that came out almost 10 years ago. I was really excited for this book because the description sounds so good. Hollywood royalty who wants a normal girl and both have to learn how to adjust. Sign me up. But I just had no idea what was going on. I felt like I was dropped in the middle of the story. And if this is a case where this book cannot be read without reading the first one that needs to be made more clear. The description just stated this is the "follow up" to Who's that girl and has the same characters.

I absolutely adore Mhairi McFarlane. She always makes me laugh and writes beautifully deep relationships. I loved Who’s That Girl? And this was a lovely sequel. My only complaint was how abrupt the ending was, I wish there was a bit more time for the characters to fully reconcile before getting engaged.

3.5/5 - Reading the two books back-to-back may not be quite the way to consume them. It was confusing to have the first book set so squarely in the time it was written (a reference to Prince Harry being unmarried and the now defunct Vine) and then to have this book pick up exactly where the last one left off but be referencing TikTok and vaping.

Setting all that aside, I just didn’t like Edie and Elliot’s relationship as much this time around. I appreciated an “after the HEA” look at the reality of trying to date a mega-famous person, but there was just a lot of fighting and tension between them and I honestly didn’t know sometimes if I wanted them to work out. I also feel like there was a lot less of the secondary characters in this book and that was a miss. But we are introduced to other characters that maybe should have been at least mentioned in the first book? But weren’t actually invented yet.

Overall, I did like this book and I enjoyed the ending, but their relationship is kind of exhausting and I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first one.

Note: I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

ARC Review: I’ll start by saying I absolutely enjoyed this read! So keep that in mind through my first quick qualms before the positives so that it ends with you wanting to read this book!
It’s fairly necessary to read the description first to have any clue what’s going on & the heavy British slang doesn’t help if you’re not fluent. It started off very confusing on who was who and what the setting was and why we immediately had conflict and even where we were. The characters were never truly introduced and we didn’t get a hint on dynamic/personalities until Chapters 3/4.
(A big) HOWEVER… once you do get further it’s a very unique gossip-y focused romance. It followed some fairly complex but natural thought-processes that come with every human brain in relationships (even one as situationally unrelatable as Edie and Elliot’s) and I loved loved loved the maturity of the characters while tackling those thoughts & emotions. It had me on edge until quite literally the last few pages wondering how the heck it would work out and even let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding at the conclusion. A big “will they or won’t they” plot. The open conversations and just plain wanting to be with each other brought me so much joy. Even I was a skeptic of the Elliot relationship when she first met Declan and had me thinking “they work so much better!”. But McFarlane did such a fabulous job at intentionally bringing the reader on that same thought journey to build the emotions for THE conversation.
I was so surprised at how enjoyable of a read this was and highly recommend giving it a go!
Thank you NetGalley & HarperCollins Publishers for the opportunity to read this work early in exchange for my honest review.

I feel like I didn't connect with this sequel as I did with the first one.

Who's that girl? was incredibly original and witty. The way the relationshipbetween Elliot and Edie started wasvery well executed. In this one, though very predictable, I didn't connect with them anymore. I didn't feel the banter and connection these two had in book 1 and I felt a bit boring reading it.

I'm very thankful to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book, I had been waiting for it for a while, though it was mildly disappointing.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher. Mhairi McFarlane is one of my favorite authors, so I was thrilled to receive this. To my surprise it's the sequel to Who's That Girl? but I also think it could be a standalone.

I loved the way the characters were fleshed out. Only thing is I didn't love the prologue.

This was a really sweet read - I felt all the feels - McFarlane truly has a gift with just punching you i the heart.

This was a fun read, one where I was actively rooting on the characters and enjoying the entire story from start to finish.