This book is made for a tv series. Period. McFarlane’s writing created such a crystal clear viewing of every scene, every emotion, and I couldn’t stop thinking about who would be the fan casting. There were so many moments where my heart stopped in fear of what would happen next, but it was also filled with so many giggles, so many heart flutters, so many heart eyes. I so completely understood Edie’s fears throughout the whole story, but the love that she has for her friends and her family, Elliot, and growingly, herself, was so beautiful, and I haven’t been as proud of so many fictional characters as I have been for her. This is such a top read for anybody whenever it comes out.

Sadly, I DNF this book. And I tried. I started it three separate times and couldn’t get a quarter of the way through. This writing wasn’t up to the standard I expect from Ms McFarlane, and I’ve read all of her books (some more than once). This writing felt jumbled, almost rushed in places. Then, where her books have never once before been confusing for me as a non-Brit reader, this was confusing in a place or two.
I’ll still look forward to the next book and read it as soon as I hear about it. too.

When Emily Henry recommends a book, you know its going to be fantastic. And wow! This book was just the most heart warming, melting you inside, sweet story!

I truly love Mhairi McFarlane's hilarious prose and witty writing. This is my third book by her and it won't be my last. I was thrilled to get an ARC of hers. This one missed the mark for me a bit unfortunately. At first, I had not even a clue this was a sequel, so I felt lost when I started. It made sense when I looked it up. I really think it needs to be made more abundantly clear that this is a sequel to Who's That Girl and that should be read first.

Again, her signature comedy and wit is all here, I just think this dragged on and could have easily been a novella or even just a bonus epilogue to Who's That Girl. It turned into a repetitive cycle of Edie being annoyingly insecure (in spite of every straight man in the novel fancying her) and Elliot having to continually reassure her. A lot of time is spent with their relationship being long distance, I needed more of them together and happy to buy that they could make it. I honestly don't think they grew enough to have a healthy relationship. I did enjoy how their relationship and all of the potential pitfalls were explored for the most part, but it was missing any joy for me when these two are supposed to be so in love.

This is the second book of a sequel. I didn't know this before going in and I was completely lost reading this book. I will read the first book and re-visit this review.

Thanks to Net Galley for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review as always, all words are my own.

Mhairi McFarlane is on my list of favorite authors. She has an ability to portray diverse friend group dynamics and deliver a well developed plot.

She does this again with You Belong with Me. Be warned, this book is more couple-centric than McFarlane’s usual fare. The plot also felt more transparent than I have come to expect from McFarlane, but even with the plot transparency, this is a compelling story and worth your time to read.

Recommend! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

I've really connected with some of Mhairi McFarlane's other books, but this one was just okay. It's not a typical romance -- it picks up long after the obligatory meet-cute, break-up and reconciliation, and deals with what happy ever after looks like. Not a bad idea, but it didn't work all that well.

To begin with, this book is a sequel to Who's That Girl?, a McFarlane book from 2015. That's where you'll find the meet-cute and the break-up, and the beginnings of the reconciliation. You Belong With Me picks up right where Who's That Girl? ended, with Elliott showing up at Edie's door to begin their happily ever after. The problem was that I'd never read Who's That Girl?, didn't know this was a sequel, and was completely lost. I felt like I'd been tossed in mid-stream and I couldn't figure out which end was up. I got about three chapters in before deciding I needed to start at the beginning with Who's That Girl? I read it and enjoyed a story that was more of a typical romance between a famous person and a "normal," with Edie meeting Elliott because she's hired to ghost-write his autobiography. You Belong With Me makes an effort to catch the reader up on the happenings of the previous book, but even as someone who'd read those happenings for myself, I found the explanations a bit convoluted and hard to follow.

Once I'd finished Who's That Girl?, I dove back into this one.

You Belong With Me is pretty much one jealousy episode after another. Elliott gets too friendly with a co-star and Edit gets mad. Edie gets too friendly with a coworker while Elliott is away shooting a TV show and Elliott gets mad. Blather, rinse, repeat. Then there's the mystery of who is leaking personal details of Elliott's life to the gossip rags. Meh. I couldn't find it in me to care very much. And even if they work things out and decide to stay together, aren't they just going to continue having the same problems as a married couple that they had as a dating couple? Love doesn't conquer all in cases like this, and I found the solutions here to be too pat.

Most romances between famous people and not-famous people are based on the idea that they're not so different, and that the public persona isn't real. There's an element of that here, but what I was mostly left with was that, famous or not, Elliott was out of Edie's league. He's entirely too perfect, too understanding, and too privileged, while Edie is a bit of a rebel from a more hardscrabble background who doesn't come across as nearly mature enough to pull off a long-distance relationship with an actor who's making out on screen with beautiful starlets. Edie is four years older than Elliott, but he's the more mature one, and I often found myself wondering why he'd put up with her.

Overall, not my favorite McFarlane book. But it did keep me reading til the end, and that's worth something. Thanks to the publisher for a chance to get a sneak peek at this book!

I accidentally started this without realizing it was a sequel, so I had to quickly remedy that by reading the first book. You could absolutely still enjoy this one on its own, as the author gives plenty of context, but knowing where the story ends up actually made me appreciate the first book even more. What a cliffhanger!

Edie and Elliot are such lovable, well-written characters. While I definitely enjoyed continuing their story, at times this felt like a book that could’ve been an extended epilogue. Still, the author’s signature humor was on full display and kept me laughing. The side characters were so charming.

I really enjoyed reading this, and I’m glad fans of the first book finally got the long-awaited sequel they’ve been hoping for.

Wow let me just take a minute and tell you how this book knocked me off my feet. It surprised me, I wasn’t expecting to be taken on an emotional journey. This book was a rom-com with so many of the classic elements. It was full of humor, love, friendships, drama and relationship problems but it was also heart pounding, emotional & tear inducing. It was full of love and complications and dating-a-famous-person problems but also dating-a-normal-person problems. It was joyful and hilarious at times. It had a full cast of charming characters. We do jump straight into the middle of a story and it feels like we missed the build up and the background to the relationship. However, with the masterful writing of Mhairi McFarlane, we didn’t need the background. This isn’t the falling-in-love story, it is what comes after happily ever after. It was witty and raw and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone!

2.5 stars, rounding up to 3

McFarlane is an author I've grown to appreciate over the years. At first I was very turned off by the profanity, but there is generally very little in the way of "bedroom" scenes. Also, her stories tend to be about normal people and their regular lives.

I didn't realize when I requested this ARC that it was a sequel to Who's That Girl?—a break from McFarlane's usual in that one of the parties is a celebrity (movie star, of course). Not my favorite trope, and this follow-up is more of a sop to the fans who didn't like the ending of the first book.

So, I didn't hate it because I don't think I can when McFarlane is writing it, but I didn't love it either. If you loved Who's That Girl, Notting Hill type romances, or second chances, then give it a go. But there are better McFarlane novels out there, so please try a different one if you haven't tried her yet.

WARNING: THIS BOOK IS A SEQUEL!!

Before I get to the negatives, the concept is super fun!! If you want to read this book, I highly recommend picking up book #1 as it has some great reviews and gives a lot of context/investment for this book that could help a reader with this one.

I truly tried my best with this one but I simply could not get into it and had to DNF. In the days since, I have a hard time putting my finger on why I couldn't finish it. First, it's a sequel. That was not advertised in the NetGalley blurb and was only recently added to the Goodreads page for this book. I decided to give this book a shot to see if it was worth pausing it and reading book #1 first. But, I struggled to get through any pages of this book. My second issue was that the prose felt really dry. It didn't flow at all and the sentences felt almost like reading a textbook to get through.

For example: "Edie knew exactly who was at the door, and yet she still didn't know, both at the same time. Perfect certainty and the precariousness of hope" (p. 8). Why did we need 2 sentences to say the same thing? The book wasn't super concise which made each page feel longer.

My smaller issue was that the main characters' names shared the same first name (Edie & Elliot), which made it slightly confusing. If I had read the first book this might not have been as much of an issue.

Overall, I did my best. I may pick up book #1 if I have a chance as I tend to enjoy books from this genre.

Thank you to NetGalley + Avon for this ARC! I apologize for the more negative review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This book drops you straight into the final scenes of Love Actually and then goes from there. I loved that take of the "what happens after the big dramatic moment??" Mhairi McFarlane's writing is so zany and British - this is my first of her books, and the writing really comes to life off the pages. I could almost see the book as a movie script, with quips and fast-paced dialogue left and right. And I couldn't help imagining Hugh Grant or Colin Firth as our Elliot. A fun, fresh Christmas read for when you have the energy to dig into a good romance!

Who’s That Girl? was adorable and this was a beautiful sequel.

I love that sometimes, we have trials and tribulations before we REALLY get the HEA and it’s okay that things aren’t always perfect.

I adored this book with the friends and family that we’ve come to know, the sense of humor between Edie and Elliott, and the way they will always inherently fight for and trust in each other.

Thank you Mhairi McFarlane for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As several others mentioned in their reviews, I didn’t realize this was a sequel initially. The book was definitely a bit confusing at parts early on since I hadn’t read the first book. That aside, I don’t think reading the first book before this one would’ve made me enjoy You Beling with Me significantly more. There seemed to be little chemistry between Edie and Elliot and almost too much focus on his fame. I was still cheering for them, but I wasn’t really even overly excited at the ending.

Thank you Netgalley and Avon/HarperCollins for sharing this ARC with me.

I read about 1/3 of this book before I decided that I just couldn't finish it. I'm typically a big fan of the celebrity/regular person trope but You Belong with Me just didn't connect with me. After reading some other reviews, I understand that is the second book in a series. I recommend reading the first book first.

I tried really hard to get into this book and was just incredibly confused. It just felt like a mess. Everything was jumbled together. After some googling, I learned this was a sequel and I have yet to read the first in the series, which is likely why I didn't have an insta connection with the characters, but sequels should be easier to follow than this novel was. Time of death: 24%

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for this honest review.

Admittedly it’s my fault I didn’t read the first book in this series so It's also my fault that I felt like I was playing catch up for the first few chapters with little to no backstory and knowing who the characters were. This is a follow up sequel to “Who’s That Girl” and that book is the story of how Edie, a ghost writer, and Elliot, a movie star, fell in love. This book starts right up on Christmas Day when Edie finds Elliot knocking on her door and asking for a second chance.

This book gave me major Notting Hill Vibes and by starting with a grand gesture to get back the girl, it was a unique way to start a book and what follows is how they battle with the media and naysayers on how to keep their relationship strong. Elliot being a movie star and Edie being a non famous person, she has doubts and insecurities but it did seem like they were having the same issues over and over. With them already starting as a couple, I missed the initial meet cute and slow building of tension and anxiety that comes with a romance book. Again it’s my fault for now reading the first book but maybe combine these two into one?

At the end of the day the book was fine…. but I wasn’t invested in the characters and the story. The moral of this review is read the first book in this series before you read this one.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Avon/Harper Voyager for sharing this book’s digital advanced review copy with me in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyage publishing for the advanced copy of this title.
This book had 'Notting Hill' vibes for me. Edie a "normal, everyday woman and Ethan, an A-list actor. The odds are stacked against these two as they have to navigate the media, jealousy, long-distance, and past abandonment issues. Whenever they are on the page, their attraction is believable and heartfelt.
The author does a great job building their relationship and the two have great banter. You really get a feel for how 'celebrity' becomes a mask to the real person underneath all the smoke and mirrors.
There is clear communication in this book and I appreciated the author showing a mature relationship. They deal with issues of jealousy, distance,
As much as I appreciated the lack of miscommunication, I didn't feel like there was enough conflict to warrant the length of this novel.

First I would like to thank Netgalley and Avon books for the ARC of this book.

When I first received a copy of the book I didn’t realize this was a sequel to a previous book but it was easy to catch up on the story. Edie and Elliot were a very cute couple but also had very different lives and lived on different content so it made their relationship difficult.

I thought this story was very cute and easy to read. I really enjoy Mhairi McFarlanes writing style and find her romances always a good read but I wasn’t super invested in this story.

I didn’t find much chemistry between the two MCs and just wanted more from their story. Maybe if it had read the first book I would have been rooting for them a little more.

Overall it was a good read and a solid 3/5 stars.

This book just wasn't for me. I felt like there was no real plot (nothing moved forward), the 'romance' was awkward, and the MMC was unlikeable. After reading, I found out it was a sequel to an earlier book, and while I wonder if reading that would provide context, I have no desire to pick it up.

Average girl Edie ended things with her movie star fling Elliot only to have him end up on her doorstep on Christmas Day asking for a second chance. Can they make things work this time around?

You might consider picking it up if you like:
-Second Chance
-Against All Odds
-Celebrity Romance

It did not work for me because Elliot gaslit Edie for the entire book, there was more chemistry between Edie and her coworker, and after all those pages, the book pretty much ended with the same vibes of the opening, only this time in reverse. The only reason I kept reading was I was rooting for the co-worker but that never happened.