I literally will read anything that mhairi writes. Her writing and dialogue and the way she can capture the core of her characters. I just always enjoy her books and this was no exception

thank you netgalley for the e-arc. love a book titled with taylor swift lyrics (even if it wasn't a connection). mcfarlane did a great job with inclusivity with her characters, but she always does which is why i think she's so strong of a writer.

Not usually a fan of sequels to books with an HEA or HFN, but it’s been 6-7 years since I’ve read Who’s That Girl and I’ve largely forgotten many of the details. So, this one didn’t feel so much like an unnecessary saga, but rather a new story with familiar characters. You may remember ad exec Edie from the wedding day drama with Jack Marshall (don’t worry, that twat makes a reappearance here) and Elliot Owen of international movie star fame. Now a happy couple, they have to learn to trust each other despite distance, meddling colleagues & friends, and the public at large, who feel they are entitled to gossip about Elliot and, by extension, Edie. While I can’t pretend to know the pressures on figures in the public eye, their trials felt realistic and their struggles didn’t feel forced. No spoilers on the ending, but I appreciated the realistic conclusion. Really enjoyed this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon & Harper Voyager for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review.

4/5 (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Book: You Belong With Me by Mhairi McFarlane
Genre: Romance

As my first Mhairi McFarlane book, I’m officially a huge fan! Her writing is phenomenal and completely reminds me of Jane Austen—she really feels like the Austen of today. I can’t wait to explore her other works! And can we talk about the British setting? As a total fan of British history, it made the romance even more enjoyable for me. (Yes, there are also parts that take place in New York City too!)

In "You Belong With Me," the story focuses on what happens after the established initial romance. (I didn’t realize this was the second book in a series, but honestly, it works perfectly as a standalone lighthearted read.) It follows Edie and Elliot, a Hollywood celebrity, as they navigate the ups and downs of their relationship. The dialogue is sharp and witty, keeping you engaged throughout. There is a classic third act breakup that made it tough but the resolution is at least heartwarming. If you love a beautiful and emotionally rich love story, then please grab this book—it’ll have you laughing, swooning, and probably tearing up a bit!

Thank you SO much to NetGalley @netgalley, Avon and Harper Voyager for sending me the amazing and lovely ARC of #YouBelongwithMe. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC. The following is my honest and personal review of the book.

I unfortunately did not enjoy this book. I was not convinced that Edie and Elliot, the two main characters were supposed to be together. They couldn't communicate well, and they didn't have any chemistry. Things one of them would say in a conversation in one chapter didn't seem to stick with the other person in the following chapter. I kept thinking they would both be better breaking things off!

I do have other books by the author on my Kindle, and I'm still excited to read them! (although the abundance of British(?) slang kept me scratching my head trying to figure out what was being said!)

I have just discovered the author Mhairi McFarlane. I loved "It's Not Me, It's You" and "Just Last Night". So when I saw she had a new book coming out, I requested it via NetGalley. Many thanks to Net Galley and Avon and Harper Voyager for providing me with a digital copy of You Belong With Me in exchange for an honest review.

You Belong with Me is a sequel to "Who's That Girl" which I did not read. Some other reviewers wondered about having a whole book devoted to seeing what happened to Edie and Elliot seemed a bit much, but they were all new to me.

The story balances humor and romance in a realistic way - as long as you understand that Elliot is a famous movie star and Edie is a regular every day person. There is a lot of humorous banter - maybe too much (does anyone ever have regular conversations?). Tension builds with the inevitable tabloid stories that are twisted versions of the truth and are particularly painful for Edie. You see a lot of growth with the characters with quite a few tough conversations. And tension also builds as you wonder if they can stay together?

I won't go back and read the first book. It won't be as much fun since I know the full story now. I recommend you start with "Who's That Girl?" first if you are interested in this book.

This is my fourth Mhairi McFarlane read and it didn’t disappoint. Mhairi’s books are always a delight. I didn’t realize this was a sequel but I certainly didn’t feel lost not knowing what happened in Who’s That Girl?. The characters and what they go through are relatable. Having to work out their feelings and finding their way, to accepting what and who they can trust. I loved each of the characters. Well, maybe not Iggy. I loved all the quips. I look forward to the next book!

Thank you Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for this ARC.

Mhairi McFarlane does it again. I haven’t read a book by her that I haven’t loved. "You Belong with Me" is no different. I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley, and didn’t know it was a sequel when I began reading it. I have since added "Who’s That Girl" to my TBR. This can be read as a stand-alone, but I bet if I read the previous book first, I would have loved this story even more. I loved the witty dialogue, well rounded characters, and realistic interactions/conversations. I highly recommend anyone who enjoys rom-coms pick up this book.

When I requested this book I didn’t know it was a sequel, but even if I had read the first one I don’t believe my opinion wouldn’t have changed - this was just a “fine” read.

Honestly, I couldn’t find any good reason to believe that the characters should be together and I couldn’t feel their chemistry - this is due to the fact that both characters are very jealous and insecure, two traits that I personally can’t connect with. I also found that some of the conflict between them felt a little over the top just to add more drama for the sake of it.

This was my first book by McFarlane and I did enjoy her writing and her voice - I found she excelled in writing their conflict realistically but also managed to add humor and some heartfelt moments.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC and the chance to read and review. All opinions are my own**

I am embarrassed to say that I didn’t realize this was a sequel, and I haven’t read the first book, Who’s That Girl, but I still enjoyed You Belong With Me by Mhairi McFarlane. It would have been helpful to read the first one because I spent the first quarter of this book wondering why she isn’t doing ANY level setting with the characters or story. Once I figured it out things went better, I will say that this is the first of her books that I didn’t downright love.
The basic idea is that a ‘normal’ girl falls in love with a famous actor and they try to have a ‘normal’ relationship even though the tabloids and even some friends make that extremely difficult. Cute set up but the book was just so much talking … just finding every single reason not to be together, coming close to breaking up, and then not breaking up. This happens over and over again and I got a bit tired.
Overall, I love McFarlane’s books and her down to earth heroines, but this wasn’t my favorite.
Published in the US on September 3, 2024, many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This was an interesting premise… watching the beginning of a relationship unfold! It brought unique perspective to the dating experience! Would recommend it!

It would be really helpful to know this book is a sequel that basically requires reading the first book. I started this not knowing that detail and was so confused just a few pages in. That being said, I wasn’t a fan of the first book but I thought this one was much better. I do like Edie and Elliot’s love story and seeing their journey of being in a relationship throughout the entire book felt like a new perspective on romance. However, there really didn’t seem to be an overall plot other than ‘will they stay together?’ Pretty anticlimactic, but there were a variety of subplots that kept the novel interesting. Much like the first book, I really disliked how major decisions about their relationship were made literally at 95% of the way through the book. I do believe there was too much dialogue, but that also seems to be quite characteristic for Mhairi McFarlane. Overall, it was good, but not sure if I would rush to read both books. 3.75⭐️, 1🌶

I love Mhairi McFarlane – if she writes it, I’m definitely buying and reading it. She’s one of my go to auto buy authors and one I can confidently recommend for others. This was a different experience for me than others I have read – first off, this one is a sequel. I have not read the first one yet, it’s one of her backlist titles I haven’t had a chance to read yet. That being said, I was still able to follow, read and enjoy this one. I’m looking forward to trying the first one now, and want to try rereading them back to back. However, like any Mhairi book it is well written, has interesting characters and is definitely worth the read.

I love MM and will always pick up anything she writes. I didn’t read the book these two meet in but loved jumping into a relationship that had already endured those beginning stages and had found some grooves already.

Okay first off, I LOVE Mhairi McFarlane. One of my favorite writers. I love her writing style and for that alone I am glad to have read this book.

I feel conflicted about this compared with the previous novel or her others. I guess because it was a sequel. I was glad with the ending (I really was nervous for a moment there!) but I would’ve liked a longer epilogue about their new life together. They patched things up kind of quickly without really explaining what they’ll do to fix their issues. Oh well.

Mhairi McFarlane has done it again! What a stunning read, truly. I’m staggered by her brilliance with every read.

When I finally (finally! almost a month after publication..) started this one, I was so thrilled. Because this opens in such a way that I was feeling the good vibes right away. And as I did not reread WHO'S THAT GIRL? before starting this, that says a lot about both how much I love the first book and how McFarlane was able to bring us right back into the thick of it.

And listen, a lot of this has that same kind of magic. But. But. I have two major nitpicks.

The first being that I felt Edie to be really inconsistent with how she dealt with her insecurities and jealousies after getting back together with Elliot. We barely had time to enjoy the good times before we found ourselves getting spun up in drama and conflict and, to be honest, some of it felt overblown.

I don't know if some of this rockiness was as a result of doing a sorta nostalgia tour of book one by going through similar motions, almost as a refresher for those who may have forgotten how the first book went, but instead it made this feel less like a sequel and more of a rehash, negating the need for extra content -- also, let it be noted, as excited as I was about a sequel, I was perfectly happy with the ending of the first -- because you'd think after big words, big promises, the second try and all, we'd be in a better place to not be in that same boat.

My second issue wasn't that I was mad about Edie's workplace drama still being a factor, because that to me makes total sense, but it's the villain's behaviour that just felt too same-y from the last few of the author's books. It is feeling like an addition to the tried and true McFarlane formula and while there is much to love from said formula, this element isn't one I want added to the roster No matter how relevant to today's social media culture, complete with he said she said uncertainties, the impact is somewhat lost when I know to expect it, and am bored by the expectation of it.

All that to say, though, even when these two characters seemed to be spinning their wheels, or accidentally (or on purpose) self-sabotaging themselves, I was still rooting for them. I still liked them. I just wish we had less external drama and more introspection because Edie did have some demons to work through and it felt like they only sorta had a brief cameo at the end for the lightbulb moment and then it was all done. And same with Elliot. He is confronted with some genuinely awful behaviour near the beginning of the book and the reality of that seems to be mostly forgotten for the remainder of the story.

Overall, my feelings about this book are complicated because while at the end of WHO'S THAT GIRL? I was totally convinced these two belonged together, there were times during this second-chance had me questioning that connection and chemistry and compatibility. Which I suppose is the point of this particular trope, and possibly why I generally dislike it. But. We did have a few good laughs. We had another really lovely friend-group. And I managed to avoid being a snotty mess in the reading of it; something I usually don't mind because I Like To Feel Things to Prove I'm Not Dead Inside, but in this case I was happy for the reprieve from emotional devastation.

I'm definitely not mad this exists. And maybe I'll feel better about it if I can ever find time to start from the beginning and read it as a whole. But for now.. I might pretend this sequel doesn't exist and treat book one as a standalone. We'll see.

Pulled in by the Emily Henry blurb… and didn’t stay much longer than that. I should have known better than to trust another pink cartoon cover, but I haven’t learned my lesson yet. Too cliche and too British for my taste.

Mhairi McFarlane has been one of my favorites for awhile now, and I'm happy to say I LOVED You Belong With Me (YBWM). I haven't read her entire back catalog yet, and didn't know YBWM was a sequel to "Who's That Girl?" (WTG), so as I started reading YBWM and found that out, I stopped to go back and read WTG. I also loved WTG and didn't want the story to end, so was thrilled to see that YBWM picks right up where WTG ends. I also couldn't help but think about how people had to wait ~8 years to find out what happened! It's not a requirement to read WTG before YBWM, as McFarlane does a good job of adding context, but I highly recommend reading it first as you get to know the characters so much more and it makes YBWM a richer story.

I found Edie to be a very sympathetic character and well-developed, and I related to her quite a bit. She clearly made a mistake, but a very human one, and I really enjoyed following the aftermath, leading to her reconnecting with family and friends, as well as meeting Elliot and seeing their relationship develop. Elliot was incredibly emotionally intelligent, kind and considerate, and solidifies the "book boyfriends ruin real men" stereotype. When I started reading WTG, I immediately thought it needed to be a movie, and I feel that way even more having read YBWM. While the book are hilarious and are rom-coms, there are more serious themes like grief, loss, betrayal, complicated family relationships, among others that create a well-rounded story with depth.

I love Mhairi McFarlane's writing, and once again found myself highlighting passages in almost every chapter. She has a way of putting feelings and thoughts into words that I didn't know how to put into words. She's also hilarious and is a master at banter, and the funny moments feel natural and not try-hard like some authors can be.

Really my only complaint is that I thought YBWM wrapped up too quickly. It felt like Edie said her piece and then all of a sudden everything was perfect again. I felt like they needed to talk through what she said a little more; I figured Elliot would respond more than he did, and while the reader can assume they talk about it more after the wedding weekend, I wish we would have gotten to see a little of it before Fraser walked out.

Overall, I loved this book so much, and plan on purchasing copies of both WTG and YBWM, and can see myself rereading them both in the future.

CW: Infidelity/Infidelity-adjacent, manipulation, betrayal, depression, discussion of suicide and brief description of what happened (non-graphic), loss of Mother (in the past), brief discussion of alcoholism & drunk driving and resulting death, grief, loss, complicated family relationships, discussion of character's adoption as a child, negative experience with biological father

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the eARC.

I just want to preface this by saying that I feel like I can’t give a very fair review for this book because I didn’t realize it was a sequel to a book that I did not read. I kind of learned the gist of what happened in the first book as I got further into this one, but I still felt like I was missing some important details that may have made this story better. It also was hard for me to really understand Edie and Elliot’s relationship because I felt like there wasn’t really much going on in this story? I found myself questioning where it was going throughout almost the entire thing. I didn’t necessarily dislike this book, but I didn’t love it either.

However, I am interested to know more of their dynamic in the first book, and maybe I’ll come back to read that at some point.

I am going to give this book 3 stars since it really is my fault for not realizing there was a book before this.

⭐️ 3 ⭐️

Thank you Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest review.