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Perhaps I may be biased about this book because my mom is an off-the-charts, gas-lighting narcissist, and I can empathize with Harriet, the female MC, on a deeper level. However, it was moving to watch her internal battle and evolution from being "blamed and shamed" by "a good guy" to gaining more confidence in helping other women. The Millicent Fawcett, suffragette phrase "Courage calls to courage everywhere" is used in the story; it is relevant and timely. Harriet has fast become a favorite heroine for her courage to both walk away from and embrace relationships in equal measure. I love this book! I was hoping for a bit of a fun and sweet romcom but this wasn’t quite that… A romance… eh, that’s debatable. I always feel this way when The love interest isn’t clear for a decent bit of the book, and the couple gets together at 98%. sigh.. This had a lot of important topics and was heavier in a lot of ways. It wasn’t bad by any means, just not what I was in the mood for.
Mad About You :HarperCollins Australia Mad About You :HarperCollins Australia
This started out so good, and then went down a road that was totally unnecessary. It's completely changed my mind on this entire read, and I feel like it's totally mis-marketed. McFarlane (Don’t You Forget About Me) brings a welcome dose of reality to the fake office romance trope with flawed, honest, but still endearing protagonists. After Laurie’s boyfriend of 18 Continue reading » This little bit of info I have given as a description is not even close to everything that is going on in this story. You have Harriet’s friends Lorna & Roxy. You have Scott’s friend Sam and his ex Kristina and then later on you have another ex of Scott’s whose name I believe was Nina. This story is about relationships be it romantic or just friendship. It covers so many aspects of emotional abuse and a bit of grief and betrayal. Also, this is more of a minor quibble, but having read all of her 8 books to date now, there is rather a tried and tested formula to a lot of her characters, in that many of her heroines and heroes and secondary characters even, feel as if they are all moulded from the same essential template, with very minor adjustments. I suppose if something works, why change it, but perhaps it would be refreshing to try something a little different. I will say that I did really enjoy the dynamic between Cal and Sam, and this healthy male friendship was something McFarlane has not portrayed before. The only issue for me was the first 1/3rd of the book. It took me a lot of time to get to the story, but the last 1/3rd was very powerful and quite eventful, to say the least. The kind of women empowerment we witness is just superb and I found myself rooting for the characters throughout.
But when a toxic and dreaded past comes to haunt Harriet, leaving her career, friendship, and reputation in jeopardy, she must stand up for herself and risk her future to share the truth. She must learn to unburden herself and finally let go of the trauma that has gripped her until now.
Between Us: The biggest rom com of 2023: smart, romantic and
MMs books are never really about the romance - they are always about the growth of the characters - but i definitely think this is the best romance MM has written. And while this has similar themes to previous books, they have a new twist to them. This is, in part, because they’re viewed through different lenses—Cal and Hattie are both characters who’ll react differently to the events they experience than those before them. And, as ever, the story that is told is treated with kindness and gentleness. I felt like cheering at the end of this one, even though the "romance element" was not central to the plot for a change.The GR blurb for this book is quite misleading because it makes the book sound like a story of Harriet and Cal. It isn’t. It is Harriet’s story almost all the way.)
Mad About You: A Novel: Mhairi McFarlane: 9798200975136 Mad About You: A Novel: Mhairi McFarlane: 9798200975136
It's pathetic, I knew I did from that first moment we met. It was...not love at first sight exactly, but - familiarity. Like: oh, hello, it's you. It's going to be you. Game over."Thoughts: I love Mhairi McFarlane’s writing and feel she is on of the most underrated authors on Bookstagram and in general. Her character development is always superb as she creates these well rounded, three dimensional individuals, flaws and all, that you feel you could have encountered in your own life. It starts out a hoot with plenty of laugh out loud moments as you’d expect from the smart writing of Mhairi McFarlane. I really like the character of Harriet who is smart, she has her issues but almost because of this she feels authentic and relatable. I do enjoy the way the author manages to some people up in just a few words and yet you really see them. There are some enjoyable coincidences and several scenes that are almost movie or TV worthy they are so lively and ent A plot that gets under your skin, and one scene in particular that will have women everywhere cheering out loud' LUCY DIAMOND so go into this expecting it to be a womens fiction novel with a main plot that is pretty heavy, but you can also be looking forward to the brief interactions between cal and harriet that totally steal the show. But this time Harriet has a surprise coming to her: at her darkest hours, one of her friends betrayed her, but a new one proved to be touchingly loyal when she needed him most.
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