Between Us: The biggest rom com of 2023: smart, romantic and laugh-out-loud funny from the bestselling author of Last Night and Mad About You

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I was struggling to find time to read this one with my final college semester starting but after midterms this week I just read as much as I could. I didn’t even take the time to read the synopsis for Between Us when I saw it, trusting that bestselling author Mhairi McFarlane would deliver on a heartfelt romance with an edge.

I don't want to say anymore becauseeeeee I know I'll end up spilling the beans on so much more, but yeah, I enjoyed a lot! Roisin Walters and Joe Powell have been a couple for a long time, she being the kind Monica to his somewhat mean Chandler in their group of friends in northern England. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight.The thing I've come to find about McFarlane's novels is that they are all character driven, and this trait shines through again with Roisin and the gang. I found MAD ABOUT YOU to be a louder book than usual from this author and while this wasn't on the same decibel scale, it still felt a little bigger. Roisin (Ro-sheen for us Americans) is also a typical McFarlane heroine: Gorgeous but doesn’t know it, good-hearted, intelligent, and funny as hell.

So far, the book has not bored me, even though spending so much time with the ex-drama is frustrating. Our heroine, surrounded, supported by, and supportive of a group of close and quirky friends, dumps or is dumped by a guy that is clearly not worthy of her after their long-standing relationship goes to pot. I usually really like Mhairi McFarlane even though her books are of that genre where women find their inner power, a genre that normally I find hokey and annoying.

I enjoyed the side-plot that didn't villainize other women and went at things from a refreshing angle; though it did feel a little similar to McFarlane's last book, though in a quieter way.

McFarlane defers their happy ending (or happy start, as Roisin the teacher explains to her students) for most of the plot, spending more time on Roisin and Joe’s messy breakup. The second half was definitely faster and had more of the characters I liked in it so I was really glad that I continued with the book and didnt DNF. She feels like she's punched in the face when her secret, which she only shared with Joe, is revealed on the episode, and this is not the only bomb he threw on her lap. Overall, the book was still enjoyable, mainly due to McFarlane's engaging writing style that made the book an easy read. We’ve all been there either a relationship, a friendship, a career, and thought “gosh is this really where I want to be?And as they watch the first episode of Joe’s drama, she realizes that the private things she told him–which should have stayed between them–are right there on the screen.

It was very clear even before his show aired and aroused Roisin's suspicions, that the relationship was fraught, and given that Roisin was already contemplating ending things with him, things just seemed to drag on unnecessarily.And even then, things don't get resolved until the 77 percent mark, and even then we get a twist/reveal at the 84 percent mark. To access you ebook(s) after purchasing, you can download the free Glose app or read instantly on your browser by logging into Glose. Now, he’s struck it big and isn’t afraid to shower his friends with money, however uncomfortable they may be. Not in the sense that I disliked it — as I said, I’m pretty much guaranteed to like her books to some extent and the lowest I’ve rated one is, like this, 3. The problem for me in Between Us is that I think Roisin’s experience with Joe doesn’t really provide a natural segue straight into a new romance.