Book Review - Between Us by Mhairi McFarlane

Between Us by Mhairi McFarlane

This book makes number 50 for the year, which means that I've reached my goal. I used to be a really avid reader and then once I started college and didn't have as much time, I stopped reading as often. Last year I didn't even reach my goal of 20 books. But I'm glad to have gotten back into reading because it offers such a nice escape from the stress of real life. 

Thank you so much to the author and publisher for granting me access to an advance reader's copy of Between Us. I haven't had the opportunity of reading a Mhairi McFarlane novel yet, but I've been looking forward to it because I've heard great things. I thought this was an extremely cute story about romance, but more importantly, friendship. 

The main character is 32-year-old Roisin, a teacher who has been dating Joe for 9 years. They are both part of a friend group and recently Joe has just made it big and gotten a TV show deal. During the showing of the first episode of the show Joe wrote to the friend group, Roisin realizes that things she's told him in private are now up on the screen for all to see. Not only that, but the show seems to mimic real life except that the show's main character has been consistently cheating on his long-time girlfriend. But that can't be true right?

Although this book is classified as a romance, I think it's more of a story about friendship. I adored the friend group in this book. Although they had their ups and downs, their good times and bad, it's clear that these friends truly care about one another and their happiness (with the exception of maybe one person, although I won't spoil who). Each character was so well written and had a well-developed backstory that made them seem so real. My favorite character is Matt. Although we don't know much about him at the beginning, as Roisin and Matt become closer she (and we readers) realize that there is more to him than meets the eye. 

I did think that this book started off a bit slow. The first portion of the book takes place over a few days of time and it does kind of drag, but once things get moving it becomes a lot more interesting. There is some drama in this book but overall I feel that this is more of a feel-good book because it has a happy ending. I'd recommend this book to anyone who's interested in a cute romance with some drama.