International bestseller Mhairi McFarlane delivers a charming, hilarious, and heartfelt new novel about a woman adjusting to life in the spotlight when she begins a relationship with a famous actor, in this highly anticipated follow-up to Who's That Girl.
She found The One. But when everyone wants him, can she keep him?
Edie found true love. And on Christmas day, he's knocking at her door.
Elliot Owen is handsome, charming and basically Hollywood royalty. And, he insists, madly in love with Edie an ordinary citizen with tomato soup stains on her coat. It's going to be complicated. Edie will have to learn how to live in the limelight, but they're just too good together not to try.
Edie discovers it's not easy when the press is the third person in your relationship, or when stories start leaking that force you to mistrust the motives of those around you. It's tricky when you're separated by an ocean and gorgeous co-stars and charismatic new colleagues are closer by. It's harder still when your past is raked up by envious people determined to destroy your present.
Edie already knows how it feels to be infamous, now she's going to find out what it's like to be famous.
Are she and Elliot a fairytale, or a cautionary fable about getting what you wish for?
Title : You Belong With Me
Author : Mhairi McFarlane
Series : Who's That Girl? (book two)
Format : eARC
Page Count : 352
Genre : contemporary romance
Publisher : Avon
Release Date : September 3, 2024
Reviewer : Hollis
Rating : ★ ★ ★
Hollis' 3 star review
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.
** I received an ARC from the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. **
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