This was the first book I've read by Mhairi McFarlane and I really enjoyed it. Absolutely loved the characters of Harriet and Cal and felt Sam played a great part as well. The story starts with a groom jilting his wife at the altar where Harriet is the wedding photographer and Sam is the best man so straight away it makes the book interesting and you want to read on. There are some difficult topics raised throughout but they are dealt with really well and the last page of the book had me in tears. Would definitely recommend

I enjoyed this book immensely, Mhairi McFarlane Never fails to disappoint. The characters were mainly likable and the story was interesting.
Harriet breaks up with John and moves into a room at Cal's house after their messy break up. Harriet also has had a bad relationship In the past that re-enters her life .

This is one of those books that burns slowly at first but keep reading as you are in for a rollercoaster of a ride.
You are expecting a light romance, but the emphasis is on so much more than that, as you slowly get reeled into this amazing storyline..
Harriet Hatley is a wedding photographer who knows that getting married is definitely not for her.
She lives with Jon her long term boyfriend but knows he is not what she wants, as she can't move on from the mental abuse of her past relationship before Jon & it's clouding her thinking.
So she moves out to take a room in a house that her estate agent friend recommended to her.
Having not met her new landlord she she is horrified to learn that he is the groom who walked out on his wedding day that Harriet was photographing so things get a little awkward.
This is a story of emotional abuse & the things so many women face during their lives & don't realise it's happening or how to deal with a controlling person.
Equally we see what the bonds of loyal friendships can do, with plenty of highs & lows that will make you smile & laugh throughout to make for an interesting, entertaining read.
Really well written with a very clever storyline that is thought provoking with emotional depth to it.
Sad yet funny at times, with great characters, this book was certainly a book that kept me engrossed.
Thoroughly enjoyed it!!!!

Loved this book so much. It’s funny, witty and full of incredible characters.

Harriet is a wedding photographer, but doesn’t want to get married herself. She’s taking a couples wedding pictures when the groom walks out. She lives with her boyfriend Jon and things take a turn and she moves out. Her new landlord is the groom who walked out of his wedding. The story also looks at emotional abuse with her previous boyfriend.

Highly recommend this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy.

Mhairi McFarlane never fails to disappoint. This is the second of her books I have read recently and enjoyed both. This book has a range of good characters and the plot goes along nicely with funny parts and darker parts. I’m looking forward to reading her next book.

A very modern day romance highlighting all the ignorance and misconceptions around coercive relationships.
Harriet Hatley, wedding photographer, is feeling increasingly trapped with her boyfriend Jon who seems perfect, so what is bothering her? Her best friends Lorna and Roxy have supported her unconditionally for years, yet she can't feel the same support in her relationship.
The story unfolds steadily, at times making you frown or smile, the language draws you in and descriptions brilliant. It certainly fave me fresh perspective and understanding. Full of drama and humour, with a few surprises along the way.
Entertaining interesting read!
Thank you NetGalley for the early read!!

Another great read from Mhairi. It didn't grip me as much as her previous books did, but it was still a good read. There was less emphasis on romance in this book. There is a romance, but it felt a little rushed at the end. I would have liked to see their relationship developed more. Likewise, I would have liked a little more in the way of Harriet's character development. As always in Mhairi's books there are some great one-liners, which made me laugh out loud. This book focuses more on female solidarity, and I appreciated that. Some serious issues are looked at, such as emotional abuse and online abuse, but it did seem as though Harriet's life was very dramatic. Perhaps a tad unrealistic at times I don't know. With thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Loved the plot, the characters were easy to get to know, an easy to read tale. Thank you for the opportunity to read it and give a review

Friends and Relationships.
My first book by this author. There is not a lot of romance in this book but I did find it an intriguing read which caught and held my attention to such a degree that I found myself reading it into the early hours of the morning. I did find the first half a little slow but once Scott entered the story things got interesting and I loved how the women bonded together and plotted to take him down!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

To summarise in one word, beautiful. This book takes you on a rollercoaster of laughs and tears and you watch a woman face life and everything that it throws at us. The way this book portrays emotional abuse and the severity of it while also making you laugh is amazing. We see loyal friendship and fun as well as building relationships and earning trust. Connecting with others who have gone through the same trials and standing up for each other. Absolutely loved it!

Another fab 4 and a half star read from Mhairi McFarlane.

I must admit that I found the start of the novel to be slightly slower paced, but once we were introduced to the Scott elements of the storyline, I was completely hooked. I couldn’t believe how many two-faced, selfish and downright nasty characters Harriet had the (un)pleasure of knowing! The themes of manipulation and gaslighting were very poignant and I’m glad Mhairi decided to focus on these and raise awareness of the signs/symptoms for readers.

On a more personal note, I really like that this book was set in Leeds, particularly the detailed references to familiar places from my student days like Headingley and Roundhay.

*Thank you to Harper Fiction, HarperCollins UK and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Harriet is a wedding photographer who has seen enough weddings to know that getting married (#PerfectDay) isn’t for her. Then her boyfriend proposes in front of his obnoxious family and she realises “what she’d seen as dutiful benevolence was in fact appalling arse-licking.” They break up before the night is over.

Harriet rents out the spare room of a good-looking journalist called Cal - the a runaway groom who’s wedding she was supposed to photograph (before he called it off and left his bestman to break the news). Knowing that there’s never a justification for that sort of behaviour, Harriet is predisposed to dislike him, but maybe she makes that judgement without all the facts.

I love everything I’ve ever read by Mhairi McFarlane, and this was no different - I binged it in a single day. This is one of her darker stories, with a central theme of recovering from emotional abuse and coercive control. Harriet’s experiences affect every part of her life, from her romantic relationships to her her friendships to her work life. But, true to genre and form, we get satisfyingly dramatic resolution and happy ending. It’s a a tough read if you’ve got any experience with coercive control, but reading the way Harriet is able to ‘set the story straight’ is incredibly cathartic.

The romance with Cal is very cute, although it played second fiddle to Harriet’s other plotlines. That actually served the slowburn romantic plot quite well, because the sparks didn’t fly immediately, it was a creeping sort of love. But don’t expect the romance to to be centre stage, because in this book Harriet’s other concerns take precedence.

I really liked the plot and thought the characters were great. A fab read.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

MHAIRIII!!! THIS BOOK WAS CLASSIC MCFARLANE EXCELLENCE!! the characters in this book were IMMACULATE! harriet was such an amazing protagonist, so seeing her character arc, and the things she faced in theis book was rough, but she came out so much happier on the other side and i felt so attached to her in such a short period of time (on my calvin shit). also calvin was the perfect romantic interest for this book!! their tension at the beginning, outset by their clear love for each other at the end, and the awkward phase in the middle was SO FUN TO READ!! it was so obvious he had a thing for her, and she was oblivious it was PERFECT! also the supporting characters, i really do think you need an award for most likeable supporting characters because my LORD sam and lorna were so so much fun, and a breath of fresh air in this book! overall, the topics in this bookk i feel were handled amazingly well, and the support group-esque group of girls at the end was the sweetest that could have happened in this book, all around 5 stars! thankyou for the arc!

I've liked all of Mhairi McFarlane's books and loved the majority. Her writing keeps going from strength to strength and I love seeing how it's continued to develop. I absolutely loved Last Night and it seemed to hint at a change in Mhairi's writing. I was very pleased to see that Mad About You continued this. You can definitely see the foundations in Mhairi's earlier works but the most recent two are so brilliant. I loved the balance between romance and independence, seeing the characters come to terms with their past was great and the set-up for the book was fantastic.

This is another one I don't want to give too much away but I absolutely loved the characters in this, I loved the friendships and I adore that the two protagonists were so sure of their own identities.

I have loved every one of McFarlane's books.
She always knows how to make a love story absolutely devastating and still hopeful.
This was a joy to read.

Classic Mhairi McFarlane, and chick-lit at its best. So glad I had the opportunity to read this one; I absolutely adored everything about it.

I throughly enjoyed this hook. I was expecting a fluffy rom com but it soon became deeper and darker than that with some of the difficult situations Harriet went through and had been through. I felt I learnt something and I’m sure others reading this will recognise their situations in this novel. Really enjoyable read

A nice easy reading romcom. In Harriet's job as a wedding photographer there are many trials before the big day but never before has never had a bride abandoned at the alter ,but when this happens and then she finds herself lodging with the runaway bridegroom after the breakdown of her long term relationship things get off to awkward start. Full of interesting characters and with some lovely friendships and humour and of course the inevitable romance makes for a great read

Mhairi McFarlane's latest rom-com has the romance part dialed down considerably to a minor part, instead this about 35 year old wedding photographer, Harriet Hadley, having to face a series of challenges about her past which includes a traumatic and toxic relationship that she managed to escape, but which she has buried, never talking about it and never addressing the issues that arose. The consequences of this have her mishandling her relationship with the wealthy Jonathan 'Jon' Barraclough, who wears his heart on his sleeve, in love with her and demonstrating it by showering her with expensive gifts and trips abroad. In the present, Harriet finds herself in a socially awkward scenario at the celebrations of his parents 40th wedding anniversary, when out of the blue Jon proposes marriage in front of his entire family. The trouble is Harriet had made it clear marriage was not for her, to allow him to save face in public, she accepts, only to break their engagement immediately after.

Harriet goes on to move out, to become Cal Clarke's lodger in his beautiful home, only for him to turn out coincidentally to have jilted his bride at a wedding she had been hired to photograph. In Harriet's eyes nothing could excuse his unforgiveable behaviour, could it? In the meantime, she is shocked when it seems that Jon refuses to accept their break up and in her opinion is acting out of character when he goes off the rails, followed by Jacqueline, his poisonous mother turning up on her doorstep to unfairly harangue her. Cal turns out to be an unlikely source of much needed support in the face of this madness, and before long the two establish a supportive and fun friendship, particularly when she realises she has made assumptions and misjudged him, he is a man with his own relationship issues. Her life is set to become a nightmare when she writes a letter to warn the bride to be of the malevolent Simon, the ex-boyfriend who abused her, only for her to become the target of online mobs that threaten her mental health and her business.

Harriet is fortunate to have a wonderful best friend in Lorna, who has far greater clarity when it comes to Jon than Harriet does, and is unshakeable in being there for Harriet when her life unravels. However, it is her more recent friendships with Nina and Marianne that inspire the audacious actions that the trio plan that bring a satisfying end to the manipulative Simon saga. This fun and entertaining read tackles some dark and heavy topics with panache, Harriet is forced to address problematic character traits that bring her nothing but misery, but she rises to the challenges beautifully supported by a stellar cast of characters. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.