BETWEEN US BY MHAIRI MCFARLANE // spoiler-free book review: if you haven’t read anything by this author yet then you are missing out on women’s fiction perfection *insert heart eyes*

Allow me to introduce you to yet another book I read in 2026. No you are not dreaming. And boy am I proud of myself ngl.

As you all know, I am very much obsessed and in love with the author so there will be much screaming in this review!!!

Title: Between Us
Author: Mhairi McFarlane
Page count: 448
Date published: 8 August 2023
Genre: Adult women’s fiction

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Synopsis:

When Roisin and Joe join their friends for a weekend at a country house, it’s a triple celebration–a birthday, an engagement, and the launch of Joe’s shiny new TV show. But as the weekend unfolds, tensions come to light in the group and Roisin begins to question her own relationship. 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.

With her friend group in chaos and her messy love life on display for the whole world to see, Roisin returns home to avoid the unwanted attention and help run her family’s pub. But drama still follows, in the form of her dysfunctional family and the looming question: what other parts of her now-ex’s show are inspired by real events? Lies? Infidelity? Every week, as a new episode airs, she wonders what other secrets will be revealed.

Yet the most unexpected twist of all is an old friend, who is suddenly there for Roisin in ways she never knew she needed…

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Big thanks to Harper Collins for the eARC via Netgalley! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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STAR RATING: (4 out of 5 stars)

One thing about Mhairi: she’s perfected the art of reminding us why we should dislike men and simultaneously giving you one to be obsessed with. A killer combination, really…

But I love this woman. Like a whole lot. She’s a genius with a keyboard, and I’m about to give you my 1000th reason to pick up her books if you haven’t.

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I’m not sure what else to say about this book aside from the fact that men literally suck. Like, I’m sorry, please grow some brain cells. But also STOP messing with my head. WTH I hate it here.

I think what shocked me most was that I genuinely believed that man for a second. His story was convincing, and that’s the scariest and most real part about the book. In conjunction with this, I really liked how Roisin clocked it quickly, and I love how we leaned into a woman trusting her gut. As she should.

Of all her books I’ve read so far, this one still doesn’t beat Mad About You because probably nothing will. Here’s your sign from heaven to get off your butt and pick up that book! Not to compare, but I think her romance and writing in some places have been stronger in other books, so that’s why I don’t love it as much.

Here’s my 1000th moment talking about how funny Mhairi’s writing is and this book is no different in this capacity. Her humour, which is very distinctly British btw, makes me feel dumb because I don’t always get the joke but I know what I’m reading is FUNNY. Don’t know who can relate since that’s hyper-specific but I hope I’m conveying the gravitas of this.

If you’re looking for a fabulous women’s fiction novel to solidify your hatred in men, you should read this. In seriousness, this is a vulnerable and real story about a woman coming to terms with her failed long-term relationship, sprinkled with a side friends-to-lovers romance. Go read it.

“Perhaps that was the magic of any holiday; it lifted you out of the familiar and gave you a brief aerial view of your life in progress. It made you confront your world’s smallness in a vastness of opportunity.”

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“Roisin needed to stop punishing the people available to be punished, who might’ve made mistakes, but sincerely loved her back.”

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“She’d known this day was coming now for a long time, but it was no less weird. Like the shock of a death after a protracted illness. It was slow, but fast at the end.”

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“What she’d discovered was that her mother needed her. And Roisin needed Lorraine, too. Not in trivial, mercenary ways, but profound ones that neither of them had articulated.”

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“Life was a chaotic, inconvenient bastard, and there it was. Love was love.”

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“There being no correct and appropriate moment to raise any problem was one of the ways the game felt rigged. Pick an otherwise pressured time? She was thoughtlessly adding to it. During a nice evening out? Ruining it. Try to raise it on a quiet day? Ambush.”

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“I know how it feels to be held together by sheer bravado and Charlotte Tilbury.”

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“Such close contact was a strange mixture of fireworks and security. That was it – that was what Roisin had noticed during the handholding. It was completely natural, and yet wildly exotic at the same time. Exhilaratingly new and already familiar. He was a safe place, full of danger…Her feelings for Matthew McKenzie had arrived in two ways: gradually, then suddenly . Slow, but fast at the end.”

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“Some accusations, from someone you knew well, were like being shivved under the ribs, an attack by an expert assassin who knew exactly how to puncture a vital organ in one economical move. You felt it because you knew it was true.”

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“She wondered if he was filing it away to use in the future. She wondered if any privacy was now an illusion. “Between us” meant nothing.”

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HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK? DID YOU LIKE IT? HAVE YOU READ ANYTHING ELSE FROM THIS AUTHOR? WHICH IS YOUR FAVOURITE? I’D LOVE TO KNOW!