Publisher: Harper

Review: Who’s That Girl? by Mhairi McFarlane

Posted September 14, 2016 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Review: Who’s That Girl? by Mhairi McFarlaneReviewer: Rowena
Who’s That Girl? by Mhairi McFarlane
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: September 6th 2016
Pages: 544
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three-stars

A laugh-out-loud romance from the author of the bestselling YOU HAD ME AT HELLO

When Edie is caught in a compromising position at her colleagues’ wedding, all the blame falls on her – turns out that personal popularity in the office is not that different from your schooldays. Shamed online and ostracised by everyone she knows, Edie’s forced to take an extended sabbatical – ghostwriting an autobiography for hot new acting talent, Elliot Owen. Easy, right?

Wrong. Banished back to her home town of Nottingham, Edie is not only dealing with a man who probably hasn’t heard the word ‘no’ in a decade, but also suffering an excruciating regression to her teenage years as she moves back in with her widowed father and judgy, layabout sister.
When the world is asking who you are, it’s hard not to question yourself. Who’s that girl? Edie is ready to find out.

I have read and enjoyed a number of McFarlane’s previous books so I was really looking forward to jumping into this one. Especially after reading the blurb. I mean, Edie’s at her co-worker’s wedding, a co-worker that she has a huge crush on and he kisses her then before Edie can process anything, his bride has caught them and Edie becomes instant slut. Talk about drama for your Mama. I was prepared.

I want to say that I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed Here’s Looking at You or You Had Me at Hello but while I did like the book, I didn’t love it.

It took a while for me to warm up to Edie because when the shit hit the fan at the wedding, she waffled back and forth between blaming herself for the entire shit storm and playing the victim/blaming Jack for everything. She was so wrapped up in what everyone was saying about her and losing Facebook friends that I wanted to shake some sense into her. She starts off as this big coward but over the course of the story, you see her wise up but holy hell did she take her time getting there.

After the shit storm that was the wedding, it was really hard to go back to the office since she branded the office slut for coming between Jack and Charlotte at their own wedding. I really hated that it was Edie that took the fall for that whole clown fest. I hated that Jack came off scotch free pretty much. So Edie is shipped to her hometown of Nottingham, to write the autobiography of a huge celebrity star named Elliot Owen.

Things aren’t smooth sailing when she gets home since she doesn’t get along with her sister and she carries around a lot of guilt for not visiting as often as she could have with her father. It’s a stroke of luck that her best friends from when she was a kid are both in the same city as her (for once) so having them around calms the rest of the chaos of her life.

Things just kept going wrong for Edie. It was like a domino effect. One thing led to another and then another until Edie was drowning in a sea of mistakes and misunderstandings and if you ask me, a lot of it wasn’t necessary. There was so much going on that it was really hard to keep up and I felt bogged down with too many things. There was Edie’s wedding drama, her family drama, her friends and their different set of dramas then there was Elliot’s drama that became Edie’s drama and then there was the stuff with her Mum and when all was said and done, I felt like some stuff could have been cut out and the story wouldn’t have suffered at all. I mean, there were 77 fucking chapters in this book! I felt like I was reading Outlander all over again.

So yes, I did enjoy the book but I could have done with a whole lot of the drama that was included. Edie did eventually come around and I liked seeing the growth in her character and I liked seeing her relationship blossom but could have done without the bit that came after they finally get together. I liked the relationship that she had with her friends, I loved the blow up with her co-workers and Ian Connor (insert eye roll emoji) but in the end, I felt too much of the story served as fluff.

Grade: 3 out of 5

three-stars


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