REVIEW: Between Us by Mhairi McFarlane

In Between Us by Mhairi McFarlane, When English lit teacher Roisin Walters arrived at Benbarrow Hall in the picturesque English countryside for a weekend away with her lovely group of long-time friends, she had no idea her life would change direction shortly after. It began as a few days of partying. Her friend Dev became engaged to Anita. Her boyfriend Joe had a new TV show premiering. And they were celebrating Gina’s recent birthday. But from unexpected guests showing up to in-fighting between Roisin’s friends, it was rocky from the start. Then there was the viewing of Joe’s new provocative series. One that pulled bits and pieces of her own traumatic childhood and splashed it across the screen. Something she had told Joe (and no one else) in confidence. For Roisin, that was the final crack in an already crumbling relationship.

‘She hadn’t realized how broken she was, until someone acknowledged it.’

Moving on after ten years together, especially while learning whether Joe was honest about who he really was, takes a lot out of Roisin. As she searches for answers, she responds to her mum’s guilt-laden cry for help at her family’s pub, figuring it will hopefully give her new perspective on the Joe situation. What ends up happening, though, is the realization of how long Roisin has been dealing with secrets, lies, and deception in her life. Knowing it’s past time to talk it out with her mum, she buckles down for some tough conversations. The one bright spot? A friend who swoops in to help sort it all out and have her back while Roisin also notices her true feelings that have been simmering unnoticed for years. And it just might take her life in directions she couldn’t have dreamed.

“I promise you, we can always tell each other the truth, with no fear of shame. Secrets end up poisoning the person keeping them, I think.”

From the hustle and bustle of the city to the peacefulness of the English countryside, the comfort of old friendships and the challenges of new relationship dynamics, Between Us explored it all with Mhairi McFarlane’s famously dry wit and her charming characters.

‘She wondered if any privacy was now an illusion. “Between us” meant nothing.’

Content Warning: View Spoiler »Cheating, abortion (historical, secondary cast), gaslighting, panic attack (detailed), addiction. « Hide Spoiler

Between Us was a roller coaster of emotions that went to places I wasn’t quite expecting. But not necessarily in a bad way. It was a little bit of a slow mover at first, as Mhairi McFarlane introduced us to Roisin’s group of long-time friends, and we got the details of their background together as well as their current situation. You could tell that several of the friends: Roisin and her boyfriend Joe, Gina, Matt, Meredith, Dev and Anita, were on the cusp of some big changes. And it was when the friend group all got together at a gorgeous estate, Benbarrow Hall, to celebrate Dev and Anita’s recent engagement, Gina’s birthday, and Joe’s new TV show, that it all started to crumble.

Roisin might have made a few choices I personally wouldn’t have (lol) but it felt like her heart was always in the right place. She adored her friends. She wanted only the best for them all–including of course her partner, Joe. But as little things he’d said or done started to add up after they watched the premiere of his new show Hunter, Roisin wasn’t sure she could trust him, whether it be the personal tidbits she’d told him or that he was being honest with her. I’ll let you figure out if Joe was the great guy he touted himself to be or if he was manipulating everyone and everything around him. Either way, in the end it was better for Roisin once she ended their decade-long relationship.

One of the big sticking points I think readers might have is how quickly things progressed after Roisin and Joe split. She realized she did have feelings for someone who had been in her life for many years, although she’d never noticed it–and wouldn’t have acted on it if she did–previously. There was no overlap, so no cheating. It was just…fast. I grew to be okay with it based on how Roisin and her new man acknowledged the speediness of it all and the circumstances that found them together. It did add another layer of drama, though, while Roisin was sorting through her years with Joe as well as reconciling her family’s dysfunction and how it could finally be put to rest. For as much as was going on in Roisin’s life, and the storyline itself, McFarlane ended Between Us on a pleasant note, showing the sweeter side of having come through hard times and seeing the bright future ahead.

QOTD: Do you have a group of friends from your school/college years that you still keep in touch with like Roisin does?

Book Info:

Publication: Published: August 8th, 2023 | Avon |

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…