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bennysbooks's Reviews (668)
No review for first read in 2020.
2022 re-read:
I remember why I didn't rate this the first time I read it. McFarlane is such a difficult author for me to rate because even when I have so many gripes with her books, I inhale them.
I really like the fundamental romance of this book. I like Jamie and Laurie together. I love the drama of fake dating, and Laurie's journey to trust herself and find the confidence to self-advocate. The misogyny in the workplace is infuriating in a good way, in that it incites the perfect level of justified rage, and Dan's whole thing does too.
BUT 😂 There are just so many things that bother me in here. The way McFarlane wrote Laurie was very 'white-feminist-trying-to-write-black-female-lead-using-instagram-slide-notes-on-microagressions-and-missing-the-mark'. Ultimately not an expert, I'm white, but some of the bits that were supposed to read as woke were then immediately undermined by a microagression. It was kind of weird. Like Laurie's hairdresser commenting on her skin, or her friend asking to feel her hair, and those things were just okay (in fact Laurie was totally fine with them, no qualms?). Not ill-intended, but embarassingly missing the mark. Happened a few times throughout. And there were other small things that bothered me (a defense lawyer brushing off making mistakes at work? You're human, mistakes happen, but it is also a person's life you are impacting. The guys were so in the wrong for calling her out on it the way they did, but do I believe Laurie wouldn't feel at least a little bad about it? No).
If you asked me why I love this author, I genuinely couldn't say. Her books entertain and exasperate me, sometimes in equal measure like this one.
2022 re-read:
I remember why I didn't rate this the first time I read it. McFarlane is such a difficult author for me to rate because even when I have so many gripes with her books, I inhale them.
I really like the fundamental romance of this book. I like Jamie and Laurie together. I love the drama of fake dating, and Laurie's journey to trust herself and find the confidence to self-advocate. The misogyny in the workplace is infuriating in a good way, in that it incites the perfect level of justified rage, and Dan's whole thing does too.
BUT 😂 There are just so many things that bother me in here. The way McFarlane wrote Laurie was very 'white-feminist-trying-to-write-black-female-lead-using-instagram-slide-notes-on-microagressions-and-missing-the-mark'. Ultimately not an expert, I'm white, but some of the bits that were supposed to read as woke were then immediately undermined by a microagression. It was kind of weird. Like Laurie's hairdresser commenting on her skin, or her friend asking to feel her hair, and those things were just okay (in fact Laurie was totally fine with them, no qualms?). Not ill-intended, but embarassingly missing the mark. Happened a few times throughout. And there were other small things that bothered me (a defense lawyer brushing off making mistakes at work? You're human, mistakes happen, but it is also a person's life you are impacting. The guys were so in the wrong for calling her out on it the way they did, but do I believe Laurie wouldn't feel at least a little bad about it? No).
If you asked me why I love this author, I genuinely couldn't say. Her books entertain and exasperate me, sometimes in equal measure like this one.
Great world-building, decent characters, but ultimately wasn't for me. I know urban fantasy isn't typically my thing, but I thought maybe the mafia/rival families thing would hold my interest. It didn't. I'll file it away with revenge plots - usually uninteresting to me.
I'm also kind of surprised at some of the hints of sexual violence that were ignored (in the text and in reviews).Hilo sneaking into Wen's room and waking her in a threatening way, even to prove a point, was gross. I know the world was kind of gritty, but that was so off-putting to me. And then the Weather Man exploiting a young girl? That was not only barely acknowledged other than in how it impacted Shae, but Shae also ended the friendship with the girl because of it?? Maybe these two things are dealt with later, sure, but my impression from that was not great.
I'm also kind of surprised at some of the hints of sexual violence that were ignored (in the text and in reviews).
Wanted to read this for so many reasons (cover? Amazing. Queer rep? Yes please. Dragon automaton? Mmmmmmhmmmm), but I couldn't get into it. The characters feel so flat, and from reading reviews it seems that doesn't get any better. That's too important to me as a reader to push through.
First read 2020: didn't rate it.
Re-read 2022:
Apparently the only thing I want to do lately is read Mhairi McFarlane, because now I am re-reading everything I finished before 2022.
It's hard to rate this one without the context of the rest of her work. I think when I read it the first time I liked it more (would be nice if I had written something I could now refer to but laziness abounded in 2020 [fair]), but then it was my second book by her, so I had less to compare it to. This is just so clearly a first novel. I still enjoy it more than most of the romance I have tried to read, but it's nothing close to what I know she is capable of. So in the context of the Mhairi McFarlane catalogue I'd maybe give this a 2.75, but in the context of my (limited) experience reading romance (a genre I really struggle with but LOVE when it works for me), this would be more of a 3.75?
TLDR; there's a lot of first-novel-syndrome going on, McFarlane can do better, but I flew through my second re-read so... 🤷🏻
Re-read 2022:
Apparently the only thing I want to do lately is read Mhairi McFarlane, because now I am re-reading everything I finished before 2022.
It's hard to rate this one without the context of the rest of her work. I think when I read it the first time I liked it more (would be nice if I had written something I could now refer to but laziness abounded in 2020 [fair]), but then it was my second book by her, so I had less to compare it to. This is just so clearly a first novel. I still enjoy it more than most of the romance I have tried to read, but it's nothing close to what I know she is capable of. So in the context of the Mhairi McFarlane catalogue I'd maybe give this a 2.75, but in the context of my (limited) experience reading romance (a genre I really struggle with but LOVE when it works for me), this would be more of a 3.75?
TLDR; there's a lot of first-novel-syndrome going on, McFarlane can do better, but I flew through my second re-read so... 🤷🏻
Really enjoyed the beginning, but felt 'meh' by the end. The over-use of the word sissy was distracting. And this one I think is more personal to me, but I typically don't love when the main characters declare their love like halfway or 3/4 into the book and then you are just reading about them being sad until they find a way to make it work. Unless their situation is decently compelling on its own, I get bored. I didn't find this one compelling enough without the romantic tension. I really liked Charlie and Nora together, and reading Henry's take on the small town trope was fun. I found the ending really predictably cheesy, in a bit of an eyeroll-inducing way.
2024 re-read (in anticipation of sequel): I was sick, so I read Mhairi McFarlane. It is the way.
I've definitely cooled on this one since my last read. The beginning drags out longer than I remembered, which isn't unusual for McFarlane as she tends to take her time setting up the MC's situation, but this time it was decidedly bleaker. I think it's because one of my favourite things about McFarlane books are the external relationships that she writes into her romances. They make for great worldbuilding, flesh out the main characters well, and are generally quite warm/funny. It helps to balance out the more intense situations she writes her MCs into. But in Who's That Girl, Edie has to move and then (re)integrate people into her life before we start getting a sense of that warmth and fun, which felt tolerable the first time around, but was frustrating on a re-read.
I enjoyed the romance between Edie and Elliot about as much as I did last time, but on both reads I think Edie's budding friendship with Margot, and the growth in her relationship with her Dad and Meg, are the elements that make this book shine. The portrayal of Meg is pretty heavy-handed in the beginning, like the most ungracious conservative ranting about snowflake leftists. But if I ignore it a little, I think the dynamic between the two sisters is a compelling one. Every page of text fromEdie finding Margot, to Edie, Meg, and their father discussing the guilt and grief they've been living with since Isla died makes me sob.
Still had a problem with the ending (ambiguous endings can be excellent, but this was not the right book for it. Their situation is so complicated, and requires very serious discussions and compromises - compromises they have both already agreed they couldn't make. The process of reconciling these things would have been difficult, and it feels to me that McFarlane took the easy route), but I'm excited to see where book 2 takes us.
2022 review: High highs and low lows. I've had a sinus infection ruining my life for a week so McFarlane's backlist has kept me company. This one I thought was going to be my favourite but then that ending... don't think it worked here. Left me feeling very disappointed. I wanted more of an exploration of how they could make their lives work together, but what we were left with felt like a cop-out.
I've definitely cooled on this one since my last read. The beginning drags out longer than I remembered, which isn't unusual for McFarlane as she tends to take her time setting up the MC's situation, but this time it was decidedly bleaker. I think it's because one of my favourite things about McFarlane books are the external relationships that she writes into her romances. They make for great worldbuilding, flesh out the main characters well, and are generally quite warm/funny. It helps to balance out the more intense situations she writes her MCs into. But in Who's That Girl, Edie has to move and then (re)integrate people into her life before we start getting a sense of that warmth and fun, which felt tolerable the first time around, but was frustrating on a re-read.
I enjoyed the romance between Edie and Elliot about as much as I did last time, but on both reads I think Edie's budding friendship with Margot, and the growth in her relationship with her Dad and Meg, are the elements that make this book shine. The portrayal of Meg is pretty heavy-handed in the beginning, like the most ungracious conservative ranting about snowflake leftists. But if I ignore it a little, I think the dynamic between the two sisters is a compelling one. Every page of text from
Still had a problem with the ending (ambiguous endings can be excellent, but this was not the right book for it. Their situation is so complicated, and requires very serious discussions and compromises - compromises they have both already agreed they couldn't make. The process of reconciling these things would have been difficult, and it feels to me that McFarlane took the easy route), but I'm excited to see where book 2 takes us.
2022 review: High highs and low lows. I've had a sinus infection ruining my life for a week so McFarlane's backlist has kept me company. This one I thought was going to be my favourite but then that ending... don't think it worked here. Left me feeling very disappointed. I wanted more of an exploration of how they could make their lives work together, but what we were left with felt like a cop-out.
