Mad About You
Mhairi McFarlane
Harper Collins
416 pages
Published April 14th, 2022
GoodReads | Amazon
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You know what they say about books and covers…Mad About You is an English dramedy first published in 2022, about a wedding photographer forced to confront her past when her relationship ends. While the title, cover image and blurb suggest that this is a typical fluffy rom-com, the subject matter is actually darker than you’d expect, and the focus is much more on female empowerment and friendship than on the romance, which was almost an afterthought – a big plus for me. In fact I almost passed on it, as I’ve long outgrown the chick-lit genre, but was in the mood for something quick and humorous, and figured if it were too schmaltzy I could just move on, but I ended up really enjoying it.
Harriet Hatley is content in her relationship with her kind, generous but slightly annoying boyfriend Jon, until he proposes in front of his obnoxious family, despite knowing her feelings about marriage. Needing to move out quickly, she takes a room in a house with newly single Cal, and tries to rebuild her life, but then a chance encounter at work changes everything…
I haven’t read anything by this author previously, but was pleasantly surprised by both the humour and the willingness to tackle the (minor spoiler alert) subject of psychological abuse in relationships. Harriet is a likeable heroine, and while the romance subplot is totally formulaic, the rest of the story is not. One small thing I found weird is that this was published in 2022, yet there’s no mention of the pandemic: perhaps it was written before Covid, or just set before it – although there are multiple recent pop culture references that negate this. While I get people not wanting to read about it, it is a fact of life and pretending it never happened is unrealistic. Apart from this, I liked it a lot.
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