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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’ve finally completed Mhairi McFarlane’s backlog (aside from the follow-up short story to this book)! I don’t know why it took me so long to read this one when I’ve loved all of her other books.
I honestly can’t believe this is her debut. The characters all feel so real. One thing I love about McFarlane’s writing is the way she does dialogue. It all feels so snappy, but also incredibly realistic. I love the way the characters interact and that secondary characters aren’t just there to support and advise our main characters, but that the opposite is true too—our main character is given the chance to reciprocate on the page. I liked Rachel as a main character and really wanted to see her succeed. I liked that sometimes previous events were told in flashbacks, but were sometimes given their own chapters. When it came down to it, I didn’t REALLY see what she saw in Rhys—it’s not clear why she stuck with him for so long.
Rachel’s relationship with Ben felt really tricky and in the end, I’m not totally sure how I feel about the resolution. Perhaps the follow up short story will help with that. I do feel like this book was probably longer than it needed to be, but I think that also made it so we could really see how developed these characters and relationships were.
Overall, I liked it a lot and will continue to read every single thing that McFarlane writes.
I honestly can’t believe this is her debut. The characters all feel so real. One thing I love about McFarlane’s writing is the way she does dialogue. It all feels so snappy, but also incredibly realistic. I love the way the characters interact and that secondary characters aren’t just there to support and advise our main characters, but that the opposite is true too—our main character is given the chance to reciprocate on the page. I liked Rachel as a main character and really wanted to see her succeed. I liked that sometimes previous events were told in flashbacks, but were sometimes given their own chapters. When it came down to it, I didn’t REALLY see what she saw in Rhys—it’s not clear why she stuck with him for so long.
Rachel’s relationship with Ben felt really tricky and in the end, I’m not totally sure how I feel about the resolution. Perhaps the follow up short story will help with that. I do feel like this book was probably longer than it needed to be, but I think that also made it so we could really see how developed these characters and relationships were.
Overall, I liked it a lot and will continue to read every single thing that McFarlane writes.
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was so much fun!
Mhairi McFarlane writes such hilariously witty banter! I found myself relating so much to Rachel at points throughout this story. I couldn’t put it down, and can’t wait to pick up another of her books!
Mhairi McFarlane writes such hilariously witty banter! I found myself relating so much to Rachel at points throughout this story. I couldn’t put it down, and can’t wait to pick up another of her books!
Boricuan Bookworms- Book Reviews
Your enjoyment of You Had Me at Hello will depend sorely on how muchbullshit Ben you can tolerate. Sadly, I couldn’t tolerate much.
This saddens me so much, because the premise for this book is wonderful. We’ve all had that one person who’s “got away”, so it is supposed to be easy to relate to this story.
It starts off pretty strong too! We see Rachel & Ben in college, where it all started. Ben jokingly (and so cutely!!!) proposes to Rachel and then we’re thrust into present day, 13 years later. Rachel is unhappily engaged to someone else, and hasn’t heard from Ben in over a decade.
For the most part, this book is told in past and present POV’s. The past POV shows us Rachel’s life with Ben in college, while the present POV tells shows us how Rachel has been dealing with her life after her fallout with Ben.
What motivated me to keep reading was the fact that I wanted to know why they stopped speaking to each other.
After I actually found out, I was left feeling so disappointed. It made me hate the situation even more and frankly removed an overall star from my rating.
Rachel seems like a very put-together girl, and I value her honesty at the beginning and her courage to have broken off her engagement because she wasn’t happy. After this, when Ben comes into the picture she turns into this lovesick, indecisive, girl who is suddenly unable to speak her mind and decides to settle for whatever it is Ben can offer her.
Which, let’s get this out of the way first: Ben is married. Yes, you heard me correctly. He is not only married, but also happily married. So now begins the constant hot/cold back and forth game between Ben & Rachel.
I hate Ben. I seriously do. Ben is like this annoying rock in your shoe. You think it’ll stop annoying you eventually, but then it’s midday and the rock is really digging into your foot and you feel as if the only solution is to either cut off your foot or set the rock on fire (just me…?). Point is, whenever you thought you couldn’t get any more annoyed by Ben, there he went, annoying you even more!
He said he loved his wife, he said he was happily married, he said he didn’t give a crap about Rachel’s love life, except that’s what it all was. Words. Whenever Rachel did as much as look at someone who wasn’t Ben, he would go all possessive and weird. And then everyone tries to make Rachel feel bad as if she were trying to break apart a marriage or something! I really couldn’t deal with something that was so clearly Ben’s fault.
Something else that really bothered me was the ending. So much angst and drama! I really could’ve done without it. It left me with a bitter taste in my mouth, and a scowl for the rest of the week.
What I did like was Rachel’s group of friends. They were all so quirky and fun! I wanted to be friends with them in real life. I also liked the college scenes because Rachel & Ben were much more tolerable then. There’s no doubt that Mhairi McFarlane is a great author, however this book needed much more editing and revision.
Overall,a book that tells us that when the one who got away comes back, you have to act like a total dumbass and wait until he grows some balls to either dump his wife for you OR lead you on and then dump you for his bitch of a wife. Both outcomes WILL make YOU the villain of the story and everyone you know will very likely see you as a slut. Also, you are a monster who deserves no sympathy. And ugly.
This book could have been something really great, but due to my strong dislike for the main characters, and the lack of real story, I really could not bring myself to rate it something more than 2 stars.
Your enjoyment of You Had Me at Hello will depend sorely on how much
This saddens me so much, because the premise for this book is wonderful. We’ve all had that one person who’s “got away”, so it is supposed to be easy to relate to this story.
It starts off pretty strong too! We see Rachel & Ben in college, where it all started. Ben jokingly (and so cutely!!!) proposes to Rachel and then we’re thrust into present day, 13 years later. Rachel is unhappily engaged to someone else, and hasn’t heard from Ben in over a decade.
For the most part, this book is told in past and present POV’s. The past POV shows us Rachel’s life with Ben in college, while the present POV tells shows us how Rachel has been dealing with her life after her fallout with Ben.
What motivated me to keep reading was the fact that I wanted to know why they stopped speaking to each other.
After I actually found out, I was left feeling so disappointed. It made me hate the situation even more and frankly removed an overall star from my rating.
Rachel seems like a very put-together girl, and I value her honesty at the beginning and her courage to have broken off her engagement because she wasn’t happy. After this, when Ben comes into the picture she turns into this lovesick, indecisive, girl who is suddenly unable to speak her mind and decides to settle for whatever it is Ben can offer her.
Which, let’s get this out of the way first: Ben is married. Yes, you heard me correctly. He is not only married, but also happily married. So now begins the constant hot/cold back and forth game between Ben & Rachel.
I hate Ben. I seriously do. Ben is like this annoying rock in your shoe. You think it’ll stop annoying you eventually, but then it’s midday and the rock is really digging into your foot and you feel as if the only solution is to either cut off your foot or set the rock on fire (just me…?). Point is, whenever you thought you couldn’t get any more annoyed by Ben, there he went, annoying you even more!
He said he loved his wife, he said he was happily married, he said he didn’t give a crap about Rachel’s love life, except that’s what it all was. Words. Whenever Rachel did as much as look at someone who wasn’t Ben, he would go all possessive and weird. And then everyone tries to make Rachel feel bad as if she were trying to break apart a marriage or something! I really couldn’t deal with something that was so clearly Ben’s fault.
Something else that really bothered me was the ending. So much angst and drama! I really could’ve done without it. It left me with a bitter taste in my mouth, and a scowl for the rest of the week.
What I did like was Rachel’s group of friends. They were all so quirky and fun! I wanted to be friends with them in real life. I also liked the college scenes because Rachel & Ben were much more tolerable then. There’s no doubt that Mhairi McFarlane is a great author, however this book needed much more editing and revision.
Overall,
This book could have been something really great, but due to my strong dislike for the main characters, and the lack of real story, I really could not bring myself to rate it something more than 2 stars.
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes