I've read Mhairi McFarlane's last three novels (yes, I'm still behind on her backlist) and I think her latest is my favourite yet. Just Last Night, which released last week, was so incredibly enjoyable and a refreshing change of pace from your average rom com. I highly recommend it.
Here's the book's description:
Eve, Justin, Susie, and Ed have been friends since they were teenagers. Now in their thirties, the four are as close as ever, Thursday night bar trivia is sacred, and Eve is still secretly in love with Ed. Maybe she should have moved on by now, but she can’t stop thinking about what could have been. And she knows Ed still thinks about it, too.There was so much about this story that completely surprised me. Some of it was the really hard stuff and the fact that these really hard storylines were found between such brightly coloured covers. There's a death of a friend - one that was basically like family. There's a backstory of child abuse for one character and there's also someone's parent who has dementia. Another surprise? I was also totally set on how I wanted the romance part of the story to go because I love the trope that McFarlane was setting up but then I changed my mind. Nothing about this story screamed typical rom com and I LOVED that. Who knew a story about grief could be so god damn funny?
But then, in an instant, their lives are changed forever.
In the aftermath, Eve’s world is upended. As stunning secrets are revealed, she begins to wonder if she really knew her friends as well as she thought. And when someone from the past comes back into her life, Eve’s future veers in a surprising new direction...
They say every love story starts with a single moment. What if it was just last night?
And it really was funny. McFarlane always writes incredibly witty and intelligent female main characters and I love her for it. They're women who I want to be friends with and I really felt that with Eve. That might have been, in part, because the characters were all 34 and I'll be 34 at the end of the month. Eve wasn't feeling super settled in life and I could kind of identify with that (happily, I do have a great relationship but the career side of things is...well...less so.) I could really feel like I was hanging out right alongside the group of friends and really wish I could have hung out at trivia night with them.
I was pretty happy with the pace of the novel. It had a pretty distinct "before" and "after", which I liked. I also think I accidentally did myself a solid and I read in chunks - stopping after the funeral and then carrying on the next day. The funeral changes a lot of things for the friends, even more than the obvious - that they've buried one of their best friends far, far too early. If I had to be nitpicky, I wanted to see a little bit more of the Happily Ever After but I also liked being able to imagine what it was like and fill in some of the gaps for myself.
The novel is set in Nottingham, where McFarlane lives, and it's full of Britishisms. Most I understood but there was the odd phrase that had me scratching my head. Which I kind of loved, to be honest. I don't always want authors to pander to a white, North American audience. I want to read something that's not my every day normal. Especially right now. (Side note: I think the audio of this one would be great!) I also liked that Eve and another character take a quick jaunt to Edinburgh. It's not exactly what I'd call a fun trip and they're hardly there but it was nice to revisit in a book the last place I went before the world shut down.
I'm loving the trend of really real rom coms and was completely enthralled by Mhairi McFarlane's latest. Just Last Night will probably be a favourite of the year and I definitely think everyone should read it.
*An ARC of this novel was provided by the publisher, HarperCollins Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*
