Harriet Hatley is a wedding photographer who doesn’t want to get married. She’s been to a lot of weddings and seen a lot of things. Many of them are beautiful celebrations. Others, not so much. Like the wedding where she had taken the photos of the bride and bridesmaids getting ready, only to get to the venue and find out that the groom is gone. His best man Sam told Harriet right before the bride arrived, and she left soon after that, but not before hearing the shriek of pain from when Sam told the bride and she hit him.
Harriet has told her boyfriend Jon that she doesn’t want to get married, and she thinks she’s been heard. But when they are at a posh hotel celebrating his parents’ anniversary, he proposes at the family dinner, making her feel trapped into saying yes. Harriet waits until they’re back in their hotel room before yelling at him for setting her up like that, and for proposing after she had specifically said she didn’t want to get married.
Once they’re back home in Leeds, Harriet starts looking for a new place to live. Jon offers to let her stay as long as she wants—his house is certainly big enough for both of them, but she’s not comfortable there, especially when she realizes he’s still trying to win her back. So when her friend Roxy, a real estate agent, finds her an ideal place to live, she jumps at it.
It’s not until Harriet moves her stuff into Cal Clarke’s room to let that she bumps into his friend Sam and realizes that Cal is the runaway groom. Not that Harriet is looking for romance, but it’s good to know that she has valid reasons to keep this good looking guy at arm’s length.
As the weeks go by, Harriet tries to heal from her breakup with Jon and bond with her friends again. But a wedding she is hired to photograph brings up an even uglier former relationship than the one with Jon. Her emotionally abusive ex is, ironically, the best man, and when Harriet sees the look on the face of his fiancée in a guarded moment, she knows that history is repeating itself. And she wants to help.
But when Harriet reaches out, she finds that her business, her reputation, and even her emotional well-being are under attack. Will she be able to find the healing she needs to move forward with her life and find love, or has the damage been too much for her?
Mad About You is the latest love story from international bestselling author Mhairi McFarlane. It’s romantic, and it’s comedic, but to call it a rom com would be to greatly undersell it. This is the story of female friendship and solidarity. It’s the story of healing from abuse. It’s the full story of relationships, not the just the meet cute through to the engagement, or to the wedding, or to the breakup. It’s the story of what comes after, the games and the resentment and the lies and the desperation. It’s about moving on and healing and finding the courage to face your worst secrets. And it’s about falling in love.
I have been buying McFarlane’s books for years but haven’t made the time to read them. That mistake is on me because Mad About You is phenomenal. These characters are fully drawn and emotionally intelligent. Harriet has made mistakes, but she has paid for them and learned from them. Watching her journey from an unhappy relationship to healing to happiness is such a joy. This is one of those books I wanted to linger in but also wanted to race through to find out what happened. If you’ve been looking for a rom com filled with intelligence, sophistication, honesty, and toast, then Mad About You may be just the book you’re looking for.
Egalleys for Mad About You were provided by Avon through NetGalley, with many thanks.
