Don’t You Forget About Me – Mhairi McFarlane
Published: 10th January 2019
Source: Purchased
Genre: Contemporary romance
My Rating:
Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to rise again…
The hilarious new heartbreaker from Mhairi McFarlane!
If there’s one thing worse than being fired from the grottiest restaurant in town, it’s coming home early to find your boyfriend in bed with someone else.
Reeling from the indignity of a double dumping on the same day, Georgina snatches at the next job that she’s offered – barmaid in a newly opened pub, which just so happens to run by the boy she fell in love with at school: Lucas McCarthy. And whereas Georgina (voted Most Likely to Succeed in her school yearbook) has done nothing but dead-end jobs in the last twelve years, Lucas has not only grown into a broodingly handsome man, but also has turned into an actual grown-up with a business and a dog along the way.
Meeting Lucas again not only throws Georgina’s rackety present into sharp relief, but also brings a dark secret from her past bubbling to the surface. Only she knows the truth about what happened on the last day of school, and why she’s allowed it to chase her all these years…
First up we have a book I was so excited to buy… and then preceded to not read for several weeks. I adore Mhairi McFarlane’s previous books. They aren’t straight-up romance, but I wouldn’t be happy labelling them chick lit or women’s fiction or something. They’re contemporary romance reads, but maybe as they’re British the romance just feels different, you know? I went in with high expectations because McFarlane has yet to let me down with one of her releases and it’s safe to say this was no different.
Like I said, I was so psyched to buy this book. I bought it pretty much as soon as it was released but since my mood took my other places I waited until I was in the mood for excellent friendships, a slow-burn romance, and probably some emotional upheaval before picking this up. Each of her books hits me in the feels and has me adoring each and every character and begging for more story by the end.
This time the book centres on Georgina. She is a thirty-year-old woman who gets unceremoniously fired from her waitress job and somehow gets lucky and finds herself offered a job (and decent pay) as a barwoman at a new pub. The only problem is her ex-boyfriend (that no one knew about because they kept it all hush hush as teens) is the part owner and he is pretending he has no idea who she is despite them having History (yep, it's so significant it is capitalised). She is fumbling through with the awkwardness of knowing he was her first love and also that something serious went down to break them apart at the tender age of eighteen.
Anyway, the romantic trauma of youth is not the main focus of this book, it's actually Georgina's quest to figure herself out and make a path for her future. She is continually labelled an underachiever going nowhere as she has worked in the service industry since leaving school and dropped out of uni after less than a year. She feels like a disappointment to her mom and her sister like they feel like she is hard work and always making a new drama of things. Especially as she feels like she continually needs to shine up and make a joke out of the lows of her life. But I loved Georgina for trying to make light of things that would get people down. Yes, she could be too lighthearted, but she was such a brilliant character. I was there crying for her when things were bad and laughing with her at the funny bits. I was invested! She probably used this humour as a defence mechanism for the things that went down in her past (no spoilers, don’t worry) but I loved that. If shit happens you can get yourself down and wallow about it, or you can try and brush yourself off and make it a funny story to tell your mates at the pub. I know which option I’d prefer.
I think the romance was a quieter part of the story. It was there and it wasn’t ignored, but I was more focused on Georgina’s path to figuring out where she wanted to be in life than her romantic life (but damn, I was in love with Lucas). Lucas is the ex pretending to not know Georgina and he was a sullen, Irish bloke who had a dry sense of humour I loved and he had a dog! The dog was the best and I fully loved the story behind him. I love any story that involves pets (see my love for every Jennifer Crusie book because I don’t think any of her stories are without a pet featuring in there somewhere). The romance was slow, I mean, there was history to overcome and misunderstandings to clear up. It was easy to get behind the romance, though, because this was not Georgina finding a new man to fix her life, but instead finding an old one she missed out on and reminding herself that she was passionate about things and having him help her realise what she wants.
Just everything about this book worked for me. I had no doubt it would. I loved every page and am determined to buy a paperback version because I need this book on my shelf to read again and again.
Have you read this book yet? And have you read any of McFarlane’s previous books because I need an author like her?
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