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Eve, Susie, Ed and Justin have been a cohesive unit of friends since they were teens. Years later, in their 30s, they still gather weekly for trivia at their regular bar, and everyone but Ed hates Ed’s longtime girlfriend. And Eve has been in love with Ed for years. She knows there are moments he seems to wonder “what if” about her, too, but nothing ever happens. She’s just stuck: stuck being in love with a best friend who can’t be more than that, and stuck in a job she doesn’t like.
Then one night, a tragedy throws her and the whole group for a loop. It’s a challenge and a half for Eve to figure out how to navigate her life without someone she depended on, but, even worse, she learns secrets that have her rethinking some basic truths she depended on as well.
Thanks to a series of events, Eve has to spend time with a person from her past she’d never thought highly of, and of course that leads her in unexpected directions. She gets to see a bigger and clearer picture of her friends, their group, and herself as she puts the pieces of her life back together. And romance enters her life just as unexpectedly. Can she trust herself and new information she learns after believing so many things were facts for so long?
I had a fun time with Just Last Night; Mhairi McFarlane is particularly talented at creating realistic dialogue that’s fun and light as well as serious and probing. After reading her novel You Had Me at Hello, I felt happy to try out her newest. Both are entertaining, with friend groups who enjoy strong camaraderie and banter; reading is like slipping right into the group. Romance in this story really takes its time to enter the story and grow, but it’s satisfying when it blooms. A great choice for a take-me-away read.
Rated: High, primarily for profanity: almost 60 instances of strong profanity, 40 uses of moderate language, 20 instances of mild language, and 50 instances of the name of Deity in vain. There is some kissing, there’s reference to a one-time sexual encounter in a bathroom; there’s a detailed account of the main character trying to have a casual one-time encounter with a man but which gets derailed by discussion of waxing private areas. The characters drink a lot and get drunk fairly often.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
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