Book Takeover Sunday | Here's Looking At You by Mhairi Mcfarlane

Image taken from Goodreads.

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I'm a huge fan of Mhairi Mcfarlane and this is her second book. Her first book was You had me at hello, which I prefer to Here's looking at you, despite her second novel being good. Mhairi is a great writer, making her books a really enjoyable to read, with witty humour and lots of laugh out loud moments.

Here's looking at you is a very ugly duckling tale, about a girl who fades into the background with no friends yet is known to everyone for all the wrong reasons, her weight. There's always a few or that one person who get's bullied at school based on how they look, and it's cruel. Aureliana is that girl, over weight, insecure, has a crush on the most popular, good looking boy, James, who just happens to befriend her - for all the wrong reasons. It's fifteen years later, Aureliana is in her thirties and isn't that girl anymore, she's slimmed down, now stands out for all them reasons and isn't afraid anymore. Aureliana is now going by anna and unbeknown by anyone at school, at the reunion, she tries to run and pretends to be at the wrong venue, but soon gets found out after being seen getting in a taxi that it was obvious she was giving James best friend the brush off. Fate keep's getting in the way and she finds herself bumping into James on a number of occasions, they soon find themselves hanging out more. It isn't long until James finds out who she really is, a love/hate relationship starts until they both get to know who they really are deep, down, inside.

My thoughts 

Even though I preferred Mhairi' first book, this was still full of plenty of laughs and witty humour. It was great seeing the story from two perspectives and following their journeys, that there's more to somebodies looks and that people can be ugly inside. That behind the popular guys good looks, is someone deeply insecure. It see's the main characters face their demons and learning to be happy with who they are. Score 5/5 - Recommend both here's looking at you and you had me at hello.