You Had Me At Hello by Mhairi McFarlane: warm, funny women's fiction

Mhairi McFarlane's debut novel has been causing quite the storm lately, racing up the kindle charts and making a splash in bookshops too. On the strength of various online recommendations I took the plunge into the ebook - currently just 99p on kindle.

The novel follows Rachel Woodford, a 30 something court reporter living in Manchester. As the story starts she breaks up with her fiance Rhys, just as her university best friend Ben relocates to the area. Seems like a straightforward setup - but there are problems: Ben's married, for one thing, to the perfect Olivia, and his relationship with Rachel is complicated to say the least.

Rachel is a really appealing heroine: flawed and funny, Bridget Jones style. Her friends Caroline, Mindy and Ivor are a great supporting cast and Ben is suitably dreamy for us to root for him and Rachel to get together. There's also an interesting subplot revolving around Rachel's work as a journalist which has her questioning how far she'd go ethically for her job.

My favourite parts of the novel were the flashbacks to Ben and Rachel's time at university. Anyone who's been a student will recognise the situations they end up in and take pleasure in MacFarlane's comic yet sympathetic portrait of student life. Lots of fun nostalgia for thirty something readers!

All in all a warmly written, funny and enjoyable read which lots of readers will identify with. I'll definitely be recommending it to my friends.

I must add a recommendation for the "extras" at the end of the digital book. McFarlane has history in women's magazines and as a former mag junkie I found the generic female celeb interview hilarious. She nails the cliches of the genre: celeb apparently wolfing down high fat food, reading highbrow literature and being effortlessly beautiful - all guaranteed to depress the reader! And I enjoyed discussing it with Mhairi on Twitter too!

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