Forever Obsession: TOUR STOP: Here's Looking At You

Here's Looking At You by Mhairi McFarlane

ISBN: 9780007559473

Pages: 432
Source: TLC Book Tours

Appearance:

Summary (Back of the Book):

Anna Alessi - history expert, possessor of a lot of hair and an occasionally filthy mouth - seeks nice man for intelligent conversation and Harlequin romance moments.

Despite the oddballs that keep turning up on her dates, Anna couldn't be happier. As a 30-something with a job she loves, life has turned out better than she dared dream. However, things weren't always this way, and her years spend as the roly-poly "Italian Galleon" of her East London high school are ones she'd rather forget.

So when James Fraser - the architect of Anna's final humiliation at school - walks back into her life, her world is turned upside down. But James seems like a changed man. Polite. Mature. Funny, even. People can change right? So why does Anna feel like she's a fool to trust him, never mind fall in love with him?

Full of laugh-out-loud humor and touching poignancy, Here's Looking At You is a novel about facing your demons and ultimately being happy with who you really are.

Hello everybody! Welcome to my tour stop for the Here's Looking At You Book Tour hosted by TLC Books. Don't forget to check out the other tour stops HERE.

Anna Alessi, our gorgeous, strong MC has been bullied all throughout high school for her weight and appearance. Now, as a 30 year old woman, she is everything she wasn't as a teenage girl. She's no longer "fat," she has great friends, a great job, but she's missing her handsome man. Suddenly, her high school tormentor, James Fraser walks back into her life. He used to be her crush until the day he humiliated her in front of the entire school. Things just got a whole lot complicated.

Okay, starting things off, this book has all types of stereotypes. We've the fat bullied girl who is now freaking beautiful, the handsome bully who is now polite and even more drool-worthy, they meet again and the bully thinks the girl is drop dead gorgeous, but the girl is afraid to trust him despite the fact that he's pretty damn cute. Yup, a lot of stereotypes. Personally, I don't mind stereotypes as much, yes they are a bit overdone, but there are only so many great ideas in this world. Once in a while, an author will come up with a refreshing idea, but sooner or later it's going to get burned out. What I loved about Here's Looking At You was that despite all the stereotypes, Mhairi McFarlane managed to make the story entertaining and really really touching.

No joke, this book touched me on a level I definitely wasn't expecting. Bullying sucks and I am definitely one to attest to that. Anna has been super insecure about herself ever since that big incident at school and I don't blame her. Years down the road, that day still brings her nightmares and the appearance of her tormentors (who don't recognize her btw) isn't helping that fact. The way that the author created Anna as a victim of bullying and how it affected her 20 something years down the line was really amazing and beautiful. I might have shed a tear or two.

Now the romance. I knew from the start that Anna and James were somehow going to end of together. Come on, it's not that hard to decipher out. What I wasn't expecting was how Mhairi took us on that journey. Anna, like I mentioned has super trust issues when it comes to James. James has no clue why Anna doesn't like him because they seem to get along really well. Their banters were super funny to read about, even if I hated James at the beginning for he did, you do start to fall for his charms after a while. No surprise that Anna does too, but the journey took a while. I loved that the romance, while it was vital to the story, played more a supporting role in the story. The main issue was Anna letting go of her past, facing her demons, and moving on.

This book is advertised as a hysterical romantic (mis)adventure, according to the back of the paperback copy that I received. In some ways it definite was. I won't lie, some parts of the story seemed to drag on, but at the same time there was that little something that just made me want to keep reading. Other parts were flat out funny. Take Neil for example, his craziness appeared at moments when I felt like nothing was happening and hooked me back into the story. Who's Neil, you'll have to read to find out. I definitely recommend Here's Looking At You, it was really touching and overall, a beautiful story!