I only have praises for McFarlane's writing. Truly.

She took elements that would honestly not be attractive to me as a reader (fat girl loses weight, former bully reformed), but made it incredibly readable anyway.

I was expecting this book to be similar to "It's Not Me It's You" where the POV was only the MFC's (Anna), without access to the MMC's (James). So when James's POV came as early as chapter 4, I may or may not have recoiled. 😆 "Don't humanize the bully in my eyes, ma'am! I'm not interested, ma'am!"

As I read, I find myself not warming up to James even with his dastardly good looks, and only liking the main girl (Anna) despite her own transformation into a swan. I love seeing characters with rich inner lives - the author had interesting things to say about her suddenly entering a new world after discovering she's conventionally pretty! Let it be known: fat does not equal ugly, okay?

This is my second McFarlane, and this is certainly her most Pride and Prejudice-y one yet. She practically LIFTED words (and maybe even plot points?) from Austen's most famous work, and I'm not complaining. I remember laughing because I didn't know if the author was doing a not-so-subtle *nudgenudgewinkwink* with me as the reader. It was like breaking the fourth wall, in the most literary way.

Also, I learned new words! I loved the descriptions of finding out what kind of person you are, ESPECIALLY that insight about how the people we keep around us might be mirros of our traits, the bad or the good. I loved juxtaposing Anna's best girlfriend and James's "best" guy friend and woah. How telling. :) 

This isn't my favorite (for elements aforementioned), but it still had good things to say. I noticed that I wasn't rooting for the main couple; I was more curious how they'd get together in the end.

What would've made it better? I would've loved an epilogue featuring Grace and Anna meeting and taking shots at James together, but alas, it doesn't stop a girl from dreaming. 

I'm excited for my next McFarlane, but especially glad my real-life bookworm friend Anna had the intuition to give me It's Not Me, It's You first. 🥰 Because that one really knocked it out of the park for me. Here's Looking At You was mighty readable, but didn't sparkle as brightly as the former. ✨️ 

(As a prediction: I don't know if I'll get over the premise of this book!)