TITLE: It Had To Be You
AUTHOR: Susan Elizabeth Phillips
SERIES: First in the Chicago Stars series
REASON FOR READING: I read Natural Born Charmer and really enjoyed it. When I found out it was part of a series (even thought it’s a great stand alone) I wanted to read the rest of the series.
The Windy City isn’t quite ready for Phoebe Somerville — the outrageous, curvaceous New York knockout who has just inherited the Chicago Stars football team. And Phoebe is definitely not prepared for the Stars’ head coach Dan Calebow, a sexist jock taskmaster with a one-track mind. Calebow is everything Phoebe abhors. And the sexy new boss is everything Dan despises — a meddling bimbo who doesn’t know a pigskin from a pitcher’s mound.
When I first started reading this book I has some reservations about it. The main characters lives were just soooo messed up it was almost hard to read. But I quickly got over that!
Phoebe is playing the sexpot bimbo when she’s actually quite smart which is something I don’t like, but I got why she was doing it. She had such a horrid upbringing with her ass of a father it was heartbreaking. And then there’s her cousin who is such a slimy pile of poo I just wanted to crawl in the book and bludgeon him. How’s a girl to get through life with surrounded by crappy men. She does find friends eventually, mostly gay who want nothing from her and that makes her very happy. Being attracted to Dan is truly the last thing she wants, along with the football team. Along with everything else she’s got her 15 year old half-sister who she is now guardian to…and her sister hates her guts.
Dan Calebow is looking for a nice little woman who he can settle down and have a nice family with. His ex-wife is supposedly this conservative congresswoman on the outside but wants nothing but kink in the bedroom, which Dan is extremely tired of since he’s still servicing her a year after their divorce. They are both afraid of being with new partners. Dan had a horrible upbringing as well, but bad in a different way than Phoebe’s. He is the head coach for the team that Phoebe has inherited but also a retired quarterback and famous in his own right from that. When he’s attracted to Phoebe he gets very conflicted and isn’t sure what he wants.
This book was really good. Despite my reservations when I first started…because it seemed that everyone was incredibly fucked up…I couldn’t seem to put it down. The characters were very compelling in their own way and I kept wanting more. Ms. Phillips did a great job of setting up the background for all of the characters and then playing them out through book.
There were several conflicts in the book that needed to be worked through but the largest at the end of the book was taken care of a little too easily. The heroine was involved and it just seemed she got over her trauma too dang fast. Maybe it was the support from the hero that did that, IDK.
Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again?
I had only read 1 other of her books but will be reading more in the future.
Well I got it from the library so I’ll pass it on…but if I owned it I would keep it.
Did you enjoy the book? yes
Would you recommend this book to others? Yes
Anything else? Can’t think of anything! 🙂
I just reviewed this at TGTBTU not too long ago. My thing is: I absolutely love the book while I’m reading it. Then I finished it and my inner feminist rears her head and says, “WTF Dude, he was an ASS!” and you know, she’s right, but I still love it. LOL
Thanks for the review. The Goodreads summary claims It Had To Be You is a hilarious “prequel” to This Heart of Mine. Did you find it funny?
Holly – Really? I didn’t think that. Yes, the guy had a temper but I thought she calmed him quite nicely. The asses were the dead dad and the cousin IMO.
Christine – hilarious? Cute. But not LOL funny…at least not to me. And the prequel thing? This Heart of Mine wasn’t published until 2001 whereas IHTBY was pubbed in 1994. Is it really a prequel? IDK
No doubt the dad/cousin were asses, but:
SPOILERS!!!
Dan was such an ass, too. Hello, he was dating the good, virgin school teacher type that was good enough for marriage while screwing the blonde bimbo. Not only that, but he really didn’t think she was good enough for marriage until he saw her with kids. Like..he couldn’t have realized it on his own? And he never really apologized for acting like he was God’s gift to her.
But again, I did like it. really. I just feel like I shouldn’t have. LOL
END SPOILERS!!!
Christine,
IHTBY is actually the first book of a looong series about a football team, The Chicago Stars. THOM is the most popular of the series, which is probably why this book is listed as it’s prequel.
And I don’t think any of her books are “hilarious”. Some of them are kind of cute, and have funny parts, but she isn’t a comedy writer.
Ok – in Dan’s defense he did realize that he loved her and that the other chick wasn’t for him BEFORE he saw her with the kids…he was just in denial. But you’re right, he did have some serious assishness tendencies.
Love SEP books. The series gets better and better too. GG was in a reading slump recently (I’ve told everyone this story) with his usual courtroom or military thrillers and I started him on these. He read all the Chicago Star books in a month. I got him a book signed by SEP (and her kiss too!) for him in SF.
God, oh God. I have only read “Ain’t She Sweet?” and now I feel the extreme urge to read this book. I wish I could say that I hate when that happens, but I don’t.
Rosie I’m so impressed that your hubby would pick up the SEP books – or any romance novel for that matter. I think my hubby would rather chew nails than read a romance.
Stacy – don’tcha just love it when that happens? lol
Yay! I loved this book. I lurved This Heart of Mine (with Molly – her Daphnie the Bunny and Bennie the Badger are hilarious).
Rosie – so jealous! I wish my hubby would read romance. 🙁
Stacy- I didn’t really like ain’t she sweet. This one is better.
Tracy- great review!
Great review!
I never read her, but I’m like you with the screwed up characters. Though I’m okay with them if they don’t keep screwing things up more themselves.
I have never read SEP. I thought of starting with this one, since it is the start of the series. I have it on my TBB list.
Hey Jill and CJ…it seems to me the 3 books that I’ve read of SEP’s the characters childhoods have been majorly messed up. Screwed up parents are a must in her books I think but then the characters as adults seem to be able to overcome the hurt/pain, whatever that was holding them back.
I feel exactly like Holly about SEP. Her worldview has very little in common with mine (she is clearly very conservative about gender roles, and deeply conservatively Christian), but boy can she tell a story.
I know this book is ranked as her best by most fans, but I actually liked Match Me If You Can the best, probably because the heroine is a bit stronger in that one than in other SEP books.
Great review!
Jessica
Hey Jessica – thanks for stopping by. I definitely don’t think this will be my favorite of hers but I do like her style…it’s a quick fun read.