It Had To Be You by Susan Elizabeth Phillips: A Review

It was a book that left me feeling all fuzzy wuzzy inside. Granted, the book was written in 1994. I was 10 back then, Sesame Street was my best friend and I wanted to be Belle SO. BAD. So a book that came out before Buffy The Vampire Slayer did should not be relevant in 2011, right?

You'd be surprised as to how relevant it still is. There were no references to handphones, and personal computers were considered new and foreign but while reading it, I cannot help but feel like Dan and Phoebe's story is still applicable today. They're hilarious, both a little stubborn (because that's what the modern woman in a romance novel is) and both trying very hard to concentrate on work first before what lies in their heart.

There's a lot of emphasis on the fact that Phoebe's not thin. Nope, girl is pretty much a size 10 and is proud of it. Any plus-sized girl cannot help but feel proud of her curves when she reads the amount of the appreciation that Dan has for her...curves.

Yeah, the hero's name is Dan. And automatically my mind goes to

this idiot here

Yeah it probably may not work but who cares because I love him forever and ever and ever and ever.

Anyways.

Some of the themes could have been handled a little less -harshly- but it worked. I found myself abandoning Snobs for a while just to finish It Had To Be You and although one could say that Susan Elizabeth Phillips definitely had some maturing to do in terms of her writing techniques, considering the type of fiction that was coming out of the romance genre at that time, this book was stellar. It's the first instalment to the Chicago Stars series and I can't wait to read the others.