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daychaser 's review for:
It Had to Be You
by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
This is my first SEP book that I didn't really love. Don't get me wrong, there were parts that I enjoyed and I love heroines like Phoebe, but I just wasn't fully on board this one.
So Phoebe is a fashionista blonde who's posed naked for artsy friends, and everyone just kind of writes her off as a shallow bimbo who likes to take off her clothes, which couldn't be further from the truth, but she leans into this persona to protect herself. I love heroines like Phoebe and her growth throughout the book was so great to read about! SEP can really write some great characters and for that I appreciate it!
When Phoebe's jerk of a father dies he decides to give her his NFL team, which isn't as great as it sounds. Phoebe doesn't give a fig about football and if the flailing stars lose the NFC (or is it AFC?) championship game then ownership goes to her piece of work brother (ew) and she gets a measly $100,000. Phoebe knows this is just a way for her father to control her from the grave and she's sort of stuck.
She doesn't plan on taking her role seriously and figures the team will just go to Reed at the end of the season, but despite it all she learns to really love the team and staff. Except for Dan, the arrogant head coach who has some antiquated views of women.
Unfortunately I didn't love some of the tropes/story beats employed and Dan as a character wasn't my fave. Dan struggles for far too long with the wife vs. mistress thing and is dating a nice schoolteacher while grappling with his attraction to Phoebe. He really doesn't even like the schoolteacher, but he just thinks that someone like that is wife material while Phoebe is just more of a fun lay. Which... just went on for far too long. And of course he realizes the error of his ways and understands that someone like Phoebe can, gasp!, be a good mom too, but he seemed really immature to be having these thoughts. Just hate the whole wife/mistress thing like a mother is some holy, conservative sexless being and just nahhh miss me with that.
A lot of Dan's character growth revolved around "types" of women - hot bimbos like Phoebe aren't wife material, soft-spoken + conservative schoolteacher Sharon is the ideal wife + mother, and his kinky ex-wife who didn't want kids is too over the top. Like, grow up Dan. I give some slack though as this was written in the 90's.
Speaking of said kinky ex-wife, at the beginning of the book, we meet Dan thinking he's some pedo for TOO long when he's just roleplaying with his ex and I DID NOT like that omg.
I did really love the found family aspect though and SEP's side characters are always a joy. I loved how Phoebe grew to love the team and the team grew to love her authentically. Ron and Molly in particular were fab.
Overall this was well written and I loved most of the characters, just didn't enjoy some of the story beats.
So Phoebe is a fashionista blonde who's posed naked for artsy friends, and everyone just kind of writes her off as a shallow bimbo who likes to take off her clothes, which couldn't be further from the truth, but she leans into this persona to protect herself. I love heroines like Phoebe and her growth throughout the book was so great to read about! SEP can really write some great characters and for that I appreciate it!
When Phoebe's jerk of a father dies he decides to give her his NFL team, which isn't as great as it sounds. Phoebe doesn't give a fig about football and if the flailing stars lose the NFC (or is it AFC?) championship game then ownership goes to her piece of work brother (ew) and she gets a measly $100,000. Phoebe knows this is just a way for her father to control her from the grave and she's sort of stuck.
She doesn't plan on taking her role seriously and figures the team will just go to Reed at the end of the season, but despite it all she learns to really love the team and staff. Except for Dan, the arrogant head coach who has some antiquated views of women.
Unfortunately I didn't love some of the tropes/story beats employed and Dan as a character wasn't my fave. Dan struggles for far too long with the wife vs. mistress thing and is dating a nice schoolteacher while grappling with his attraction to Phoebe. He really doesn't even like the schoolteacher, but he just thinks that someone like that is wife material while Phoebe is just more of a fun lay. Which... just went on for far too long. And of course he realizes the error of his ways and understands that someone like Phoebe can, gasp!, be a good mom too, but he seemed really immature to be having these thoughts. Just hate the whole wife/mistress thing like a mother is some holy, conservative sexless being and just nahhh miss me with that.
A lot of Dan's character growth revolved around "types" of women - hot bimbos like Phoebe aren't wife material, soft-spoken + conservative schoolteacher Sharon is the ideal wife + mother, and his kinky ex-wife who didn't want kids is too over the top. Like, grow up Dan. I give some slack though as this was written in the 90's.
Speaking of said kinky ex-wife, at the beginning of the book, we meet Dan thinking he's some pedo for TOO long when he's just roleplaying with his ex and I DID NOT like that omg.
I did really love the found family aspect though and SEP's side characters are always a joy. I loved how Phoebe grew to love the team and the team grew to love her authentically. Ron and Molly in particular were fab.
Overall this was well written and I loved most of the characters, just didn't enjoy some of the story beats.