It Had to Be You

Rating:
Summary: Ms. Phillips is superb as always!
Review: After reading all the football series books I finally got around to reading the first and was happy I finally did. Wonderful! True to Ms. Phillips style, I was hooked to say the least. A great way to spend a nice warm spring afternoon.

Rating:
Summary: Book #1 in SEP's Football Hero Series; Hooks You Instantly!
Review: SEP is coming out in hardback shortly with her newest football book. I absolutely hate football and couldn't imagine at first liking these books. This held true until I read my first one, out of order in the series, "Nobody's Baby But Mine." I finished that one at about 3am of the morning after the day I'd bought it. Did I sleep late? Oh, no, I got up first thing to go to the bookstores to track down her other books! I read the entire series, as it then existed, in about 3 days. Essentially, every book involves a hero in football in some capacity and a heroine who is either also in football or who intersects with him for some other reason. In this book, the heroine, Phoebe, inherits the football team for Chicago from her recently deceased father. She inherits with a tricky provision though and has every chance of losing the team to her cousin. The hero, Dan, is the coach for her football team, a former player himself. Dan thinks Phoebe is a total airhead because she lived with and modeled for an artist in New York, has many gay friends and looks like a present day Marilyn Monroe. Phoebe has a way of giving people the business too who make stereotyped judgements just looking at her. She is no dim wit. Phillips combines LOL hilarity with great tenderness and heartfeltness. I'm happy to report that you really don't need to know anything about football since Phillips uses it primarily as a way of moving her plot and fully developing her characters. Even I found myself totally enmeshed in this football world.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best
Review: Let's face it, choosing a favorite novel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips is akin to choosing a favorite child. They're all terrific, so how can any one of them be singled out for praise? Yet even among Susan's books, there are subtle divisions and there is no question that within her hierarchy, IT HAD TO BE YOU is up there at the top of the heap. As always, her pacing is superb, and the tale just flies in her telling. As always, her characters are real and endearing. As always, her sex scenes...well, her sex scenes! Susan Elizabeth Phillips is the best romance writer of our era.

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read to those who enjoy Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Review: "It Had to be You" is a really good book because it's about two totally opposite people coming together.

Phoebe Somerville has just inherited the Stars football team because her father died. Phoebe is really smart but she acts really dumb because of some past incident. When she inherited the football team, she wasn't prepared to face Dan Calebow, this cold but handsome man.

The football team comes with a coach and that is Dan Calebow. Dan is really sexy but cold because of his own problems. He hates it when a "bimbo" just inherited his football team. And that "bimbo" knows nothing about football. Besides the fact that she has a drop dead body, they really don't mix.

But in order for the Stars to win, Dan and Phoebe would have to work together. The Stars would also have to win the AFC Championship, so Phoebe could keep the Stars out of her greedy cousin, Reed Chandler, who is a class A jerk. Could they win the Championship? And what about Phoebe's dark past, could she heal herself so she and Dan could start something new or would she always stay a victim to her past?

I think this is a good book. It's one of those wonderful Susan Elizabeth Phillips books about different types of people getting together. I think she is a really good writer because she comes up with these different styles and personalities for her characters. I recommend this book to readers who have also read "Dream A Little Dream" and "Nobody's Baby but Mine"

Rating:
Summary: SEP, arguably the best romance writer!
Review: There is just something about Susan Elizabeth Phillips that makes her writing so great! I'm not sure if it's her rhetoric or if it's the plot or what it is. But there is a quality about her work that defines it as a level above the regular romance writer. Since reading "It Had to Be You," I am now a football fan! Phillips takes an approach towards football that views the game as somewhat sexy, and I guess that viewpoint has rubbed off onto me. Although Phoebe Sommerville and Dan Calebo aren't my favourite SEP characters, they're fun and there is a special chemistry between the pair. I think it is interesting how Phillips takes two characters that are completely different from each other and throws them together. Moreover, Phillips creates each character as sort of an anomaly. Because Phoebe is beautiful, one would naturallly assume that she's just another "dumb blonde." It's a pretty stupid stereotype, but prevailing regardless. Instead, Phoebe's not only beautiful but she's smart and she's artsy and sort of Bohemian and sensitive and artlessly unaware of how beautiful she really is. Furthermore, Dan, although a former jock and the "Stars" head coach, consists of much more than just the "dumb jock" persona. He's intelligent and wears glasses and he's not into wild and kinky sex. Okay, maybe the kinky and fun part. Anyways, I don't want to give away too much of the story, but this is another winner. I definitely recommend "It Had to Be You."

Rating:
Summary: To Love and Re-read
Review: This book is totally appealing. The heroine deals with a dark secret in a unique way; she's funny, bright and thoroughly likable. The hero is a typical jock, and even though he unabashedly refuses to get in touch with his feminine side, he's also funny, bright and thoroughly likable. When these two finally get together, it's the cumulation of every half time extravaganza of every Superbowl ever played. Susan Elizabeth Phillips is one of my very favorite writers of romance and this is one of my two favorites of her books. If you like contemporary romance, which contain adult humor which is subtle enough to be really funny, don't miss this one. Hot cha cha, indeed.

Rating:
Summary: Unputdownable
Review: I've read the word "Unputdownable" in a review of a lot of other books, but on this one I agree for the first time. It definitely is unputdownable. The story as well as the characters just keeps you turning pages. I read in the book every time I had the chance. I even missed the end of the break at work and a colleague had to remind me where I was !

Since I like football a lot, this book has become one of my favorites. But it's not like you won't enjoy this book if you hate sports. It really stays on track, what that book is all about: Romance !

Usually I read History Romances but the writing of SEP is a very nice change. I can't wait to read another one of her books.

Unfortunately I can't recommend her stories to any of my friends since I think I'm the only one around here who reads english books. If I could just explain how fine reading can be, I'm sure they start learning english vocabs to enjoy this with me. But there's no way to express what you feel while you are in that story. Anyway, after reading all the reviews of the other people who enjoyed this book, I know I shared a major fun with a lot of other romance fans.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite SEP
Review: My favorite book by Susan, until I read Lady Be Good. Phoebe Somerville is a blond bimbo with a sweet heart and brains, but of course, no one notices because of her more, uh, prominent attributes. At the death of her evil father, she inherits the Chicago Stars football team, much to the ire of Coach Dan Calebow, who sees his team on the verge of disaster because of the new bimbo in town. They fight, they insult each other, and they're smoldering! If you love football like I do, then this is an added bonus, but you don't have to be a fan to enjoy this wonderful book.

Rating:
Summary: mixed feelings
Review: This was my first SEP book, and I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed. Perhaps my expectations were a little too high as the other readers' reviews for 'It Had to Be You' were so very much in the 5-star range.

This book was quite liberally sprinkled with warm and funny moments but at times, all those blasts of testosterone and bouts of chest-thumping emanating from Dan were just a little tired. For most of the book, his precious sensitivy was too deeply buried in macho swaggering, anger and denial. And Phoebe! Although she makes a rather different and fascinating heroine, she does spend quite a lot of time acting like a complete fruitcake!

About halfway through the book, I found myself wishing that Dan and Phoebe would just grow up, forget their one thousand and one hang-ups and just give in to their feelings for each other ... they certainly were beautiful together during those too-rare occasions when SEP finally let them have a go at it. When all is said and done, I wish SEP had let these two people have more fun with each other ...

Rating:
Summary: It had to be You
Review: Susan Elizabeth Phillips is the greatest! I have just finished my 5th book by her. The humor and romance is great. "It Had To Be You" is the type of book that you are not in a hurry to finish as you would like the story to just keep going on.Her books are feel good books.