For fans of romantic comedies, It Had To Be You, will hit all the highs of them but with more inclusion. The love stories are all woven together but not in a way that seems forced. The characters are well written and easy to like.

I really enjoyed this book! It had me laughing out loud at times and I was rooting for every character. The author combined a handful of storylines creating this diverse and amazing cast of characters all at different stages of their lives. She did a great job connecting them all together, while not making it too confusing to keep up with each individual/couple.

I truly don't know if I could pick a favorite storyline, as I really did enjoy them all. When there was a "cliffhanger" at the end of the chapter, I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen in that storyline next, but quickly got caught up in the newest storyline in the current chapter I was reading.

All in all, a very fun book to read and I definetly recommend it!

A great read!

This book took me about 25% to get into. There is a large cast of primary characters and relationships, making it a bit challenging to get footing.

But wow, once I got into it, I really got into it! I was rooting for every one of these diverse couples and their respective love stories. It was touching, sweet, funny and real.

Highly recommend.

Once in awhile, a book comes along that wraps you up in all those swoon-worthy romantic feels and makes you appreciate the mystery and the glory that is love. Georgia Lou Clark's book satisfied every longing of my romantic heart.

The novel follows the love stories of five couples that are all tied together because of their involvement
in the wedding planning business, Love in New York.

The business is run by Liv and Eliot Goldenhorn, power couple extraordinaire. However, the wildly successful venture grinds to a halt when Eliot unexpectedly dies-in the bed of the girlfriend that Liv never knew he had. Liv is left reeling by the circumstances of his death and the revelation that he has left half of the business to Savannah, said girlfriend. Hurt and betrayed, Liv rages and resists-until the unexpected arrival of a new caterer, Sam makes her question her heart.

Meanwhile, Gorman and Henry, the gay couple that handle the floral arrangements, are at a relationship crossroads. Henry is younger and wold like to solidify their commitment in the more traditional route of marriage and a child; Gorman prefers the status quo.

Darlene and Zach, the respective wedding singer and DJ, find themselves in a "fake" relationship to enable Zach to demonstrate the maturity and commitment to obtain his monetary trust from his parents. However, the feelings they are experiencing become quite real.

Zia is a frequent waitress for Love in New York, in between humanitarian trips overseas to aid programs that she passionately advocates. When she meets movie star Clay Russo when he is a guest at the wedding she is working, sparks fly.

And even Savannah, Eliot's one-time girlfriend lands in New York, determined to claim her half of the wedding planning business with Liv as her partner. A far cry from her Kentucky home, Savannah realizes NYC gives her the freedom to explore and re-examine her sexuality.

It Had To Be You is a love letter to NYC and love itself, in all its many forms. The novel is a joyous celebration and makes you feel as though you are a guest at a party you are dying to attend.

RSVP immediately!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @41%

I got so far, but I just can't force myself to keep going. This book was just an extreme case of it's-not-you-it's-me. It was pretty funny, but there were so many storylines and characters that I just couldn't keep them straight. I'm sure that someone else really invested could organize them if they had a notebook or something, but I don't want to put in that kind of effort just to enjoy a story.

I was hoping to read a light rom com but this wasnt it. I wanted a good laugh, i love reading rom coms and this one wasnt it. There were some fun moments but other than that it fell a bit short for me. I wanted to really enjoy and love this book and it was good but I didnt think it was great. I still liked a lot of things and Liv was one of them, she was grounded and you sympathize with he struggles. Overall I gave this one 3 stars

Reading this book felt like watching a romcom, complete with ice cream and a fuzzy blanket.

The book follows 5 interwoven stories of love in NYC a la Love Actually - Liv and Sam, Zia and Clay, Gorman and Henry, Zach and Darlene, and Savannah's own journey of self-love. Each of these stories was sweet, though none seemed like they had enough room to fully bloom because there was so much story that needed to be packed into these 300 odd pages. However, the relationship I was most compelled by is the central relationship between Liv and Savannah who are two women, a generation apart, who must overcome their differences and strained past in order to work together as partners at a wedding planning business.

The writing was light and fun, and I was really interested in the way that each of these stories was able to explore some element of racial, class, or gender dynamics in romantic partnerships.

This may seem weird to say in a review of a romcom, but I was disappointed by the way that this book ultimately upholds, reinforces, and idolizes heteronormative, patriarchal standards of love over other, more queer ideas of HEA (i.e. monogamous, state-sanctioned marriage). This was especially strange to me because 2/5 of the stories in the book are about queer love and identity.

Overall, this was a fun book, and a truly impressive feat.

CW: cheating (past), abuse relationship and domestic violence (past), transphobia, deadnaming

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for the ARC.

There is very little I love more than a rom-com featuring a wedding planner. Books or movies, weddings are just the perfect settings for love!

It Had To Be You did not disappoint. While there are some heavy themes in this book, it is overall a very romantic and heartwarming story. Another thing I love in both books and movies is overlapping love stories of different characters. This book had a Love Actually style of telling all these different love stories, centered around Liv's wedding planning business. While Liv's story was my favorite, I really enjoyed all the side plots as well.

I appreciated that there was also a theme of finding female friendship in unlikely places. Rom-coms are usually about the couple, but I think focusing on friendships is important too.

This book was the perfect balance of happy and sad, platonic and romantic, and appreciating the past while looking forward to the future. I'd definitely recommend It Had To Be You!

It Had to be You was explained to me as a Love, Actually novel, and that's definitely an appropriate description. It was most definitely a rom-com with witty banter and clever characters. The biggest issue I have with ensemble books is that you'll always like some plotlines more than others. I did find that to be the case here. As far as I'm concerned I could've read an entire book just about Liv/Sam and Darlene/Zach. However, I loved how Clark was able to interweave everything in the final chapters. A good choice if you're looking for a light romance with a relatively diverse cast of characters.

Thank you @atriabooks and @netgalley for the ARC of It Had to be You.

This story centers around a wedding planning business and its owner, Liv. We meet Liv the day that her business partner (and husband) passes unexpectedly. But her husbands passing isn’t the only thing that shocks Liv that day. Turns out, he’s been cheating on her and he’s left his half of their business to his mistress, Savannah. Needing to make a living to support her son, Liv has no choice but to work with Savannah to save her business. In addition to Liv’s storyline, we also follow a few of her employees in their journey to love and self discovery. I loved this intertwined plot line that examines friendship, grief, love and all that’s in between. Literally just finished reading today. I would definitely recommend that you pick this one up ❤️

At first, it started off as the story of Liv Goldenhorn, who is recently widowed and finds out her husband has added his girlfriend also into the will. The whole cheating part absolutely irked me and made me almost stop reading it. But as we read through, we find that there are multiple stories and how they find love and happiness in their lives. These stories will remind the readers of Love actually and are cute.

Though there were too many characters and I felt a bit difficult to keep up with the stories, their uniqueness allowed me to start following them pretty soon. Savannah, Liv’s husband’s girlfriend also did not seem likable at the beginning but I was very keen about her story, how she moves on with her life and makes something out of the opportunities that life gave her.

This book was tiresome and not as "Love Actually" as it predicted. Savannah came off as entitled and air headed and Liv was just unreasonable. The rest of the characters weren't interesting enough to keep my attention. I barely got through a quarter of the book before giving up. I didn't finish it so past that I don't have an opinion other than I don't regret putting it down and I probably won't read it until maybe years down the line.

If a book was a hug, then this would be it. Picture Love Actually — subtract the holiday themes — and add in modern day New York City, and you basically get It Had To Be You by Georgia Clark. I did have to wrap my head around a LOT of characters, which I usually find really frustrating in books. But once I realized it had that same interconnectedness of Love Actually, I absolutely adored it. And now I'm positively impressed by Georgia Clark's ability to give us just enough about each character to understand them at the level we need for the book to make sense. Here's a little taste of what you can expect from this book — which is now one of my favorites for the year!

- New business partners Liv and Savannah are bringing back to life a wedding planning company that completely fell apart after Liv's husband died. Oh yeah and Savannah was Liv's husband's mistress. Then add in a handsome chef who catches Liv's eye and a new big city friend that forever changes Savannah's life.
- Dreamboat movie star Clay meets cater waiter Zia in a 10/10 meet cute, but will the limelight (ahem and self sabotage) allow these two vastly different people to be together?
- Gorman and Henry have been together for a while, but there's a bit of a generational difference, which has taken its toll on the couple's life-long plans.
- Wedding bandmates Darlene and Zach could not be more different. Their playful frenemy relationship gets upgraded to fake dating... but will the ruse bring them together or be the end of their band?

Ugh, just all the warm fuzzies! I think this book and synapsis had all the opportunity to be cliche or derivative, but it was so perfectly well done. I'm in complete awe of Georgia Clark!

I would categorize this novel as a light yet meaningful read. I tend to read darker books but I always am on the lookout for a palate cleanser. IT HAD TO BE YOU by Georgia Clark had all the hallmarks of a palate cleanser. It put me in such a good mood! Clark also has a penchant for storytelling. If I had to compare this book to something it would be Modern Love on Amazon Prime. This book was about multiple love stories that were unique. I definitely enjoyed it and you will too!

This book was extremely fun and heartwarming. I'm planning my own wedding right now, and I would do anything to have this group of vendors on my team! The author does a wonderful job weaving together several unique and complex stories, each of which could easily have been their own individual novel. The book was believable and smart.

Thank you Atria! I’m shocked by how well you
know my reading wants. You recommend this book to me and once again, it’s exactly what I wanted and needed at this moment. I loved the interesting characters, mainly Liz, in this story. I just wish I had more of Liz, she just somehow stole the book for me. Over all the characters and storylines.

This book was so cute! I wasn’t sure at the beginning how things would work out but the book came together so nicely. If you are a fan of movies likes “He’s Just Not That Into You”, “Valentine’s Day” and “New Years Eve” where there are lots of parts and they are all connected somehow then this is a book you will love!

I loved this one! It felt fresh while sticking to romance conventions, and I love books with weddings/wedding planners as a plot point.

First off, I wanted to thank Atria Books for inviting me to read this title.

On the surface It Had To Be You seems to be the story of Liv Goldenhorn, trying to recover her business after her husband Eliot dies suddenly, at the same time that she discovers he’s been cheating on her with a young woman named Savannah to whom he’s left half of their wedding planning business which has now taken a nosedive but it’s much more than that. It’s almost Love, Actually meets New Years Eve but all revolving around the various employees and associates of the wedding planning company in New York and taking place over several months instead of any particular holiday.
While Liv and Savannah are the leading ladies, It Had to Be You has a robust and diverse cast including Sam- the divorced caterer, Darleen- the aspiring and struggling singer, Zach- her bandmate who’s a bit of a mess and a lady’s man, Clay- a rising actor who’s just got out of bad relationship, Zia- a sometimes server and humanitarian who’s running from a bad past, Henry- a florist who just wants his older partner to propose and Gorman-a florist and playwright.
There were times the narration could be a little heavy handed and sort of teasing at future events which felt a little obnoxious at times. Like at the beginning it was talking about how lonely and jaded Liv was until she met Sam. Given we as an audience have no idea who Sam was yet and had never heard him mentioned before, it felt like putting a neon light where subtle illumination would do. Especially given that Sam’s first scene was one of the most charming scene’s of the novel’s beginning and what endeared me to the book, I didn’t need an omniscient narrator to tell me that he was important, I picked that up all on my own.
The beginning is a little plodding and slow and my interest wasn’t fully piqued until the first scene with Liv and Sam and then again with Clay and Zia’s meeting. And when Darlene and Zach’s romance/fake dating arrangement is set up is when the book officially got interesting and had a lot less lulls. I was a bit less interested in Gorman than I was pretty much everyone else but there was so much variety to the storylines! I loved how diverse it all was, we had older couples, mixed race couples, established gays, and people exploring their sexuality! In a book that was ostensibly set up as being about two white women in the aftermath of their mutual lover’s (a white man’s) death, it turned out to be so much more than that and way less white and straight than I’d assumed and I’ve never been happier to be wrong.
The strongest parts of this book were definitely the romances and while it did all weave together nicely I would love to see this author give one couple all the attention for one book because while this was like having a lovely appetizer platter, i would have liked to have made a meal of most of these smaller stories. Sam and Liv were just so sweet and wholesome and they had my whole heart but Zia and Clay were sexy and exciting and I am so much here for the fake dating with Zach and Darleen but like wow I did not expect Savannah’s story to take the turn it did and it was amazing. I loved her so much and it was a joy to watch her grow and she made me cry and that was beautiful to watch. Henry was sweet and I felt for him but like Gorman was not my favorite. The epilogue made me happy but ultimately, I almost wish each of these pieces was their own separate thing I could have had more of so that is probably my biggest criticism. They did flow well together and Gorman and the beginning was the only real weak links for me but the rest of the book i just devoured. Fascinating book and I would definitely read more from this author.

I just could not. Like how you expected me to read It Had to Be You with no problem when the mistress is not remorseful at all when she comes into late wife life. The wife, Live, has no idea that her husband has a long affair going on. And to top it off, he left half of his business to the mistress. No way, I just can't. Plus, I did not like how you are forcing the characters to be friends from the start.