This romance story has something for everyone! We follow multiple couplings that represent and celebrate so many forms of love. Each one is different in terms of age, race, gender, and sexuality, and they're all connected through their work in the wedding industry. There’s fake + secret dating, a second chance romance, familial and platonic ties, LGBTQIA+ and Black rep, self-discovery, and some intense, but albeit fade to black, steamy scenes!

Clarke fluidly weaves these storylines together in an effortless, cohesive timeline as we jump between multiple points of view. All in all, this story is a celebration of, what feels like, so many forms of love but also with the recognition and acknowledgment of the darker, harder, and even more sinister things that come with relationships, love, and finding yourself. This would be a fantastic movie or tv show! It was just a lovely story.

My song pairing: It Had To Be You by Frank Sinatra

CW: off-screen cheating, divorce, death of a spouse, abusive relationship

It took me a while to get into this story because the cast of charactets is so huge, but I found myself invested in each love story presented throughout. It Had to Be You gave me heavy Love Actually vibes with the intertwined stories, and everyone brought together towards the end. 3.5 stars for the slow start, otherwise it would be a 4.

This was a sweet story that made me smile reading it. It had tons of feel good moments and moments that made me laugh and swoon. This is a new to me author, but I will definitely be reading more from them. I am intrigued to see what they have in store for us next.

TW: toxic relationship, death, grief

Delightful. Sweet. Charming. This is the best way to describe this adorable romance novel revolving around five couples and how their lives intertwine.

The main character is Liv, who is a wedding planner. Her business brings together these five couples:

- Liv and Sam
- Savannah and Honey
- Zia and Clay
- Gorman and Henry
- Darlene and Zach

What I loved and appreciated:

- the diversity of these characters - not only did they include queer couples but also interracial and older couples.
- how the author effortlessly integrated heavy topics such as toxic relationships and sexual identity crisis into the story.
- how New York felt like a character of its own.
- how accurately the author captured the feeling of moving to a new city through Savannah’s character.
- how various romance tropes were seamlessly interwoven into the story including friends to lovers, fake relationship, celebrity dating, age gap and second chance romance.
- the chapters were short and the novel was well-paced.
- even with such a wide range of characters and the story switching back and forth between the five couples, the story flowed well and never felt disjointed.
- the author’s writing style was captivating and held my interest throughout the novel.

Even though I admired all couples, Zach and Darlene were my favorite because I am starting to really love the fake relationship trope! I also really adored Liv and Sam and felt hopeful given that the main character found love again at the age of over 50.

Overall, this book made me smile and cry and overall, very happy. If I could give it more than 5 stars, I would. It was the perfect read for Pride Month!

I can’t thank Atria Books enough for gifting me this book in exchange for an honest review.

An unconventional romantic comedy that was very enjoyable. It did seem to lose focus in a few spots, but it did come back and have a nice ending. 4 stars

So this book opened with one hell of a bang.
Who doesn’t want to hear that their husband suddenly passed from his mistress?
I was hooked and so ready to continue on with this book, and then it sort of got confusing and jumbled with the amount of couples and stories going on, I felt like I lost Liv in all of this.
I wanted a lighthearted and fun Rom com, and while this book delivered on that, I kept finding myself waiting for something more. While the book started with a bang, I kept waiting for the POW! And never got it.

Regardless of all that, this book is still a nice, light and cute summer read!

✨Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC, In exchange for an honest review✨

2.5 Stars

I almost gave up on this one. I started reading it, put it down to read several novellas, picked it back up and wondered why I requested this ARC to begin with...

The main storyline revolves around Liv Goldenhorn who owns a wedding planning business with her husband in NYC. Well, she does until Eliot drops dead from a heart attack, at which point she learns he was having an affair with early-20-something Savannah from Kentucky. Eight days after burying her husband, Liv is approached on the sidewalk outside her home with news that Eliot left his half of the business to Savannah, thus making the two ladies business partners.

Sounds like an outrageous and quirky storyline, right?!

And it was.

Except from there we get the stories of several other couples who are all intertwined with Liv’s wedding planning business:

💖 Gorman and Henry (florists), a May-December gay, mixed-race couple, where Henry desperately wants to be married and have a family but Gordon (the older man) doesn’t.
💖 Zia (catering waitress) and Clay (famous movie star), meet at a wedding while she’s working and he’s the best man, and then have a clandestine affair - all in the name of protecting Zia’s privacy.
💖 Darlene (wedding singer wanting to make it big) and Zach (musician who plays for Darlene), who get into a fake relationship so Zach can inherit his trust fund and then fund the production of Darlene’s EP.
💖 Liv eventually is able to find love again with Sam (a chef) she hires to cater weddings.
💖 And Savannah finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew about herself when she had a brief affair with a woman.

All these characters were lovable, multidimensional, and had lots going on.

And yet…half way through the book I hardly cared about any of them. Turns out five couples, and a handful of sidecharacters, is A LOT to keep track of...and care about.

The writing was good and I found myself entertained. But much of it had all the scintillating excitement of day to day life. That is to say...not very much. I think the only reason why I kept reading was because each chapter was fairly short so it was easy for me to tell myself “I’ll read one more chapter to see if it gets better” followed by “okay, just ONE more chapter” - until I found myself at 80 percent. And the last fifth of the book ended up being really good.

Could I see some of the drama coming from a mile away? Yes. Did I still enjoy it? Sort of, yes.

As I said, the writing in It Had to Be You was good, but for whatever reason the characters and/or the storyline just didn’t pull me in and keep me engaged. But I got through it. Hooray. On to the next book.

* thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books/Emily Bestler Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

It Had to Be You is a story about five different couples whose lives are intertwined in various ways but mostly all are linked to Liv, a late forty-year-old woman, who lives in NYC and runs wedding planning business with her husband Eliot.

Each couple goes through various struggles which are part of life but all the couples end up happy and all tension is resolved. The ending for all the couples were just too good to be true which is unfortunate since the beginning of the book started out strong. Two of the ten characters were totally unrealistic to me as a trust-fund kid and a movie star. Insert eye roll.

I did appreciate Georgia Clark's approach to all five couples. There was an interesting mix in genders, personalities, ethnicity, and backgrounds to each person which added a depth to the book.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher for an honest review. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

I loved this book! It took me a bit to get all the characters straight, but I loved each one of their stories so much. I really loved how each went on a journey of personal discovery that led them to where they were happiest in their lives. The representations of the LBGTQ+ community were fantastic. Such a great read!

I have really been trying to diversity my romance genre titles, and It Had to Be You was the perfect choice for this. I love books that talk about ALL kinds of love and it makes me so happy that so many of these have been on my reading radar lately. It Had To Be You was an easy and enjoyable read that had a great balance of relationship highs and lows, humor, and plenty of swoon-worthy moments.

This book has been compared to Love Actually and I think that is a perfect way of explaining all the different relationships that are woven into this multifaceted storyline. This is a character-driven novel, which is a great thing because the characters were the highlight of this book for me. Told through multiple perspectives, I enjoyed these interwoven relationships and storylines so much and highly recommend adding this one to your summer reading list!

Thank you to Atria Books for my gifted copy. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was a pleasant surprise! I was hooked to the story from the beginning, thanks to the bizarre twist of a newly widowed woman having to run her business with her dead husband’s mistress. *whew, that’s a mouthful!* It Had To Be You makes great use of rotating narrators at just the right times throughout the book. I felt like I seamlessly slipped into each character’s life and I loved it. The writing was funny in the way that intrusive thoughts can sometimes be. It was very relatable, but removed enough for this novel to act as a great escape from the real world.

A couple of drawbacks: I had hoped that there would be more queer and Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) representation in this book as the description states it’s as diverse as NYC. While there were about three characters in the plot who were BIPOC and three who were queer, I was sad to see that every character who was BIPOC was in a relationship with a white person and there were no Black men as main characters. Interracial couples are lovely, but there are more than black-white couples and it would have been nice to even see a BIPOC couple.

It Had To Be You had a lot of characters to keep up with so that spice level is about two out of five. Folks who are fans of romance novels but don’t enjoy sex scenes will find a good balance here.

4.5/5⭐️ It Had To Be You by: Georgia Clark (book 41 of 2021)

This was the cutest romcom! I knew I had to read it when I saw the comparisons to Love Actually (which is my favorite holiday movie ever) and Valentine’s Day. It took a few pages to sort out the storylines, but once I did, I was invested! I loved all the storylines and character development for these couples. I also really liked that they were all connected to each other through the wedding planning company. It’s hard to pick a favorite couple, I liked each of their storylines a lot! I loved the way these characters were written and the ending was just perfect. Overall, I’d highly recommend this romcom for a fun summer read!

Thank you @netgalley and @atriabooks for the e-arc! -Aditi

Thank you Atria and NetGalley for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book about a woman's whose husband suddenly drops dead while being with his mistress. This book had a Love Actually vibe as it follows an ensemble of characters and their relationships - it was really well-written and quick-paced, making it an easy and entertaining read. It Had To Be You is a romcom but doesn't shy away from tackling difficult themes like e.g. interracial dating, grief, sexuality and trauma. A really clever read, I hope to read more from this author!

Thank you so much for the ARC of It Had To Be You! I had such a great time reading this. I felt like I was watching a movie. The way it was told with multiple stories is *chefs kiss*.
I will say that the first 15% of the book was a bit slow and I almost DNF’d BUT PLEASE KEEP GOING. ITS WORTH IT.

Synopsis: After Liv is forced to work with her deceased husbands lover running a wedding business she quickly learns that there is more to love than what meets the eye. While Liv definitely struggles with both the loss of her husband but also working closely with someone she despises, she learns that maybe there is more to love and forgiveness.

Thought: At first I was very confused with what path that this book would lead to which honestly in my opinion makes for a good book. I enjoy books with a different plot line and that get creative to place romance and conflict while still making the book enjoyable. I definitely enjoyed this book and the different viewpoints that it brought in as well as discussing what a wedding industry really is and looks like. I definitely recommend this book for someone looking for something outside the box in a creative but intriguing way.

This was a very pleasant surprise. It has been hailed as Love, Actually-esque, and I would agree with that since it had multiple storylines that intersected, but I especially liked that it wasn't all (straight) romance- there were interracial and gay relationships, and females friendships that developed as well (albeit quite unexpectedly/unnaturally)! There's quit a large cast of characters, but I felt like they were all fully fleshed out so I didn't have any problem keeping them (and their partners/relationships) apart. Honestly it's not anything Earth-shattering as I can't remember much of it since reading it the first week of May, but I remember really enjoying it, and hey, it kept me turning pages which has been quite a feat lately!

This book reminded me of the films Valentines Day and He's Just Not That Into You. It follows a cast of related characters and their love lives. The relationships cover the gamut of romances from a second chance romance, to LGBTQ romances, to a strangers-to-lovers romance, to a fake romance. That being said, just like those movies, I was much more invested in certain couples than others. Overall I think it's a cute book, but it's definitely not a book for everyone.

Note: the audio is a full cast, so that is a delight. If you pick this one up, I highly suggest the audio.

Content Warning: Open Door Sexual Content, Infidelity, Divorce

Thank you Netgalley for an advanced copy of "IT HAD TO BE YOU" by Georgia Clark. I'd never read a book with five different stories going at once like this one. Though I'd seen movies like it, it's different with a book. I think in the end I liked it, but it did make it take a lot longer for me to get into the book because I had to get past that introductory stage with five different stories before any of them started to really pull me in. They ultimately did pull me in and I thought all the romances were lovely and sweet and some of them heart-wrenching. I liked all the different perspectives on love in New York and marriage and choosing happiness. It was a lovely read.

I’ll be honest, at first, I wasn’t sure about all the characters and all the storylines. BUT BOY WAS I IN FOR A TREAT. 😍 This book was a sparkly delight. The comparisons to Love Actually are reasonable due to the structure, but the relationships in this book are WAY more developed and healthy. I can’t decide which love story I like the best. Maybe Savannah because of [SPOILERS]. 😉

I think going in mostly blind is good for this one, but PLEASE don’t get frightened off if the beginning feels complicated with the set-up. Georgia Clark is like a magical, mystical weaver author because everything comes together in the most beautiful and intricate way. I adored the ending. HOW DID SHE EVEN DO THAT? I don’t know. But it’s a model of well-executed plotting.

In addition to having adorable romances, the strong female friendships really did it for me. Excellent character development. Because everyone is the center of their own love story, no one feels relegated as a sidekick. It’s how it should be in life. Also, GREAT LGBTQIA+ rep. FABULOUS read for #pridemonth. It would pair well with champagne and a slice of fundetti cake. Thank you so much to #netgalley and Atria for the the free e-arc in exchange for an honest review. However, I loved it so much I bought a copy. 🙈

This review will be posted to my goodreads today and my instagram @andiewritesandreads during June.

Liv and Eliot run a premiere wedding planning business. But when Eliot unexpectedly dies and leaves half the business to his girlfriend (yes, you read that right), allllllllll the drama ensues!

What I liked most about It Had to Be You were the diverse character storylines that were woven together throughout the book. I think fans of the movie Love, Actually will really enjoy this sweet and lighthearted rom-com!