It Had to Be You [Paperback]

Sarah Webb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2005

In the Irish village of Burnaby, life is about to change for three very different women. Molly Harper is the long-suffering manager of Ireland's only dedicated romance bookshop - 'Happily Ever After'. She can't stand Milo Jones, the super-smooth new owner but he does have a rather attractive son, Sam. Should she stay, or should she walk? Her best friend, Paige Brady, has problems of her own. She has just launched a general election campaign and is astonished when another woman on the ballot sheet, Annette Higgins, starts to attack her in a very personal way. But Paige is determined to stay in the race. Kate Bowan, shop assistant in the trendy Burnaby designer shoe shop, 'Baroque' by day, runs the popular dummy dating service 'Dublin Dummy Dates' by night. But one particular client is proving to be more than a handful. But all's fair in love, business and politics as the three friends are about to find out. Enter the world of Burnaby Village, and you'll be glad you stayed, because sometimes finding yourself is only the start of the adventure.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sarah Webb was a children's bookseller for twelve years and now writes full time. She lives in Dublin with her partner and young family. She also reviews children's books for many Irish newspapers and magazines, and has written many of her own, including the popular Kids Can Cook series. She appears regularly on Irish television's 'The Den'. She is the author of the bestselling Always the Bridesmaid, Something to Talk About and Some Kind of Wonderful. She is currently working on her sixth novel, Take a Chance.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan (April 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330412175
• ISBN-13: 978-0330412179
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,166,050 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not good..., October 10, 2007

By 

Chic - See all my reviews

This review is from: It Had to Be You (Paperback)

This book just wasn't good. I really enjoyed another one of the author's books, Always the Bridesmaid, and I had a hard time finding her other books in the US. So, I was quite pleased when I found this one and I was looking forward to a great read. Talk about a letdown. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. The story really dragged, and the trajectory of the characters was very predictable. It could have been a great story about three women, but instead it was a boring, mundane chick lit novel that can be described as average at best. The struggling mother was not convincing or well written, nor were the two single gals. I would not recommend buying this book - check it out from the library if you feel so compelled.

1.0 out of 5 stars Very DRY, October 22, 2009

By 

Celia Flores "Lovz Books" (Orange County) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: It Had to Be You (Paperback)

I am not going to go into the details of what this book is about because you can read about it in the product description.

Here's the cliff's notes version: It's about three women in an Irish Village. Molly is the shy book shop employee, who yearns to be a writer but can't figure out what to write; Paige is the mother of a spoiled brat and is also running for political office; and Kate is the "dummy dater" that teachers single people how to date.

Let's see, where do I begin?

Frankly, I had a hard time getting into the story. I felt like the characters were not fleshed out enough so that they became real people.

I often found myself skipping chapters just to get through it, especially for Paige and some of Molly. I think this book could've done well without those two.

To make this book better, I think the author should've focused more on Kate, who was the most interesting part in this book. I would've loved to have learned more about Kate and her world in "dummy dating." Just showing some of her disaster clients would've been funny. But it wasn't. There was only one client: Angus, who is a dork, but sweet as can be. I like that Kate starts developing a crush on Angus and gets torn when her ex-fiance comes into town for a fling with her.

Now, if the book had focused only on Kate, we would have learned more about her and Angus, her and ex-fiance, her and her past and history with her parents' bad marriage, and how she became so cynical about men and relationships.

This book would've been far better if only Kate were the star. If the writer really had a need to put Paige and Molly in there, then they could've been minor secondary characters. Although, I think she had enough of them already. A lot of the people in this book were totally forgettable. I'm serious, I couldn't remember any of them. Normally, I would like to go back to re-aquaint myself with the character, but I just wanted to get through this boring book.

Overall, there was just one question: what was this story really about? It had nothing, really. There was no humor or wit. There were no memorable characters. I kept yawning through the whole book.

It was just very DRY! It desperately needed a lot of flavor.

This book is definitely going in the recycling bin.

5.0 out of 5 stars Fresh, funny Irish chick lit, March 23, 2009

By 

Bernadette "benny" (Cork, Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It Had to Be You (Paperback)

I really liked this book - it was fresh, funny and sweet - just how I like my chick lit novels. It's set in Ireland and features 3 great women characters and tells you all about each of their lives - friends, family and love lives too.
Very enjoyable.