It Had to Be You

by Ellie Adams

[Leah]

When I heard about It Had To Be You, I thought it sounded liked SUCH an interesting read, and I was even more excited when I knew who had written it - none other than popular author Jo Carnegie who I've never read myself, but who is super popular. The novel is actually being published under the pseudonym of Ellie Adams - as it's different to her Churchminster series. I've never read any of Jo's books, so I was quite excited to start with It Had To Be You, with it's fantastic strap-line, "Has love walked past you today?", and it's bright yellow cover, I couldn't wait to get stuck in.

I actually felt a bit mis-led with the It Had To Be You synopis - it makes it sound like Lizzy meets Elliott and is determined to show him love is possible, but forgive me if I'm wrong but there's never a conversation of the sort between Lizzy and Elliott. Elliott is never cynical about love - sure, he's heartbroken, but he's not cynical about finding love again, and I just felt a bit disappointed that that wasn't the purpose of the novel. Because it sounded fun and interesting, and I like when a bubbly personality like Lizzy takes on a miserable, serious, quiet fella like Elliott. Elliott is barely in the novel for the first 100-200 pages, I wanted a few more of those snarky email exchanges, the two we got between them were fun, so more would have been a nice bit of lead in, for when they become friends (which happened in rather bizarre circumstances).

It was an interesting novel, I liked seeing Lizzy's relationship with her best friends Nic and Poppet and I liked hearing about her job as a PR, and I felt she was vastly under-appreciated by her boss. She was practically running the joint. I was a bit disappointed romance wasn't the forefront of the novel, but it allowed us to see other areas of Lizzy's life, and so I never really felt the chemistry between Lizzy and Elliott. I wanted to, but the way they became friends just seemed to bizarre, and a teensy bit forced. As I said previously, if they'd kept up their email contact, instead of two random meetings (one being at Elliott's family home!) I perhaps would have been more receptive of their counsellor-sort-of-friendship they end up with.

I really enjoyed It Had To Be You. Lizzy was such a warm, fun main character and she made me laugh many times. I love that she was happy to dress up as a tomato for a PR pitch, even if it was for the wrong pitch! And I loved the opening scene in the Henry VIII costume! I wished the whole viral thing had been exploited more, I'd have loved for Lizzy to become an insta-celeb, considering it happens these days, and it would have been quite fun, too. Overall I enjoyed the novel but there was more I wished had happened, I wished there was more from Elliott, so we could see him underneath his stiff exterior. But I loved Lizzy's friends - they're the types of friends you dream of having and they were almost always there for Lizzy, whenever she needed them and it was wonderful to see their fabulous friendships! Ellie's a fabulous author, and I can see why she's so popular and I can't wait for more under this new pseudonym!This review was originally posted on Girls Love To Read