Book Review - Had to be You by Juliet Chatham

Had to be You

by Juliet Chatham

Rating **** (4 stars)

I received this book for an exchange of an honest review.

It has been a while since I have read a straight up romance novel. I took a break because I was done with the cliche plots and poor writing. Yet, I was intreated by It Had to be You, and offered to review it.

I am glad that I did. This novel is not some quick Harlequin romance that you can pick up and finish in an hour. It is a well written, plot driven novel which left you hooked and wanting to keep reading.

Even while I was hooked to the plot I could not help wondering why the main hero of the story, Matt, was so hung up on his long time fling, Rory. She is a bit of a drama queen, and damaged goods. By the end of the novel it fit a bit better to me, yet even if it would not have the characters were very lifelike throughout the entire story.

The one aspect of the story that was annoying was the massive amounts of flashback scenes. It was not the scenes themselves, they were well written and excellently placed, it was that there was no consistency to know how old the characters were in the flashbacks. Since they broke up and got back together so many times it was hard to know WHICH time it was. It helped me to further my impression of Rory as being a drama queen, and damaged goods.

Should you read this book? Yes, if you like romance novels with plots and real characters. As a nice bones the writing in this novel is excellent. There are sex scenes throughout the novel, although nothing in poor taste or massively graphic.