It Had to Be You
Written by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Narrated by Anna Fields
4/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
So why should each find the other attractive? Call it the competitive urge, but these two stubborn people play the game for keeps.
"A sleek, romantic comedy." (Publishers Weekly)
From the Cassette edition.
Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Susan Elizabeth Phillips is a #1 New York Times bestselling author whose books have been published in over thirty languages. Guided by the motto, “Life is better with happily-ever-afters,” she loves writing about love in all its forms. Among her accomplishments, Susan created the sports romance with her novel Fancy Pants. She is best known for her Chicago Stars and Wynette, Texas series, as well as multiple stand-alone books. Visit Susan’s website at www.susanelizabethphillips.com.
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Reviews for It Had to Be You
563 ratings27 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This was a bit more chick-lit-y than I generally prefer, but I liked it overall. There some really great angst built around the facade Phoebe had created to help cope with being raped. The resolution of that Big Misunderstanding was a bit anticlimactic and not nearly as angsty as I had hoped, but there was a great bit of protectiveness from Dan that I really appreciated. Overall I liked it. I'd read other books from this author if they cater to my preferred tropes.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5still a great book
I first read this book probably 15 years ago. Wanted something good but light and entertaining and this very much filled the bill. I just wish her later books were still this original and fresh. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was a fun book. Dan and Phoebe were well matched. I thought I could predict a few things that were going to happen but I was wrong, which was a delightful surprise. This is only the second book I have read by this author but I am really enjoying the feel of her characters. They are strong and I can fall in love with them easily. Looking forward to more from this author.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5First off, I have to say that I hate this cover. There. I said it and I know I'm not the first, but I just had to do it. On to the review...After the first chapter or two, I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep reading this book. Phoebe's past was heartbreaking and her way of dealing with the trauma of her past seemed really sad. Of course it didn't help that her own father was emotionally abusive, or that he didn't believe her when she told him she had been raped. The crime went unreported and she suffered alone, holding all that pain inside for years. As the book progressed and we learn more about her years as an adult, I became more interested in the book, i.e., the football team, the players, Dan's coaching and how Phoebe was handling her new position as owner of the team. It turned out to be a pretty good read. I even softened toward's Dan after he stopped being so hard on Phoebe. It was sweet to watch the transformation of both Dan and Phoebe as they lowered their defenses and began to trust each other. It wasn't easy for them. Believe it or not, a sports romance actually brought a tear to my eye. This is a pretty special couple and there is a ton of laugh out loud humor blended into the story. It's a book worth reading, but to get to the good stuff, you have to get through the tough times....kind of like life.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Predictable romance
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/53.5
For me this book consists of five star material combined with infuriating characters that made me so angry I didn't enjoy parts of the book at all.
I don't remember the last time I liked a heroine and hated a hero this much.
Every single thing Phoebe does has meaning. Even when she makes a mistake, when she acts the way I thought was dumb, when she is too forgiving, even then I was on her side. I didn't expect this much darkness in this book. I went into it thinking it's light and funny. It's not. Phoebe's life was not funny at all.
Her father was a miserable excuse for a human being. And don't let me start on her cousin.
I loathed Dan at first. Actually, I couldn't believe that is supposed to be anyone's love interest. Later he grows on you. Like mold. Don't expect him to change much in the course of the story. Yet, despite all that I enjoyed the story. It even has a bit of suspense thrown in.
It Had to Be You made me cry and broke my heart, it made me laugh too, it made me so angry I saw red. I loved Phoebe. She makes this worth reading.
I liked the book. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This was a DNF. The first four chapters were too damn depressing. Could be I just wasn't in the mood for it, but if the author doesn't have me in the first chapter she usually doesn't get me in the long run. I might try other books in this series - I seem to recall really enjoying the third book when I read it in the 90s.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As soon as I finished, I wanted to read it again... And that doesn't happen often to me.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5At first I didn't think I was going to like it, but I read a review that said that despite the fact the first 50 pages didn't managed to grip her so much, she was glad she continued to read, so I gave it a shot.
It was a great read :) - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved this book! It was great! Phoebe and Dan had such great chemistry! This book was feel good, but still had some drama. There were lot's of laughing and snorting and still tense moments. I really enjoyed reading it, it was really cute! :)
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As usual, amazing characters and an amazing story line!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great start for a series! I loved the characters, despite finding Dan a little on the too hot tempered side at the beginning, but then he warmed his way into my heart. Phoebe was such a hoot! I laughed at almost everything she did alongside with that adorable dog. Some of the funiest scenes in the book were portraid by Dan and Pooh. o/ Great writing, great if cliche plot, just thought something got a little too mushy for me near the end, but I loved the epiogue. Recommend it!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved this book! It started out with a bang, great plot, funny, emotional issues, hot sex and exciting action especially the ending. Curvaceous knockout Phoebe who knows nothing about sports, inherits football team and sparks fly with Coach Dan. It gets one of my rare 5* ratings is because half of it takes place in my hometown.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved this book!!!! I really enjoyed the complexity of the characters and their chemistry was off the charts. There were also scenes that had me laughing out loud. It probably helped that I am from Texas and a huge football fan. The story was very predictable but I'm good with that. The reader was great. The voices for the 2 main characters were spot on. I especially enjoyed the depth of Phoebe's voice.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Back Cover: The Windy City isn’t quite ready for Phoebe Somerville – the outrageous, curvaceous New York knockout who has just inherited the Chicago Stars football team. And Phoebe is definitely not ready for the Stars’ head coach, former gridiron legend Dan Calebow, a sexist jock taskmaster with a one-track mind.
My reactions:
Okay, I knew this was a chick-lit romance going into it, but my Stars (pun intended)! This was so stupid I lost 20 IQ points reading it. I’ll give Phillips one star because she manage to write a couple of steamy sex scenes (though most of them had me gritting my teeth because the situations were so unrealistically stupid). Did I mention losing 20 IQ points? Oh, well, it satisfied a couple of challenges. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Phoebe Somerville erbt das Football Team von ihrem Vater, weil er meint sie soll lernen was es heißt richtig zu arbeiten. Sie hat kein Interesse an Football und muss sich auch noch mit dem sturen Trainer des Football Teams rumschlagen. Als wenn das alles gewesen wäre, hat sie auch noch das Sorgerecht für ihre Stiefschwester Molly bekommen, die sie keines Blickes würdigt.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I know it's the first in the Chicago Stars series, but I just didn't like it as much as I did Natural Born Charmer. It Had To Be You (Chicago Stars, #1) is good, don't get me wrong, it's just not Natural Born Charmer.
Too slow for my taste. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I simply did not want to put this book down. Great dialogue and interesting, likeable characters. I never imagined that football could be this fun.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I remember the first time I saw the cover of this book. It was on a first (and last) date during which my date and I decided to "walk around" an enormous three story Barnes and Nobles after dinner. I don't remember most of the details of the date, what we talked about, or even what his name was, but I do remember the turning point of the date, the distinct moment when my internal voice simply said, "Oh, hell no." For almost every woman I know, this is the moment of truth, the moment in which, unbidden, a woman's intuition (scoff all you want) tells her: "Run!" or "hmmmm" or "wow...yes."
For me, this moment occurred while we meandered along the bookcases at Barnes and Nobles and saw It Had to Be You prominently displayed, cover-forward on a bookshelf. I had been asking him, "So, do you like to read books?" and he had replied, "Books? Yeah, books are cool." When he saw the novel, he stared at the cover which proudly displayed a close-up of a glorious rack in lavender lingerie, snickered, and said, "Maybe I should read this one, huh?"
I remember that as the exact moment I made up my mind that this guy was a "no." I guess, in retrospect, we may have been on that path from the beginning of the evening, but nonetheless that book and that boorish joke made up my mind. Perhaps if it would have been someone else, I would have laughed uproariously, or flung back some witty repartee, or made a sweet flirtatious remark, but, as I recall, all I remember feeling was disdain.
At any rate, I forgot about It Had To Be You (and the boor) until I saw it, proud rack and all, on one listopia list or another, and on the mass-market paperback rack at the library (this time with a quite generic skyline of Chicago on its cover) and decided to give it a shot despite the (gag) football plot.
I actually rather liked it. I haven't read a contemporary romance in a while and this one was pretty good. I'll be honest, Phoebe does come across as a bimbo throughout and Dan seems like an obnoxious jerk. Phoebe wears the most ridiculous clothes ever and she seems kind of dumb to me, but I did find her likable and kind of cute in her silly outfits. Phillips does a great job constructing Phoebe as a bimbo, and it's hard for me to change that perspective of her, even after she apparently "proves herself." I didn't like Dan at all- he just seems like an overall, overbearing ass, which probably fits with his role as "coach."
Overall, an entertaining read and recommended, but no fireworks for me. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Oh. My. God. My first read by this author and - I loved it! Phoebe Somerville is the new owner of the Chicago Stars NFL team that she inherited from her father. She knows nothing about football and could care less about the team. But Dan Calebow, the team's demanding head coach is not about to let his team fall apart because it's deceased owner gave it to his (seemingly) bimbo, nitwit, bombshell daughter. Admittedly, I am no football fan, but this book has given me a new appreciation for it! This book was so much fun to read, the chemistry between Dan and Phoebe sizzles off the pages. I laughed, I had tears in my eyes at one point, it was exciting at the end, this book ran the gamut of emotions and had it all! I can't wait to see what the rest of the series is like! Fabulous!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Windy City isn't quite ready for Phoebe Somerville -- the outrageous, curvaceous New York knockout who has just inherited the Chicago Stars football team. And Phoebe is definitely not prepared for the Stars' head coach Dan Celebow, a sexist jock taskmaster with a one-track mind. Celebow is everything Phoebe abhors. And the sexy new boss is everything Dan despises - a meddling bimbo who doesn't know a pigskin from a pitcher's mound.So why is he drawn to the shameless sexpot like a heat-seeking missile? And why does the coach's good ol' boy charm leave cosmopolitan Phoebe feeling awkward, tongue-tied...and ready to fight
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I have alway like to read this author's books. I like the fast moving pace of the book and the interesting characters in it; for this book; i like Phoebe very much. Although her outer look allow peoples to perceived negatively about her and the outrageous personality have been giving out the wrong signal to people that she has come in contact with. Phoebe doesnt care about what others' perception about her. When her father died, she stand to inherit the football club for a year and a challenge was issue by her dead father to her. Being someone who is very good in ignoring things; she refused to acknowledge her inheritance until the Club's Head Coach' Dan look for her and force her to accept her responsibility. I like to read about Dan and Phoebe together; they are like chalk and cheese. It is true to say that the opposites truly attract. From the beginning, their attraction to each other is very much explosive and firework seems to set off on its own whenever they are together. The most romantic scene in the book that i really like was when Dan have to make the decision to lose a game in exchange for Phoebe's safety. It just show how much Dan's love is for Phoebe. I really can feel their love then. Overall, the book is a good read and as before; it was never a dissapointment.. ;)
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is one of the first books I read of Ms. Phillips. I fell in love with her writing immediately. Precocious, offbeat, and at times, bittersweet. Never a "direct line" ending. An added bonus, if you enjoy listening to books, is Ms. Fields rendition of the story. Wonderful.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Girly fluff - good love story, nothing to really bother your mind or soul over. A good escape, well written and put together with fully fleshed out characters.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This author and novel is on several romance rec lists, so I had tried this one before the last time I looked to see what the genre had to offer. The heroine is supposedly someone smart who only pretends to be a bimbo--but I'm afraid she comes across as the real thing. Oh, and the hero, head coach at the football team she inherits, is another one of those a-hole "alpha" males. Right after they have sex, since the heroine has a "reputation" he asks her if she has been tested for STDS. Smoooth... The book had some funny moments, was interesting in it's look at pro football, and kept me to the end, but the characters never really grew on me or convinced they had anything going for them beyond mutual lust. Part of the Chicago Stars series.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved this book!!!! I was a fan of Susan Elizabeth Phillips from the first book of hers I read and I have loved everyone of them, this being no exception. In "It Had To Be You" Phoebe Sommerville is a knock out socialite who inherits the Chicago Stars football team from her father who wishes to control her even in death. Phoebe, who knows nothing of football (she doesn't even like the sport) instnatly clashes with Stars head coach, Dan Calebow. This is a story of Phoebe breakng out of the chains that she has set herself in after a tramatic incident when she was young and Dan learning how to listen to his true feelings without the filter of a not so hot childhood. Oh, and it's about football!! There is love, lust, romance, laughter, and even some suspense. I will never tire of Susan Elizabeth Phillips's hilarious yet touching love stories. I am happy to have this book in particular join those that I would read over and over again. That is whenever I haven't loaned the book to friends!!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5-very good - start of chicago's stars series