Yep, I’m reviewing another Susan May Warren book. Maybe I should make a fill-in template for her books:

[Blank] is another winner from Susan May Warren! Deep plot, real characters, stellar writing. I loved [blank] and can’t wait for the next one.

Seriously though, It Had To Be You is a very good book. Entry number two in Warren’s Christianson Family series is Eden Christianson’s story. We met her older brother, Darek, in Take a Chance on Me.

Eden is a writer. She longs to be a reporter, breaking real news stories and covering events. Instead, she’s at the obits desk of the Minneapolis paper where she works. She’s spent her life on the sidelines, watching and cheering for her accomplished siblings. Especially Owen. Now she fills her days at the paper and her evenings are for watching her brother in his ice hockey games or dragging him out of bars to keep him safe.

Jace (J-Hammer) Jacobsen is the team captain and Owen’s inspiration. His reputation as a violent enforcer has preceded him and Eden meets him feeling that she already knows him.

When Owen has an accident on the ice, Eden is surprised to find that Jace is not quite the brute she’d believed him to be.

It Had to Be You is a lovely story of how God takes our failures and mistakes and redeems them.

Jace’s violent past is a part of who he is. Eden believes her gift is cheering on the others in her family. It’s thanks to Jace and a stranger in a coma that she discovers she’s so much more than a cheerleader to others’ accomplishments.

The complexity of the characters and the interwoven plots are just part of what made this such a great book. Warren knows her characters on a cellular level. They never act in a way that rings untrue. The secondary plots are strong on their own and only add to the richness of the main storyline.

Click here for some photos of how Susie sees the characters. I kept seeing Kristen Bell as Eden though, not Grace. And I totally see Tom Selleck as John and Bonnie Hunt as Ingrid.

I loved It Had to Be You and I highly recommend it!

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I’m honored to be part of Susan May Warren’s launch team! I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.