It Had To Be You

- Susan Elizabeth Phillips -

After two books, this author is rapidly becoming a favorite - am very glad I didn't judge the book by the truly terrible cover art and kept reading.

Basically, it's a fun fish out of water style love story as Phoebe Somerville reluctantly takes over the NFL football team she had inherited and butts heads with the bullying, occasionally judgemental and very bad tempered head coach, Dan Calebow.

I love stories about two characters who are flawed in very human ways, but more importantly that realize those flaws in themselves and will acknowledge it, or try to change if they need to. Phoebe especially was a great example of someone taking control of their circumstances, using all the weapons in their arsenal to deal with a situation, and confronting past traumas to move on with her life.

Dan was occasionally a bit too much of the stereotyped 'hard ass' football coach, everyone worships him/legend type, but he also copped to his faults and owned them, so it was fairly forgivable.

Didn't really need the cheesetastic epilogue, but enjoyed the hell out of the story and will definitely be reading more in what I think is a series about the team. I know that the younger sister, Molly, has a story out there too, and looking forward to that one.

One fun note: some occasional clothing references dated the story a little bit (ie: who wears spandex as non work out wear these days) but nothing particularly noticeable gave away when it was written/set until OJ Simpson was referenced in relation to his football interviewing gig.