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Title: It Had to Be You
Author: Georgia Clark
Sub-genre: Women’s fiction, contemporary
Publication Date: May 11, 2021
So not going to lie, I usually have a hard time with books about wedding planners, since you know, I am one (or at least, I am one when we aren’t in the middle of an international pandemic). But this might have been the first wedding planner centric book I’ve read that really resonated with me and my style as a planner, and pair that with a writing style I love, and I was very into this book.
Liv is one of the coolest wedding planners in Brooklyn, running a successful company with her husband Eliot. So when she receives a call from her husband’s mistress in the middle of set up for a wedding they’re supposed to be working together, Liv is shocked, to say the least. Especially because said mistress, Savannah, is calling to tell her Eliot has died. But maybe the truest shock comes a little bit later, when Liv learns Eliot has left Savannah his half of the business in his will. At first, Liv refuses to even speak to Savannah, but when the southern belle shows up on her doorstep with a potential couple in tow, Liv is forced to face the facts: she needs money, she needs her business, and she needs Savannah’s help. The two women have to find a way to put aside all of their many differences and work together, along the way becoming much closer friends than either could have ever anticipated. Both Liv and Savannah, along with a charming cast of characters interconnected in the wedding world, turn one of the worst events of their lives into one of the best.
I have been a fan of Georgia’s writing for a while now, so I wasn’t surprised when the voice and wit of this book drew me in immediately. What I did find a pleasant surprise was how easily I fell into all of the many stories this book weaves together. It’s akin to Love Actually in that we spend time with several different couples whose lives all twine together. It’s really a feat of stellar storytelling to be able to orchestrate each of these love stories in a way that made each one interesting and unique, but also blended them together seamlessly. It was one of those books where I sat down to read a couple of chapters and ended up reading half the book in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down, constantly needing to see what was going to happen next and to whom. I laughed, I cried, I was intrigued and entertained. Really, there isn’t much more I could ask for in a book.
Overall Rating: 5 stars