I just finished another romance novel. Actually I did it because I wanted to complete my BBI reading challenge on sports fiction category. Its title is "It had to be You" by Susan Elizabeth Phillis. It is a popular novel I guess, but I just knew it when I had to read the sports fiction. I though the story was too cheesy and full of cheap romance along the story. But it's not like that. Let's move on with the story, I'm gonna tell you why the story impressed me.
A 34 years old woman finally came back to Chicago, her hometown, to attend her father funeral, Bert Somerville. Phoebe Somerville, it's her name, had a slim body, beautiful face, and also exceptional brain. Bert was an owner of the football team, the Chicago Stars. Unbelievably, He let Phoebe (not Reed Chandler, his lovely nephew) inherited the Stars, his first daughter that he never like. Even in their last telephone conversation, he'd told her she was his only failure (IHtbY, chapter 2).
Phoebe knew nothing about football. It made herself learn about it. She asked Ron, the team manager, to tell her everything. Mostly it's because she had the main goal to retain ownership of the team. She wanted the Stars win the AFC Championship, as her father told her, so that the team wouldn't revert to Reed. As long as she remembered, she had bad memories with Reed. As her only cousin, Reed kept bullying her. So it made her distress when he was around her.
On the other hand, she had problem with Molly, her only half-sister. Molly seemed hate her so much but Phoebe wanted to win her heart so badly. Moreover, She also had crush with Dan Calebow, the Stars head coach. Sometimes it made her nervous all the time she worked with him. The main question was, how Phoebe dealt with her problems? Could she pass the challenge her father gave? Could she keep the Stars in her hand?
Family Issues
As I said previously, I was impressed with the story (not the romance part). Phillips could write the conflict so nicely so that readers gave sympathy to the main character. I found most characters in the novel had the same problem in their families. Phoebe and Molly were lack of attention and love from their parents. Their mothers died when they were a child, and Bert as the father couldn't gave them so much attention. He bullied them instead, kept telling them as not good children and his only failure. That's why Phoebe ran away from home and accepted Arturo's offer to be his mistress. Actually she loved Arturo as her father, not her lover.Reed Chandler had neurotic mother and grew up without his father with him, so that he also needed love from a man (anyone) as his father. Then he got it from Bert, his uncle. Besides, Bert always fond of boys rather than girls. I think it can answer a question of why Bert hated his daughters and loved his nephew so much.
Dan also experienced bad childhood like the others. He was born to parents that not fond of children. So he had to survive by himself to be the best of him right now. It made Dan dreamed to have lovely family with kids and parents who care about each other (IHtbY, chapter 21).
Persistence
I saw everybody tried to achieve their goal persistently. Phoebe was with her team, sister, and soulmate. Dan was with his relationship goal. Molly was with her family and friendship goal. Even, Ron the manager was with his ambition to manage the team.Susan tried to tell readers that people need to work hard if they want to achieve their goal. But work hard will be nothing without love. So, endeavor and love will take you to get to your purpose safe and sound. At least if you don't get it right away, you still can hold the love with you. And it will warm your heart.
Finally, 4 stars for this book.
Book data
Title: It Had to be YouAuthor: Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Format: Epub, 384 pages
Published October 13th 2009 by HarperCollins e-books (first published January 1st 1994)
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