It Had to Be You

Petra

Just reread this book after so many years and I'm absolutely horrified to why the hell I loved this books so much. Dan is such a horrible misogynistic man and the way Phoebe is treated is just so awful. I don't know what the hell was I thinking back in highschool.

Becky

3.75 stars

This was a surprising read. I'd gotten this book out from the library before and abandoned it within a couple of pages because I was put off by the whole funeral scene. Phoebe seemed completely unsympathetic and I, like the gossips in the book who thought they knew something about Phoebe, judged her harshly and decided I wouldn't like her book at all.

This time I committed, I am ok with DNF-ing a book and this was one I was going to try again with. I marched on back to my library (well, not quite, but you catch my drift) and re-borrowed and gave this a good old shot. Turns out I was utterly wrong. I admit, Phoebe was far easier to like than I thought. That woman could put on a show and knew exactly how to manipulate men as she wished. It meant she gained a certain reputation which was entirely undeserved but thems the breaks to help protect herself from men. Dan, on the other hand, I wasn't entirely convinced I was going to like him. He was brash and a know-it-all and I really hated his attitude toward women. It was awful, I truly wanted to punch him in the face with his macho attitude. He grew on me and by the end, I was a sucker for him but I will say he's overbearing alpha male ways didn't entirely enamour me to him and I am attributing that to the age of the book. 

All things considered, it was written very well and didn't have to get through a man dictating a woman's life. Phoebe didn't sacrifice her wishes for his and it was well done. There was a rape storyline which can really go either way in a book but I admit it was handled relatively well and helped explain Phoebe's attitudes to men well. I found there were several characters with really toxic masculinity and ideas of how things should be but none were main characters or the characters you were meant to like. It did highlight that men's attitudes towards women are abhorrent and what's worse is I know there are still people with these attitudes and considering this book was from the 90s that's just plain old ridiculous. I do think this book had some strong female characters and was well written. 

Phoebe was a sass queen and I adored her. She may have appeared like a blonde airhead but she was all brains and attitude and I really enjoyed that. This book surprised me in all the good ways and I hope the next book in the series is as enjoyable.

It Had to Be You

Reviews