Review: Had to Be You by Juliet Chatham

SYNOPSIS:

After college, Rory Finn left behind the familiarity of her quiet, picturesque hometown to pursue a professional career in the city. With her sights firmly on the future, Rory pressed on in hopes of forgetting the past until a jarring bit of unwelcome news forces her to confront it.

Her first love, the one she'd tried so hard to forget, is about to marry someone else. That pang Rory feels isn't envy, it's not even regret. It's love. But Rory can't be that girl. She won't. But if she doesn't, she'll never know what could have been. She'll never have another chance to tell him how she feels.

As she embarks on an impulsive, desperate bid to win him back, her mission turns into an unexpected and emotional journey of rediscovery. HAD TO BE YOU explores a history of love from its tentative beginnings to what may just turn out to be its final bittersweet end, as Rory ignores her head and follows her heart.synopsis:

MY THOUGHTS:

5 out of 5 stars

The best way to start this review is to put it all out there.  This book rocked my socks off.  Seriously.  I loved it.  LOVED IT.  LOVED IT.  LOVED IT.

It doesn't help that I am a sucker for a good "first love" story.  I mean, who doesn't love the chance to remember the way it feels, the flutters, the swoons...and for some, the heartbreak. 

The emotional reader in me gets giddy just THINKING about it and Had to Be You was everything I had hoped it would be and more.    

Rory and Matt.  Matt and Rory.  The best of friends, you rarely found one without the other.  Their relationship was a slow burn that was nurtured through years of pig-tail pulling and affectionate insults.  It happened over the years, before they even realized what was happening and when the spark ignited, resistance was futile.

True. Love. Forever.

Except for when they break up.  And get back together.  And break up.  And get back together.  And break up.  

Surely the next "back together" will happen...until it doesn't.

From the very beginning, when Rory learns about Matt's impending wedding, I found myself totally relating to pretty much every. little. thing.  The gut-punch of seeing the invitation...gah, I can still feel it and it hurts.  It hurts a lot.  And of course, the questions and what-ifs begin to fly...and the wine begins to flow...and ideas get tossed around.  Throw in some flashbacks to happier times and BAM...bring on the feels. 

The flashbacks made this book for me.  The parallels and connection to "real time" moments provided a depth to Rory and Matt's relationship that only knowing their history could do -- but in a way that didn't make me feel like I was being inundated with back story.  

This book has everything I look for.  I laughed, I cried, I fetal-rocked and found myself thinking about...well, thinking about people and places I hadn't thought about in a long time.  You know how a certain song can take you back in an instant to a very specific place or time in your life...yeah, this book did that for me more than a few times.  I wanted to wrap myself up in Rory and Matt's story and never ever let go.   

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A lifelong New Englander, I divide my time between the North Shore and Cape Cod. My favorite things are beaches, boats, books, bars, the Boston Red Sox and boys, but not necessarily in that order. Consequently, you’ll probably find that these are the things I write about, too.

Author Links:
http://sunnybeachday.wordpress.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7778778.Juliet_Chatham
https://twitter.com/JulietChatham

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