Sarah Webb (1)

Last thing Tilla Cormack needed one week before going on vacation was a crisis and that is exactly what her biggest client had just created for her. Owning a temp help agency takes a lot of human interaction and interpersonal skills. Her temps were recognized as the best to be had, only Taylor Industries was sending them back in tears and rejected. Tilla is on her last nerve as she leaves her office to pay a visit to Kent Taylor and give him a "piece of her mind".

Tilla's introduction to Kent show more Taylor is one of my favorite highlights in this book. The scene as the elevator goes up, down, jerks up again and finally spits Tilla on Taylor's floor missing her shoe is delightful. As human interactions go, this scene where Tilla and Kent Taylor meet is delightful. It sets the stage for a comedy of errors that leads this couple to a multitude of interactions worthy of Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.

Fate continues to play tricks with our couple throwing them together in some rather unusual circumstances. The chemistry they both feel for each other finally wins and a love affair begins with all the passion worthy of these spirited characters. Misunderstandings continue to plaque our couple and tempers flare. All of this just adds to the plotline and keeps the reader on the edge of their seats.

Darry Fraser's writing style is both easy going and delightfully descriptive. I found this book extremely entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable. I will be looking forward to reading more books by this author. show less

A light-weight novel about three friends - all women - who live in a small irish town. One manages a bookshop, one works at a shoe shop and teaches men how to date, and the third is married, and a local councillor.

Lots of potential, but I found the characters sadly flat and not particularly likeable. The men are either too good to be true or complete jerks; the only really interesting characters, in my view, were four-year-old Callum and the grandmother Lily.

There's a lot of dialogue, much show more of it small talk and entirely unnecessary to either plot or character development. However the pace is fairly good and there are a few interesting incidents, even if the continuity isn't great and the style is rather too informal.

Not one I would recommend, but others think highly of it.

Longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2020/02/it-had-to-be-you-by-sarah-webb.html show less

This is a new author for me, and I really enjoyed the story. There are actually three very different women who each have had a past relationship with the attractive, charming Mark Mulhearne. When all four characters receive invitations for their 10 year high school reunion, they all have an agenda to get there. I found that the female characters were a little extreme, but believable. My only difficulty was the abrupt changes in attitude that each experienced during the short span of time in show more which the novel took place. I had no difficulty switching between chapters that included past and present details of each of the women as well as switching between each of the three women's stories. It made for clear times that I could easily (or not so easily) put the book down. I wasn't surprised by the ending, but that didn't matter - sometimes you just need to read a story with a fairy tale ending - it was just what I needed! show less

It was the perfect book to read by the pool when it has 35 degrees in the shade. I first thought it was a bit too obvious who would end up with who, but the bookshop topic always works for me, even if it's otherwise too schmaltzy with too much happy ending :-)