Review: 'It Had to Be You' by Ellie Adams (2014)

The worst break-up ever... Could be the best thing that has ever happened to her.
Lizzy Spellman has been dumped. At a party.While wearing a Henry VIII costume. By the man she thought was The One. Someone even filmed it, so now she's a massive YouTube hit sensation too.
Just when she thinks things can't get any worse, she meets the rudest, most cynical man in the world, and gets a new mission in life. To prove him wrong.
Love does exist, and she's going to find it...
I love chick lit. While I can definitely enjoy books from all kinds of genres, if I was forced to pick just one genre to read for the rest of my life it would be chick lit. I love the romantic butterflies it gives me, the ways it makes me smile and laugh out loud or even shed a tear every now and again, reading about heroines I can easily relate to and handsome male characters I can fall in love with, and the positive feeling it gives me, remembering me to never give up and always continue to believe in a happy ending. So, when I received a review copy of Ellie Adams’ latest release ‘It Had to Be You’, I couldn’t wait to sit down with this book, ready for a fabulous chick lit read!
Lizzy Spellman is having the worst night of her life. While she is expecting an exciting surprise from her boyfriend Justin (him asking her to move in with him or maybe even a proposal, who knows?), she ends up being dumped at a fancy dress party while wearing an uncomfortable Henry VIII costume. And to make matters worse, someone decided to film it all and put the video up on Youtube. It feels like Lizzy’s life is one big mess and her job at a PR company trying to promote all kinds of ridiculous products isn’t making things any better. Then she meets Elliot, who is incredibly rude at first, but who fascinates her at the same time. Lizzy decides he is her new mission in life, but will this new ‘project’ work out the way Lizzy hopes?
Ellie Adams is a pseudonym for author Jo Carnegie, whose novel ‘Party Games’ I read and reviewed last year and loved. As soon as I found out Ellie Adams was actually Jo Carnegie, I immediately got excited and couldn’t wait to read ‘It Had to Be You.’ I was hoping for a wonderful chick lit novel and that’s exactly what I got. I fell in love with this book from the first chapter, mainly because this first chapter has to be one of the most amazing and funny starts to a novel ever. I was straight away taken in by the story and it was incredibly easy to warm to the main character Lizzie, who is realistic, relatable and loveable.
Next to Lizzie, I specifically enjoyed reading about her two best friends Nic and Poppet, who are incredibly different from one another but really added a lot of fun to the story. Then, of course, there’s Elliot; a chick lit novel is not a chick lit novel without an intriguing and handsome man, and Elliot fits that description perfectly. The novel just simply has it all: a great storyline, fantastic characters and that sparkling touch of romance. I could easily see this as a film and I’m sure many people would fall in love with this story, just like I did. ‘It Had to Be You’ is such a fun and heart-warming novel, a story that will undoubtedly make you smile; this is chick lit at its very best.
Rating:

10/10

  For more information about this book: Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Goodreads
Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.