It Had To Be You by Susan May Warren

This is another great novel about the Christiansen family. (The first one is Take a Chance on Me.) This one centers on Eden, the encourager of the family. She's in Minneapolis, cheering on her little brother, Owen, a rookie in the NHL. She loves to be needed but it leaves little time for her own career. She wants to be a star reporter but is sitting at the obituary desk.

Eden wishes the team captain, Jace, would mentor Owen. But Jace is known for his “bad boy” behavior, aggressive on and off the ice. When Eden has to rescue Owen from a fight, she gives Jace a piece of her mind. The situation only gets worse when reckless Owen gets himself in a situation that may end his career. With Owen in the hospital, Eden stumbles upon an individual that may just be the one good story she is looking for – the one that will make her career.

This is another great romance from Warren. Jace and Eden have a love hate relationship. He is attracted to her but he doesn't quite trust her, knowing that she is a reporter. And Eden is attracted to him but knows that she is not the kind of successful woman he wants. The two have an antagonistic relationship with fleeting windows of trust.

There are many interesting themes in this novel. The ego building role of sports in a man's life is one. Another is about being on the sidelines, cheering on someone else while never having that full life God promises. There is also the theme of sacrifice as Jace's friend is willing to give up everything to provide a heart transplant for his daughter.

Be sure to have your tissues handy when you get near the end of the book.

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Susan May Warren is the best-selling, Christy and RITA Award-winning author of more than forty novels. She served with her husband and four children as a missionary in Russia for eight years. She now writes full time and her husband runs a resort on Lake Superior in northern Minnesota. Several of her novels have been ECPA and CBA best-sellers, ere chosen as Top Picks by Romantic Times, and have won the RWA's Inspirational Reader's Choice contest and the American Christian Fiction Writers' prestigious Carol Award. For updates on her books and more, visit www.susanmaywarren.com. She also runs a writing community, see www.MyBookTherapy.com.

Tyndale House Publishers, 480 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book through Litfuse for the purpose of this independent and honest review.