In It Had to Be You by Susan May Warren, Eden Christiansen feels like she's forever on the sidelines. Her other siblings have stand-out talents. Eden always dreamed of being a reporter. She landed a job with the city newspaper, but she's stuck as an obituary writer.
Since she lives in the same town as her younger hockey-player brother, Owen, and she's the only family member there, she goes to his games and watches out for him. She sees that the fame, acclaim, and money has gone to his head. But he won't listen to her admonitions. It doesn't help that Owen idolizes his team captain, Jace, who has a bad-boy reputation on and off the ice.
When Jace and Eden meet, they clash immediately. She berates him for not being a better example to his team.
Jace, meanwhile, has his own problems. Several slams on the ice have resulted in too many concussions and regular migraines. He has nothing else but hockey, so he keeps going despite doctors' warnings. When he tries to avoid fights during games, his value drops in the eyes of his team, agent, and the spectators.
And there is a side to Jace that others rarely see. He helps his best friend, Sam, run a restaurant and helps Sam take care of his daughter, a heart transplant patient.
Owen, in a moment of carelessness, sustains a devastating injury. While visiting him in the hospital, Jace and Eden accidentally discover a John Doe, an unidentified patient in a coma. They are thrown together to try to find John Doe's family.
I don't read romance novels very often. They can be somewhat silly and too focused on the physical. But Susan's don't seem to be that way so far.
I got a little irritated with both characters' tendency to create a whole scenario of what they thought the other was thinking from a line or gesture or silence. It's not usually good to assume motives no matter how well we know someone. But learning not to judge or assume is part of what they experienced here.
Another theme throughout the book is letting go of things we can't and weren't meant to control.
Overall, I enjoyed the story. A couple of my favorite quotes:
Minnesota grew hockey players like pine trees.
There's always light . . . God's love is too bright for the darkness to win.
This book is the second in the Christiansen family series. The first was Take a Chance on Me. Since the sequels were free in Audible's Plus Catalog, I am listening to them before they are rotated out.
No comments:
Post a Comment