It Had To Be You Futuristic Romance, Fantasy, Romantic Fantasy
Wild Rose Press
May 23, 2022
Kindle
375
Amazon
Phil Claussen couldn’t very well leave her out there in the middle of nowhere, shoeless and barely dressed, so he offers her a ride. When he asks why she’s hitchhiking on a deserted road, she says, “Waiting for you. I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.” “Impossible,” he says. “I’ve never set foot in Oklahoma before.” He asks more questions, but gets very few answers. They are on the road together for three days before he learns her name, Dani.
He soon discovers that he’s driven into a realm where events seem to be all set and waiting for his arrival, a place where his own treasured free will means very little. Falling in love with Dani becomes his favorite part of the process. But if it was all arranged so carefully before he got there, how does he wind up in jail charged with two murders and Dani as the chief witness for the prosecution?
Review by Sherry Perkins
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
“Charlie had a big one, a lot bigger than Phil’s, and he never missed a chance to rub it in.”—It Had to be You
I’m always up for an “it was the worst day of my life” story because, of course, it’s going to turn out that wasn’t the worst day of the MC’s life. Without a doubt, even more chaos is going to ensue. However, chaos doesn’t adequately describe what is about to happen with regular guy, Phil. Phil is a respected teacher in a small town, married to a wife whose biggest concern in life is “what would the neighbors think.” She is about to find out when one night, Phil has a little too much to drink at the local bar and ends up arrested for drunken assault.
Thankfully, the presiding judge doesn’t think like the neighbors do. He finds Phil guilty of a misdemeanor public nuisance charge rather than felony assault. Too late though – because Phil is about to deal with the moral high ground, indignant righteousness, and public shame his wife fears, then vents on Phil. Before you know it, Phil is on the road in an RV, travelling across country while waiting for their inevitable divorce to be final. Along the way, he picks up a hitchhiker, Dani, who seems to have been waiting for Phil to come along for quite a long time. What happens next seems to be an endless stream of self-destructive behavior but is far from it, and Dani is at its center.
Phil’s character is resolute throughout; I like that in an MC. His relationship with Dani was certainly expected although it worked well in moving the plot along. The circumstances Phil finds himself shoved into were a bit forced or far-fetched in places. Overall, this was a satisfying romantic fantasy -mystery but that’s probably more about Dani and her motivations than Phil and his.
A four-star read about a man on a self-destructive path and the mysterious woman he meets along the way.