It Had To Be You

In Wisconsin we have a saying, "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes; it'll change." I remember in 1991 when Doogie was born, we brought him home from the hospital on April 6th in 80 degree weather. The next day we went to the Shawano Flea Market, and I wore shorts! That was a Sunday. Two days later, we got 8" of snow and school was canceled! Us Wisconsinites tend to take that kind of thing in stride, but Friday night was just plain weird. I drove the girls to the benefit around 4:30 pm, and it was cold enough for us to pull out our winter coats. When I left at 11 pm, the snow was coming down so hard, I could barely see the the road ahead of me and couldn't go above 40 miles an hour all the way home! I took a couple of pictures after I thanked God for bringing me safely home. By Saturday morning, the snow was completely gone, but there were flurries of hail and sleet throughout the day. Today it's about 50 degrees outside and looks like a beautiful spring day. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else in the world, because of our beautiful seasons and landscape, but on weekends like this last one, I wouldn't mind a vacation home in Arizona!

It Had to be You by Janice Thompson is the third book in the Weddings by Bella series. Bella Rossi is finally getting ready for her own wedding to hunky cowboy D.J. Neely, after planning so many other weddings in the previous two books, but before she can really get ready for her big day, her Aunt Rosa and Uncle Laz have to walk down the aisle together. As the rest of the family from Italy flies in for the big day, complications seem to pop up by the dozen. And just when Bella thinks she has it under control, things really get out of hand. Thompson has created such a robust and hilarious group of characters in the Rossi family, it would be sad to say goodbye to them after just three books. It felt on occasion that Thompson was stretching the realms of credibility a bit much to give everyone their happy ending, but she writes with such gusto and flair, it's impossible to fault her for it. It's one of those books that will have the reader smiling with tears running down her face from both laughter and joy.

Thank you to Revell Books for providing me with a copy of this book for review!

Available May 2010 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.