It had to be you (by Sarah Webb)

(Amazon UK link)

I had not heard of Sarah Webb, although she is apparently an award-winning children's writer. I spotted her novel (for adults) ‘It had to be you’ in a church book sale a few months ago. The blurb on the back sounded interesting, and I’m always keen to try out different authors inexpensively. So I paid my 50 cents and bought it. It has sat on my to-be-read shelf until a few days ago when I picked it up to read.

The book is about three women, presumably in their late twenties. The chapters alternate, each one headed by the name of one of the women, telling events from their perspective - or mostly. There are viewpoint changes within chapters and even scenes that are a tad disturbing at times. As the three are friends who interact a lot, I’m not entirely sure why they needed their own chapters, but it’s not an uncommon device.

Molly is the person we meet first, and although they're all rather two-dimensional, I found her to be the most likeable. She manages a bookshop in a small Irish town. We meet her just before she receives some startling news from the bookshop owner. Molly loves reading, and does some writing of her own, although she’s pretty sure it’s not very good.

Molly’s best friend Paige is a city councillor, hoping to be elected as a Deputy in an upcoming election. Paige is married to Tom, who is the perfect husband - he seems to have no faults at all. They have a lively son called Callum, who is about four, and a baby called Alfie, who spends most of his time being looked after by someone else.

I found Paige a difficult person to like - not that I cared a great deal about her. Her parenting skills are minimal. The way she speaks to Callum is often abrupt and manipulative, and she has no idea how to handle him. It is implied that he causes trouble in the nursery where he spends most of his time. But when someone who likes children looks after him, he’s shown as a bright, interesting little boy.

Then there’s Kate, Molly’s flat-mate, who lived in Boston in the United States until a couple of years before the story starts. She evidently had an upsetting romantic experience, which we learn more about later in the book. Kate works in a shoe shop, and also runs a dating advice service, including going out on ‘dummy dates’ with men to assess their character and social skills. Kate is also rather difficult to like, but she had a stressful childhood so I had a bit more sympathy with her.

These three main characters are, at times, hard to tell apart. In the first part of the book I had to remind myself several times who was whom. The novel is essentially about Kate’s love-life, Paige’s election campaigns, and Molly’s work in the bookshop. Molly meets a pleasant young man, but has to work hard to ensure the shop doesn’t change. Kate has a likeable and feisty grandmother, Lily, but we don’t see all that much of her. Lily and young Callum are, in my view, the most interesting people in the novel.

It sounds as if it should be my kind of book. But unfortunately the writing feels more like that of a soap opera than a novel. There’s a lot of dialogue, but it's all rather flat. Much of it adds nothing to either the characters concerned or the story. An editor, in my view, should have cut out at least 25% of the dialogue. Not that it’s unrealistic - people do make pointless small talk, and discuss how many sugars they have in their tea, but this kind of tedious conversation is not generally included in a novel. I found I could skim an entire page of dialogue in some places, without missing anything.

And while perhaps this is just me, I found it immensely annoying that the phrase ‘to be honest’ is used repeatedly, sometimes on successive pages. It isn’t just one person’s irritating byline. Almost everyone uses it, and the author employs the phrase too in some explanatory sections (of which there are rather too many).

The continuity is a bit confused, too. There’s an incident towards the end of the book where a small boy goes missing for a while. There’s no tension for the reader, as we see his discovery by a responsible person before his parents are aware that he is lost. All three of the women are involved in the search; Kate is asked for a phone number and passes it on. But a couple of chapters later Kate apparently knows nothing about it, and is surprised to find out what happened. Again, this is something I feel the editor should have flagged.

And while the set-up is good, and there's plenty of potential for plot development, it doesn't really happen. The main characters change their minds about people they care for, and their futures, but I didn’t feel there was any real motivation for them to do so. Still, I kept reading because I don’t like to abandon books unless they are really bad. Besides, I was curious to find out if the ending was exactly as I expected, almost from the first chapters.

On the plus side, the author avoids bad language and detailed bedroom scenes so there’s nothing to offend anyone. 'It had to be you' makes a pleasant enough light read, and it’s very popular with many readers. It’s not a bad book if you feel like a light-weight gentle and predictable story, and don’t mind excessive conversation. The ending, if a bit abrupt, ties up most of the loose ends and is quite satisfactory.

I doubt if I’ll read this again, and I wouldn’t particularly recommend it - but don't take my word for it, as other reviewers recommend it highly.

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