IT HAD TO BE YOU

When her husband dies unexpectedly, a woman is forced to reconsider the life she had and what she wants.

Liv Goldenhorn and her husband, Eliot, own a successful wedding-planning company in Brooklyn. But during a tumultuous job that leaves the business on the edge of collapse, Liv receives a phone call that Eliot has died while on a business trip—and soon after discovers that he's left his share of their company to his much younger and until-then-secret mistress, Savannah. Faced with financial ruin and unsure how to get back on track, Liv decides to accept Savannah's persistent attempts to revive the company, a decision that results in Liv, Savannah, and a group of vendors they work with rethinking what they want and how to get it, particularly when it comes to love. Clark works hard to build a diverse cast of characters, but with upward of eight points of view and a swirl of subplots, there isn't much room for in-depth character development. In addition to Liv and Savannah and their own relationships, the novel gives equal focus to a waitress and an actor who strike up a relationship at a wedding, two members of a wedding band who pretend to be a couple so one of them can secure their trust fund, and the long-term couple who run a flower business Liv works with. At times, each of these pairs reads as if they could be the focus of their own books. In spite of everything, though, Clark's prose is engaging, her characters are likable, and the plot moves quickly enough that the shortcomings can be overlooked.

This overstuffed love story is a fun bit of escapism, but it doesn't dig deep.