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Manhattan #1
It Had to Be You
New Yorker Daniel Stephenson had made a name for himself with his drag persona, Princess 2Di4, when the sudden death of the real Princess Di drained all the pleasure from his performances. Taking the advice (and financial support) of a wealthy aunt, he decides to "toss the tiara and get a life." Unfortunately, Daniel's only degrees are in "extensive show tune knowledge, advanced lip-synch, and how to cover up a five o'clock shadow." With his best friend beginning to die from AIDS, his ex-boyfriend prowling around, and his ex-boyfriend's new boyfriend making a pass at Daniel, what's a boy to do but throw himself into intensive weeding and planting of his new apartment garden? And if a handsome stranger should smile down at him from a nearby window, so much the better. Timothy James Beck's debut novel is detailed, realistic, and continually interesting. His main character spends so much energy exhaustively "processing" what happens to him, however, that this might as well have been a lesbian novel. With a little editing, It Had to Be You would have been a much stronger book, but patient readers will agree that Beck shows great promise along the lines of Felice Picano and Neal Drinnan. --Regina Marler
304 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2001
About the author
Timothy James Beck
6 books40 followersThe writing team of Timothy James Beck is made up of four writers (Timothy Forry, Jim Carter, Timothy J. Lambert & Becky Cochrane) who meet as a group twice a year, but write their novels in tandem using the Internet. For more info, please visit the TJB FAQ page on their website.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 14, 2018
Well, that sure did make me feel nostalgic.
Published in 2001 (which means written in maybe 1999) and nobody had cell phones or social media or dating apps. There’s a scene when a bunch of siblings in their 20s in the Midwest hang out for the day: they go ice skating and then play Yahtzee. And when some folks say they are going to the city to see the quilt on exhibit, it’s automatically understood they mean the AIDs quilt. Plus, our hero, a gay man whose lived in NYC for 12 years is utterly shocked to see a gay male couple with a baby.
This is a life-changes, turning 30 novel with a strong romantic side-plot. As a book, it needed some editing to smooth it out a bit. But it was a debut novel and fairly strong.
I’m just sideswiped by the nostalgia for a world I guess I hadn’t realized was that different or far gone already.
Also, I’m a bit stunned by the key differences of this how this quartet of authors (3 men and 1 woman) write this man, versus how solo woman authors in that time period (and even now) wrote women that age. Even beset by confusion about his place in the world, after a bad breakup and unexpectedly losing his career, this man is at heart confident in a way I’ve almost never seen a woman portrayed.
He is confident about his ability to land on his feet, about his essential attractiveness, about the fact that his friends love him, about his taste in everything from food to decor. He has already been fabulously successful in his first career, and is proud of how well he did. He has money saved up in investments. He’s not involved at the start of the book, and would sort of like to be, but it’s not a big worry or the center of his life. And then he lucks into a job he’s not remotely qualified for, but no biggie, he figures it out and does ok, despite the women around him who worked hard to be qualified, being a little spiteful.
Typical woman characters in 2001 weren’t allowed to be that way. Either they were insecure and anxious about everything, or they were unrealistically fierce. They were always broke, always worried about their bodies, what to wear, they’d rarely had a huge past career success already, instead they were hoping for a little recognition for their talents.
It’s just, wow. Despite the threat of gay bashing and a truly awful high school experience, this hero had so much male privilege. Fictionally at least, being a white gay man in NYC was a hell of a lot more pleasant and easy than fictionally being a white woman of any sexual preference.
Reading this, seeing the world through his eyes, it made me think what it would have been like as a 30 year old to have been able to walk through life not anxious in all those ways our culture teaches women to be anxious. So, yeah, wow.
Otherwise, it was an ok book. The cover was dumb though - neither of the characters look anything like that. I’d read one further along in his career to see if he got untangled from debut and grew.
Published in 2001 (which means written in maybe 1999) and nobody had cell phones or social media or dating apps. There’s a scene when a bunch of siblings in their 20s in the Midwest hang out for the day: they go ice skating and then play Yahtzee. And when some folks say they are going to the city to see the quilt on exhibit, it’s automatically understood they mean the AIDs quilt. Plus, our hero, a gay man whose lived in NYC for 12 years is utterly shocked to see a gay male couple with a baby.
This is a life-changes, turning 30 novel with a strong romantic side-plot. As a book, it needed some editing to smooth it out a bit. But it was a debut novel and fairly strong.
I’m just sideswiped by the nostalgia for a world I guess I hadn’t realized was that different or far gone already.
Also, I’m a bit stunned by the key differences of this how this quartet of authors (3 men and 1 woman) write this man, versus how solo woman authors in that time period (and even now) wrote women that age. Even beset by confusion about his place in the world, after a bad breakup and unexpectedly losing his career, this man is at heart confident in a way I’ve almost never seen a woman portrayed.
He is confident about his ability to land on his feet, about his essential attractiveness, about the fact that his friends love him, about his taste in everything from food to decor. He has already been fabulously successful in his first career, and is proud of how well he did. He has money saved up in investments. He’s not involved at the start of the book, and would sort of like to be, but it’s not a big worry or the center of his life. And then he lucks into a job he’s not remotely qualified for, but no biggie, he figures it out and does ok, despite the women around him who worked hard to be qualified, being a little spiteful.
Typical woman characters in 2001 weren’t allowed to be that way. Either they were insecure and anxious about everything, or they were unrealistically fierce. They were always broke, always worried about their bodies, what to wear, they’d rarely had a huge past career success already, instead they were hoping for a little recognition for their talents.
It’s just, wow. Despite the threat of gay bashing and a truly awful high school experience, this hero had so much male privilege. Fictionally at least, being a white gay man in NYC was a hell of a lot more pleasant and easy than fictionally being a white woman of any sexual preference.
Reading this, seeing the world through his eyes, it made me think what it would have been like as a 30 year old to have been able to walk through life not anxious in all those ways our culture teaches women to be anxious. So, yeah, wow.
Otherwise, it was an ok book. The cover was dumb though - neither of the characters look anything like that. I’d read one further along in his career to see if he got untangled from debut and grew.
December 30, 2015
This was a reread for comfort. One my first gay romances read.
May 19, 2010
Wow. Okay, first off, I read this entire book today - and it's nearly midnight, so forgive me if I ramble a little.
When I read "He's the One," by Timothy James Beck, there was a character introduced that I was dying to learn more about: Daniel Stephenson. He had a realistic past, I identified with him a lot more than the main protagonist of "He's the One," and moreover, he was just a wonderfully developed secondary character with some great stuff in his written past.
Now I know why.
Turns out that "It Had to be You," is the story of Daniel Stephenson, getting up to just about the point where he's in in "He's the One." This was great, even if I did already know the ending as I'd read them out of order. Daniel is an easy-to-identify-with character for me (no buff jock, just a slim guy; no massively successful career, just an entry level second-attempt-at-a-career). He's still hurt over the betrayal of his last boyfriend, still a little damaged over the revelation that yet another friend is slowly dying of AIDS, and just about ripe for falling head over heels with the hunky guy across the street.
Except that guy lives with a woman, seems about as straight as they come, and probably won't react well to his previous career as a female impersonator who mostly did Lady 2Di4, a Princess Diana tribute. Uh oh.
The wit is just as sharp in this one as in "He's the One," - and just as often nicely balanced with some poignancy that doesn't over-sweeten to saccharine levels. And I must say I am now a firm fan of all things Timothy James Beck. I really hope to see more books out of him.
When I read "He's the One," by Timothy James Beck, there was a character introduced that I was dying to learn more about: Daniel Stephenson. He had a realistic past, I identified with him a lot more than the main protagonist of "He's the One," and moreover, he was just a wonderfully developed secondary character with some great stuff in his written past.
Now I know why.
Turns out that "It Had to be You," is the story of Daniel Stephenson, getting up to just about the point where he's in in "He's the One." This was great, even if I did already know the ending as I'd read them out of order. Daniel is an easy-to-identify-with character for me (no buff jock, just a slim guy; no massively successful career, just an entry level second-attempt-at-a-career). He's still hurt over the betrayal of his last boyfriend, still a little damaged over the revelation that yet another friend is slowly dying of AIDS, and just about ripe for falling head over heels with the hunky guy across the street.
Except that guy lives with a woman, seems about as straight as they come, and probably won't react well to his previous career as a female impersonator who mostly did Lady 2Di4, a Princess Diana tribute. Uh oh.
The wit is just as sharp in this one as in "He's the One," - and just as often nicely balanced with some poignancy that doesn't over-sweeten to saccharine levels. And I must say I am now a firm fan of all things Timothy James Beck. I really hope to see more books out of him.
May 22, 2011
This is a very pleasant book. The premises of the story is light and funny and somehow romantic, something that you cannot hate when you read it. It gives me the impression that every time you read a few chapters for a day, it always leave you with a smile in your face. The characters are lovable and easy to relate as well as the plotting of the entire scene. Though I’ve never been to the gay district of Manhattan and see the booming lines of club that highlighted the performances of the Drag Queens but this book gave me the idea of the glitz and glamour of that kind of world. The author did brilliantly in creating characters that are pleasing and real. After reading the book, I felt like I’ve known this guys for a long time or I know this one character from somewhere. It’s like identifying a long time friend.
This is my second gay theme novel that I read but my first full length book since the very first was Brokeback Mountain and it is hardly consider as full length as it is very short. This book gave me the satisfaction that I soothe in reading a feel good or a romantic comedy genre type of a book. It’s the best and I recommend this to all the people who’s mind is open enough to accept the idea of a gay relationship and to those who are gays and hopeless romantic.
This is my second gay theme novel that I read but my first full length book since the very first was Brokeback Mountain and it is hardly consider as full length as it is very short. This book gave me the satisfaction that I soothe in reading a feel good or a romantic comedy genre type of a book. It’s the best and I recommend this to all the people who’s mind is open enough to accept the idea of a gay relationship and to those who are gays and hopeless romantic.
April 26, 2019
This is awesome book. Very slowly in the beginning. But by middle it takes off
July 20, 2025
Nice, gay rom-com. Enjoyed it tremendously.
Read
August 3, 2009Daniel is a thirty years old guy like many in New York. He flew from a small town in Wiscounsin hoping to become an actor at Broadway; during high school he was the classical misfit, not actually out as gay but nevertheless the target of those guys who considered themself normal. As often in those cases, losing himself in daydreams was the only way to survive and playing a role on stage was another way to escape reality. In a small town, Daniel's ability to perform was something special, but in New York City he was only one other daydreamer; Daniel left his small town since he didn't fit there, but it's not better in New York City. Young and alone, Daniel was starting towards the path of selling himself, more for being noticed (and having enough to eat) than really for money. Who saved Daniel from that sad destiny, was his makeshift family, full of wonderful characters like Bette Midler, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, all in drags. In his small town, when Daniel thought to himself as gay, he never once imagined himself in drag, but then he realized that it was another way to play a role, on stage, but also in life. On stage Daniel wore glitters and satin, out of the stage he had still a mask. His own was 2Di4, a female impersonator of Lady Diana; and it worked for many years till the day the real Lady D died in a car accident. Daniel was not only playing a role, 2Di4 was also his life, and losing his source of inspiration was like losing again himself.
At thirty Daniel is again at the starting point, the last 12 years lost forever. More or less at the same time, he also finds out that his lover Jeremy is cheating on him with a common friend, Robert. So Daniel takes a whole turn on his life: he moves to Hell's Kitchen in a small apartment with a little garden and he spends the summer planting seeds and trees in that garden, another way to delay. At the end of the summer, the garden is a little eden, and Daniel has not yet decided what to do with his life. His friends, mostly drag queens, want for him to perform again, but he has not that in him. He meets Sheila, a young girl coincidentally from his same small town, who is temporarly living with Blaine, another fellow townfolk. Blaine is actually Mr 5.33, the same man Daniel is spying from his garden every day coming home and doing an impromptu and unwilling little striptease for the neighbor. At first Daniel befriends Sheila for the chance to meet Blaine, but then he finds out that he really likes the girl; Sheila's relationship with Blaine is strange, but from the beginning it's clear that it's not love, at least no more. Sheila also convinces Blaine to hire Daniel as Personal Assistant; Daniel has no real skill for the work, but he learns looking at DVD like Working Girl and From 9 to 5. The job allows him to get nearer to Blaine, and to discover some of the man's secrets.
Meanwhile, Daniel's ex, Jeremy, is regretting is choice to leave and wants to come back home to Daniel, and also Jeremy's new lover, Robert, is making a move on Daniel... from not having no one and being dumped, Daniel has now three possible lovers in line. Quite an ego burst. And the real good thing is that now all of the are interesting in Daniel, the real one, and not the face 2Di4 he was on stage. What Daniel didn't do 12 years ago, and what he delayed misguising as a female, he is doing now: he is coming out, from the closet, from the small town, from the dresses he used to hide. He is no more living on the shadow of someone else, replaying on stage her mistakes, Daniel is now doing them all by himself.
Even if there is a nice and tender love story between Daniel and Blaine, the story is mainly focused on Daniel. Blaine is all in all a good character and a nice man. He made some big mistakes in his life, but now he is trying to straighten (no pun inteded) them. Maybe at the very beginning, he is not so straightforward (again, no pun inteded) with Daniel, but it's really a question of few days. After that, he becomes the perfect possible boyfriend, comprehensive and caring, sweet and tender. But still, his character remains quite in second line in comparison to Daniel.
The love story between them is sweet, tender and very normal. A classical office romance, with a little of teasing and nice development. There is not detailed sex, when they do it (and they do it), the author chose the "and afterward..." tactic, means that we leave the characters just before the main course, to rejoin them at the afterward. No bad, the story is funny and light enough to fullfill the gap.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1575668904/?...
At thirty Daniel is again at the starting point, the last 12 years lost forever. More or less at the same time, he also finds out that his lover Jeremy is cheating on him with a common friend, Robert. So Daniel takes a whole turn on his life: he moves to Hell's Kitchen in a small apartment with a little garden and he spends the summer planting seeds and trees in that garden, another way to delay. At the end of the summer, the garden is a little eden, and Daniel has not yet decided what to do with his life. His friends, mostly drag queens, want for him to perform again, but he has not that in him. He meets Sheila, a young girl coincidentally from his same small town, who is temporarly living with Blaine, another fellow townfolk. Blaine is actually Mr 5.33, the same man Daniel is spying from his garden every day coming home and doing an impromptu and unwilling little striptease for the neighbor. At first Daniel befriends Sheila for the chance to meet Blaine, but then he finds out that he really likes the girl; Sheila's relationship with Blaine is strange, but from the beginning it's clear that it's not love, at least no more. Sheila also convinces Blaine to hire Daniel as Personal Assistant; Daniel has no real skill for the work, but he learns looking at DVD like Working Girl and From 9 to 5. The job allows him to get nearer to Blaine, and to discover some of the man's secrets.
Meanwhile, Daniel's ex, Jeremy, is regretting is choice to leave and wants to come back home to Daniel, and also Jeremy's new lover, Robert, is making a move on Daniel... from not having no one and being dumped, Daniel has now three possible lovers in line. Quite an ego burst. And the real good thing is that now all of the are interesting in Daniel, the real one, and not the face 2Di4 he was on stage. What Daniel didn't do 12 years ago, and what he delayed misguising as a female, he is doing now: he is coming out, from the closet, from the small town, from the dresses he used to hide. He is no more living on the shadow of someone else, replaying on stage her mistakes, Daniel is now doing them all by himself.
Even if there is a nice and tender love story between Daniel and Blaine, the story is mainly focused on Daniel. Blaine is all in all a good character and a nice man. He made some big mistakes in his life, but now he is trying to straighten (no pun inteded) them. Maybe at the very beginning, he is not so straightforward (again, no pun inteded) with Daniel, but it's really a question of few days. After that, he becomes the perfect possible boyfriend, comprehensive and caring, sweet and tender. But still, his character remains quite in second line in comparison to Daniel.
The love story between them is sweet, tender and very normal. A classical office romance, with a little of teasing and nice development. There is not detailed sex, when they do it (and they do it), the author chose the "and afterward..." tactic, means that we leave the characters just before the main course, to rejoin them at the afterward. No bad, the story is funny and light enough to fullfill the gap.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1575668904/?...
November 2, 2011
Enjoyable romance, showcasing drag shows and performers. Some of the jokes and descriptions of the performances are hilarious, and there is fun repartee all around. I did puzzle over seemingly inconsistent, multiple tales of how Daniel climbed into and atop the world of drag. The actual plot structure, characterization, and many barely-seen characters didn't gel well. Having enjoyed the sequels to this book long before getting my hands on this one, this was fun to read, just to round out the series. Timothy James Beck's subsequent novels are more assured and ambitious.
June 15, 2022
I love this novel. The writing is witty, the characters are three-dimensional and dynamic, and the story has countless sweet moments mixed with high melodrama that is a delight to read. This book published in 2001, has captured the flavour of gay culture and big city life in the late 90s perfectly but the themes and emotions still resonate with today’s mindset. This is a go-to book for me when I’m feeling “gay nostalgic” and need some smart but whimsical storytelling about fun, campy, and complex queer people--like myself. It’s literary “comfort food!”
May 10, 2008
This a great heartwarming and funny romance
July 24, 2008
TJB creates characters you can't help but care about!!
March 4, 2010
Created characters that I totally fell in love with and enjoyed the happy feelings it gave me as I read it!
November 4, 2013
dull boring really lame attempt
November 9, 2012
I enjoyed this quite a bit .
October 7, 2013
Truly enjoyed reading this story. I laughed and fell in love with the characters. I highly recommend it if you are looking to read good gay fiction.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews