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It Had To Be You
A World War II love story for the ages. . . The kind of book that you think about afterward. . .They [hero/heroine] grip your heart and make you weep.—In Print It is definitely one for the keeper shelf.—Margaret Lawrence I highly recommend It Had to Be You for an all-consuming and powerful love story.—Romance Communications Reviews* Best Mainstream Novel – Golden Triangle* Runner-up Best Mainstream Novel – Book of Your Heart* Runner-up Best Historical – Now and Then* Runner-up Best Historical – Show Me More* under various previous titles* *** The time is 1937. Journalist Dianne Castle mixes with Hollywood's elite post-Prohibition hedonists at the popular Club Borneo, owned by handsome Japanese American, Johnny Honda. Amidst the threat of war and chants of Yellow Peril, Dianne and Johnny fall in love, but it's a love not to be. How can Johnny let his beloved Dianne throw her life away on the likes of him? Dianne stubbornly vows to follow him to the ends of the earth-even if it means entering an internment camp.
388 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 2000
About the author
Cheryl Bolen
80 books1,678 followersSince being named Notable New Author for 1997, Cheryl Bolen has published more than 35 books with Kensington/Zebra, Harlequin, Love Inspired Historical, Montlake, and independently. She has broken into the top 5 on the New York Times and hit the USA Today bestseller list. Her 2005 One Golden Ring won Best Historical, Holt Medallion, and her 2011 My Lord Wicked was awarded Best Historical in the International Digital Awards, the same year her Christmas novella was chosen as Best Novella. Her books have been finalists for other awards, including the Daphne du Maurier, and have been translated into eight languages. She’s also been the number 1 bestselling historical romance author in Germany.
She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and English from the University of Texas and a master's degree from the University of Houston. Her favorite pursuits are reading diaries of dead English women, traveling to England, and watching the Texas Longhorns play football and basketball. She and her recently retired professor husband are the parents of two sons. One is an attorney, the other a journalist.
Website: www.CherylBolen.com
Blog: www.cherylsregencyramblings.wordpress.co
Facebook: http://fbl.ink/Facebook
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 12, 2011
One reason I was attracted to this book is because my mother was a young woman during WWII. She kept scrapbooks about every aspect of that era. She played big band music from those decades of her youth, and I grew up listening to it along with rock and roll. Whenever there were old movies from the 1930s and 1940s on TV, I watched them and grew fascinated by what so many film students consider Hollywood's Golden Age.
Take those years leading up to the war, add some of the famous stars from the silver screen, toss in a young woman from Texas and a handsome worldly man unlike any of the boys at home, and you have the makings of a love story for the ages. Like all good romances, there must be conflict, and this story has the deepest, most entrenched conflict of all that was rampant then and still exists today: racial and cultural differences.
You see, the young woman is Anglo, and the man she falls in love with is Japanese American--and the time is an era when those citizens were being eyed with suspicion and distrust. Eventually so many of them were rounded up, their belongings confiscated, and they were placed in camps. It's part of the shame of the war years.
Love conquers all, they say, and Diane is willing to fight the world for the man she loves. This is the kind of love story you'll remember. It Had To Be You is what romance is all about. One woman. One man. Made for each other, regardless of what the world may say.
Take those years leading up to the war, add some of the famous stars from the silver screen, toss in a young woman from Texas and a handsome worldly man unlike any of the boys at home, and you have the makings of a love story for the ages. Like all good romances, there must be conflict, and this story has the deepest, most entrenched conflict of all that was rampant then and still exists today: racial and cultural differences.
You see, the young woman is Anglo, and the man she falls in love with is Japanese American--and the time is an era when those citizens were being eyed with suspicion and distrust. Eventually so many of them were rounded up, their belongings confiscated, and they were placed in camps. It's part of the shame of the war years.
Love conquers all, they say, and Diane is willing to fight the world for the man she loves. This is the kind of love story you'll remember. It Had To Be You is what romance is all about. One woman. One man. Made for each other, regardless of what the world may say.
August 20, 2021
The time is 1937.Journalist Dianne Castle mixes with Hollywood's elite post-Prohibition hedonists at the popular Club Borneo, owned by handsome Japanese American, Johnny Honda. Amidst the threat of war and chants of Yellow Peril, Dianne and Johnny fall in love, but it's a love not to be.How can Johnny let his beloved Dianne throw her life away on the likes of him?Dianne stubbornly vows to follow him to the ends of the earth-even if it means entering an internment camp.The Los Angeles Herald Examiner was a major Los Angeles daily newspaper, published in the afternoon from Monday to Friday and in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays. It was part of the Hearst syndicate. The afternoon Herald-Express and the morning Los Angeles Examiner, both of which had been publishing in the city since the turn of the 20th century, merged in 1962.The Examiner flourished in the 1940s under the leadership of City Editor James H. Richardson, who led his reporters to emphasize crime and Hollywood scandal coverage.The Examiner, while founded as a pro-labor newspaper, shifted to a hard-right stance by the 1930s, much like the rest of the Hearst chain. It was pro-law enforcement and was vehemently anti-Japanese during World War II.Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States has existed since the late 19th century, during the Yellow Peril. Anti-Japanese sentiment peaked during WWII.When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, Western public opinion was decidedly pro-China,with eyewitness reports by Western journalists on atrocities committed against Chinese civilians further strengthening anti-Japanese sentiments.The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, plunged the United States into war and planted the notion that the Japanese were treacherous and barbaric in the minds of Americans. The hysteria which enveloped the West Coast during the early months of the war, combined with long standing anti-Asian prejudices, set the stage for what was to come.Japanese Americans were interned in housing facilities called "War Relocation Camps". Issei,first generation,were ineligible for U.S. citizenship, Nissei the second generation and Sansei their children.
September 5, 2017
Pretty entertaining overall. Sugary sweet.
June 25, 2012
It Had To Be You (A World War Two Romance)
By Cheryl Bolen
Set in Los Angeles in the late 1930’s to early 1940’s, with a cast of characters from writers, newspaper people and nightclub owners showcasing the grandeur that was Los Angeles at the time. Our fictional characters interact comfortably in believable settings with some of the most famous and well know authors, actors, producers and singers of the day. This story of Johnny Honda and Dianne Castle and their love that transcended race, social class and lasted through a war is brilliantly back lit by all this glamour.
William Randolph Hearst and his long time mistress, Marion Davies, are frequent characters in the early part of the book, before the war, before the internment camps. As were Clark Gable, his wife, Humphrey Bogart, and many others. It was a life filled with glitz and glamour for a young Dianne just up from Texas. She was pulled into it by Andrew Harriman, a columnist for the paper she wanted to work for; he liked her and enjoyed taking her around to all the parties and nightclubs.
She had been leaving LA, to go look at a small apartment to share with another lady when she saw a plane crash. She helped the family that was affected by it, got a list of the passengers, called the owner of one of the nightclubs in LA, a very powerful Japanese American. She fell in love that day. Though it took over 4 years for Johnny to admit to his feelings, Andrew harbored feelings for Dianne and kept trying to get Johnny out of her mind and heart.
It was fascinating to this reviewer to look up a lot of the laws that had been passed against the Japanese in California and learn that from those laws it was an easy push to get the rest of the country behind putting them in internment camps inland and their lands and businesses confiscated by the white American’s, especially after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
The conditions in the internment camps were horrendous; overcrowding, lack of medical personal, lack of food in some cases, badly built huts that let in all kinds of weather, plus the fact that second and third generation American citizens were denied basic rights they were born into. Then the only way out was the Loyalty oath they had to sign, forswearing all loyalty to the Japanese emperor most of them had no knowledge of, and the fact they would fight in the war for America; when just a few years before they had been denied the right to join the Armed Forces based on their race.
This was an epic love story that was so much more. If you really enjoy learning about history and like the by-gone era of early Hollywood this is a book you would love. I give it a five star rating and highly recommend it. Thank you for sharing your talent to make the past come alive, Ms. Bolen, it was a wonderful trip.
By Cheryl Bolen
Set in Los Angeles in the late 1930’s to early 1940’s, with a cast of characters from writers, newspaper people and nightclub owners showcasing the grandeur that was Los Angeles at the time. Our fictional characters interact comfortably in believable settings with some of the most famous and well know authors, actors, producers and singers of the day. This story of Johnny Honda and Dianne Castle and their love that transcended race, social class and lasted through a war is brilliantly back lit by all this glamour.
William Randolph Hearst and his long time mistress, Marion Davies, are frequent characters in the early part of the book, before the war, before the internment camps. As were Clark Gable, his wife, Humphrey Bogart, and many others. It was a life filled with glitz and glamour for a young Dianne just up from Texas. She was pulled into it by Andrew Harriman, a columnist for the paper she wanted to work for; he liked her and enjoyed taking her around to all the parties and nightclubs.
She had been leaving LA, to go look at a small apartment to share with another lady when she saw a plane crash. She helped the family that was affected by it, got a list of the passengers, called the owner of one of the nightclubs in LA, a very powerful Japanese American. She fell in love that day. Though it took over 4 years for Johnny to admit to his feelings, Andrew harbored feelings for Dianne and kept trying to get Johnny out of her mind and heart.
It was fascinating to this reviewer to look up a lot of the laws that had been passed against the Japanese in California and learn that from those laws it was an easy push to get the rest of the country behind putting them in internment camps inland and their lands and businesses confiscated by the white American’s, especially after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
The conditions in the internment camps were horrendous; overcrowding, lack of medical personal, lack of food in some cases, badly built huts that let in all kinds of weather, plus the fact that second and third generation American citizens were denied basic rights they were born into. Then the only way out was the Loyalty oath they had to sign, forswearing all loyalty to the Japanese emperor most of them had no knowledge of, and the fact they would fight in the war for America; when just a few years before they had been denied the right to join the Armed Forces based on their race.
This was an epic love story that was so much more. If you really enjoy learning about history and like the by-gone era of early Hollywood this is a book you would love. I give it a five star rating and highly recommend it. Thank you for sharing your talent to make the past come alive, Ms. Bolen, it was a wonderful trip.
April 24, 2013
I enjoyed the story. I live about 10 miles from Hearst Castle, and it was so much fun when the heroine spent the weekend there in 1939. The romance is between a caucasian woman and a Japanese man. It starts prior to WWII and continues through the war. The historical details were great and the pace of the story was good.
July 21, 2012
Such a great book! The topics of injustice and of race relations are of special interest to me. I was unaware before reading it that this is exactly what this book deals with. This is a winner!
February 23, 2013
Could have been over in half the pages. Ridiculously drawn out and very "typical". Unrefined and a poor storytelling effort.
January 1, 2013
A fairly good read but nothing out of the ordinary.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews