Review: "It Had to Be Him" by Adib Khorram

It Had to Be Him by Adib Khorram
Published September 2025 via Forever
★★★★

Ramin's life has just been turned upside-down: he thought he was on the marriage track only to find out he was on the breakup track. In a drunken effort to prove that he's not boring, he books impulsive tickets to Italy...where he runs into Noah, his high school crush. Shenanigans ensue.

Honestly, I was sold as soon as I saw that this took place in Italy. Call me predictable, but I love a good foreign-escape book. It Had to Be Him is set in the same universe (and the same friend group) as I'll Have What He's Having, so it was an easy enough guess that there'd be solid characterization and overall good storytelling. (As it turns out, there's also quite a bit of wine—I'm guessing that that's an author interest and not just a character choice!)

This does the job handily. Lots to like here: good communication (most of the time), interesting material about body image, realistic kid-chaos, and one of the best relationships between exes that I've seen in a book—Noah and his ex-wife Angela are coparenting their kid, and enough time has passed since their divorce that the dust has settled and they can just...be friends. They're in Italy together, and although they don't always see eye-to-eye on things, they understand each other really well (e.g., Noah is pretty wry about Angela's approach to tourism, which he terms the Death March of Fun), and this is all treated as normal and healthy (as it should be but so rarely gets the chance to be in romance).

Despite the generally good communication throughout, I don't think there was quite enough between Noah and Angela about Angela's plans. Noah accepts it all at face value, but I have to think that a change that will, one way or another, have a major impact on your life, your kid's life, and your relationship with your kid should be discussed in a lot more detail. Like—I get where Angela is coming from, but at the same time, I wanted Noah to say "Whoa, hold up, there's a custody arrangement in place for a reason." And on a different note, it's worth mentioning that this is best suited for readers who don't mind their romance being on the explicit side (something I'm generally fine with, but since I'm more of an f/f reader than an m/m reader, this one raised some questions for me that I am valiantly resisting Googling).

I suspect that there's a third book planned, presumably with Arya as a main character. With any luck that's the case, because I'll happily read more...though I'll stick with my bottom-of-the-grocery-shelf wine rather than taking any of the much better recommendations here.

Thanks to the author and publisher for inviting me to read a review copy through NetGalley.