Mr. Wrong Number by Lynn Painter
Genre: NA Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book): Things get textual when a steamy message from a random wrong number turns into an anonymous relationship in this hilarious rom-com by Lynn Painter.
Bad luck has always followed Olivia Marshall…or maybe she’s just the screw-up her family thinks she is. But when a “What are you wearing?” text from a random wrong number turns into the hottest, most entertaining—albeit anonymous—relationship of her life, she thinks things might be on the upswing….
Colin Beck has always considered Olivia his best friend’s annoying little sister, but when she moves in with them after one of her worst runs of luck, he realizes she’s turned into an altogether different and sexier distraction. He’s sure he can keep his distance, until the moment he discovers she’s the irresistible Miss Misdial he’s been sort of sexting for weeks—and now he has to decide whether to turn the heat up or ghost her before things get messy.
MY OPINION: **
I read Painter's YA novel last month and when I heard she made an NA/Adult rom-com, I was super excited to see what it was about. I sadly ended up not liking the book as much as I had hoped and think there were a lot things that could have been done better than what I saw.
The book read a lot like a Wattpad book, and not one of the better ones. I'm sorry with how harsh that sounds but I think the writing style just wasn't my cup of tea. In her YA novel, it was at least tolerable because of the fact that it was YA, but in this rom-com sort of genre, I didn't like how childish the characters seemed at times and how immature their actions were.
Liv is a chaotic human being who always happens to find herself in worse and worse "scrapes" in all sorts of different situations. This is a fairly common trope (especially on Wattpad...) that is technically supposed to make the character more endearing or whatever, but I personally found it cringey. I understand that it's not her fault but sweetie, if you're burning love letters with candles while crying and half-drunk, you have to expect the consequences. I feel as if she acted very childish throughout the book and yet we were supposed to believe that she was a full-grown adult? I didn't like Liv.
Colin was very meh. His character didn't stand out to me and he was described as basically a carbon copy of every single other "six-pack, too-hot, too-tall" man in all the other novels. I want some diversity, something more than just "too-hot-to-handle" garbage. I am all for hot men and I have nothing against writers who want to make their love interests "hot." However, this man did not even have a real personality behind his so-called attractiveness and that, to me, made him not as beautiful as we are led to think he is. I finished this book a couple weeks ago and I cannot recall a single thing about this man that isn't related to his physical appearance, and I think that says a lot.
One night, Olivia receives a text from a wrong number (hence the title). Despite the weird introduction, they end up talking/flirting for countless days. Eh. I wasn't a fan of this trope, which I understand is my own fault for picking up a book that's centered around this trope but I was hoping for something unique and different from the very... dare I say it... Wattpad genre of wrong number soulmates. The conversation did not feel natural and they started off very strong, in a way that I personally would have been very weirded out to read from a stranger.
I honestly don't remember the full story but I do think that this followed all the generic Wattpad plot-sequences pretty thoroughly. I was just waiting for a pregnancy scare to jump out of nowhere and really sour the plot (thankfully, we did not have to worry about that).
This is NOT a spoiler as it's literally in the blurb but lo and behold, Colin turns out to be Olivia's mis-numbered contact. Only, SHE doesn't know but HE does. This whole scenario sets up the whole miscommunication trope and while this is VERY common in rom-coms, I am personally an avid hater of the idea. It's literally SO stupid, especially for this situation because of how absurd and unrealistic it all was. Sometimes the miscommunication trope, when executed well, can be a piece of painful art, but this one was just very blasé and I kind of wanted to laugh while reading it.
I love the brother's best friend trope but this one just didn't do it for me. I wasn't a fan of the characters, the plot, the tropes, or the scenarios. I think this book objectively is not bad, especially when compared to other books from the same genre, but I was just personally not obsessed. I would recommend this book to readers looking for this specific type of trope (wrong number soulmates) and a fun rom-com. I don't want to end this review by saying the book is bad because I can see why people like it. It just wasn't a personal favorite of mine.
Main Character: Liv, Colin
Sidekick(s): Friends, family, etc
Villain(s): Miscommunication, lying, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was real to life.
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