Mr. Wrong Number by Lynn Painter

Mr. Wrong Number by Lynn Painter

Read by Callie Dalton and Andrew Biden

8 hours, 27 minutes

Published March 2022 by Penguin Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

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 Thoughts: 

I recently read and reviewed Lynn Painter's The Love Wager; and, while it wasn't the book for me, I enjoyed the banter and wit enough to give another of her books a shot. Reviews of that one kept comparing it to this one so I decided that if any of Painter's books could make me a convert, Mr. Wrong Number was probably it. 

It wasn't. 

Half of all reviewers on Goodreads give this book 4 or 5 stars. It's clear that for readers of this particular genre, this book gives them everything they want in a book. If you look at the publisher's summary and think this sounds like something you'd like, you probably will. What's clear to me now is that this type of storytelling just isn't for me.  

I struggled from the beginning when Olivia responded to that first text. Because 1) how does she know the text is from a man; and 2) if any man texted me that, I would be done with him. But I got that I needed to buy into that so I kept going. Then it turns out that Olivia is, and always has been, a total screw up. This is a great disappointment to her family, really annoying for her brother's best friend, and something she seems to just write off about herself, as in "oh well, nothing I can do about it." But still, once again, give it a chance, I told myself. And I did; I listened to the entire book. But I never could find any sympathy for a lead character who, while staying at someone else's house drinks half a bottle of previously unopened liquor and doesn't feel like she did anything wrong with it, not even when confronted with the fact that it cost $400; who lies to an employer to get a job; and who accuses Colin of outing her to said employer even though there is no reason for him to do so. 

The storyline itself had potential for me and I was willing to go along with the premise, but it just felt like it could have been so much more. There was opportunity to explore the relationship between Olivia and her mother, for example. Olivia could have come clean to her employer up front and I felt like they still would have wanted her for what she offered. She and Colin could have had more conversations where they learned about each other and found that their assumptions were wrong (I mean, that might have come up while they were lying in bed together after bonking each other). 

All of that being said, again, I just think that this genre is not for me. Others clearly loved this book and Painter's books in general and I'm glad that there are books out there in the wild for readers of all types. As for me, it's time to move on. Perhaps back to what I know, perhaps to give another genre a shot.