Painter, Lynn. Mr. Wrong Number. Berkley, 2022. ISBN 978-0593437261 352 pp. $16

***

Olivia is kind of a hot mess, having just accidentally burned down her new apartment in some kind of purging ritual to banish her previous relationship. She’s trying to change her luck, but she’s jobless, homeless, and single and temporarily crashing with her brother Jack and his very put together, insufferable roommate Colin. When she gets a misdirected “What are you wearing?” sext, she banters back, and over the course of weeks, develops a relationship of sorts with her Mr. Wrong Number… who turns out to be someone she knows (three guesses, first two don’t count) and would NEVER date… and when he figures out who his Miss Misdial is, the point of view of the novel changes, and then switches back and forth for the remainder of the book. (Pretty clever!). Colin tries to extricate himself–he really does–but Olivia is funny and charming as compelling to him as to the reader.

All of the things that go wrong are hilarious, but not in a mean, at her expense way–we really feel for her comic misfortunes and route for her life to stabilize, and for her to get all the love she deserves. The text exchanges are clever and well-balanced by the narrative, the pacing is great, and the sexy parts are hot.

This is a great readalike for Christina Lauren fans.

I received an advance reader’s review copy of #MrWrongNumber from #NetGalley.