Review: Wrong Number, Right Guy by Elle Casey

When a mysterious text message summons May Wexler to a biker bar in downtown New Orleans, she knows something is very wrong. Her sister has sent out an SOS, but when May gets there, she’s nowhere to be found and May is the one in trouble—she’s wearing pink espadrilles, she’s got a Chihuahua in her purse, and she’s in the middle of a shootout.

After tall, muscular Ozzie comes to her rescue, May has no choice but to follow him to safety. At the headquarters of his private security firm, the Bourbon Street Boys, she finds a refuge for the night—and the offer of a job. But it’s not long before a gun-toting stalker isn’t the only complication in May’s life: the more time she spends with Ozzie, the less she can deny that they’ve got some serious chemistry. A wrong number got her into this mess…Will it also get her the right guy?

Thoughts
Normally, I never listen to an audio book unless it is a book that I have already actually read. That way, when my brain drifts off on a tangent, I haven't really missed anything. But I went home to visit my mom this past weekend, and started reading it while we were getting pedicures on Saturday. Then Sunday came and I had a 3 hour drive ahead of me, and I really wanted to keep reading it, so I used one my mom's audible credits. And of course, when I got home I kept reading, then this morning on my drive to and from work I listened to the audio book some more. This all my incredibly long winded way of saying that this book was absorbed really strangely by me, back and forth between two mediums. And honestly, I really preferred reading it myself. Not that the narrator on the audiobook was bad, she just didn't have a very good sense for irony or sarcasm and didn't deliver lines the way I think Ms. Casey intended them. It kept making me think of that scene in View From the Top with Mike Meyers. She was just not emphasizing the right things.

The Good
Narrator aside, this book was a pleasant surprise! I really liked May. I recognized a lot of myself in her. She was funny and her inner monologues strongly resemble my own, so I really did enjoy her a lot. Ozzie was a decent leading man. He said and did all of the right things, and he was a really good guy. The story line was decent enough, and the dogs were really cute in it! I really loved the family element from the team at Bourbon Street Security. They were an interesting group of people, that's for sure!

The Bad
While I did enjoy the book, there was a lot that could have been better. I hate how much wasted potential this book had. It definitely could have benefited from a dual POV. Ozzie was really neglected as a character, which is not something you want from a male lead in a romance novel. I think we got more character growth and interaction from Toni, the other woman at BSS. And even what we did get from him was mostly bland. There was a decent sex scene with him, in which he was a really respectful, stand up dude. But really, nothing to write home about.

Honestly, this book felt like a really long short story. It spent too much time on the buildup and no time at all on the payoff. The "climax" of the book happens in the last two chapters, and it's so easily dispatched with, you wonder why she wasted all of the time building it up in the first place. I like a woman that can take care of herself and doesn't just whine and wait to be saved. But if it's so easy, like this was, you just feel cheated.

And I guess that's the main feeling I walk away with. Feeling cheated out of the potential of a really great book! All in all, it's not an awful book. The writing style is fun and I think May is very easy to love, even though she second guesses herself a few too many times, and continually describing herself as a virgin-not-a-virgin was tiresome. This book could have been better with way less slow simmer and a lot more action. I might have screwed myself on this by expecting a romantic suspense going into it. It definitely felt a lot more contemporary romance with a tiny, itty-bitty smidgen of action tossed in.