Reviews with content warning for Death - The Right Wrong Number

Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Right Wrong Number by Katie Warren

9 reviews

fanboyriot's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

♡ “Mean” Cat

♡ Good Humor

♡ Wholesome Friendships

This book dealt with grief of a spouse and trying to get out of the pit of depression, it also dealt with new feelings for an unexpected person. From tomato jokes at the farmers market to the not so innocent use of mouthwash this book wasn’t lacking in good humor. I also loved the friendships in this and how they were both there for each other in their own ways. Fishstick’s was a mood, just a simple cat who hated everyone… except Liam.

The idea of this was super interesting and entertaining to read. Julian going and texting the phone number to his dead husband to try talking to him as his best friend said… only to get a reply by the stranger who currently has the phone number—the rest is history.

Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ (4/5)

POV: Switching, First Person

Release Date: 24, April 2023

Rep: Gay (MC), No Labels (MC), Lesbian (SC)

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skittlesnz's review

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dark emotional inspiring tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Another solid 4 star book im my read pile this year. The whole premise is that Jules loses his Husband and starts texting the number of his late partner. Liam answers thinking that he is messaging a hot, female widower. The relationship and story that follows is interesting and shares a story of love after grief. Love developed over txt messages. Love that defies past expectations and past labels. I really did appreciate how Liam handles the situation and grapples with his own identity.

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gabrielle_d20's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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tragicgloom's review

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emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

The book had a great premise which was in my opinion unfortunately badly executed.

The book is supposed to be about Julian (the main character) moving on, healing and finding love again after the death of his husband but it fell kinda flat. Julian is grieving his husband's death but all we know about the said husband is his name and the fact that he loved his cat. I think author's intention was to write an emotional book but it was just sloppy because we don't know anything about important characters to make any form of connection with them.

The main characters barely had any chemistry between them, moreover, I found all of the characters to be annoying and toxic to each other, especially the main characters' best friends.

Also, as a queer person, I hate the "suddenly gay for you and nobody else" trope. I find that it's quite common in books writen by cis het (fetishizing) women. It's unrealistic and stupid.

The only thing I did like were the two chapters written in the cat's point of view. I've never seen anything like it before and I loved them.

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unusablebooklore's review

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emotional funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book wasn’t terrible. The story had good bones. I loved that the MC’s were in their mid 30’s. But there were so many little things that scratched at my brain and left a mark I couldn’t give it more than a 3 star rating.

The wording choices made by the author were pretty glaring to me by the end of the first chapter. There was so much yelling, shouting and barking. It’s not really how I like to see communication described, it all felt very…aggressive.

There were formatting errors, not a big deal but weird.

There were inconsistencies. Obvious ones like, are Liams eyes brown or blue?! Chapters 5 and 6 can’t agree. Or where the MC’s meet at 18:00. Jules has 2 beers, walks home and then quietly let himself in the apartment? So he doesn’t wake Nora…? Sheesh. Nitpicky I know but it had me scrolling back when my brains image of Liam didn’t jive with the information I was being given or I though I had missed a few pages.

The discomfort I felt over Jules wanting Liam to say he was gay after doubling down on his reassurance of commitment gave me the ick.

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sglance9's review

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emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

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legalplanner's review

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This debut novel from Katie Warren was a quick read, I literally read this in a day. Now you might wonder if I liked it and it was a quick read how'd it end up at a 3.5.

There were a few things/tropes that I found a bit hard to connect with in this:

Only for you
Mistaken Identity
Toxic Masculinity
Miscommunication

Some things I did like

Talking about how grief isn't linear
Friends supporting you in times of need.
Moving on isn't replacement

The pros:
I'm a firm believer in grief not being linear and Jules was struggling and trying to find where he fit again in the world. I think starting the novel with tragedy was something that could have made the tone of the book change drastically, but instead it made it easier to process Jules grief. Jules BFF is extremely supportive and I loved that. We were able to see a no nonsense and supportive character on the grief journey with Jules and that was great to see that he wasn't alone. Finally, moving on isn't replacing your loved one and I think Warren did a great job of showing that these feelings are valid. I really felt for Jules on his journey.

The Cons:
The I'm only gay for you trope just isn't a type of thing that vibes for me. I'm aware there are many different types of people in various degrees of sexuality, however this just felt very unrealistic and kind of demeaning to the LGBTQIA community. I say this because it would have been a great moment to expand on how Liam had that mental connection with Jules and that truly heightened the attraction to him. Which leads me to the toxic masculinity. Liam's friend is a grade a Frat boy that just kind of was frustrating and felt one dimensional to me. The Mistaken Identity while not a big deal just kind of felt ick to me even though I get why it was a big deal. Finally, the miscommunication trope between the two because they would rather tell others than each other their problems was really hard to get over because they would have rather not talked about their issues sometimes. Liam was super understanding of Jules grief but still didn't try to explain his sexuality situation to him or his co-worker's toxicity.

Over all I did enjoy this book but those few cons were what brought me out of the book a bit.

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_charliesbookshelf's review

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

"Your absence isn't quiet.

Sometimes it is the loudest thing on Earth."

What an amazing debut novel.

Within the first couple chapters I was hooked and couldn’t wait to see what happened!

I enjoyed the story and reading each POV’s. It made understanding both Jules and Liam more interesting but also it made it more relatable.

Having lost his husband (James) a year ago Jules is still grieving and learning how to live again. With the advice of his sassy friend Nora, Jules decides to take a leap and he messages James’s old number unaware it’s been recycled to a new owner.

Liam is tired of bars, one night stands and hangovers but he’s starting to feel lonely. After receiving an anonymous text message he decides to text back.

I found this book such a pleasure to read. Dealing with grief in a sensitive but also in a somewhat beautiful way. There’s times when it felt light hearted and I’d chuckle at the jokes and awkwardness to the characters but there was also times where it was emotional and heartfelt.

I’d really recommend this book if you like good writing, sweet second chance M/M romance and with interesting characters….Also weird jokes about produce and an angry fat cat named Fishsticks. 😂👏

Thankyou so much to @katie and @katieandbreypa fort advanced copy

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daninj's review

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funny hopeful sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Love love love!!!

I really hope that Katie continues to write because I really loved this debut novel!

❤️MM
❤️Second Chance
❤️Love After Loss
❤️A Cat Named Fishsticks
❤️Spice

This was just the sweet, rom-com read that I needed as a pallet cleanser with all the fantasy that I’ve been reading.

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