Right Number, Wrong Man by I.M. Wraith is a spicy, dark rom-com that combines all the sweetness and banter of a traditional romantic comedy with the heavy kink and violent drama of dark romance. I received an ARC of this book and discovered a fun hate-to-love story that was surprisingly heartwarming in a deeply twisted way, as promised.
Colton Walker has loved Hailey since they were teenagers, but he never let her know. He let his brother Mike have her because she loved Mike, and Colt would do anything to make her happy. But when he returns from his military deployment with the special forces and finds that an addiction-addled Mike has been cheating on Hailey, all bets are off.
So Colt does what he’s been longing to do for years and eliminates the problem. Seven months later, with her husband dead, Hailey is free. With her newfound independence, Hailey has been recording spicy videos, sending the videos to Mike’s disconnected number as a healing “fuck you” to the dead ex-husband who kink-shamed her and kept her trapped in a loveless marriage.
What she doesn’t know is that Colt never actually disconnected the number. He’s seen every single video. And now he has to see her at work every day, hating him for who she thinks he was in high school, knowing what she does to herself in the dark.
Colt can’t change the fact that Hailey hates him, but the phone gives him the perfect opportunity to show her a different side of himself — a side that speaks to her darkest cravings. It’s risky, but so very hot. Will Colt’s obsession make all their wildest dreams come true, or will it break them both?
In many ways, this is a classic romance story — a woman rediscovering her sexuality after a bad marriage — but with a modern, kinky twist.
These characters are over-the-top in a way that is a campy and messy delight. We get to know them well through their wild emotions and even wilder decisions. He definitely falls first, obsessively and hard.
Right Number, Wrong Man hits the ground running, opening up with an unapologetic murder and then getting immediately into some spice.
There are issues with the writing in this book that are especially glaring in the first few chapters. The dialogue isn’t great. It feels overdone and completely dissociated from how actual human beings talk. The writing feels unpracticed and unedited, but the concept is immediately engaging.
The premise is fascinating enough to forgive these writing sins, and after the first part of the book, I stopped noticing. The book has excellent pacing, and I flew through the pages easily. If you liked Lights Out, you will like this arguably even kinkier story.
Sometimes you read a romance and think to yourself, that seems fun, maybe I should try it. This is not one of those books. Some of the sex scenes involve outright dangerous kinks — hot to read about, potentially lethal to try.
The spice is very much the focal point of this story. It’s fiery, kinky, and underneath all the twisted risk, it remains deeply emotional, which is a perfect combination in a dark romance.
Despite its flaws, I loved this book. For the majority of it, I didn’t care at all about the technical quality of the writing. The exciting premise and outrageous spice make Right Number, Wrong Man worth the read.
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