The Right Wrong Match by Sara Jane Woodley – Book Review

A huge thank you to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for providing me with an audio ARC of The Right Wrong Match by Sara Jane Woodley in exchange for an honest review.

What It Is About

So much for my enemies-to-more romance. Back to the drawing board, also known as my flimsy napkin list. One of the romance tropes has to be for me, right?

For years, Daisy had a crush on Luke Brooks, her best friend’s grumpy older brother. But Luke is still recovering from his failed engagement, and Daisy finally has to accept the truth – there are too many obstacles for her and Luke to ever be together, the biggest one being that he never seemed interested in her.

It’s time to move on, and part of the plan is to try and find her happily ever after through her sister Dee’s dating app. And there is someone she is interested in, but somehow a small error in the app leads to unforeseen consequences.

Now Daisy has a new job – organizing singles events for the entire town, and with Luke as her helper! As they work together, Daisy slowly discovers a softer side to Luke that she’s never seen before. And suddenly getting over her long-standing crush on him became even harder, especially when she starts to suspect that her feelings might not be entirely unrequited.

---

Themes and vibes:

• • sweet and wholesome romance
  • friends-to-lovers
  • grumpy and sunshine
  • best friend’s brother
  • small town romance
  • secret pen pals/mistaken identity
  • 2 POVs
    

    ---

The Right Wrong Match by Sara Jane Woodley – My Review

From what we’ve talked about, I feel like your best friend and my best friend would get along. You know, if we all met.

If you love sweet contemporary romances, The Right Wrong Match by Sara Jane Woodley is definitely worth checking out. The story had just the right balance between fun and heartfelt moments, the characters felt genuine and relatable, and all in all – I had a nice, cozy evening with this book.

The Right Wrong Match is the second book in the Love in Mirror Valley series. The first book, The Next Worst Thing, was all about Ivy and James getting together, while Daisy and Luke were supporting characters. But even then it was clear these two had a lot of potential, hence The Right Wrong Match.

Daisy and Luke’s story was quite a swoony, precious romance about two people who were always around each other but it was never really the right time for them, especially with Luke’s almost-wedding and all. But they are finally at the point where things might just work out for them.

It’s funny to consider that Past Daisy would’ve been foolishly hoping that he’d ask her to dance. But that crush is long, long over, and I’m happy for it.

Both of them were very kind and caring, even if Luke did leave a bit grumpier impression at first while Daisy was always like a warm sunshine.

Daisy always had a crush on Luke, but at some point she had to come to terms that her best friend’s brother doesn’t seem to see her that way at all. Especially when, even when his engagement fell through, Luke did everything in his power to avoid dating. Or people who’d try to set him up with someone.

The amount of phone numbers and email addresses and names of “women about my age” that have been thrown my way over the past few months has been overwhelming. I appreciate everyone’s concern, but the reminders of the past aren’t exactly helping me move forward.

He only caved in once, when it seemed easier to just make a profile on a dating app than to continue explaining to everyone he’s not ready for a new relationship. Daisy, on the other hand, tried to use the dating app hoping to meet someone who would help her forget about Luke already. And, well, fate’s always been the best meddler of all.

This was such a lighthearted, feel-good romance with barely a true conflict. Perfect for when you need something cozy and comforting. The book was told from two perspectives, Daisy and Luke’s, which created a nice dynamic between chapters and immersed me even further into their story.

I also gotta give it to the author – some instances were so funny! They made me crack up out loud, which doesn’t happen all that often.

She wanted to find her perfect romance trope, and while I may not know much about romance tropes, I do know that every great love story has a grand gesture. […] I grit my teeth, curse under my breath and take off into the crowd before I can come to my senses.

The story wasn’t quite perfect, though. If there was something I wish was different, it was the amount of tropes included in this less than 300 pages long book. And don’t get me wrong – I love these tropes. And a few of them worked well in this book as well. They created a lot of fun, engaging situations. But sometimes they felt a bit too much.

Because The Right Wrong Match is a small town romance that features friends-to-lovers, grumpy and sunshine, and best friend’s brother tropes, plus there’s the secret pen pals/mistaken identity/they met on a dating app situation going on. There’s also Daisy’s favorite romance movie tropes list that she’s trying to get through. Plus trying to save the community center, all Daisy’s jobs, Luke’s ex fiancé…

I just didn’t think the story truly needed all of that. Having too many plot threads is usually a tactic some authors use to overcompensate for the lack of chemistry between their MCs. Which in this case wasn’t necessary because Daisy and Luke were actually quite good together. Their chemistry wasn’t always groundbreaking, but I could see them together, they made sense to me.

If there was one thing I actually wish we got more of, it would be the dog. It was just sad how little time we spent with Stella and even when she was around, you could pretty much forget she was there. But I’d add lots of dogs to all romances ever written, so it might be just me.

… relationships don’t just end after the happily-ever-after. They require hard work and messiness sometimes. But you know what? It means that we don’t get just one happily-ever-after, we get many.

And that is pretty much all I have to say about The Right Wrong Match. On one hand, I can’t say I connected a hundred percent with the story and the characters. On the other, I caught myself so many times smiling and going awww while reading. And that’s what I call a successful read.

Especially if you are already into sweet small town romances, I think you might enjoy this one quite a bit. I listened to it as an audiobook. Both narrators were fun to listen to, so if you prefer your romances in the audio form, The Right Wrong Match audiobook should be out in only a few days!