Guest post written by Call Me Anytime author Max Monroe
Max Monroe is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than fifty contemporary romance titles, including the Red Bridge series, the Billionaire Bad Boys series, and the Midnight series. Favorite writing partners and longtime friends writing under a pseudonym, Max and Monroe strive to live and write all the fun, sexy swoon so often missing from their social media newsfeed. Sarcastic by nature, their two writing souls feel like they’ve found their other half. This is their most favorite adventure thus far.
About Call Me Anytime: A virgin phone sex operator. A detective. And a murder. Love shows up at the oddest times in this funny, emotional, and suspenseful romantic comedy by New York Times bestselling author Max Monroe.
Let’s be honest, we are not smooth.
Which is ironic, considering we’re a New York Times and USA Today bestselling romance author duo and are generally required to exist in public and have normal conversations with other human beings, but it’s true.
Oh, the stories we could tell you about being awkward…
Almost hit a cop with her car? Monroe.
Panic about bringing an outside book into the New York Public Library out of fear it’s some kind of literary law that outside books can’t mix with inside books? That’d be Max.
Don’t even get us started on that time we went to a head spa in Dallas and thought the aestheticians were electrocuting our faces but didn’t say a word about the pain or blue flashing lights or weird buzzing sounds.
We are the queens of awkward, long may we socially stumble.
So naturally, we wrote a romantic comedy about a virgin phone-sex operator whose first caller turns out to be a homicide detective. She thinks he’s role-playing, you know, because it’s a phone-sex hotline, but in all actuality, he’s investigating a murder.
If that doesn’t scream “embrace your awkward era,” we don’t know what does.
Our heroine, Hannah, is the human embodiment of secondhand embarrassment. She takes a phone-sex job because she lost her other means of income, she’s running out of money, and she’s trying to keep the lights on and take care of her mother with Alzheimer’s.
On her first professional phone-sex call, she tells the homicide detective that her name is Ruby Cocklover and asks him if he wants to “cuff her up real good.”
We love her for it, and demonstratively, it is because we are her.
We’re so scared of upsetting people that every Uber driver, restaurant, spa, and other establishment we patronize gets five stars and a twenty percent tip, no matter the service. If you get us to our destination alive or you don’t singe off our faces during our facial, five stars, twenty percent.
But awkward is as awkward does, and it doesn’t have to be embarrassing. It’s where connection lives, breathes, and sometimes snorts audibly into a speaker.
Some (cough, us, cough) might say awkward is the new cute.
In fact, we say awkward is timeless romantic comedy gold.
Real love stories are built on tangible emotions and being your most authentic self.
Laughing too loud. Being goofy and silly. Breaking out your best—aka worst—dance moves without holding back. Singing your favorite song at the top of your lungs without caring how off-key you sound.
The person who’s meant for you doesn’t see inelegance. To them, you are charming. To them, you are adorable. To them, you are love.
Being awkward isn’t a weakness—it’s the space where humor, humility, and heart all meet in a glorious pile of chaos.
So yeah, our heroine accidentally tries to phone sex a homicide detective, and she doesn’t know he’s a real detective until he shows up at her front door.
And yes, he ends up sitting beside her in her cubicle and screening her calls for evidence, which leads to him giving her lessons in “dirty talk.”
And of course, Hannah falls just as in love with Detective Dominic Dunn as we do.
But the reason he starts to fall for her? It’s not because she’s sexy or seductive or perfect. It’s because she’s real.
And that’s the kind of energy we’re taking into every room from now on.
So we say celebrate the awkward. Ramble. Fumble. Blurt out something weird. Overshare on the first date. Laugh too loud. Sing off-key. Do that stupid TikTok dance that’s calling your name. Tell the story even if your voice shakes. Tell it especially if your voice shakes.
Because confidence is fine, but awkwardness? That’s unforgettable.
And if Ruby Cocklover can learn to love herself and find love in the midst of eternal embarrassment, the rest of us can stop pretending to be smooth.
We’re well on our way…are you ready to join us?
