“If this is wrong, I will live long and happily never being right.”
Even though Jamie and Bea are total opposites, their friends believe that they would make a perfect match and proceed to trick Jamie and Bea into going on a date. Once Jamie and Bea realise that they’ve been duped, they hatch a plan to get revenge on their meddling friends and finally put an end to their friends’ matchmaking ways…they’ll fake date, pretend to fall in love, and then have a horrible break-up. Whilst pretending to be madly in love, Jamie and Bea inevitably grow closer and start to wonder if their friends’ matchmaking wasn’t so off-base after all, but things get complicated after Bea perceives trouble in her twin sister’s whirlwind romance with Jamie’s roommate.
Two Wrongs Make a Right is a contemporary retelling of Much Ado About Nothing that invokes the matchmaking, fake dating, and opposites attract tropes. It is best suited for lovers of rom-coms like the Bergman Brothers series by Chloe Liese, The Kiss Quotient trilogy by Helen Hoang, The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon, the All-Access books by Evie Mitchell, Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake by Mazey Eddings, and Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood. However, it is important to note trigger warnings for presence of emotionally abusive and psychologically manipulative relationships. Two Wrongs Make a Right deals with themes like appearance versus reality, autism, anxiety, communication, love and heartbreak, fear of change, loneliness and isolation, family drama, and fate versus free will. The moral of this story is that everyone deserves their own happily ever after.
Firstly, I want to advise readers who aren’t fans of Shakespeare to not be off put by the fact that this book is a Much Ado About Nothing retelling; Two Wrongs Make a Right is a contemporary rom-com that just so happens to use some of the same themes, plot lines, and character names as Much Ado About Nothing—much like how the movie She’s the Man subtly retells the story of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
I absolutely loved this book and think it’s going to remain one of my favourite romances of 2022. Jamie and Bea’s slow burn romance is delightful and watching them become friends and then start to develop deeper feelings for each other whilst carrying out their fake dating revenge plan was fantastic. Furthermore, it was great to see how Jamie and Bea were so considerate of each other’s feelings and ultimately helped each other to overcome old heartbreaks and insecurities. Even though the novel was a slowburn, I still found that there were lots of steamy and sweet moments throughout the novel—like a “fake” paint night date and a surprise trip to the tattoo parlour. Both the main characters were easy to connect to and their various struggles appeared to be very realistic and relatable, such as loneliness, fear of heartbreak or rejection, anxiety, and sensory processing issues. Furthermore, I thought that Jamie was totally swoonworthy! In addition to being a paediatrician, he speaks French, he is a proud cat owner, and he takes it upon himself to befriend Bea’s beloved pet “therapy hedgehog”.
There really wasn’t much about this book that I disliked or would have changed… It would have been great to see Bea’s sisters’ happily ever afters, but I’m glad that Liese left these storylines open for potential sequels or companion novels!
Overall, Two Wrongs Make a Right was a fun and sweet rom-com with realistic anxiety and autism representation. It definitely exceeded my expectations and I highly recommend adding it to your TBR list immediately!
Two Wrongs Make a Right is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of November 22nd 2022.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Opposites become allies to fool their matchmaking friends in this swoony reimagining of Shakespeare’s beloved comedy, Much Ado About Nothing.
Jamie Westenberg and Bea Wilmot have nothing in common except a meet-disaster and the mutual understanding that they couldn’t be more wrong for each other. But when the people closest to them play Cupid and trick them into going on a date, Jamie and Bea realize they have something else in common after all—an undeniable need for revenge.
Soon their plan is in place: Fake date obnoxiously and convince the meddlers they’re madly in love. Then, break up spectacularly and dash their hopes, putting an end to the matchmaking madness once and for all.
To convince everyone that they’ve fallen for each other, Jamie and Bea will have to nail the performance of their lives. But as their final act nears and playing lovers becomes easier than not, they begin to wonder, what if Cupid’s arrow wasn’t so off the mark? And what if two wrongs do make a right?
