A review by daisyknox
Marrying Mr. Wrong by Claire Kingsley

5.0

All reviews posted at Tales of Love, Life, and Murder

This is the third book in Kingsley’s Dirty Martini Running Club series but does fine as a standalone. I just happened upon it and the new release caught my eye so I didn’t realize it was part of a series. Reading it was kind of a spoiler for the first two books, but I’ll probably read them anyway at some point. The other characters weren’t that interesting compared to Sophie and Cox, so I’m in no hurry to read the first two but they’re on my ‘read eventually’ list.

Kingsley is new to me but is one author who has my attention because her site contains playlists for her books, which is obviously something very close to my heart. The site also contains an exclusive prequel to the series as well so super-bonus.

I enjoyed this lighthearted, funny story, especially Sophie’s dad. It was a relatively quick read but the extended epilogue available on Kingley’s site is a nice bonus. That peek into the future is always appreciated when you like the characters. It’s a good twist on the fake marriage because this was a drunken debacle in Vegas but kind of snowballed from there. The story is entertaining, the characters are well-done and the comic relief is welcome.

There’s also a shade of enemies-to-lovers here because they knew each other as kids and he made her miserable back then but the childhood neighbors element is a refreshing change from the typical trope. Sophie’s a klutz and kind of a goofball but you can’t help rooting for her. Cox tries to be stoic and serious, but he’s really a big marshmallow when it comes to Sophie and his reaction to her is very sweet.

Sophie and Cox are both fun characters and though they have flaws, they’re inherently likable. There’s no egregious wrongs here which need to be righted, the communication is reasonable and nobody needs to act like a fool or the plot to work, all of which are a big plus for me in romance. I get my heavy stuff in the true crime and rarely read romance for the suspense. Ironic, I know, considering that’s mainly what I write, but it’s true.

Sometimes you just want a happy story about two people falling in love and Kingsley gives us that. I highly recommend Marrying Mr. Wrong but suggest reading the series in order, starting with the prequel on Kingsley’s site, because I do have some regret over spoiling it for myself.