Book Review

Wrong Number, Right Woman by Jae

Wrong Number, Right Woman came to me at exactly the right time. I was ready for a romance with zero angst and adorkable characters, and boy howdy did this deliver. It’s so gentle and sweet, it’s like a warm hug and I enjoyed it very much.

Denny is a thoroughly lovely, super-awkward butch lesbian. She’s co-raising her niece with her sister, works at a grocery store, and has a giant crush on her niece’s cute bus driver. When Denny gets a wrong number text message, asking for advice on a first-date outfit, she helps the woman instead of brushing her off with a “sorry, wrong number” response. This kicks off an instant friendship, which is the most excitement Denny’s had in her life in a long time.

Eliza is embarrassed about texting the wrong person, but she’s happy the man she texted is so nice and helpful. He seems sweet and kind, and he’s very easy to chat with over text. Eliza is a little surprised when she learns that her new texting buddy is a woman, but that’s nothing to how surprised she is when they meet in person and she feels a romantic connection. Eliza always thought she was straight, but Denny makes Eliza feel something she’s never felt before, and she doesn’t want to ignore it.

Friends, I think this might be the cutest book I’ve read this year. Meeting by text allows for a fresh take on the slow-burn romance trope, because Denny and Eliza get to know each other really well before they ever meet in person. It also allows for adorable exchanges like this one, which takes place early on, when Eliza knows Denny’s a woman, but still thinks of her as the “First-Date Whisperer.”

What’s your favorite gummy bear flavor?

Whisperer took a while to answer. Either she had to taste all the gummy bears on her cupcake to decide, or the question had startled her. She had probably expected a different question. Finally, the text bubble popped up. Green.

Did you know they’re strawberry flavored? Eliza asked.
I thought that was the red ones?

Nope. Those are raspberry.

OMG, Whisperer typed back. My entire life has been a lie!

They spend the first 30% of the story texting and building a friendship before they graduate to talking on the phone, and they finally meet in person at the 40% mark. Because I often get impatient with slow-burn romances, I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy the pacing of their relationship development. Also, autocorrect hijinks didn’t hurt the cute factor, with Denny’s phone replacing intended phrases like “kill me now” with more embarrassing things like “kiss me now.”

Eliza’s journey is all about her shift from thinking she’s straight to recognizing and accepting that she’s queer. This doesn’t come easily per se, but I appreciated that it doesn’t come across as tortured either. Her confusion about being attracted to a woman for the first time feels authentic and I was grateful that she didn’t make an “I’m only a lesbian for Denny!” declaration. Instead, Eliza deliberately takes her time choosing a label and finally lands on “queer,” knowing she might adopt a specific letter from LBGT+ some day and that that’s okay too. We see her learn about sapphic dating culture, including the butch/femme dichotomy.

Denny chuckled. “Leave it to a femme to come up with a shoe metaphor to describe her emotions.”

“Femme?” Eliza had never thought to apply that term to herself. But then again, she had also never thought she could be anything but straight. “Is that what you think I am?”

“Well, you’re not butch.”

“Do I have to be one or the other?”

Denny smiled and took her hand. “No. Just be yourself.”

Denny has her own journey that’s equally satisfying to read about. When she starts texting with Eliza, her life is pretty small, focused almost entirely on her sister and niece, and the grocery store. She’s too shy to ask out the bus driver, but she’s okay with that because she’s not big on change. And yet, even more change than just Eliza is headed her way, when her sister starts dating a really nice guy. I felt it in my chest as Denny watches her sister fall for him, realizing what it would mean for their little family of three. Of course, being in her own relationship means Denny isn’t alone when the inevitable happens with her sister’s relationship. Even better, though, is that being in a relationship with Eliza gives Denny the impetus and courage to expand her life beyond the grocery store and her family, and it’s really lovely to see.

Something else I appreciate about this book is that it shows a few things I haven’t often or ever seen in f/f romance:

  1. Denny is the first fat, butch character I’ve read. She has a little bit of insecurity about her body, but I found it much more interesting that it’s so hard for her to find clothes that fit both her body AND her gender presentation that she sews her own. It effectively highlights the impossibility of finding traditionally masculine clothing that fits large breasts and hips without costing $100+ per piece. I love that Denny makes clothing that affirms her identity and that she’s not stuck with clothing that makes her feel bad about herself.
  2. Heather, Eliza’s best friend, is a trans woman. Although I can’t be 100% sure about the trans rep, no red flags stood out for me, and I was looking for them. I’ve heard that Heather’s getting her own book and I seriously hope that’s true, because I’d love to see more trans women in f/f romances.
  3. When Eliza and Denny are getting close to having sex, they talk about their most recent STI test results. This is a Very Big Deal because f/f romance is WAY behind m/f and m/m romance when it comes to showing safer sex practices, and because I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve seen a popular lesfic author include it. Out of the hundreds that I’ve read, I’ve only come across a handful that show the use of barriers in sex (condoms on toys or dental dams during oral sex) and/or include conversations about testing. I hope this is a sign of more to come because baby queer girls need to see these conversations normalized in all the romances they read, not just the m/f and m/m.

If I have one complaint about this book, it’s that the premise hangs on a detail that makes no sense. When Eliza sends that first text to Denny, she actually meant to send it to Heather. However, Heather had recently gotten a new cell phone number and her penmanship is so bad that Eliza misread it and texted Heather’s number neighbour, Denny, instead. Why did Heather write the number down on a piece of paper? Why wouldn’t she have just pulled in her contacts from Apple ID or Android and texted the new number to Heather? Or if she didn’t want to text her, why wouldn’t she have said “Give me your phone so I can put my new number in your contact list”? It’s a tiny detail, but everything else was executed so well that it pulled me out of the story.

I’m so glad I read Wrong Number, Right Woman. It’s the cutest, loveliest story and it gave me zero stress, even when it was exploring serious things like discovering queerness in your 30s. If you’re a big fan of angst, this won’t be the book for you. But if you’re looking for something sweet to sink into and ignore the world for a while? I definitely recommend it and will read it again in the future.

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Wrong Number, Right Woman by Jae

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  1. Vivi12 says:

    This sound just right for my current angst tolerance, and I haven’t ventured enough into f/f. Maybe I’ve gotten spoiled, but most romances tend to be $7.99 or less so the $9.99 price seems a little high

  2. Tam says:

    Oh, this one sounds seriously lovely.

  3. Kareni says:

    This sounds lovely! Thanks for the review, Tara.

  4. Dreamingintrees says:

    @Vivi12, I don’t know why but good F/F tends to both start out at a higher price point and rarely go on sale. Its really frustrating.

  5. Lisa F says:

    Oh yeah, this sounds like my kinda jam. TBR pile time!

  6. Tara says:

    @Vivi12, @Dreamingintrees: I suspect it’s because they’re from small presses. I’m hoping that with more mainstream publishers putting out f/f, the overall market awareness and sales will increase, so these smaller presses can afford to bring their prices down. Self-published f/f authors usually charge at a lower price point, though.

  7. Em says:

    I got sucked into this review without meaning to! Great job. Now I want to read this book- $9.99 is a little steep, but maybe the library will get it?

    Loving the idea of fat butch representation here and that she makes her own clothes!

    Without having read the book, I can tell the mishap you describe at the end could have easily just been that her friend was distracted and mistyped her own number into Eliza’s phone.

  8. Vivi12 says:

    @Dreamingintrees, @Tara, I bought it anyway, couldn’t resist!

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