Two Wrongs Make a Right (The Wilmot Sisters, #1) (2024)

let's start with the most important matters: this book has some of the best sex scenes i've ever read.
edging: check
lots of communication: check
male lead who buys the female lead's fave brand of lube because he once saw that she had it in her cart at the grocery store: check
characters who are obsessed with each other's tattoos: CHECKCHECKCHECKCHECKCHECK

Okay really I just loved this book. It's a beautiful twist on fake dating (dude and dudette who hate (but also thirst after) each other at first sight decide to fake date to thwart their friends' matchmaking nosiness) but what made it the most special to me is that i saw so much of myself in both bea and west. she truly struggles in a bunch of social situations and feels constantly like she's wrong, and west has this spock-ish "must be controlled at all times" stiffness and also feels like he's wrong, and on paper they shouldn't work together but they do and it's beautiful and they absolutely complete each other and i just want them to live happily ever after with their beautiful hedgehog (ily Cornelius) and a bunch of geriatric cats 😭😭😭😭❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ ALSO THE SECONDARY CAST BETTER GET THEIR OWN BOOKS OR ELSE I NEED JULES TO HAVE HER HEA 🥺 🥺 🥺

Disclosure: Got an ARC from the publisher, who is also my publisher (Berkley)

4.5 stars

a new thing i love reading about in romcoms? edging because the way this woman has this 'manners on the streets but freak in the sheets' type of man wrapped around her finger is breathtaking. (pun intended)

this starts off as an opposites attract, fake dating, mirrorball character's storyline that quickly turned into a eyes rolling into the back of my head, brain short circuiting, jaw on the floor masterpiece!

Bea is such a fun, witty, and layered character to read about. but it's the way Jamie sees her in his POV that really holds this book together. he is OBSESSED from the start. it was never fake for him. Bea quite literally created a fracture in his pristine and prestige reality. every chapter was him thinking loudly about how she's the best thing this universe has created and how he'd happily die between her legs.

this man was attentive, respectful, and understood her through and through NO judgments. you can really tell he is a man written by a women especially when he says things like "no man should be telling you what to do with your body"

through and through this was a very enjoyable read that hit every nail in the romcom agenda. it's only getting half a point off because some things felt rushed but nonetheless i finished it in one sitting because it felt like my own personal brand of heroin (dont mind the twilight reference)

I’m a Chloe Liese fan, so it should come as no surprise that I absolutely loved this.

Authentic autism rep? Check
Hot sex scenes? Check
Great humor? Check
Chloe Liese signature sweetness? Check
Fun plot and fast pacing? Check
Enemies to lovers AND fake dating? Check check

Chocolate and champagne in book form. You’re gonna love it.

As a big fan of Bergman Brothers series, Chloe Liese became my automatic approved author on my reading list: I can read anything she writes including post it notes with nonsense scribblings.

But this book is something extra special and deserves more than five stars.

It’s smart, entertaining, poignant retelling of Much Ado Nothing. My favorite tropes: enemies to lovers and fake dating couldn’t blend in this story so great.

A hero with anxiety issues and artsy, unconventional heroine on the spectrum with nothing in common. They’re opposite Astro sign duos: a perfectionist, strict Capricorn and cantankerous Cancer!

Bea Wilmot; erotic artist: giving a new meaning to people’s sacred body parts with her drawings. Her body is covered in tattoo. She’s eccentric, also cautious after a bad breakup shook her to the core, destroying her self esteem.

Jamie/ Jake/ West Westenberg: coming from competitive, highly achievable surgeon family. He’s a pediatrician, cat lover, cataloging every bone of human body instead of counting sheep before sleeping. He's bookish-looking and hiding a rocking bod in the wrinkle-free dad slacks.

Jamie works with Jean Claude: the boyfriend of Bea’s twin sister Jules. Jean Claude and Jules decided to play matchmakers. The other friends circle join this plan at the Halloween party. But this plan ends with disastrous results. Bea two times throws drinks at Jamie ( not intentionally) and they find themselves locked in closet, sharing near kissing experience! Then Jamie runs away and Bea gets humiliated at the end of the night.
But that unsuccessful attempt couldn’t stop the matchmakers. They still try pushing Bea and Jamie into each other.

Bea gets pissed to be forced dating with someone opposite of her. She decides to get a revenge by fake dating and breaking up to teach her overprotective sister a lesson. Luckily Jamie accepts to play fauxmance.

But as you expected their opposite attraction, high chemistry are undeniable. Maybe they don’t have anymore! Maybe there are more important things in the life than sweet revenge!

Both of the characters are so much lovable. Especially Jamie won my heart when he tries to hide what’s inside of his freezer? Yes, it’s fulled with vegetable soup samples he’s made for Bea! He even bought her favorite lubricant! Wow! He’s caring, sweetest guy and Bea: eccentric, unique, emotional heroine I truly cared!

I think I can read more Wilmot sister books! I’m already intrigued about adventurous Kate who appeared at the last chapters.

Overall: I loved it! I adored it! I devoured it! Dating again it deserves more than five stars!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this ultra amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

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DELIGHTFUL. What a fluffy, cozy, feels-y, relatable rollercoaster! Very warm and fabulous, I adored both MCs equally even when they were being dingbats, I loved the neurodivergent and mental health rep, and there were so many moments when I thought the story was going left but it swerved right instead, which was just very fun and fresh and made me smile a lot. Wholeheartedly recommend!

if there's a way to sum up my tastes it's that i don't like the real world. it's not a bad place to live, but i don't usually want to read about it. which proves challenging when i pick up hyper realistic romances.

there's no such thing as objectivity with reading experience but i can say that this book is well written. the characters are well written: they have personalities, mental illnesses and neurodivergencies, plus realistic insecurities. the side characters are realistic and well written. the plot if we ignore the fake dating set up is also realistic and well written.

but this is the second book by this author that hasn't worked for me. her characters are prickly in ways that irritate me. the dialogue grates. the sex scenes kind of give me the ick. and i know in my soul that so so so many other people will not have the same experience and will instead adore this book.

i'm glad it exists. love the representation. but i want melodrama. i want swoony heroes who don't splooge their pants. i want to sympathize with the heroine. and i couldn't. definitely a me thing. try it out for yourself!

This book is if Beatrice and Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing found out way sooner that they'd been matchmade and decided to get even by fake dating, then crushing everyone's hearts with a nasty break-up, but oops, they accidentally fell in love while trying to get their revenge. Huzzah!

Today, TWO WRONGS MAKE A RIGHT is finally out in the world! It's my deepest wish that it brings readers the same joy and hope it brought me as I wrote it, that readers feel on every page my affirmation that all of us deserve love that makes us feel safe, known, and embraced for all of who we are.

Paperback, e-book, and audiobook are now available for purchase from major retailers in the US & Canada and in the UK & Commonwealth and also for request from your library!

Enjoy book playlists? Like all my books, TWO WRONGS MAKE A RIGHT has a playlist, one song per chapter. Listen with Spotify.

♾️ stars 😭
🔅 Fake dating
🔅 MC+FMC who dislike each other
🔅 Arranged dating
🔅 Text messages exchange
🔅 Amazing anxiety/neurodivergence/social anxiety/OCD/Autism representation
🔅 Astrology talk (a little bit)
🔅 Talk about toxic relationships/toxic parents

I would give everything to read this for the first time again 😭 I didn’t want this to end at all. This book knew I needed a win this week and delivered on every levels 😭

I was giggling, feeling all giddy, happy, kicking my feet… by far the best romance I’ve read in a long time. Beatrice & Jamie were wholesome characters and I love them both so much 🫶🏼

« Sometimes I feel like I don’t belong anywhere & if I was only more of this or less of that, I would »

« Books are my kind of adventures - all that unknown from the comfort of my couch »

« You give people permission to be themselves rather than what the world tells them they should be. Maybe that’s not summed up on a resume or a test score the way my strengths are, but you have gifts. And gifts like yours matter »

« How could I not want you? You’re everything I never knew I needed »

Preread ; took the rest of the afternoon off work and even if I have a million things to do - I’m forcing myself to do something I love right now (oh, and I also ordered 16 new books on book outlet to congratulate myself on my anxiety control this week) 🫶🏼
I need to read something cute 💖 hope this delivers

3.5 stars

“All I wanted was revenge,” she says softly, her hands settled over my heart. “And now all I want is you.”

I think this is an “it’s me, not the book” kind of review. I love Chloe liese and her Bergmans series is so cute and so entertaining, that’s why I was so freakin excited to read sth else from her and by all means this wasn’t a bad book at all, it was just okay, I guess. Also, the cover is so pretty!

Wes and Bea are okay characters. I liked their quirks and flaws and they were really cute. I just struggled a little bit with connecting to them. I’d stop reading and come back later and nope still there’s no connection. I don’t know what was the problem, but I couldn’t really feel them, you know. Maybe it’s stupid because they were perfect on paper, but they just weren’t remarkable to me I guess.

Also, the third act conflict was stupid. Sorry Bea but your actions were just stupid and unnecessary. I tried to understand her, but we don’t show “caring and support” like that. I was so freakin annoyed by it.

Huge Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this copy.

5 stars

I don’t think Chloe Liese will ever be able to top ���Always Only You’ for me, but dang… this was a close second! Jamie and Bea’s enemies to lovers story made me so happy! I loved it.

Everyone thinks Bea and Jamie would be perfect together… except for Bea and Jamie. After a disastrous set up, they decide to get back at their friends and date for a while and then break up spectacularly. Once they’ve convinced everyone they’ve fallen in love. It should be easy, they really are too different to ever make it work and they have nothing in common. Or so they think.

The more time this couple spends together the more their friendship grows and the more they realize they could maybe be more. I love a good opposites attract romance. Add in a disastrous meet-cute, a chaotic heroine and the softest hero. Sigh. I adored this book so much. The way Jamie sees Bea. I melt.

“I don’t see you differently. I see you better.”

— 4.5 Stars ★

“𝙈𝙮 𝙛𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙗𝙤𝙮𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙨𝙣’𝙩 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙪𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙚𝙡𝙨𝙚,” 𝙄 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙧. 𝙅𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙚’𝙨 𝙚𝙮𝙚𝙨 𝙛𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙨𝙝𝙪𝙩 𝙖𝙨 𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙨 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙚.
“𝙎𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨, 𝘽𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙚, 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙪𝙞𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙚𝙡𝙨𝙚.”

Swoon-worthy. Wholesome. Cutest. Joyful. Lovable. Delicious. Steamy. Heartfelt. Hilarious. Delightful. Heartwarming. Charming. Beautiful. Comfort and cuddles.

Reading Two Wrongs Make a Right was like wearing your favourite and the most comfy Cardigan, drinking your favourite cup of hot coffee and eating your favourite snack or chocolate while snuggling with your cat in your bed or your couch, watching autumn leaves falling down outside your window, listening to soft music, watching sun setting and moon rising. To simply say this is one of the most comforting and wholesome book I've read this year. Also this book gives perfect autumn vibes. Yeah I was completely and utterly in love with Bea and Jamie and their love story and hilarious banter.

“Jamie smiles and holds me close, heart to heart. His kisses whisper love. His arms are home. If this is wrong, I will live long and happily never being right.”

I was laughing, giggling, squealing, swooning, crying, kicking my feet in the air, rolling on my bed, screaming in my pillow, throwing away my kindle. I've felt each and every emotion so vividly. This might not be a masterpiece but it was truly one of the normal, realistic and the cutest story. The characters were relatable and realistic (they both are so mirrorball coded ), the slow-burn was burning, the banter was hilarious, the romance was perfect, achingly sweet and beautiful and there was healthy and open communication during and outside sex. There was autistic, anxiety and neurodivergent representation and it was perfectly done. What more do you want?

“It’s champagne, James, not a Molotov co*cktail.”
“Drinks in your hand are not just drinks, Beatrice. They’re projectile missiles.”

This was my first Chloe's book and definitely not the last. I loved her writing and the way she balanced the romance and the character's development. I was invested in the story from the very first chapter. Bea and Jamie's first meet was a catastrophic disaster. I enjoyed their little disastrous meets as much as I enjoyed them bantering over everything or anything and their love for each other and chess and their cheesy puns. Jamie calling Bea ‘𝙢𝙤𝙣 𝙘œ𝙪𝙧’ means "𝙈𝙮 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩" in french and him smiling and grinning was my undoing EVERYTIME 💌💘💓💞💗💕

“I was scared it wasn’t what you wanted.” “How could I not want you?” He bends and gives me the gentlest kiss, then whispers against my lips, “You’re everything I never knew I wanted.”

➸ Beatrice Wilmot

Bea is funny, clumsy, messy, chaotic and the witty Wilmot sister. I absolutely adore her. She can do no wrong in my eyes. She is an erotic artist but she never felt shame for that or hide her passion. Bea takes time and space to open up to people. She was autistic and had anxiety issues and gets lost in her head sometimes but she never tried to hide from it. She own each and everything about her proudly and I love that so much about her. The way she kept tripping over stairs, throwing carrots at Jamie and spilling beer (two glasses) at him the first night they met, crushing his nuts with a bowling ball had me laughing and the second hand embarrassment I felt then was so real to me because Bea is me and I'm Bea.

“You are exquisitely precious to me. You are everything I want, just as you are, no conditions or clauses, no end date or revenge, just you.”

➸ Jamie Westenberg

Jamie is charming, nerdy, thoughtful, gentle, caring and the most perfect man. He is the definition of MEN! His actions speaks louder than words. A man who loves kids, speaks French in and outside the bedroom, rescued cats, adopted them and cuddles with them at night can do no wrong in my eyes. He's such a proud cat dad and I can't even imagine what Daddy Jamie would be like with his own kids. Jamie had some anxiety issues and he doubted his success because his family never treated him or his career with respect and I loved that Bea made him believe in himself. He was always put together with his crisp shirts and his glasses. He reads, he cooks, says adorable sh*t, and blushes when his girl compliments him. He's so perfect and husband material.

“I’m saying, you’re the best kind of chaos I’ve ever met. And while chaos used to terrify me, you make me crave it.”

╰┈➤ Jamie and Bea

Jamie and Bea were opposite of each other in every manner. Except for one thing—their love for chess and cheesy chess puns. They started off catastrophically and hated each other but they weren't enemies because Jamie was OBSESSED with her the moment he saw her. Even though they had nothing in common they never had awkward silences between them. Their banter was hilarious and so damn entertaining.

“It means a lot that you didn’t act like you see me differently now.” He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear as the wind whips it across my face.
“I don’t see you differently. I see you better.”

They understood each other so well, helped each other and always respected each other's issues. They had healthy communication and a very healthy relationship. The only thing they didn't communicated was that the fake-dating-revenge thing doesn't feel so fake anymore. They knew it but since they had been left heartbroken in the past it took them some time to open up to each other about their feelings.

“You’re adorable. Even when you give me a heart attack and nearly break it all at once.”
“I would never break your heart, Bea. All I want to do is protect it.”

They both are "Manners on the streets but freaks in the sheet." The smut scenes in this book were really damn good and I appreciated that they both tried to talk about sex and what works for them and let me tell you it wasn't some cringe sex talk! The chemistry was top notch and the tension was hot. I was a puddle on floor when he made her four types of pureed veggie soup because she has textural issues and stored them in his refrigerator so she can eat them when she's at his house. He even got a tattoo for her. Now I'm crying because I'll never have a Jamie Westernberg in my life. I just love them so much.

“I never thought I could love someone so unlike me. That being so different from someone could make me feel right at home rather than every kind of wrong.”

I liked the ending but the third breakup didn't make any sense to me. Bea just needed to talk with Jamie about the Jules and Jean-claude situation and not tell him they need to take a break. But I loved how everything was ended. Bea and Jamie are so perfect for each other and I could read another book about them. Hopefully we see more of them in the next books of this series. I'm so excited for Juliet's book now.

“Love is your cup of tea,” she says softly. “And just because you got burned once, doesn’t mean you can’t find the perfect pour that’s just right for you.”

— A very big thankyou to Rae who asked me to read this book. If it weren't for you I would've never met Bea and Jamie. You are the best 🫶🏼

Chloe Liese and i have a complicated relationship— The Mistletoe Motive is one of my fave books ever. while her Bergman Brothers series is inconsistently up and down with a dnf thrown into the mix.

so, i went into this with an open mind and pretty neutral expectations... and lemme tell you, this was an all-around very mixed bag.

i really wasnt feeling the first 15%, give or take, and i assumed i wouldn’t enjoy the rest of the book— i initially struggled with the dialogue mainly, and the writing style at times. it felt a little clunky, i can’t lie. and i was worried the book would be too tropey while relying too heavily on the tropes.

but i was slowly but surely proved wrong. i have never been so happy to eat my own words, honestly.

i was won over by the pure softness of Bea and Jamie. their banter was so witty and charming, their back and forth was so rapid-fire and full of snark, while they rivalled each other intellectually, too, so that aspect just heightened the tension.

and my god that man was swoon-worthy.

”My fake boyfriend isn’t supposed to ruin me for everyone else,” I whisper.
Jamie’s eyes fall shut as he drops his forehead to mine. “Sometimes, Beatrice, I want to ruin you for everyone else.”

✨Jamie Westenberg✨

Jamie Westenberg😩 sir, ilysm<3

Chloe Liese and her heroes never fail me, fr. when all else is lost in the world, i can rely on Chloe Liese to write the most man-written-by-a-woman hero who is simultaneously the softest simp and a sexy whor*. like the man really said

he said “we only serve versatility here, maam”

Jamie was hands down the highlight of the book for me— he was so precious, i adored the way he loved Bea and the ways he expressed that love. it felt so authentic and was undeniably sweet, while also being surprisingly sexy. he was all fumbly, shy and awkward one minute while being all assertive and hot the next.

he’s my second fave Chloe Liese heroe after Johnathan Frost😌

while Bea, i fluctuated a lot with her, especially in the beginning. but once she and Jamie settled into a routine and really found their stride, i understood her so much better and found her to be so vulnerable and wonderfully endearing. i loved how she wasn’t afraid to vocalise how she felt, and she pushed Jamie to be better just as he did with her. they complimented each other perfectly. i really am fully convinced those two are soulmates with the pure way they loved one another— it really made me emotional.

they just felt so real to me, if that makes sense? you know sometimes you read a fictional couple and you’re fully aware the whole time they’re completely fictional because everything is just too good to be true? too perfect, with perfect lifestyles and slightly manufactured ways of speaking that no real person wild ever actually say? stuff like that.

but Jamie and Bea felt like two real, fully fleshed-out people. their dynamic was honest, a bit flustered and breathtakingly soft. they were also flawed as individuals, at times rough around the edges and it just heightened the authenticity. the way Jamie and Bea loved one another was definitely the highlight of the book for me.

until...

the third act breakup ruined the book.

i was living my best life. cruising through the story. simping over Jamie. giggling at Bea. loving the humour. then suddenly

i just... i don’t... eurghhh— it just felt so unnecessary, man. i did understand Bea’s sentiments and thought process behind her actions. but the execution and the handling of the situation? it sucked, i can’t lie. i really think the story would benefit from completely removing the scene. it made no sense to me and added very little to the story— it was jarring more than anything, in truth.

i found the whole scenario just left a bitter taste in my mouth. then the subsequent reconciliation skimmed over all of the issues that the breakup brought up— i found Bea’s disregard for Jamie be so out of character, it was quite callous, in my opinion, despite her motivations (which i found to be weak, at best).

i was watching Bea like

after that, i emotionally checked out and didn’t really care about what happened. it just ruined all the warm and fuzzy feelings the pair had previously stirred in me.

i think third act conflicts work when they’re set up well. when we’re anticipating them from the beginning of the book or midway through. whereas, when it’s randomly thrown in at the end for no apparent reason other than the cause conflict? it just comes across as lazy on the author’s part for not doing a better job at setting up the exposition, while being frustrating for the reader with the sudden switch up in pace and tone.

for example, if we, as the reader, know that MC 1 has some big monumental secret that MC 2 doesn’t know about but plays a major part in the plot, we can anticipate said secret is gonna come into play later on, right? we anticipate conflict arising from the secret being exposed. so the third act conflict makes sense.

when it comes out of left field, it just... it just doesn’t work, to be honest. so if you’re gonna do it, do it right please :)

but on a positive note to end the review, as she always does, Chloe nailed the neurodivergent and mental health rep, well as the handling of Bea’s sexuality. the way Bea confides in Jamie about her sexuality and her autism were written so wonderfully— they’re powerful in their simplicity, the casual honesty and softness really made me smile. while little boy with the insulin pump made me choke up— seeing myself so casually represented really got to me, wow. i have diabetes, autism and anxiety, and the authenticity of all three conditions was amazing. Chloe Liese never fails me in this regard.

i can always count of Chloe for the best autism rep, ultimately. i always feel seen, heard and understood once ive finished one of her books. just the little nuances that come with having autism are my favourite parts of Chloe’s characterisation— the little details are written with such care. ive read far too many uncomfortable stereotypes of autism that im always wary whenever it’s brought up. but with Chloe Liese, i never have to worry.

overall, very mixed bag but still a cute af read. if you love the usual Chloe Liese sweetness and steam with a hero who will leave you on your knees, this book is the one.

thank you to NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

He grins. A crooked, soft Jamie grin that once again fills my heart to ashimmering, golden pop. “I have a feeling you’re going to be a badinfluence, Beatrice.”
“Ah, James,” I tell him through the buttercreamsweetness lighting up my tongue. “Now you’re catching on.”

Heheheh 🤭
OMG THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD, I LOVED IT SO MUCH. IT GOT LAUGHING

“Love is your cup of tea,” she says softly. “And just because you got burned once, doesn’t mean you can’t find the perfect pour that’s just right for you.”

characters

Bea she’s an erotic artist, she’s very bold and sensitive, hilarious, messy and clumsy. Confident,She’s autistic and has some social anxiety. But she’s not ashamed of that. She doesn’t care what other people think. She’s always acting like herself she’s not trying to be someone else and i love her so much for that 🫶🏻 she’s so relatable. I loved how much fire she had in her! Her words and her flying carrots had me cracking up! Ohhhh and her second hand embarrassment was all of mine too.

“I’m saying, you’re the best kind of chaos I’ve ever met. And while chaos used to terrify me, you make me crave it. I’m saying, even though this is an absurd situation we’ve backed ourselves into. I’d do it again in a heartbeat because it’s given me you.”

jamie * screaming* he’s so perfect omg i love him so much 🫶🏻 Jamie was definitely one of the good guys! He could be so thoughtful and sensitive, it was heart melting. As we spent more time with him, you realize that there was a whole lot more going on with Jamie then meets the eye. Anxiety clung to him at times. That representation was so relatable to me, he’s so organized and workaholic, shy and serious, easily blushes 🤭 HE READS!! So perfect and so hot. He’s pediatrician. He also rescued two old senior cats and adopted them and cuddle with them every night 🥹He’s so pathetically in love with her that guy is literally obsessed 🤌🏻

“Jamie smiles and holds me close, heart to heart. His kisses whisper love. His arms are home.
If this is wrong, I will live long and happily never being right.”

their relationship they have nothing in common and their first meet is a complete disaster

It was insta-lust but it didn’t bother me because the tension was still there and it was so well written and the smut scenes were not cringey they were so🤌🏻🤭 and the ending was so rushed like they broke up one chapter and the were back together in the next chapter my brain wasn’t braining 🌝 but over all i had so much fun reading it and I recommend it to anyone who wants cute,funny, short romance novel 🫶🏻

Quotes

“that I love you. That I want to kiss you when no one’s watching and paint you for my eyes only. That I want to cuddle under my weighted blanket and watch snow fall and laugh about the weirdest things. Because you are exquisitely precious to me. You are everything I want, just as you are, no conditions or clauses, no end date or revenge, just you.”

“It’s the things that went unsaid, rather than the things we did say, that have hurt the most.”

“I went into the office today for just a few hours, but I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I was so distracted, I walked straight into a wall.” 😭😭😭

“I never thought I could love someone so unlike me. That being so different from someone could make me feel right at home rather than every kind of wrong.But each moment I spent with you, every time we pretended, the strangest thing happened. It became real. Every way you were my opposite only made me want you more, every secret part of you that you entrusted to me only made me ache to trust you just as much. And then I realized that difference that I couldn’t get enough of. that strange, perfect intensity between us. it was love, beyond anything I’d ever known. I fell in love with you, so wildly, Bea. I love nothing in the world as I love you. And maybe you find that strange, but if you do.I hope it’s the best kind of strange, the kind that you might one day feel, too.”

“You’re the best thing in my life, I want to tell her. You’re safe and real and perfectly imperfect. We started as a lie, and now we’re the truest thing I’ve ever known.”

4.25 ⭐️ THIS HAD NO BUSINESS BEING SO GOOD.

i adored the characters so much. the plot was fun & there was so much angst but yet not a lot of drama which i loved!!! the OBSESSION this man’s has for her is insane. unreal. out of this world.

the spicy scenes cured my depression. the open communications. the different representations. ALL OF THE AMAZING SIDE CHARACTERSSS!!!

the first half was definitely better for me than the second. the second kind of had me a lil bored. but regardless it was so so good.

i need christopher to get his own book. and i need jules to get her hea too pls.

turns out two wrongs can make a right <3

At the end of Two Wrongs Make a Right there are discussion questions. One of them was: “If you're familiar with Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, what are some parallels and departures you noticed between the original text and this modern reimagining in plot, themes, character names, and relationships?”

Oh—I’ll answer that. In the spirit of the upcoming Festivus Airing of Grievances, I got a lot of problems and now you're gonna hear about it! If you do not care about Much Ado About Nothing or adaptation choices go ahead and skip to Part II.

Yes, I wrote almost 2,000 words about this. Yes, I am a menace. I JUST CARE A LOT ABOUT A COUPLE OF FOUR-HUNDRED-YEAR-OLD LOSERS, OK? And if you can’t be pedantic on the internet, where can you?

PART I: NOTHING MUCH ABOUT MUCH ADO

Much Ado About Nothing is my favourite Shakespeare play. It’s one of my favourite pieces of literature, period. Formative stuff. I don’t require an adaptation to cleave dutifully to the original plot. But I would hope that it would have an understanding of what makes the source material tick. That it would incorporate details that capture its spirit. Alas.

It's interesting that the discussion question I quoted above mentions character names, but not characterization. Because it was the characters that first pulled me out of this. I should have known trouble was brewing when “opposites attract” was included in the marketing material. Much Ado’s Beatrice and Benedick are not opposites. They are both clever, charming input hoes—quick to speak their minds on any and every matter. They both like to posture. They are two smart people who are also very big dummies.

It's probably a good thing that in the book the hero is named Jamie (Benedick is his middle name) because this dude bears no resemblance to Shakespeare’s Benedick. His entire character from the moment he is introduced reads like a different classic leading-man blueprint. An anti-social stick-in-the-mud immediately perceived by the heroine to be judgmental… note to authors: you can write enemies to lovers without dipping into the Darcy well I promise! And more importantly, that archetype is decidedly not Benedick. Jamie’s “cold, stern, and exacting”?? He surprises Beatrice when he smiles, cracks a joke, or shows “rare playfulness”??? He's awkward and nervous about speaking in public??!!?? Wherefore art thou the Benedick whom Beatrice mocks for being the Prince’s jester? Liese could have still kept the social anxiety aspect of Jamie’s character. Benedick displays outward bravado and confidence but I’ve seen plenty of analysis noting his insecurities. (One of my favourite performance interpretations is when an actor delivers “Love me? Why, it must be requited” as “Love me? WHY?? It must be requited!”)

Once serious and taciturn Jamie is revealed to have been a Secret Softie All Along, he’s the Perfect Man. He’s a pediatrician who is great with kids. He's sensitive and understanding of absolutely everything. He’s not weirded out by periods and buys his girlfriend’s favourite lube after spotting it in her grocery basket. He speaks fluent French and has a giant co*ck. Which, fine. I won’t knock kind and caring heroes. But Jamie doesn’t undergo any kind of real development. And that’s a shame because Benedick undergoes a lovely arc in the play where he genuinely grows in sensitivity and devotion.

Book Beatrice only fares slightly better in translation. Beatrice in the play is forthright and quick-witted. Book Beatrice mostly… grouses when she feels maligned. I love a prickly heroine but Liese has a tendency to write heroines who are abrasive instead of sharp and incisive. Book Beatrice is that type of romcom heroine who thinks a man looking at her funny one time gives her license to be exceedingly aggressive for the next eight chapters. Book Beatrice is also into astrology—play Beatrice would never say Benedick is “such a Capricorn” (and not just because she’d be burned at the stake).

The other characters do not have much in the way of perceptible inner lives. They are mostly there to react to the plot and be weirdly obsessed with watching their friends make out. Beatrice’s twin sister Juliet—the Hero of this version—is the elder twin and is inexplicably (given Hero and Beatrice’s dynamic in the play) positioned as the mother hen in their sibling duo. Juliet’s fiancé Jean-Claude appears to be an amalgamation of Don John and Claudio. I assume this is for the sake of efficiency, but in doing so all we have left is an abusive one-dimensional “plain-dealing villain”. Listen, I don’t like Claudio. No one likes Claudio! But his youthful naivety plays a key role in illustrating some of the play’s main ideas—lies vs. truth, miscommunication, who you should and should not listen to, etc. The story loses dimension without him.

And then we have the actual meat of the Beatrice and Benedick relationship dynamic. The play gives us a number of delicious nuggets ripe for interpretation and Liese chooses to use exactly none of them.

Though their ages are never given directly in the play, it’s generally understood that Beatrice and Benedick skew older. They are at least not in the flower of youth, in contrast to Claudio and Hero, and are old enough to have an air of being jaded and past the usual marrying age. I wish Liese had seized on this as there are fewer contemporary romances featuring characters older than early-to-mid 30s.

A bigger missed opportunity is Beatrice and Benedick’s backstory. The play makes it clear that they have known each other for a long time. (“You always end with a jade’s trick: I know you of old.”) There are several indications that they had a previous romantic relationship that ended badly. (“Come, lady, come, you have lost the heart of Signior Benedick. / Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile, and I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one. Marry, once before he won it of me with false dice. Therefore your Grace may well say I have lost it.”) What a perfect opportunity to write a second chance/sexy exes romance! (Spoiler alert: this book doesn’t go that route.) Even if you were to leave out the romantic history, at the very least the Beatrice and Benedick dynamic hinges on them knowing each other well. Their roasts are bred on familiarity.

So of course, in this book, Beatrice and Jamie are newly acquainted. They go from zero to a hundred on the animosity scale within minutes of meeting each other. And it’s based on nothing except for some misinterpreted glances and a commitment to being obtuse.

Some of my favourite parts of Much Ado About Nothing are the gulling scenes when Beatrice and Benedick overhear their friends talk about the duo’s love for each other. The key takeaway from these scenes is that Beatrice and Benedick aren’t tricked into falling in love. The charade works because they are already in love with each other but can’t admit it. These scenes are also peak comedy. In performances there are so many exquisitely hilarious directions to go in—a personal favourite is a production where Benedick is hiding in a Christmas tree.

So of course, in this book, Liese decides to “reimagine” the story as: “Beatrice and Benedick find out early that their friends are trying to play matchmaker. They decide to concoct a scheme wherein they will fake date and then dramatically break up…for revenge!” When seeing the pair of them get clowned on is fundamental to the play’s DNA!! It's just not the same if they are steering the ship. And the whole charm is that their friends’ machinations give them permission to be honest with each other and act on their deep-rooted feelings!! The revenge plot doesn’t even make sense?? “Ooh, we’re so mad you tried to set us up that we are going to seek vengeance by… making out in front of you.” “Ooh, you’ve successfully assessed we are compatible but weren’t psychic enough to guarantee future relationship success.” Bu-urn? Genuinely one of the flimsiest excuses for a fake-dating plot I’ve ever encountered.

So, this book at least has Beatrice and Benedick’s sublime banter? Right??? Look, I wasn’t expecting Liese to come up with something as brilliant as “I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me. / God keep your ladyship still in that mind! So some gentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinate scratched face. / Scratching could not make it worse, an 'twere such a face as yours were.” But give me something to work with here—wordplay, patter and rhythm, anything. This book has characters lobbing half-hearted insults instead of rapid-fire volleys of wit. It’s not a merry war, it’s a listless scuffle. And the belligerent sexual tension lasts for like three chapters anyway!

Liese penned a whole-ass article giving advice about adapting beloved literature (link). “A good retelling or reimagining reveals its author’s familiarity and authority with the original text. Like a romantic relationship, claiming intimacy to something we haven’t done the work to know rings hollow, so for writers drawn to the idea of a retelling but not deeply familiar with the source material, now’s the time to dig in, not skim.” GIRL. The call is coming from inside the house.

Liese is writing an entire series of Shakespeare adaptations. Maybe she’ll write a decisive Hamlet soon.

PART II: THE ACTUAL BOOK, I GUESS

Relationship with the source material aside, how does this book fare on its own merits? Results are mixed.

I find Liese’s writing to be clumsy. Plot threads are left dangling. I don’t really love her narrative voice. Her characters introduce themselves to the reader as if they are writing their own social media bios: “Hello, here is a handy list of all of my traits.” The dialogue reads like the characters delivering personal essays.

The characters are also particularly trope-y. She’s chaotic and artsy with two-toned hair, tattoos, colourful leggings, and an unusual pet! She is constantly tripping and spilling things! He’s a stuffed shirt with perfect posture, secret pain, and a deep connection with his lint roller! I mean that’s all… fine, it just has the vibe of character-design-by-marketing-committee.

I did enjoy Beatrice’s career as a greeting card illustrator whose whole bag is incorporating erotic art into her designs. That’s fun. I’m not sure how lucrative it would be as a career, but since this book takes place in Vaguesville, USA, with no real sense of time or place I suppose that’s not important.

There are some things that work in the book’s favour. I’ll give Liese her flowers that she thoughtfully incorporated autism and anxiety rep. Her writing is full of feeling and affection—she’s able to capture love’s lightning-in-a-bottle intensity. It was lovely to see two characters be each other’s soft place to land. Against my will I was starting to actually feel immersed in the latter half!

And then… the third-act conflict happened. My eyes rolled back so far that they detached themselves from my sockets and bounced along my vertebrae like Plinko chips. The third-act conflict was off-putting in rationale, timing, and especially resolution. Having the non-offending partner extend the olive branch? Making the conflict disappear because of a change in circ*mstances driven by a third party? Jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

Okay where to begin…

This is not a polished book. It’s difficult to quickly summarize how bad the plotting really is without sounding vague (& why be vague when you can write up an incredibly detailed 3,000 word review instead??). There are so many throwaway comments that don’t go anywhere or plot points that are set up and then never paid off. And it’s incredibly frustrating because I truly believe there is a good book in here somewhere (the pillars of what makes good romance are all here: neurodivergent rep! cute romantic moments! steamy sex scenes!) which is why I’ve added my own suggestions where I think some of the plotting could have been improved to fix some of the book's major problems. I also don’t know how to add bullets to goodreads reviews so I’m just going to emphasize with caps lock:

BULLET POINT ONE: THE INTRO
Plot Summary: MCs (Bea and Jamie) meet at a party hosted by Bea’s twin sister, Juliet, who is dating Jamie’s roommate, Jean-Claude. Within seconds of meeting him, and before Jamie’s has a chance to speak, Bea feels judged by him because he briefly stares at her tattoos. Bea decides from just this small interaction to judge him right back for being uptight and is immediately defensive and rude to him as the first words spoken between them.
Side Problem #1: Jamie inexplicably makes the comment, when Bea questions why he was staring at her, that “he thought he recognized her from somewhere else”. This is never brought up again. This interaction is the first time they meet. No one resembling Bea or her tattoos is ever brought up. I’m going to start numbering these meaningless comments/plots that are completely dropped the second they are mentioned. This is Side Problem #1.
Problem With Plot: Even if Bea’s perception of judgment is just an expression of Bea’s neurodivergence, and I don’t think that the book is trying to say that it is, this is a really poor way to set these two apart as enemies. Bea comes across as an absolute jerk preemptively. I even had to skip back and reread this because I was so confused as to why she was so angry with him right away.
My Fix: Have Jamie slip up and say something rude accidentally. We know he suffers from anxiety, and he’s in a high pressure situation, meeting someone new for the first time, at a party where he knows almost no one. Let him say some accidental thoughtless comment that he has to make up for and sincerely apologize to win over Bea (#Darcystyle). But it doesn’t have to be that specific, just something meatier to make them dislike each other.

BULLET POINT TWO: THE MEDDLING PLOY
Plot Summary: After the party, where Jean-Claude, Juliet and a few other friends fail to set up Bea and Jamie, Juliet and Jean-Claude decide to play matchmaker again. They each set up Bea and Jamie on a blind date (secretly with each other). They give Bea and Jamie fake names (B&J know they are using fake names) and encourage them to text their future date person to get to know them - but also give instructions that they shouldn’t be specific with personal details- so they can keep an open mind before their in-person date the following weekend. Bea and Jamie unknowingly text each other constantly in the week leading up to the date, and get along great (while simultaneously not getting along IRL) but then are *shocked pikachu face* to discover on the actual date that they were set up with their “sworn enemy”!
Problem With Plot: With their extremely limited social circles, how neither Jamie nor Bea even get close to realizing that their mystery, fake named, blind date could be the same person that their meddling friend/sibling has so recently just pushed them to date? The are like puppets blindly following these stupid arbitrary rules that don’t make any sense and prevented me from getting invested in them as character when they act like this.
My Fix: Have this texting relationship predate the party where they meet! Say they met before years ago, exchanged numbers, but are fuzzy to the details of what the other person looks like (might solve Side Problem #1). Jamie even goes by a different name to his friends, “West”, and Jamie calls Bea, “Beatrice”. Jean-Claude and Juliet can still meddle them into a blind date after they figure out “oh Bea’s best texting friend Jamie is the same person as your roommate West, we should convince them to meet so these two can finally be together” and then it goes disastrously wrong.

BULLET POINT THREE: THE REVENGE PLAN
Plot: After being tricked into a date by Jean-Claude and Juliet (and supposedly a bunch of other side character friends who were also overtly pushing them together at the party), Be and Jamie decide to fake date for a few months in order to trick everyone into thinking the meddling worked and that they’re now happy love birds, only to end their relationship with an angry, public breakup two months later at a Friendsgiving party to teach everyone a lesson to not meddle ever again.
Side Problem #2: Bea and Jamie initially believe their entire friend group (i.e. not just Juliet and Jean-Claude, but they’re not important enough to name them here) are also involved in the scheme to get them together. A lot of page time is then spent clarifying that none of the other friends were involved with the text blind date scheming, only Juliet and Jean-Claude. Bea learns of this first, and then struggles with telling Jamie about what she’s learned, thinking he will back out of their plan, but he points out to her why would he care about getting revenge on HER friends? He’s only in it to stop his roommate from butting into his business. Why does she think he’d be upset about that? It makes no sense. Literally nothing would have been gained or lost if the other friends were involved. Why was this necessary to clear up? I have no idea.
Problem With Plot: Wouldn’t pretending to date successfully even for just a few months, just prove that the meddling worked? If my sister meddled me into being in a seemingly loving, romantic relationship for two months, that is a sister who has succeeded at finding me a romantic partner. Sis can’t foresee relationship problems two months down the line, but she’ll for sure think she knows what her sister is attracted to for next time she finds someone worthy and repeat!
My Fix: I don’t really think that this needed to be changed that much. It’s fine if their plan is dumb. I just would have liked this to have been called out once everything is cleared up, by her sister making a comment like “how would that have worked even, anyway?” (But of course, this revenge plan is never revealed to anyone by the end of the book so we weren’t even given the opportunity to get remotely close to a conversation like this.)

BULLET POINT FOUR: FAKE DATING
Plot: They go on cutesy fake dates to post on social media: painting, karaoke, etc. They then decide to get to know each other and become friends to make their fake dating ruse more believable. They meet each other’s families and talk about their exes.
Problem With Plot: Not really a specific criticism of this plotting of the book, since this happens in almost all fake dating trope books, but why go to the effort to do so many sweet fun dates as practice? That’s bound to inspire real feelings. Especially to just post on social media. Wouldn’t it be easier to say you’re keeping things private? And then when they decide to just be friends, it’s instantly not a problem and they genuinely like each other, since they really had no substantive reason to hate each other in the first place. There’s no satisfying cathartic transition from hate to friends to love and it didn’t end up working for me at all.
My Fix: Same fix as Bullet Point One. Otherwise, disliking fake dating is a “Me” issue. I’ve begrudgingly accepted that 75% of all new CRs must feature fake dating. Whatever.
Side Problem #3: They spot Jamie’s ex-girlfriend on one of their cutesy dates. He opens up about their break up because she wanted to work for his father, and he wouldn’t work with “family”, so she chose work over Jamie. The most that this background color story adds is Jamie’s lingering lingering feelings of abandonment from his ex - and then Bea puts him through something similar later. Nothing else substantive does this add, but that’s not where this ends! In the very next chapter after they spot her, the ex-gf shows up to the store where Bea works and buys one of her romantic erotic art card and has a very strange overall interaction with Bea. Bea later tells Jamie about the encounter and he just shrugs and says it is probably a coincidence. We are only about halfway through the book, but no further mention or scene with this ex happens. And she never comes up when they go to meet Jamie’s family either. Who is the card for, Lauren?! I just want to KNOW. At the time I was convinced it was for something super dramatic that would be revealed later, like she was sleeping with his father but I guess we’ll never know.
Side Problem #4: I’m assuming there will be more books about Jamie’s nice sibling (there’s literally one line with Bea meeting his siblings in a row and she makes super quick evaluations basically like: “Mean Brother, Mean Brother, Nice Brother”. There are no further interactions with any of these characters. Hilarious how serious Jamie doesn’t acknowledge this quick judging behavior by Bea again considering her bad first impression of him, but acknowledging that would be trying to make this story cohesive, and that’s not a priority for this story.
Side Problem #5: The night of Jamie’s parents’ party, where we meet his family as referenced in Side Problem #4, presumably this was an evening party, the couple leaves the party to immediately go to do karaoke, and then after karaoke, Jamie gets a whole tattoo done at a tattoo shop (Side Side Problem #5, Subcategory A: How is it not creepy that he’s getting a tattoo for Bea after knowing her for less than two months?) Did he have an appointment at the tattoo shop? How does time work in this universe that they could have planned this all out for a single evening? I will never have answers.

BULLET POINT FIVE: TOXIC BOYFRIEND JCLAW
Plot: Jean-Claude is a toxic boyfriend to Juliet. From the first chapter, Bea lets the reader know that she feels off about him, but doesn’t know how to articulate it. Jean-Claude proposes to Juliet after only a few months (which is super different than getting a tattoo for your girlfriend you’ve only known a month, ofc). Bea eventually opens up to Jamie about her own bad relationship history with a toxic boyfriend and the parallels she sees with Juliet/Jean-Claude (that she hasn’t opened up to Juliet about). She brings it up several times in her internal dialogue as Jean-Claude has increasingly worrying behavior towards Juliet and that she must speak to Juliet soon about the details of her own toxic ex situation and concerns over Jean-Claude. This doesn’t happen. Jean-Claude eventually assaults Juliet’s family friend (who is also Jean-Claude’s boss), Jean-Claude is arrested, Juliet breaks up with him, he’s kicked out of Jamie’s apartment and not heard from again.
Side Problem #6: This really isn’t a dropped plot problem like the others, but I just want to know why a guy working in corporate finance and a pediatrician even needed a roommate in the first place. What fresh capitalist dystopia is this set in anyway?
Problems With Plot: Bea tipping off the reader right from her character intro of Jean-Claude that he is a villain, really took the wind out of this side plot. I think it would have been more satisfying to reveal it over time. Especially because outside of Bea’s bad vibes about him, he’s menacing enough on his own for something to feel off with him anyway without her commentary to make it obvious. But my biggest issue is that Bea never is given the opportunity to share these concerns with her sister before things get out of hand. Multiple times Bea says she needs to “talk to her sister and come clean” including in the opening scene, but she never gets around to it. And we’re not really given any reason why except Bea is busy or distracted? But this would probably be really important, right? It’s so frustrating. Especially because after the unfortunately off screen confrontation (like, was there already too much excitement in this book that we couldn’t have had that fight happen on page?) where Jean/Claude punches the family friend he’s jealous of and Juliet dumps him, Bea finally tells Juliet the full story of her past toxic relationship, but it doesn’t really impact the narrative beats because Juliet has already made up her mind to leave Jean-Claude. Juliet and Jean-Claude’s relationship breakdown is just a concurrent event that happens to be taking place nearby to Bea’s main plot story. This side plot wraps up with Bea having no impact on her sister or her sister or her relationship and considering how much impact Jules has over Bea’s relationship, this was incredibly unbalanced to read.
My Fix: Let Bea and/or Jamie be present for the fight! Allow Bea to take her concerns about Jean-Claude to her sister using examples of his behavior taken from events throughout the book, not a vague “something off” in Bea’s opening assessment of him right from the start. Maybe Juliet will not make time to sit and listen or maybe she downplays Bea’s concerns until the confrontation at the end. Which would be a sh*tty sister move, but Juliet is already a terrible sister in my book (for reasons I’ll get to shortly) so it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch.

BULLET POINT SIX: BREAKING UP FOR WHAT, EXACTLY? (AKA saving the worst problem for last)
Plot: After Juliet and Jean-Claude break up, Bea tells Jamie that she wants to take a break from their relationship because him being around Juliet would remind her too much of Jean-Claude and she needs to prioritize her sister. He leaves. They break up for a while. Juliet decides to move away. Bea and Jamie reunite. The End.
Problem With Plot: I have no idea what Bea was thinking with this. How is it fair that another person simply existing is too much to remind Juliet of her sh*t boyfriend? It’s unnecessarily cruel to Jamie who has already rid himself of his friend (idk even if they were friends or just roommates? Childhood companions turned roommates? I guess?) to then cast him aside as collateral damage. And there’s never a conversation between the sisters to clear the air about Bea breaking up her relationship because of Juliet. Then, independent of anything to do with her Bea, Juliet decides to start fresh and move away. Did Juliet ever even ask her sister about what happened to her boyfriend? They never talk about it once before Juliet leaves. If Juliet doesn’t even notice Jamie’s absence, how would his presence have possibly affected her? Or is she so self involved she didn’t realize how much her sister had self sacrificed for her? I’m not trying to shift blame entirely onto Juliet. Bea is still responsible for making this ridiculous decision on her own and never speaking to her sister about it, but I think it would have been cathartic to have Juliet snap Bea out of this dumb line of thinking and help Bea and Jamie reconcile. I just can’t believe that if Juliet is some beloved sister to Bea, she wouldn’t notice Bea's pain in front of her own. Once she’s gone, Jamie comes rushing back into the picture and they drive off into the sunset. Probably as one of those couples that never talks about their problems.
My Fix: Have Juliet acknowledge this stupid self sabotage is happening and get her to fix things between Jamie and Bea.
Side Problem #7: It was the original plan for Jamie and Bea’s fake dating scheme to break up at the planned ‘Friendsgiving’ party a few months later. Several times they mention the Friendsgiving party, even as late as the last chapter of the book, as the side characters are clearing up who is on the guest list. The confrontation with Jean-Claide happens on Halloween. Bea and Jamie are separated for “several weeks”. So you would think that this is all leading to things wrapping up at this widely discussed, impending Friendsgiving party. Nope. The book ends before it ever takes place. Why not move the Jean-Claude confrontation to Friendsgiving to subvert the “fake couple breaking up” revenge plot with an adjacent real breakup. Or have the reconciliation between Jamie and Bea take place at the party instead. But the book ends on the eve of the party even happening. And if that isn’t emblematic of all the weird bad editing issues of this book, I have no idea what is.

So all that being said, some things I liked: Bea and Jamie are mostly fun and interesting characters. I liked being in their heads. They seem well suited even if I don’t really understand why they hated each other from the start. Erotic art is fun. Rescuing cats is adorable. Most of the cutesy dates I was complaining about four and a half bullet points ago were actually really charming. Especially the paint night date (with the exception of the smurf inducing boner incident & please don't ask me to elaborate). When Jamie takes so much care to explain to the hostess that her whale sound music makes the space inaccessible and is not a preference, I swooned. Which as I said before, is why I’m so incredibly frustrated. There is a really good book in here somewhere but it’s missing some crucial elements to make this a coherent polished book so that I would ever want to pick it up again or recommend it. If you need me I’ll be wallowing into my copy of The Mistletoe Motive.

4/5

Chloe Liese is one of my favorite authors because she writes realistic characters that are hard to find in books these days. Her main characters are usually beautifully written, and if you're looking for an author with great representation, this is what you're looking for.

I saw a post about this book on ig, and when I saw it was about a doctor and a woman with tattoos, with fake dating. I was sold.

I was really really close to giving this book a 4.5 stars rating, but there was a third act break up at the end. I hate this trope, so I have to lower it to 4 starts.

If you want some encouragement to read it, I will say you will probably fall in love with Jamie, because he is tall, wears glasses (sexy glasses), a doctor, has cats, blushes often and is obsessed with our heroine. I also love how many dirty thoughts he had, despite his calm demeanor.

I devoured it in two days, and I had two exams this week, so it must have been good. There will be next book in this series so I’m really exited to read them.

I did not expect THAT. And neither did my heart and my stomach currently filled with little butterflies.
I cannot stop grinning for the life of me 🫠 4.5 stars!!

""My fake boyfriend isn't supposed to ruin me for everyone else," I whisper.
"Sometimes, Beatrix, I want to ruin you for everyone else.""AHHHH

Where is my perfect fake boyfriend turned real boyfriend, James? West? Jamie? Jame? Whatever you want to be called, it's fine. 👉🏻👈🏻

"Bea.
It's the word my thoughts beg, the sound of need singing in my veins."

Where is my pediatrician that cooks for me, buys my favorite lube after seeing me buy it once, speaks French, and calls me "my heart"? Those book boyfriends / men written by women get out of hand...

"You're everything I never knew I wanted."

This book was cheesy, funny, heartwarming, sweet, hot, addicting, educational, and made my heart stop. It was f*cking inclusive, and I am so here for it. 💗

The steam is steaming. In the sense of green tea and yes, some very hot, real, and consensual sex.

And it has a f*cking Playlist with a song for each chapter, which makes this even more perfect. I took the playlist maybe too seriously, as I played each song on repeat until I was through the chapter, but hey, that's just me 😅

"Books are my kind of adventure - all the unknown from the comfort of my couch."

For anyone looking for anything from the above, in a nutshell, it's a fake-dating to lovers story line well done, with characters with anxiety, autism, and toxic relationships.

Job well done! I will be back for this one ❤️

Okay, this is an enemies to lovers book that slaps. (Did I use that term right?)

Watching these two opposites gently fall in love is absolute magic! TWO WRONGS MAKE A RIGHT is the deliciously steamy, lovingly affirming, burst-of-joyful-romance my heart needed.

I loved everything about these two lovebirds, even when they were not lovebird-ing. Bea is so delightfully herself with her homemade crab mask and dino chicken nuggets, and Jamie is Mr. Proper Pants in his tortoise shell glasses and pediatrician-heart and they just truly WORKED and captured me.

Chloe Liese continues to reign as the master of steamy romance!

The third act breakup ruined the entire book. Zero stars. It was so out of left field and completely unnecessary. Bea's reasoning didn't make ANY sense. Your sister is going through a breakup so you can't date someone yourself? That's how you show support??? What the actual f*ck. The way she scraped Jamie off and then actually expected him to just sit back cooling his heels waiting for her, especially when she knows his feelings about not being enough for his past girlfriends??? The reddest of red flags. He should've run the other way, instead of literally running to her as soon as she decides they can be together again. Jamie has no reason to believe that he's not going to get punted off to the side again the next time something like this happens, because she literally proved to him (actions speak louder than words you guys) that he's not that much of a priority in her life. Ugh you guys I was digging this book until then but this ending has made me hate this whole book with the fire of a thousand suns.

Also, what was with the ex girlfriend coming to the store to check out Bea, and then she never shows up again? What purpose did this serve to the plot? I kept waiting for her to show up again, I was really expecting her to be at his father's birthday party, but then we were just left with nothing. What was the point of her at all. This felt like a plot line that the author just forgot about while writing and her editors didn't catch it.

4,75⭐️
Aaaaaa I loved it omggg, it was so cute and sometimes took turns, that I actually didn't predict and why hadn't I read this sooner?
Can't wait to read the second book, cus omggg the crumbs left at the end??? I'm so excited sjsjjsjsjs

Thank you Netgalley for providing digital advanced copy in exchange for honest review.

This is not a retelling of Much Ado About Nothing. It’s not. If the author truly believes it is, she’s never read the source material, because the only thing this book shares with Much Ado is the names–and even then, Benedick is his middle name! Beyond that, literally nothing is the same–not the structure of the plot, the characters (James, the love interest, is fine, but he is absolutely not Benedick) or the dialogue. It’s literally just the names. I’m violently annoyed but more than that violently confused. It’s not as if everyone shares my obsession with Shakespeare’s wittiest comedy; I can’t imagine it’s a successful marketing ploy, because I have a hard time believing there’s that many people who have Much Ado adaptations on auto-buy like I do. But, then again, I did exclusively read this for that reason, so if it was a marketing ploy, it worked on me.

And, for a brief aside, why the hell would you mess with something so beautiful? The pure hatred Benedick and Beatrice honestly feel for each other until their friends meddle–immaculate. The utter buffoonery of Claudio–perfect. The masquerade scene where Beatrice eviscerates Benedick to his (masked) face–literary masterpiece. Then, instead of seeing this reincarnated in a modern setting so I might return to material I love with a new perspective, all I got were the names, and a scant few splashes of good strong Shakespearean diluted to something unrecognizable.

Beyond the disgraceful lack of Shakespearean reference, it was just a mediocre fake dating story–maybe even a bad one, considering they fake date for all of two chapters. The romantic lead was decent, the heroine another colorful manic pixie dream girl who wears weird leggings and trips a lot (can women who respect the classic professionalism of a neutral toned wardrobe not find love?) and the surrounding group of friends queer but underdeveloped. Hero and Claudio were the worst (as a Claudio hater, I wasn’t against, but making him biphobic and abusive is not a correct literary interpretation of Shakespeare’s Claudio and also one dimensional). Liese does deliver with her autism and anxiety representation, but that can’t save the fact that the main couple get together at the 45% mark and the reader is just biding time until the most idiotic third act conflict I’ve ever read.

Do not read this book. It’s not a Much Ado adaptation (read Ben and Beatrix or The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You) and it’s not a good fake dating romance either. It was the type of book that made me want to write my own romance novel, just to see it done well, and also because apparently the bar is quite low. For the second time this month, my expectations got the better of me–clearly I’ve strayed too far from my pessimistic roots and the universe is trying to remind me.

3.5 stars. Review to come!

i would read anything by chloe liese!!!!

3.25/5 it was basically a matter of two rights having little tension because they were right pretty quickly and the ending being a major wrong. I really dislike when one character is completely in the wrong (I mean what WAS her reasoning????) but the other person is the one to grovel! Please let’s stop that.

This was my first book by Chloe and I’m not entirely convinced I’ll read her other work? I don’t think I’m a fan of her writing style which is just a me thing. She uses a lot of whimsical adjectives, descriptors, and metaphors that I find to be distracting and too flowery. What’s his name said his borderline terrible father was “all sharp prickles” and truly…what? Writing style really pulls me in or spits me out of a contemporary romance and I really can’t control when it works for me.

As for the audiobook, I really liked what’s her name’s narrator (I’m so sorry I don’t remember their names and I don’t want to save this and go check) and I wish she’d have narrated the whole thing. His narrator just didn’t fit the role I don’t think.

As for the sex, all I remember is the lube which was really nice to see. Alexis Daria also had good lube representation in You Had Me at Hola and A Lot Like Adiós. I think there’s another book but I can’t remember.

Also I can’t not mention the fact that the cover illustration style reminds me of that bad spider guy from Miss Spider 💀

⭐️⭐️⭐️.25/5 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5

Thank you to PRHaudio for a complimentary copy. All opinions are honest and my own.

4 ✨

“𝙈𝙮 𝙛𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙗𝙤𝙮𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙨𝙣'𝙩 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙪𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙚𝙡𝙨𝙚," 𝘐 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳.
𝘑𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘦'𝘴 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘩𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦.
"𝙎𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨, 𝘽𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙚, 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙪𝙞𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙚𝙡𝙨𝙚."

Revenge has to be the best premise for fake dating. Bea and Jamie have a disastrous meet cute at a birthday party. She’s quirky and clumsy; he’s buttoned up and condescending. When their friends meddle and set them up on a blind date, they decide to obnoxiously fake date and stage a breakup of epic proportions. But, that’s not how the story goes.

I adored this so much. Bea is such a fun fmc to read. She is an eccentric erotic artist who accidentally throws carrots and drinks at Jamie. He’s an anxious pediatric doctor who rescues geriatric cats. The two of them should not make sense but they were perfect pair.

While there’s low spice in this book, I still swooned sooo many times. Jamie is perfect, flaws and all. Bea is hysterical. Their relationship development was so much fun to read. It also felt so real because of their worries and anxieties. There was a teeeeny bit of miscommunication, but I flipped the page and it was resolved.

This book was perfect. It has
♥️ fake dating
♥️ opposites attract
♥️ so much pining and longing
♥️ fun and loving side characters
♥️ autism spectrum disorder rep
♥️ anxiety rep
♥️ lgbtq rep

I recently discovered that Chloe Liese can make me feel every kind of giddy emotion when reading her work, so I had to do a deep dive into her catalog. That is how I ended up reading Two Wrongs Make a Right.

Liese deserves the utmost credit for her ability to write complex characters who grow together, find each other, understand each other, and, most importantly, communicate with one another. It is so refreshing to read a romance book that has the two characters communicate through a possible miscommunication. I cannot count the number of times throughout this book when I was sitting convinced that I was hitting a miscommunication trope, but it never came. Thank God for that. The book was full of tension, angst, and a delightful relationship that grew on an understanding of each other, and it could not have been any more perfect.

While I loved the novel and cannot wait to read more work by Liese, I did not love the main conflict in the book... at all. The main issue was stupid and childish, and I did not feel nor did I agree with Bea on her reason for taking a break with Jamie, which she claimed she needed in order to not rub her relationship in her sister's face since her sister just went through a breakup. For a novel that, throughout the entirety of the book, was mature and handled conflict so well, this was disappointing and anticlimactic. The conflict alone made me doubt whether or not the novel deserved four stars as opposed to five. However, I stuck with five as I smiled and giggled through 99% of the novel, and my heart fluttered away.

Would highly recommend it if you are looking for a romance novel that makes you fall deeply in love with the characters and their love story.

4.5 stars

loved this book so much. can’t believe i have been pushing it down on my tbr list. i fell hard for all characters, Jamie and Bea were *chefs kiss* PERFECT. the way that they fell in love with each other and respected each other so much… ugh it was just TOO GOOD. i would’ve given this a 5 star but i wanted an epilogue or more🥲

the glimpse of Kate at the end was great and i'll absolutely be tuning in for book two because i think it will be even better and i just can't wait to read more Chloe Liese!

if you’re looking for a sweet, feel-good, relatively low angst romance with some steamy scenes, this is the story for you. i think any Bergmans, Bromance Book Club, or the Brown Sisters fan will love this😍

Exquisite tension, hilarious banter, steamy romance and a hero and heroine with personalities that burst from the pages. A top must-read of the year!

this book made me believe in love again