#Review: Wrong Number, Right Guy by Elle Casey - 2 Wine Glasses

Title: Wrong Number, Right Guy
Series:  The Bourbon Street Boys #1
Author: Elle Casey
Format:  eBook & Paperback, 351 pgs
Published: Sept. 22, 2015 by Montlake
ASIN: B00VJ4IDVY
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Source: Netgalley
Reviewer: Kimberly
Rating: 2 out of 5 Wine Glasses

When a mysterious text message summons May Wexler to a biker bar in downtown New Orleans, she knows something is very wrong. Her sister has sent out an SOS, but when May gets there, she’s nowhere to be found and May is the one in trouble—she’s wearing pink espadrilles, she’s got a Chihuahua in her purse, and she’s in the middle of a shootout.

After tall, muscular Ozzie comes to her rescue, May has no choice but to follow him to safety. At the headquarters of his private security firm, the Bourbon Street Boys, she finds a refuge for the night—and the offer of a job. But it’s not long before a gun-toting stalker isn’t the only complication in May’s life: the more time she spends with Ozzie, the less she can deny that they’ve got some serious chemistry. A wrong number got her into this mess…Will it also get her the right guy? 

Kimberly’s Thoughts:
May's divorced sister has been a little on edge lately and when she receives a text from a number she doesn't recognize asking for reinforcements, May figures her sister has finally gotten a new phone. The texts get increasingly stranger but May just worries that her sister's kids have finally sent her over the edge, so she hurries to rescue her from a biker bar. What happens instead is May being pushed out the back door of the bar by a heavily bearded burly guy while being shot at. Turns out the texts weren't from her sister but a case of wrong number and the bearded burly guy that rescued her was undercover, a cover she has just blown. Bearded burly guy a.k.a. Ozzie is the owner of Bourbon Street Boys Security and not only feels May is in danger but wants to offer her a job in his company. May is new to the whole guns and danger but being drawn to Ozzie has her making the effort. Fate and destiny are crazy sisters but they may have just had the right idea when they threw May and Ozzie together.

The beginning of Wrong Number, Right Guy started off pretty rough, I felt very thrust into the story. The ball starts rolling right away but I didn't have a base for who May was and as she is the leader of the show, the story felt off kilter. The storyline of May receiving texts and thinking they are from her sister works, unless you think too much about it. There were plenty of times where May should have had a "wait a minute" moment and questioned her actions. It was also murky if May was texting with Ozzie, shouldn't he have realized something was wrong? He never tells her it was him texting her and that her sister was never in the bar, which May goes on thinking for too long. It was a shaky beginning for rationalizing our leads together and unfortunately, the shaky feeling persisted throughout the book.

May was supposed to be in her late twenties but she was an extremely immature and naïve character, she had many TSTL (too stupid to live) moments. The story is all in first person from May's point of view and while her inner dialogue was supposed to come off funny and quirky, it missed the mark for me and came off hokey and sophomoric. Due to the first person aspect of this, Ozzie's character really suffered; I never felt I knew him. I'm not even sure I could label him the typical alpha male cardboard cut-out, he never has enough dialogue or shown emotions to even pull this off, I hate to say it but he was more of an alpha male wood block. He wears tight t-shirts, boots, and someone says he was in the military and he seems to like May (in a very maybe, sort of, kind of way) and that is my only impression of him.

May and Ozzie didn’t have a lot of screen time together, I think they didn’t even spend more than twenty minutes together, until the last 70% of the book. The story is filled with May freaking out over working for the Bourbon Boys and interacting with all the people who work for the company. The characters who make up the Bourbon Boys (which by the way, there is a woman who works there too so why it has to have Boys in the title, I'm not sure) seem interesting enough but the author doesn't cover any new ground in romantic suspense storylines. In fact, the storyline seemed to go in circles, May's in danger can't stay at her home, no wait, she can go home if she has a security system, no wait, even with a security system she can't stay home. The suspense plot left a lot to be desired and unfortunately, the romance plot followed suit. May acts like a fifteen year old who has the hots for Ozzie and can't wait to sleep with him but then in a way that didn't fit with her character, she doesn't. (In real life I fully support a women's right to say no or change her mind at any moment, no matter what. I'm discussing a character, the way the author wrote her, and how her personality characteristics/thoughts didn't jive together) The lead up to their first bedroom scene almost felt like May was forcing herself to sleep with Ozzie. Ozzie for his part was calm, cool, and collected but almost treated May in a condescending way with his antics to make her more comfortable so he could get in her pants. His character felt off kilter too in that he was very relaxed and treated May with kid gloves in regards to getting her to relax enough to have sex with him but suddenly he goes all Dom on her and ordering her around; it did not feel natural and quite frankly I almost laughed a couple times at the "sexy" lines.

Wrong Number, Right Guy is your basic romantic suspense muscle guys in security company work storyline book. However, I felt it missed the mark on the suspense and the romance. The concept and idea were there but regrettably, the execution wasn't.