Book Review: The Wrong Mr. Right by Stephanie Archer

‘The Wrong Mr. Right’ is the second book in Stephanie Archer’s Queen’s Cove series. It was published in 2022 and is available to read via Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited Subscription.

I read the first book in the series, ‘That Kind Of Guy’ in a few hours, and this one was no different. Archer has a way of sweeping you up with her storytelling, and whisking you away to a new place, and Queen’s Cove is a place I’d love to go to.

This book really expands your perspective on the setting. You are introduced to new characters that run in Hannah’s circles even though there is inevitable small town overlap. I loved that we got to see more of Div’ in this book, and how he and Hannah bonded over The Spice Girls. You can make some lasting friendships over mutual interests. I met my best friend by complimenting her fandom t-shirt on the first day of class back at University. It tracks! I hope we get more of Div’ in future books, too.

I liked ‘The Wrong Mr. Right’. It followed Hannah, Avery’s best friend, who runs a local bookstore in Queen’s Cove, and is renowned for her shyness. A complete recluse, who prefers book boyfriends to socialising. But, Hannah’s just a few months away from turning thirty and wants to make some changes. Her late mother’s business is failing, and she hasn’t taken a wage in ages, she isn’t confident and she wants to find her one true love, and, of course, she wants to make her mother proud.

To achieve this, she wants advice and guidance from one of the Rhodes brothers, specifically, Wyatt Rhodes, the third of the Rhodes boys, with dreams of being a professional surfer. She twists his arm with blackmail of him appearing in a music video, dressed as a merman, covered in glitter, but this is quickly forgotten as they develop a friendship and later something more.

I loved that Hannah’s personality evolved from what we know about her from Avery, to becoming someone new on her journey to be brave. Hannah’s development is subtle until it really isn’t, and although I’d argue that the absolutely hysterical missing hiker incident was more than enough to make her want to curl up in a ball and die, it was a clear middle ground to the level of spontaneity she could achieve.

I would have loved more conflict in the idea of potentially pursuing Beck. He sort of disappears as an obstacle that Hannah has to overcome. Although he handled everything well, and whatnot, I felt like his whole conversation about what Hannah wasn’t seeing about herself and what she wanted and how it was clearly not Beck was something that might have had more impact on a second date. It would also have added more grumpy and jealous scenes with Wyatt to stew over.

This book was a fun one. It explores motivation and what drives you to succeed and achieve goals. You have cheerleaders in yourself and your tribe, and realising that what you have in front of you is something special is an integral element of the story, as is knowing when to stand your ground, put your foot down and do something new. Like with Pemberly Books. The way that Hannah’s character development is illustrated by a slow-paced renovation of the bookstore is just such a good idea from a writing perspective!

I didn’t expect the outcome of the book to be so domestic, considering how free-spirited Wyatt seemed to be, but maybe that’s just me. I think, I preferred the first book, but, saying that, I’m eager to continue on and read the third when I can!