The Pucking Wrong Number

Reviews

• Cenigh

  Finished September 10, 2025

  3.5 The audiobook for this was a duet (my favorite type by far) and the narrators did a great job. This started off with Monroe as a young girl. She had a bad childhood consisting of a drug addict, prostitute mother who died when she was 10, and some bad foster care families, with the last one having to run away from just a month shy of her 18th birthday and HS graduation. We see flashbacks from her past throughout the story. Because of her past, Monroe had a lot of trust issues with men; her fear of Lincoln tiring of her and dumping her was real. He did a lot to convince her that it would never be the case, though. The tattoo went a long way toward easing her fear of that. She craved the love and attention he showered on her, as she had never really felt wanted before him. After running away, she meets an older homeless guy named Bill. He is sweet, and his kindness towards her that first night and the next day not only made Monroe cry but me as well. I absolutely loved Bill, such a great side character. How often Monroe was sexually harassed by middle aged men in such a short time frame made it unbelievable, from the severity of their harassment anyway. Yes, yes, I get how beautiful she is, how could I forget with the author mentioning it constantly? The obsession with seeing her picture for the first time was a bit much, but I liked Lincoln overall and his OTT obsessiveness and his acceptance of it, even though he realized how crazy it was. It begins with Lincoln texting the girl his father set him up to meet at a fundraising event, that he blew off since he had no interest in her, and he is actually texting Monroe, and their banter through texting at the beginning is funny. The picture that came in then, it was life changing. Like my DNA had been rewritten. Like my stars had rearranged themselves. I didn’t believe in love at first sight. I didn’t believe in love at all. But if I could have, I would have fallen in love with the girl in that picture. The trick Lincoln pulled to get her to go to a game and a date was pretty cute. Lincoln definitely manipulated her life so she would become dependent upon him, though he did do it with the intention of improving her life, since most of the things he did were to get her out of bad situations. However, once she found out about the stuff he orchestrated, he did not handle it in the best of ways. They did end up helping each other deal with the trauma from their past. He was also patient and understanding with her, until the videos. The videos with sound of all the things Lincoln did (evicted, fired from her job, not to get calls from her other job were totally unrealistic, even if he had a PI following. How can they get video and voice from inside the landlord's apt, inside the doctor's house, and inside Lincoln's appt? Sure, if it were in a public space, or even if they tapped into his phone, they could get audio, but video? The one thing that bothered me quite a lot was when Monroe said towards the end of the book, "I think he would kill us both if I ever tried to leave. And that thought brought a sadistic, sick comfort to me." I am all for the OTT obsessed MMC, but this takes it too far imo and left me feeling like I no longer wanted to root for the couple to be together. I knew I should feel bad about this angel being alone for so long, but I also knew she probably felt like an outcast. Abandoned. Rejected. Maybe she’d been waiting for me like I’d been waiting for her. Maybe I could get her to want me as much as I was wanting her. In the picture, she was staring at the person taking it with those big green eyes, heaviness and sorrow there that you never wanted to see in a 10-year-old. I could feel the aching sadness that lived within her. And that was what got me. That was what threw me over the edge, spiraling me forward where I wouldn't be able to control myself anymore. Because the look in her eyes, the pain reflected there…it was the same pain that I felt every fucking day. This was a girl that could understand. Ari had known me for a long time, but the fact that I was basically stalking the girl at this point would come as a definite surprise to him. I mean, fuck, it was still a surprise to me. He caged me against the wall, his gaze so fucking…interested. I’d never felt more seen before in my entire life. I’d been the shadow in the corner ever since I was little, first forgotten by my mother, and then unwanted by all the foster parents that came after. Lincoln’s attention was heady. It was addicting. It was already a craving I didn’t know how to get rid of. I yanked my gaze away. Everything was too much, but it ended up with him cradling my cheek. I had the strange urge to cry because no one had ever held me like that before. Like I was priceless. Wanted. Worthy. I’d copied her key, and after she fell asleep…we’d be having a sleepover party. Other people might call that scary stalker behavior. I called it true love. She was mine now, whether she realized it or not. Now that she was going to be living with me, I knew I could convince her to fall for me, and I wouldn't hesitate to use every trick in my playbook to do so. I was a predator, and she was my prey. But she was more than that. She was my salvation, the one person who could make me feel alive again. I was willing to do whatever it took to keep her by my side, to make her see that we were meant to be together. And nothing, not even her, would stand in the way of that. Neither of us even thought about me sleeping anywhere but in his arms. I assumed I’d wake up feeling awful about being kicked out of my apartment, but instead, I felt good. Regenerated. Something I hadn’t felt in a long time. It was as if every worry, every care, every trouble that had been weighing me down had been muted, pushed to the background, replaced with a sense of excitement. It was a feeling I couldn't quite explain, but it was all because of him. No matter what, I'd make her happy, even if it meant locking her up and waiting for fucking Stockholm Syndrome to take hold. My thoughts were fucked, I knew that. But that was what she’d done to me. This feeling. It was all-consuming. I'd never experienced anything like it before. From the instant our eyes locked, I knew she was mine. And she’d always be mine. "I'm so fucking in love with you. I’m going to make you as fucking obsessed with me as I am with you, Monroe." Lincoln seemed to revel in the fact that I’d started to depend on him for everything. It was like he was as addicted to the feeling of being needed as I was to having someone to need. And I couldn’t deny that there was a certain thrill to it all. But it also made me feel vulnerable. Like I was at his mercy. I should be cautious, my brain whispered…but my heart didn’t seem to know better. Monroe was everything to me. She’d become the reason I woke up every morning. The reason I breathed. We’d both bleed out before I let her go. I sighed, trying to calm down, to channel that peace I always got when I thought about forever with her. I’d wait for her to wake up, and then I'd make her see. See we were meant to be together. That she couldn’t leave me. Not now, not ever. I’d do whatever it took to keep Monroe by my side. Even if that meant losing myself in the process. What is wrong with you?” He shrugged and kissed my lips softly. “I’ve stopped asking myself that, baby.” "I know you hate me right now," he said, his voice thick with emotion. "But I promise you, Monroe. I will make this right. I will do anything to make you happy." “You’ve broken us,” I whispered, another stupid tear sliding down my face. “I don’t intend to spend a single night without you for the rest of my life. And if you go before me, I’ll make sure I have a plan in place to go minutes later too. So I never have to.” He was crazy, obsessed. Out of his fucking mind. And, oh hell, was there something wrong with me too. Because a part of me, much bigger than I would ever admit, was desperate for it.

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