Third in Rebecca Brooks's Accidental Love series, Wrong Bed, Right Man is an opposites attract romance between a marketing assistant at a corporate furniture retailer and an artisan furniture maker. They meet when Rose walks into her ex-fiancé's apartment to reclaim some of her stuff, including her grandmother's heirloom bed, and she finds Owen asleep on it. He's stopped by to pick up the furniture, since the crappy ex listed it on Craigslist and Owen fixes up old furniture for resale. (Thus the "wrong bed" part of the title.) When he rushes to jump off the bed, he hits a weak spot just right and breaks it. So then he fixes it for her and keeps finding reasons to see her again.
The conflict in the story comes from their competing jobs. Rose's employer, CUBE, is actively trying to crush businesses like Owen's. As is customary for Brooks, her characters have great physical chemistry and speak to each other like adults. However, Owen was an ass and I'm still mad at him for it. While he's initially respectful of Rose's career and encourages her to try for a promotion, when she takes him to a formal event, he publicly humiliates her by yelling at both of her bosses (one of whom is the ex-fiancé) and telling everyone that her ex cheated on her in her own bed. It's embarrassing and job-killing, but worse because she told him exactly what she needed and he promised he'd be the perfect date. Between that and his repeated insistence that people don't understand the value of a well-built piece of furniture, he comes off as a preachy twat and I wanted him to go sit in the grovel corner for way longer than he did.
For her part, Rose ends up quitting her job without much of a backup plan at all. Because passion etc. In the epilogue, it's clear that they're both fine, but after hearing her say over and over that not everyone can live in Owen's world--she has to live out in the world as it is--I was frustrated that she changed so much. I would've liked for her to have looked for jobs while still working at the one she wasn't passionate about... like the rest of us do.
In all, Wrong Bed, Right Man was a quick, fun read, but I got hung up on Owen's blowup. The book comes in at under 200 pages, so maybe with more time I would've felt like they had a solid enough foundation to weather that mistake.
Suzanne received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings: cheating, past: parental death
