A charming, quirky rom-com about falling for the wrong person — and realizing they might just be right after all. Full of great banter, lovable side characters, and real heart.

florist kat kowalski is the epitome of the modern young adult when it comes to dating -- experiencing failure after failure and picking all the wrong guys. she is an accurate representation of so many of my friends. kat and mick's friends to lovers storyline was super cute and totally the "hopeful happy ending" every romantic wishes for - when you find that person who was meant to be in your life, first as a friend and then as more.

this was a cute concept but it took a little too long to get into. in the end it was a sweet, lighthearted read, but probably not a book i would come back to read a second time.

This book was a fun read! Being one of the main settings was a funeral home, I hesitated to read the book but I'm glad I did.

The main characters meet-cute was literally over a dead body, but I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in that scene watching two old widows go after each other. Mick's family was fun and easy to love, and Seamus the family pet cockatiel was hilarious! Kat and her inherited hedgehog, JoJo, were adorable too, but I found Kat a little harder to love. She tried so hard to keep Mick in the friend zone which made the burn a little too slow for me. Kat truly loves her people, and her best friends and Babcia are so much fun. I just wish she would have figured it out a little bit sooner.

Overall, the constant banter between the characters, the foul-mouthed Irish cockatiel, and the other relationships in the book other than just Mick and Kat's were what made me truly enjoy this book.

after three years i also had to DNF at 10% in as the writing didn't stand out and i wanted more diversity. i just don't think i was the target audience.

Very easy and cute book. Nothing super extraordinary and spicy you will not find here but worth reading.

I want to thank the publisher, netgalley, and the author for the free copy of this book. Unfortunately this story just wasn’t for me but I will be trying books from this author again in the future.

*Too Wrong to Be Right* by Melonie Johnson is a fun, lighthearted rom-com with plenty of witty banter and chemistry between the leads. The story revolves around Cassie and Sam, whose antagonistic relationship eventually turns into something more. Johnson's writing is fast-paced, and there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. However, the plot is predictable, and some of the character development feels a bit shallow. While the romance is sweet, it sometimes leans too heavily on tropes without adding anything fresh to the genre. Overall, it's an enjoyable, easy read, but it doesn’t quite stand out in the crowded world of romantic comedies.

DNFed - I chose to DNF this book in the past. I am typing as a review so it doesn't harm my %. I haven't chose to pick the title back up.

I was absolutely not a fan of this book. It started off okay but quickly went downhill. The apparent chemistry between the two main characters was solid and then out of left field, the fmc is all “woe is me… I must try to get with his brother instead”. EXCUSE ME?? That’s something I’ll never get on board with. I had my sibling always going after my love interests and exes.. that’s so tasteless. So needless to say, once that crept in, I couldn’t get behind them any more. Honestly, Mick deserves better. From what I understand, there’s other books by this author that are great so I’ll give them a try but this one falls massively flat for me.

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Publishing Group for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Overall, a fine book, it just felt off in some areas. This book was a lot of fun to read.
I only knocked a half star off for how the FMC acted like a petulant child

Kat's dumped by her actor boyfriend when he a) shows up at the flower shop where she works unannounced, b) tries to get her to ditch her plans with friends to hang out with him instead, c) announces he's leaving for Canada for an audition in a few hours, d) presses her into agreeing to watch his pet hedgehog in his absence, and oh, yeah e) lets her know he's not planning on coming back. So Kat's now down one boyfriend and up one hedgehog.

Meanwhile, Mick is trying to find his place as co-owner of the family funeral home. While the other two O'Sullivans handle the business (Joe) and the mortuary (Mary-Kate), Mick mostly uses his psychology degree to mediate between his two siblings, but to be honest, being the middle child already set him up for that. He meets Kat over a corpse, with two screaming widows in the background, a situation that neither of them could have foresaw.

Kat no longer trusts her judgment on men after years of leading herself astray. In an attempt to turn her life around, she makes a list of attributes she associates with "Mr. Right." Her attraction to Mick makes her certain he'd be the next in a long line of mistakes, so she establishes from the start that she's only interested in friendship... and maybe a wingman. The catch? Mick's older brother Joe ticks the boxes of the Mr. Right list, and best of all, the straight-laced businessman is completely unlike Kat's usual type. Mick and Joe have bad blood when it comes to women, and Kat threatens to be the next wedge between them. Because while Mick is determined to respect Kat's boundaries, he feels the same attraction she does. As the reader, you can anticipate Kat's proposed dating solution will cause her grief, but as a real person, it's easy to understand the urge to dissect a failed dating history and find a fix.

Kat and Mick's friends-to-lovers story has some key tropes to recommend it. For example, there's some very romantic drunken care (holding someone's hair back while they vom) that leads to being snowed in that leads to testing their chemistry with the classic caveats "this won't affect our friendship, etc." There's a concussion thrown in for good measure because the author leans into random interruptions that build a slow burn. I wouldn't say it's particularly burn-y, though. The tension wasn't quite there for me, and though it's definitely not closed door, it's adjacent to "fade to black." There's more about the humor of everything than building steam.

In terms of the final act breakup, which comes so fast on the heels of their getting together that it's essentially just a one-night stand, the miscommunication is quite the affair. It's built on the quasi-love triangle between the brothers that only has space to exist because both Kat and Mick announce loud and clear to all and sundry that they're JUST FRIENDS. NO FURTHER QUESTIONS, PLEASE. Then, once that hurdle is cleared, they pack a bunch of previously unsaid issues into one massive argument and let things go months without patching things up because *grand gesture.*

Perhaps the more powerful story for me was one of friends drifting apart and moving in different directions while Kat feels abandoned and lost. To make things worse, her friends are checking off their adulting checklist while Kat's dreams go unrealized. In fact, they're cashing in on a dream of true love that neither believed in quite as hard as Kat in the first place. Her journey to figuring her shit out and making peace with growth and change in her friendships is real and appreciated.

Fans of friends-to-lovers who want to see characters pining for each other in close proximity should give this one a try. It's got exotic pets (see: foul-mouthed cockatoo), family holidays, and fun foodie adventures to round out the plot elements. Though I think I preferred the first in the series, I'm glad to have read Kat's story. Thanks to SMP Romance for my copy to read and review!

I had a lot of fun with this slow burn. Sometimes we need one of these! Loved the tension and the banter! It was done beautifully!

Thank you St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the e-ARC of the book.

A terrible breakup makes Kat Kowalski reevaluate her past relationship and she decides that she is always falling for wrong guys. As a result Kat decides to find her Mr. Right who definitely wouldn’t resemble her past exes. But the universe has other plans and Kat meets Mick.

This book was cute and funny. I loved the refreshing occupations, characters and situations. The pet hedgehog and the cockatoo were amazing additions to the story.

It’s so very much of a animacy lovers, combined with opposites attract romance. Sometimes you have conflict and banter and that’s really hiding the feelings that you have for one another this book was entertaining, and I actually like both characters by the end.

This was such a fun follow up to Too Good to be Real! Johnson’s humor is witty and sharp and she writes characters that you cannot help but love.

My expectations were way too high going in. I loved Melonie's pervious series and this one just... It was really unlikeable. The characters honestly the whole thing. Just didn't hit right.

Too Wrong to Be Right by Melonie Johnson. Pub Date: February 28, 2023. Rating: 3 stars. Kat is a florist who recently is dumped by her boyfriend. She swears off dating until she finds a man who meets her list of what a perfect man entails. During a random meet-cute moment she meets Mick who helps run his family's funeral service business. He does not match her perfect man list, but the two have chemistry that can't be denied. Both have insecurities they are coming to terms with and the story really highlights how they navigate these feelings and each other. There was quirkiness and eccentricity throughout this story. Overall, a good beach read! Thanks to #netgalley and #stmartinspress for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

While I appreciate the opportunity to review this book, sadly I will not be finishing it. I found it very boring and I had no interest in what was happening.

This book was something, and not in a positive way. Like I was heavily bored. LIKE HEAVILY.

I got an e-arc of this book on NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this. I will not be posting a public review as I do not agree with the current state of your publishing house. The views presented by your team, and lack of following your own social media rules is awful.


That being said, this was a fun little story. I thought the characters were interesting, the shenanigans were fun, and the pets stole the show. The only downfall was the miscommunication was drawn out too much for my personal liking.