Cute, frothy closed door small-town romance with fizzy and fun banter. Loved the fall setting and the description of small town Maple Falls and its fun inhabitants. Sports journalist Mabel returns to Maple Falls on assignment and finds herself in an annoying meet-cute at the airport with one of her future interview subjects, Asher. From finding ways to save the town to covering the new NHL team in town, Mabel finds herself the grumpy to Asher's sunshine. I really appreciated the way Asher's OCD was portrayed and described - he was totally a golden retriever, but masking a lot of his inner feelings and guilt.

This was the kind of lighthearted, short and sweet romance book that makes you smile and giggle.

Note: This is part of a series but can be read as a stand-alone - I read it as a stand-alone, and enjoyed it quite a bit, but I could tell there were definitely more stories to tell in Maple Falls!

This was a sweet and endearing hockey romance. It's closed door and focuses mainly on their relationship and the extra struggles they deal with. There is great OCD representation with Asher, it felt very real. Mabel from Maple Falls deals with trauma from being second fiddle to every other commitment her mother has. While both conflicts were prevalent in the book they didn't overshadow the romance of the story. I really enjoyed this story and the fall vibes of Maple Falls!

Thank you to netgalley & the publisher!

Loved this. It was fast paced, a really good flow. Kept me hooked from the beginning!

I really, really tried with Checking Mr. Wrong—and honestly, I loved the premise. Sarcastic, messy-bun reporter meets too-sweet-to-be-true hockey player? That’s my catnip. The banter was fun, the setup had me hooked, and I could totally see why so many people will enjoy this one.

But… I ended up DNF’ing at 45%. Not because it was bad, but because it just wasn’t clicking with me the way I hoped. Sometimes that happens—we vibe with the idea more than the execution. Still, if you’re into small town chaos, grumpy-sunshine dynamics, and hockey romances with zero spice but all the chemistry, this might be the one for you!

Another great story in the Love in Maple Falls series! This was also a 5 ⭐️ read for me, like every other book in this series!
Good reads review posted on: 08/28/2025

I love a good interconnected standalone and am thankful to read this series in order so it makes more sense and we get a good background on all of the characters involved!

Mabel and Asher’s story was great from the beginning and was a wholesome, no spice romance with some sweet gestures and a black cat girl and golden retriever guy. Mabel was a reporter who had a viral tv moment and Asher is an NHL player for the Icebreakers hockey team, located in Maple Falls. Asher is dealing with OCD and trying to find his footing on a brand new team and in a brand new town while Mabel is trying to escape her past and figure out her next steps in her life as a newfound journalist.

The writing style was great and I loved the emphasis on the emotional pulls that the characters have rather than focusing strictly on events throughout the book.

Back to Maple Falls in this new series!

“Checking Mr. Wrong” This cozy romance between golden retriever Asher and grumpy sports reporter Mabel is adorable as h-e-double hockey sticks. Mabel, who’s home is Maple Falls, but is a reporter in New York comes home to cover the new team. She meets Asher at the airport when he mistakenly takes her luggage trolley and it’s a super cute fall in love slowly story from there.

Well, I’m completely addicted to this series now! I started with requesting the second book in the series because of the cover first, then the description, but now I’ve finished the third book and just can’t get enough!

This book is about Asher and Mabel. Asher has a big job ahead of him because Mabel has a rock solid exterior. Based on the previous books, Mabel has the unfortunate luck of having her mom being the nosiest and most controlling person in all of Maple Falls. Mabel doesn’t know if she really wants to come back to Maple Falls for good or stay in NYC, as far away from her mother as possible. She soon learns that you’re never too old to change your ways.

This series continues to shine. Checking Mr. Wrong by Anne Kemp is the 3rd book in the Love in Maple Falls series. Breaking up with your boyfriend is never easy, but it’s even worse when you go viral doing it, which is exactly what happened to Mabel. Now she’s back in Maple Falls, dealing with her mom and covering the Ice Breakers hoping to get her career back on track. Last thing on her mind was love…especially with Mr. Sunshine Asher Tremblay, a defenseman who has been been drafted to the Ice Breakers. As someone who suffers with a bit of OCD myself, I could identify with Asher. It was so much fun to watch this grumpy/sunshine romance blossom. This is a great series. Thanks so much to Red Bird Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R3G9MEXSVCN9CF/ref=pe_123899240_1043597390_SRTC0204BT_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Checking Mr. Wrong is book three in the Love in Maple Falls by Anne Kemp.
What a fun and swoony story this was.
This book kept me engaged from the very beginning.
An adorable, uplifting romance… Easily one of the best romances I have read this month.

Thank You NetGalley and Red Bird Publishing for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

🏒 Hockey Player | Sports Reporter 🎙️📝
🍂 Fall Vibes 🎃
🌇Small Town
😐Grumpy | ☀️Sunshine
💞Sweet Romance 💕
🏒He Falls First ❤️

This was a cute and cozy Fall read, I binged it in one sitting and overall really enjoyed it!

I really liked watching Mabel (FMC) and Asher's (MMC) relationship develop and grow. They had really good banter, plenty of chemistry and a really sweet romance. I'm a huge fan of a story told in Dual Pov so that was an added perk for me.

I'd recommend adding this one to your Fall TBR and look forward to checking out more from this author in the future.

Thank you Anne Kemp, Net Galley and Red Bird Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book!

This book was better than the first two in the series, but I still didn't love it. The FMC has a difficult relationship with her mother which the book tries to fully blame the mother. But the FMC is quite rude and disrespectful to her, and that made me annoyed with her character.

I had trouble staying immersed in the story and felt myself rushing just to finish it.

Anne Kemp is back at it with another standout read.
Checking Mr. Wrong is a laugh-out-loud romcom you won’t be able to put down; thanks in large part to Kemp flipping traditional aspects of the genre on its head.

By reversing the grumpy/ sunshine trope so that the FMC is the grump and the MMC is the sunshine, Kemp was able to create unforgettable scenarios that built tension between Mabel and Asher. The end results are off-the-charts chemistry perfectly enhanced via feisty banter.

But the surprises don’t stop there. Kemp made the brilliant decision to allow the FMC to perform the grand gesture. It is often assumed that the pinnacle point of any love story takes place at the hands of the male love interest. However, Kemp’s decision was far more impactful. Since Asher often takes a backseat in his relationship with Mabel, it was fitting that he would allow Mabel to declare her love for him when she was ready.

Not only does Checking Mr. Wrong meets all the delightful criteria for a stellar romcom, Kemp chose to dive deeper. Asher, the MMC, struggles with OCD. While he has managed to keep his symptoms in check, things begin to act up when he feels out of control. It was wonderful to see a book bring recognition to a disorder that is typically overlooked. By shedding light on OCD it helps alleviate the stigma that accompanies this neurological and psychological disorder.

This is a must read:
-reverse grumpy/ sunshine
-forced proximity
-sports romance
-OCD representation

Special thanks to Netgalley, Anne Kemp, and Red Bird Publishing for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

*Checking Mr. Wrong is the third book in the Love in Maple Falls Series. This is a multi-author, interconnected series written by the same seven authors who penned the widely successful, Love on Thin Ice Series (2024). Composed of seven novels, each book follows a professional hockey player as they discover love in Maple Falls. Despite readers having the option to consume the books in any order, it’s highly recommended they be read as a collective whole for best enjoyment.

**It was super fun getting to reconnect with characters that were first introduced back in the first series, Love on Thin Ice. If you haven’t had a chance to read them yet, what are you waiting for?

Checking Mr. Wrong follows reporter Mabel, who returns to her hometown of Maple Falls to cover the new NHL team, the Ice Breakers. Asher is a rookie in the NHL and joins the Icebreakers. Mabel is tasked with interviewing Asher. At first, Mabel does not like Asher, but she starts to spend more time with him and slowly starts to come around.

I really enjoyed this one. I loved the small-town fall vibes of this one. I liked how this book portrayed a character with OCD and how they embraced it, rather than letting it bring them down. I thought Mabel and Asher were super cute. If you enjoy cozy small-town vibes and hockey romance, I highly recommend this book. I do like a little more spice in my books. But other than that, I loved this one. This is the first book I have read by Anne Kemp, and I look forward to reading more of her work.

Thank you so much, Anne Kemp and Red Bird Publishing, for the ARC of this book. This book came out today!

For starters, I love Maple Falls. It's giving Stars Hollow, pumpkin spice, pumpkin patch rides. We know the drill!

I have read the other Maple Falls books, and I have really enjoyed them because they feel like a nice cozy hug. :)

I feel like I had a different experience with this book though. I felt the MFC was unlikeable, and I felt the MMC was more tolerable. I love that this book explored OCD, however my working in the mental health field felt it was a little too on the nose with the compulsions. With so much internal dialogue from Asher's pov, I wanted to see more of that. I think I felt these characters were a little too one dimensional for me, but maybe I would do best with a second read with some time to let this one marinate!

If you want all the tropes and fuzzies packed in to a sports rom, this one's your girl!

#CheckingMrWrong #AnneKemp #grumpysunshine #sportsromance

This was a clean, no spice hockey romance that was a cute fall read. It is a cute fall read following the two MCs who meet on the airplane heading to the same small town of Maple Falls. One a reporter doing a piece on the newest hockey team in the league and the other, a player for said team. The player, Archer, is a fun, easy going guy, who likes flirting and spending time with the reporter. While Mabel has no time for Asher or his shenanigans, she finds herself drawn to him more and more. The more walls she puts up the patient and persevering he becomes. But then, she finds out he battles a serious mental health issue and helping him through some bad episodes and learning what the genesis of the disorder was, Mabel’s unnecessary walls start to crumble and they become closer.

Checking Mr. Wrong is a simple and easy fall romance, with a little hockey thrown in for good measure. It isn’t a book that will blow your socks off, but for a quick palette cleansing novella it does the trick. I found the ending to be absolutely INSANE! It was a throwaway ending. Like it was expected, even though it made absolutely zero sense.

I received #CheckingMrWrong from #NetGalley in lieu of my honest opinion and review of the book.

𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁:

If you want a book that will give you that squeezey omg cuteness overload feeling with lol moments and all the small town charm this is for you book! I loved this couples meet cute at the airport and the reason for the forced proximity. Asher is just a swoony hockey player who will be added as your next book boyfriend. Grab yourself a copy and fall in love with Maple Falls.

𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬:

Asher is just starting his career in the NHL. His new team is the Ice Breakers, so he moved to the small town of Maple Falls in WA. He has a lot of prove and he’s hoping his OCD won’t get in the way.

Mabel is returning home to write an article on the new Ice Breakers team, as she is a sports reporter. She is also escaping NYC after she lost her job for dumping a bucket of water on her cheating bf on live tv, oops sorry not sorry!

Mabel and Asher will collide when he steals her luggage cart at the airport and then they have to share the same ride into town. Mabel can’t stand his golden retriever energy it’s just too much, but she soon realizes he plays hockey and is one of the players she’s been sent out to interview. So much for never seeing him again.

𝙁𝙖𝙫 𝙌𝙪𝙤𝙩𝙚:

“Sunshine types like him are dangerous for grumps like me—and not just because they’re annoyingly charming.”

𝑳𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒀𝒐𝒖’𝒍𝒍 𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒅:

* Sport Reporter FMC
* Newbie NHL Hockey Player MMC
* Grumpy x Sunshine
* He Falls First & Hard
* OCD Rep
* Complicated Parent Relationship
* Forced Proximity
* Small Town - Maple Falls
* Sweet Kisses Only 💋

🍁💋🏒🧡🍁💋🏒🧡🍁💋🏒🧡

Omg I’m obsessed with this world and this series! This is another amazing book in the series! I fell in love with these characters right away and I never wanted this book to end. I want to live in this small town forever.

Giggling to myself while reading this!! I am obsessed with this series so far! I love how quick this book went and I cannot wait to complete the rest!

This was a prefect fall read, set in a small town of Maple Falls, cozy vibes to come along with the pumpkin spice lattes. Or so I imagine. Mabel is a sports reporter returning home after a messy break up, Asher is a NHL hockey hot shot with great humour.

I enjoyed the dual POV and the banter between the two main characters, total black cat & golden retriever energy!

This is part of a series, however you can totally read it out of order like I did. Overall it was a wonderful fall themed sports romance with minimal spice! If you’re looking to add more to your fall TBR definitely add this to the top of the pile!

Thank you to Net galley for my ARC in exchange for my honest review

so honestly, im not sure how i feel.
at points i felt the romance and then at others there was nothing. if you know what i mean.
i loved our mfc she was badass and i loved hr. our mmc..... he was unsuasual and not my favourite. (i cant spell today)
at times i was giggleing and screaming at others i was cringing and getting second hand embarrasement

thankyou so much netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review