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Unabridged Audiobook: 7 CDs (9 hours)
Read by Orlagh Cassidy
Most of us, at one time or another, have been there for a friend who’s nursing a broken heart. We’ve been there for the anger and the tears and the endless rehashing of the entire relationship—and we’ve endured it all because that’s what friends are for. But, if we’re honest, the relationship rehashing does get tiresome—just as it does in the audio version of Beth Harbison’s Chose the Wrong Guy, Gave Him the Wrong Finger.
The story picks up 10 years after Quinn Barton’s wedding to Burke Morrison was ruined by a game-changing revelation by Burke’s brother and best man, Frank. After walking away from her wedding, Quinn ran off with Frank to Vegas for a brief fling before returning home and going their separate ways.
Now, although Quinn has never taken that walk down the aisle herself, she spends her days surrounded by blushing brides-to-be as she manages her family’s bridal shop. And when Burke and Frank’s grandmother walks in and announces that she’s getting married, it brings back all kinds of old memories—and old hurts—for Quinn.
It’s often said that you can’t judge a book by its cover. In the same way, you also can’t judge a book by its title. Though Chose the Wrong Guy, Gave Him the Wrong Finger sounds like fun-filled chick lit with a playful and sarcastic sense of humor, its humor gets lost in a bunch of whining and relationship rehashing.
Really, it’s a lot like a night out on the town with a heartbroken friend: no matter how fun the setting may be, it just keeps coming back to the same depressing conversation topic. The setting here is filled with promise, from the bridal shop and its wide variety of customers to the series of quirky challenges that Quinn’s best friend, Glenn, creates for her in an attempt to get her out of her comfort zone. But, no matter how much fun the subplots may be, the story just keeps coming back to Quinn’s fixation on the Morrison brothers.
The book spends a lot of time in Quinn’s head, tracing her thoughts as she obsesses over the past—and a couple of guys who don’t deserve really her obsession. Along the way, she waffles between the two brothers, alternately justifying their actions and infuriated by them. Readers, meanwhile, will be dragged through every excruciating detail—every memory, every rant, every tearful breakdown. And they’ll spend the entire time wondering which brother will win Quinn in the end—despite the fact that the real answer should be neither.
Despite its promise of an entertaining story with a feisty heroine, Quinn is just too moody and neurotic. As a result, listening to Chose the Wrong Guy, Gave Him the Wrong Finger in the car is much like going on a nine-hour road trip with an obsessive friend. It doesn’t matter if she’s obsessed with an ex or her cat or her new yoga class; no one wants to spend that much time on the listening end of a long, exhausting, one-sided conversation.
Listen to the review on Shelf Discovery:
