Wrong Room, Right Guy by Liam Livings

Wrong Room, Right Guy by Liam Livings starts off on a lie that, when revealed, may ruin everything that Simon has been working so hard to achieve.  I received one copy of this book at no charge from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links.

Wrong Room, Right Guy by Liam Livings

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Title:        Wrong Room, Right Guy
Series:     N/A
Author:     Liam Livings
Publisher:      Manifold Press (August 1, 2015)
ASIN:          B011Z3VVL2
Format/Length:     611 KB/190 pages
Genre:       M/M, Contemporary
Heat Rating:    2
Star Rating:    3 

About the Author:  To learn more about the author you can check out his website or follow along on Facebook or Twitter.

Book Blurb:

Simon’s the wrong man in the wrong place; trying to teach English to kids who couldn’t care less, he’d really rather be a writer – but it’s only when his best friend bullies him into it that he takes the plunge and joins his local creative writing group. Even then things don’t quite work out the way he planned; blundering into the wrong room at the Village Hall he encounters a group of recovering cocaine addicts and he wants to know more … which is the start, for Simon, of a double life and a whole new secret identity, not to mention an intriguing relationship …

My Review: 

In Wrong Room, Right Guy by Liam Livings, we meet Simon who is an English teacher who really wants to be a writer.  He detests teaching English to kids who really don’t want to learn it but can’t seem to get himself started on his much desired writing career. He finally takes the plunge and joins a writers group that just so happens to meet next door to a Cocaine Anonymous support group.  Simon decides to create an alternate personality that happens to be a coke addict so he can sit in on the support group and get material for his writing.  When he happens to fall for an ex addict in the group, he needs to figure out how to come clean about the lies he has told.

I started reading Wrong Room, Right Guy by Liam Livings and immediately disliked Simon.  I just could not get over the fact that he would LIE to those men struggling to overcome their addiction for the sole purpose of getting material to write about.  I also found him to be wishy washy, whiny, unmotivated and just an unpleasant individual to read about.  Unfortunately, my opinion of Simon colored how I saw the rest of the book, even though the writing itself is quite solid.

While the story flowed fairly well, I found that the book seemed to be more about writing than about romance.  Not necessarily a bad thing but I really wanted more of Simon and Darren’s relationship.  They barely speak more than 3 sentences to each other by the 30% mark of the book.  Darren’s character was unique and I enjoyed learning more about him but there just wasn’t enough of their relationship to really capture my attention.

I enjoyed the secondary characters in Wrong Room, Right Guy.  Simon’s friend Lucy seemed to be quite the go get’em kind of woman and even the stuffy headmaster at the school seemed like a decent guy after you got to know him.  Simon’s friend Clara-Bell at the writer’s group seemed like quite the character and a big help in getting Simon’s writing career off the ground.

Overall, Wrong Room, Right Guy by Liam Livings was well written, I just couldn’t get into the story all that much and wasn’t fond of Simon at all.