Title: Right Guy, Wrong Time: A #MeToo Love Story
Author: Louise MacGregor
Publisher: Frayed Edge Press
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Book format: Digital pre-release proof
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Description: Edie has what seems like an almost-perfect life: awesome friends, a comfortable apartment she shares with the world’s greatest cat, and a dream job as a record label talent scout. But all is not what it seems. Conflicts are heating up in her life and at work, and things take a serious turn for the worse when she is raped while on a date. Navigating pleasure, work, friends, and her forever-changed mental state after her assault is hard enough. But when the perfect guy turns up at the worst possible time, Edie has to figure out what romance and sex mean to her in the aftermath of rape. This offbeat feminist romance moves beyond “girl meets guy,” dealing empathetically with sexual dysfunction, the ubiquity of rape culture, and what recovery can look like in the #MeToo era.

*Free copy provided by publisher for review…

Review:  This is an interesting story that deals with a subject that’s often hard to talk about. Edie has a great life, working in a job that she mostly enjoys and spending time with good friends, but when a date she goes on turns bad, she ends up being raped. The rape leaves lasting damage and affects her everyday life. Soon she finds it hard to trust men and struggles with getting on with her normal life. And when problems at work make things worse, can she ever overcome what she’s been through?

This is an interesting romance which touches on the difficult subject of rape, but it’s done in a really great and sensitive way and I like how Edie copes and what happens overall. At the start of the story Edie ends up on a date, one that turns out horribly as she is raped. The rape itself isn’t described too graphicallly and is quite short, but the effect that it has on Edie and her life is long lasting. The rape is, understandibly, traumatising and Edie has a hard time admitting that it happened to anyone, even herself, I like how she found it hard to even say the word ‘rape’ when it happened, as if not saying it made it easier to cope.

As the story progresses Edie finds it hard to return to normal life, sometimes seeming to cope well and at other times really not. I like how this book didn’t shy away from showing the true effects of what happens when someone suffers a traumatic event like rape. Despite some difficulties though she’s determined to not let the rape affect her and I love what happens when Philip enters her life. There are several men Edie comes across in the story and none of them are like Philip. I don’t want to give away what happens, but I like the contrast that Philip is to the others and how funny, loving and patient he is.

Along with the story of her private life, Edie’s working life is made more difficult by a work colleague who treats her in a bad way, refusing to see her opinions and decisions as valid. I like what happens with this story around Dominic and how it concludes. He’s an annoying character but shows how many men often dismiss women’s talents and I like what happens later on with the story and how Edie handles things with him. The book on the whole is good and I like the different relationships that Edie has with different characters and what happens, especially her relationships with her friends, Philip and her cat!  As she tries to move on with her life she finds herself struggling with her new relationship with Philip.

I like how these problems Edie ends up having were shown, I won’t detail what happens to her but I like how this story shows that people can’t just ‘get over’ something as traumatic as rape and how it can effect their lives long afterwards in different physical and psychological ways. Edie ends up struggling to have a sexual relationship, but I love how amazing Philip’s character was with this and how he sticks around despite all that is happening. I really love how this whole story concludes, both with Edie’s private and working life. I especially enjoyed what happens with her career at the end and it feels like a brilliant ending considering all she’s been through.

There are several sex scenes in the book and I feel I should point out something about this as I was personally thrown by the cover and description of the book as they don’t really show that this is a more steamy/graphically detailed romance story. Although the first half of the story doesn’t really have any sex other than the rape which is not very detailed, the second half, especially towards the end has quite a lot of graphically described sex scenes which, when you look at the cover, you might not expect from this book. To me the cover (which I do like!) and desciption feel like they fit a slightly lighter style romance story, which threw me a bit, although the story is still a good read and one I enjoyed despite this brief confusion! 😀 The book has frequent swearing with the f word and even the c word used but nothing else I believe which could be considered triggering other than a brief rape scene at the beginning which isn’t too detailed but sets the story for what happens later with Edie.

Overall I did enjoy this book. It was a quick read but featuring a tough subject which I feel was handled well and showed a brilliant overall message of positivity around moving on after a terrible and traumatic event. It doesn’t shy away from the difficult realities of what can happen in the aftermath of rape though and I like how this story handled everything that happened. The author’s done a great job of putting together a romantic story but one that focuses on this difficult subject. I liked what happpened to Edie and the other characters. If I’m honest I would have loved to read even more about her friends and her personal life, especially when one of them reveals something to her, but I just love how the story went and the ending is just brilliant leaving you with a smile on your face.

This is a great story, espcially in the wake of the #MeToo era and one which I’m sure many will enjoy. I personally would have prefered a story that was less graphically detailed when it came to the sex, but that is just me, and I’m sure many will enjoy this book.

What do you think of this book?  Do you like books that focus on important subjects like the #MeToo movement?  Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂

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