Review of ‘The wrong McElroy’ by K.L. Hughes,

Audiobook narrated by Nicole Blessing

Fiona Ng’s best friend, Michael, needs a pretend girlfriend to bring home for Christmas in Arkansas so what could go wrong? But Fiona wasn’t prepared for the McElroy clan of eight competitive and boisterous siblings, including Lizzie, Michael’s little sister, who is very beautiful and apparently very gay. But when their mutual attraction skyrockets to impossible to deny levels, Fiona will have to choose between friendship loyalties or what her heart wants.

I wanted to listen to this audiobook since I heard so many good comments about the book edition. I think that the audiobook experience might be quite different from reading it. This audiobook has many different characters and I think that the narrator did a good enough job for the females but not so much for the males. I found her narrating tone and pace acceptable for both the light and more dramatic moments.

The book blurb clearly states that the McElroy’s Arkansas’ accent is quite thick and the narrator took that to the letter. I’m not an expert in accents but I searched on the internet to see if Ms. Blessing’s rendition of Arkansas’ accent was authentic and it seems so. The problem is that the accent is so thick that it annoyed me a bit, but I have to say that it’s my personal preference.

This story has a lot of funny and entertaining moments typical of a rom-com but, in the last few chapters, it takes a turn to a more dramatic tone that caught me by surprise. While I understand that this mood change makes sense within the plot, I personally would have preferred Ms. Hughes to keep the typical rom-com lightness throughout the book. As I didn’t read the novel, I cannot tell if this change of tone is exacerbated by the narration of Nicole Blessing or just the mere product of the written words.

Additionally, while the sex scene is well-written and well-narrated, I thought that its place in the plot was forced. Again, it would have made more sense in the rom-com context rather than in the middle of a big family drama. I’m not gonna go into details to avoid spoilers but it didn’t seem to be a natural thing to happen at that time and in that context.

So, in conclusion, I’m on the fence on this audiobook. Because it’s not available with either Audible Escape of Scribd, I’d recommend to read the book first and see how you feel about it. Duration: 6 hours, 32 minutes.

Overall, a good lesbian rom-com audiobook with a heavy dose of family drama. 4 stars for both the story and narration.