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The Wrong Player #3
The Wrong Catch: A Football Romance (Deluxe Limited Edition)
Matthew "Matty" Adler's book. Date will be moved up. Blurb to come...
368 pages, Paperback
Published April 14, 2026
About the author
C.R. Jane
94 books5,884 followersI'm a wife, mother, and author! Writing has always been a passion for me, and publishing my first series is a dream come true. I drink too much caffeine, never sleep, and my imagination is always churning out ideas. Eva and her men have been in my head for awhile, and I'm so glad to finally take you with me on this journey!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,057 reviews
April 16, 2026
Heartbreakingly sweet & nutty FMC stalker you can’t help to love 💚🏈 her dangerous obsession becomes a deliciously FILTHY reality!
“She’s insane. She’s perfect.”
Ophelia has always LOVED with her FULL HEART 💚✨ she might steal the guy’s hoodie or a used condom (don’t ask!) but she’s just trying to feel close to them! She finally decides to give up her stalker dreams when her college obsession notices her 👀 Matty refuses to let her go & she’s desperately trying to act chill. Obsessive love reaches its peak when stalker girlie finds someone who matches her freak!
I really wasn’t expecting for Ophelia to be this obsessive stalker that’s deliriously nutty but in the most adorable way! Okay yes, she builds a shrine to his existence…but she’s just trying to craft her way into love 👀 I loved how to story focused on Ophelia’s pursuit (he is still crazy unhinged in love!) and her adorably conspicuous stalking attempts. You can’t help to cheer her on!
🏈 her 10 volume journal collection on HER FANTASIES
💚 PRAISE wrapped in filth
🏈 he’s pierced!
💚 she squirts & he gets a cup ready *it wasn’t even HIS cup*
🏈 he calls her “his pretty girl”
THEIR CHEMISTRY!! His obsessive ways paired amazingly with her sweet adoration & fear that he will discover just how OBSESSED SHE REALLY IS. Ophelia really needed (and deserved!) all the PRAISE and Matty delivers in abundance 🚛✨ Their story does get incredibly smutty and I was all for it!
obsessive SPORTS romance
obsessive fmc
stalking (on both sides!)
posessive mmc
insta love
felony level courtship
virgin fmc
cock warming
🍑 🍑
female friendships
found family
mental health rep
secret society sideplot
HEA
“She’s insane. She’s perfect.”
Ophelia has always LOVED with her FULL HEART 💚✨ she might steal the guy’s hoodie or a used condom (don’t ask!) but she’s just trying to feel close to them! She finally decides to give up her stalker dreams when her college obsession notices her 👀 Matty refuses to let her go & she’s desperately trying to act chill. Obsessive love reaches its peak when stalker girlie finds someone who matches her freak!
I really wasn’t expecting for Ophelia to be this obsessive stalker that’s deliriously nutty but in the most adorable way! Okay yes, she builds a shrine to his existence…but she’s just trying to craft her way into love 👀 I loved how to story focused on Ophelia’s pursuit (he is still crazy unhinged in love!) and her adorably conspicuous stalking attempts. You can’t help to cheer her on!
🏈 her 10 volume journal collection on HER FANTASIES
💚 PRAISE wrapped in filth
🏈 he’s pierced!
💚 she squirts & he gets a cup ready *it wasn’t even HIS cup*
🏈 he calls her “his pretty girl”
THEIR CHEMISTRY!! His obsessive ways paired amazingly with her sweet adoration & fear that he will discover just how OBSESSED SHE REALLY IS. Ophelia really needed (and deserved!) all the PRAISE and Matty delivers in abundance 🚛✨ Their story does get incredibly smutty and I was all for it!
obsessive SPORTS romance
obsessive fmc
stalking (on both sides!)
posessive mmc
insta love
felony level courtship
virgin fmc
cock warming
🍑 🍑
female friendships
found family
mental health rep
secret society sideplot
HEA
April 16, 2026
Making her so pathetic that she steals his used condom after he fucked another girl with it is certainly a choice but then again, you’re used to writing the most spineless women known to mankind. The manwhore x virgin trope is getting old. We’re in 2026. It’s okay for your heroines to experience people outside of the mmcs. I promise the world isn’t going to stop.
Want to Read
April 24, 2026
WARNING
WARNING
WARNING
whatever you do, DO NOT GET THE AUDIO.
I freaking HATE that I actually paid for this audio. I can't do it. I've tried twice.
I know I've listened to Lucas Webley narrate before, and it's never been this bad. It's so awful I wanted to run it over with my car. I'm going to have to read this instead of listening.
Also, why in the fuck can't we get someone other than Alexis Paige to narrate the female characters?!?! I'm so sick of her voice.
whatever you do, DO NOT GET THE AUDIO.
I freaking HATE that I actually paid for this audio. I can't do it. I've tried twice.
I know I've listened to Lucas Webley narrate before, and it's never been this bad. It's so awful I wanted to run it over with my car. I'm going to have to read this instead of listening.
Also, why in the fuck can't we get someone other than Alexis Paige to narrate the female characters?!?! I'm so sick of her voice.
May 6, 2026
two stalkers fall in love and they’re both psycho and a cup was involved and I had fun
———
matty, my man, let’s go get your stalker!!!!!!!!
———
matty, my man, let’s go get your stalker!!!!!!!!
April 16, 2026
I think my exceptions were too high that I ended being disappointed. This is my least favorite book C.R. Jane has wrote.
College Football Romance
Morally Grey MMC
Equal Obsesses MCs
She’s his Stalker
She Fall First
Virgin FMC x Experienced/Pierced MMC
No Real OMD/OMD
No Cheating/Sharing/Third Act Break UP
No Intimate Scenes With OP
Dual POV (1st Person)
HEA
No condoms
Mental Health Rep
Praise
Notes
MMC is ran through!!!! When FMC was stalking him he was still hooking up with OW. She kept a used condom that he used with OW. Yea I know he didn’t know that she existed yet but still I would have loved for him to be celibate.
I also didn’t like that he didn’t notice the FMC until she sat right next to him. She even tried to get his attention but failed. The other MMCs noticed their girl’s right away.
He said that one line that almost all MMCs say to virgin FMCs. “No one else has ever touched you. I’m so lucky, sweetheart.” I hate reading shit like that cause the FMC can’t say the SAME!!!!! Like why does she get to have some used up dick that every other woman has been on?!?!?!?
One more thing reading the first chapter of Don’t say Mafia disappointed me too!!!! Like why does the first chapter have to have MMC in bed with OW!!!! He fell asleep in the mid of having sex with ow. Like is that supposed to make me fell better or something?!?!? I swear if the FMC ends up being virgin or inexperienced/has only had bad sex then I’m going to scream.
I honestly don’t know if I’ll read his book.
College Football Romance
Morally Grey MMC
Equal Obsesses MCs
She’s his Stalker
She Fall First
Virgin FMC x Experienced/Pierced MMC
No Real OMD/OMD
No Cheating/Sharing/Third Act Break UP
No Intimate Scenes With OP
Dual POV (1st Person)
HEA
No condoms
Mental Health Rep
Praise
Notes
MMC is ran through!!!! When FMC was stalking him he was still hooking up with OW. She kept a used condom that he used with OW. Yea I know he didn’t know that she existed yet but still I would have loved for him to be celibate.
I also didn’t like that he didn’t notice the FMC until she sat right next to him. She even tried to get his attention but failed. The other MMCs noticed their girl’s right away.
He said that one line that almost all MMCs say to virgin FMCs. “No one else has ever touched you. I’m so lucky, sweetheart.” I hate reading shit like that cause the FMC can’t say the SAME!!!!! Like why does she get to have some used up dick that every other woman has been on?!?!?!?
One more thing reading the first chapter of Don’t say Mafia disappointed me too!!!! Like why does the first chapter have to have MMC in bed with OW!!!! He fell asleep in the mid of having sex with ow. Like is that supposed to make me fell better or something?!?!? I swear if the FMC ends up being virgin or inexperienced/has only had bad sex then I’m going to scream.
I honestly don’t know if I’ll read his book.
April 19, 2026
4.5 ⭐️🎧
Unhinged. Morally questionable.
And somehow…ridiculously addictive.
Unsettling? Sure.
Boundaries? What boundaries.
Emotional damage? Caught me off guard.
Let’s talk about it.
What worked for me
(aka: I was locked in, no thoughts just vibes)
Strong escalation throughout.
It doesn’t just build, it stacks. One thing leads into another and before you realise it, we’ve gone from quiet watching to full “you’re never leaving me” energy and somehow it all feels…earned. Every time I thought “okay this is peak” the book said “no, let’s go further”. And the wildest part? By the time we get there, you’re like “yeah…this makes sense actually”
Mutual obsession done right.
I thought I was signing up for “obsessed FMC x confused MMC.”
What I got was:
“you’re unhinged?”
“perfect, I’ll match your freak”
Ophelia’s obsession is written in a way that genuinely makes sense. It’s rooted in her trauma, her need for control, her fear of being “too much.” You understand her even when she’s spiralling. And Matty? I really sat there thinking he needed to step up… only to find out this man had been quietly running a whole operation behind the scenes. Tracking, watching, “just making sure she’s okay” — sir.
And when everything is revealed, he doesn’t recoil. He doesn’t hesitate. He's “You think you’re the only one who’s obsessed?”
That’s when you realise there’s no going back for either of them.
Ophelia’s emotional depth hit.
For all the chaos, there were moments that genuinely hurt. The vulnerability in her confession, the constant fear of being “too much”, the way her mind immediately goes to “he’s going to leave me” even when he’s given her no reason to believe that — it lands.
And when she said “You didn’t even look at me”. That’s the wound everything else is built on.
The tone: unserious…but serious.
One minute it’s: “release a possum”
and the next it’s: “you’re my god, my altar, my everything”
The tonal whiplash should not work but it does. The humour pulls you in and then the emotional moments land harder because you weren’t expecting to feel anything that deep.
The friend group carried the chaos.
Jace and Parker are actual menaces. The way they co-sign chaos, escalate situations and treat genuinely unhinged behaviour like a group project works so well to balance the darker elements. The No Drama Llamas branding alone is wildly ironic given they are the most dramatic people in the room.
This book had me ignoring every red flag willingly.
I knew this relationship was unhealthy, obsessive and codependent. And yet when the therapist said “this is dependency” my immediate reaction was “mind your business”.
That’s not even a flaw, it just means the writing is doing its job a little too well.
Where it lost me
(aka: okay… but let’s be serious for a second)
The obsession sometimes crossed the line.
As much as I was enjoying the intensity, there were moments where it tipped from “this is intense but I get it” to “okay…that's too far”.
The book commits fully to the dynamic, which I respect but there are points where it becomes harder to reconcile (the labeled condom moment was...a choice) — even within the tone the story has established.
External plotlines wrapped up too neatly.
The Sphinx subplot and the situation with Matty’s dad had build-up but the resolution felt very quick and tidy. It didn’t derail the story but it was noticeable especially when the romance itself is so layered and developed.
Final Thoughts
This book is chaotic, unhinged, emotionally intense and completely committed to what it’s trying to do. It doesn’t try to justify the obsession or tone it down, it just says “this is what it is”.
And honestly, I respected that it commits to the chaos and never looks back.
Final Verdict
Objectively? 4.5 ⭐️
Emotionally? 5 ⭐️ chaos. No thoughts just vibes
Unhinged, addictive and a little bit concerning…just how I like it.
Tropes and Vibes:
• mutual obsession / “I’ll match your freak”
• stalker FMC x surveillance MMC
• “you’re not too much, you’re perfect”
• obsession as love language
• praise + possession energy
• no boundaries, only vibes
• trauma-driven attachment
• protective, controlling MMC
• chaotic friend group (No Drama Llamas)
• unserious humour x serious emotional damage
• “this is unhealthy but I’m invested” energy
Unhinged. Morally questionable.
And somehow…ridiculously addictive.
Unsettling? Sure.
Boundaries? What boundaries.
Emotional damage? Caught me off guard.
Let’s talk about it.
What worked for me
(aka: I was locked in, no thoughts just vibes)
Strong escalation throughout.
It doesn’t just build, it stacks. One thing leads into another and before you realise it, we’ve gone from quiet watching to full “you’re never leaving me” energy and somehow it all feels…earned. Every time I thought “okay this is peak” the book said “no, let’s go further”. And the wildest part? By the time we get there, you’re like “yeah…this makes sense actually”
Mutual obsession done right.
I thought I was signing up for “obsessed FMC x confused MMC.”
What I got was:
“you’re unhinged?”
“perfect, I’ll match your freak”
Ophelia’s obsession is written in a way that genuinely makes sense. It’s rooted in her trauma, her need for control, her fear of being “too much.” You understand her even when she’s spiralling. And Matty? I really sat there thinking he needed to step up… only to find out this man had been quietly running a whole operation behind the scenes. Tracking, watching, “just making sure she’s okay” — sir.
And when everything is revealed, he doesn’t recoil. He doesn’t hesitate. He's “You think you’re the only one who’s obsessed?”
That’s when you realise there’s no going back for either of them.
Ophelia’s emotional depth hit.
For all the chaos, there were moments that genuinely hurt. The vulnerability in her confession, the constant fear of being “too much”, the way her mind immediately goes to “he’s going to leave me” even when he’s given her no reason to believe that — it lands.
And when she said “You didn’t even look at me”. That’s the wound everything else is built on.
The tone: unserious…but serious.
One minute it’s: “release a possum”
and the next it’s: “you’re my god, my altar, my everything”
The tonal whiplash should not work but it does. The humour pulls you in and then the emotional moments land harder because you weren’t expecting to feel anything that deep.
The friend group carried the chaos.
Jace and Parker are actual menaces. The way they co-sign chaos, escalate situations and treat genuinely unhinged behaviour like a group project works so well to balance the darker elements. The No Drama Llamas branding alone is wildly ironic given they are the most dramatic people in the room.
This book had me ignoring every red flag willingly.
I knew this relationship was unhealthy, obsessive and codependent. And yet when the therapist said “this is dependency” my immediate reaction was “mind your business”.
That’s not even a flaw, it just means the writing is doing its job a little too well.
Where it lost me
(aka: okay… but let’s be serious for a second)
The obsession sometimes crossed the line.
As much as I was enjoying the intensity, there were moments where it tipped from “this is intense but I get it” to “okay…that's too far”.
The book commits fully to the dynamic, which I respect but there are points where it becomes harder to reconcile (the labeled condom moment was...a choice) — even within the tone the story has established.
External plotlines wrapped up too neatly.
The Sphinx subplot and the situation with Matty’s dad had build-up but the resolution felt very quick and tidy. It didn’t derail the story but it was noticeable especially when the romance itself is so layered and developed.
Final Thoughts
This book is chaotic, unhinged, emotionally intense and completely committed to what it’s trying to do. It doesn’t try to justify the obsession or tone it down, it just says “this is what it is”.
And honestly, I respected that it commits to the chaos and never looks back.
Final Verdict
Objectively? 4.5 ⭐️
Emotionally? 5 ⭐️ chaos. No thoughts just vibes
Unhinged, addictive and a little bit concerning…just how I like it.
Tropes and Vibes:
• mutual obsession / “I’ll match your freak”
• stalker FMC x surveillance MMC
• “you’re not too much, you’re perfect”
• obsession as love language
• praise + possession energy
• no boundaries, only vibes
• trauma-driven attachment
• protective, controlling MMC
• chaotic friend group (No Drama Llamas)
• unserious humour x serious emotional damage
• “this is unhealthy but I’m invested” energy
Read
April 13, 2026So sick of the same virgin/inexperienced girl x playboy romance in every book. Atp I’m going to assume authors who are obsessed with this trope are cucks
April 20, 2026
2 stars...ok look...I am a CR Jane fan ok and I do enjoy some unhinged, dark romance. However...omfg However...this was just NOT IT. This chick was just clinically gone and honestly, not even in any good ways. So yeah...i obvi have some issues here. 1. WHO TF falls asleep with your mans co*ck in your mouth?! Then to be like suckling it alll through the night while you're sleeping...ummm Like never, in any universe is that not super fking weird. 2. She had a USED condom of his stored in her belongings. Uh, one he used on another chick. THAT is wayyyy beyond red flag right thur. 3. The coffee cup? Yeah no. Super gross. 4. Him just flinging cum alll over her stalker walls and them rolling around in it on the bed...Idk like who's gonna clean that nasty up? 5. WHY oh WHY do these females in all her books have to be such tragic-poor me-doormats? Ok-it's good to live with your issues and still have a positive relationships and all that....but also daymn girl you ain't gotta be a dumpster either!
Idk but I could go on and on but I feel those points were enough. I felt like I needed a hot shower and scrub raw followed by a purchase of a new Glock after reading this. Not really very sexy, just kind of ICKY!
Other mentions: WTF is up with creepy Emma? Like whyyyy is this even mentioned and goes nowhere? Also the whole Sphinx thing really makes very little sense. I get it that the author is world building to make it for some bigger picture-more books-plot line. However it falls really flat in the individual stories.
Ima be honest, I found myself skimming through more of this book than I prefer. Also I have noticed a strange theme recently with the wording being so one dimensional and single sentences. Example: it landed like a punch, it was a punch to the chest, that landed etc. I had not noticed this in her previous writing but I am certainly aware of it in this book....the repetition of "landed" used in single sentences. Is it just odd or makes one wonder if it's AI.?
🌶️🌶️ the spicy was more icky than anything....fell flat in the sexy category for me and I ended up just skipping over the constant and repetitive spicy scenes. (Darn it)
👿👿 villains...well the parents on both ends were villains for sure. But idk I feel kind of like SHE was the villain really.
🌟🌟 yeah just 2 stars. This didn't work for me.
Idk but I could go on and on but I feel those points were enough. I felt like I needed a hot shower and scrub raw followed by a purchase of a new Glock after reading this. Not really very sexy, just kind of ICKY!
Other mentions: WTF is up with creepy Emma? Like whyyyy is this even mentioned and goes nowhere? Also the whole Sphinx thing really makes very little sense. I get it that the author is world building to make it for some bigger picture-more books-plot line. However it falls really flat in the individual stories.
Ima be honest, I found myself skimming through more of this book than I prefer. Also I have noticed a strange theme recently with the wording being so one dimensional and single sentences. Example: it landed like a punch, it was a punch to the chest, that landed etc. I had not noticed this in her previous writing but I am certainly aware of it in this book....the repetition of "landed" used in single sentences. Is it just odd or makes one wonder if it's AI.?
🌶️🌶️ the spicy was more icky than anything....fell flat in the sexy category for me and I ended up just skipping over the constant and repetitive spicy scenes. (Darn it)
👿👿 villains...well the parents on both ends were villains for sure. But idk I feel kind of like SHE was the villain really.
🌟🌟 yeah just 2 stars. This didn't work for me.
May 5, 2026
A Playbook on Obsession
The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: ❤️💚💙🩷💛
Chemistry: 🧪🧪🧪🧪🧪
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙📔
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌍🌍
Character development: 🤓😟🤯😎🥰
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Duet Narration
Character Backgrounds and Plot Overview
At fourteen, Ophelia sat outside her therapist’s office listening to her parents discuss how disturbed they were by her behavior. Her fixation on a boy had escalated into something they could no longer ignore. She was diagnosed with obsessive love disorder, a blend of borderline personality disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and attachment disorder. Her symptoms had intensified, and her parents believed she needed a more structured environment. Their disappointment only deepened her loneliness, especially after she was caught with a hoodie she had stolen from Nico at school. She hated herself for being the kind of girl who did things like that, and she knew the boy she obsessed over would never return her feelings. She spent the next two years in a psychiatric institution.
Returning home did not make life easier. Ophelia drifted through her days without purpose or direction. When it came time to apply for college, she chose a few local two-year programs. Everything changed when an advertisement for the University of Tennessee appeared on her screen. The moment she saw Matthew Adler, star football player, she felt a spark of purpose. She applied immediately. For the first time in years, she felt ambition and direction.
Once accepted, Ophelia began researching Matthew. She memorized his address and walked past his house on her first day at school. She watched him laugh with neighbors and disappear down the street with friends. Her dorm was far from his neighborhood, but she knew how to blend in and remain unnoticed. His voice, his movements, and even the way he carried himself became imprinted in her mind.
Highlights
I usually avoid stories where the heroine is the stalker. I prefer the anti-hero to carry the darker traits while the heroine remains grounded. Surprisingly, I liked Ophelia from the beginning. Her behavior was not written off as quirky or exaggerated. She had real diagnoses, real struggles, and a deep longing to be loved, especially since her parents had already given up on her. Her instability felt rooted in pain rather than shock value.
I also loved that Matty had friends who were stalkers themselves. Their history made him cautious around Ophelia, which added a believable layer to his hesitation. His friends had stalked their girlfriends before getting together, so Matty recognized the signs. He noticed Ophelia early on but chose not to approach her. Over time, he grew used to her presence and even looked for her car each day. He wondered if he would miss her if she stopped showing up. He liked that she watched quietly instead of throwing herself at him like other girls.
The best part was how hard Matty fell for her. He had no idea she was the girl watching him from afar, yet he became obsessed with her in his own way. He wanted to know how she looked when she slept. He imagined slipping notes under her door. He even fantasized about tracking her phone so he would always know where she was. Without realizing it, he became the stalker in the relationship.
Limitations
One limitation of The Wrong Catch is its uneven pacing. The beginning is gripping and emotionally charged, but the middle section lingers too long on repetitive internal conflict. Listeners who prefer tighter plotting or more external action may find certain scenes slow.
Another drawback is the character development. While the main couple is compelling, their emotional growth sometimes feels rushed or inconsistent. The push and pull dynamic leans heavily on miscommunication rather than natural conflict, which can be frustrating. Some listeners may find it difficult to fully connect with their choices or believe in the depth of their transformation.
Narration and Performance
The audiobook is told in dual points of view with duet narration by Lucas Webley and Alexis Page. Lucas Page has a deep voice that I like, he does sound a bit older that Matty, since Matty is supposed to be in college and Lucas sounds like he is in his 30’s or 40’s. Though that didn’t bother me much. Alexis Page, on the other hand, is excellent. She has a youthful, expressive tone that fits Ophelia perfectly.
The production includes a unique detail I had never heard before. When Ophelia speaks at one point when she is just getting to know Matty, you can hear her breathing heavily and her breath catching. It makes her sound nervous and overwhelmed by her own thoughts. This small choice adds authenticity to her mental health struggles and highlights how unfamiliar she is with being the focus of someone’s affection.
Final Thoughts
The Wrong Catch blends obsession, vulnerability, and romance in a way that feels both unsettling and strangely tender. Ophelia’s mental health challenges are portrayed with more depth than I expected, and Matty’s shift from wary observer to full blown obsessive adds an intriguing reversal to the usual stalker romance dynamic. The pacing and character development are not perfect, but the emotional tension and the unusual relationship dynamic make the story memorable. If you enjoy romances that lean into psychological complexity and morally gray behavior, this audiobook delivers a compelling and unconventional experience.
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The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: ❤️💚💙🩷💛
Chemistry: 🧪🧪🧪🧪🧪
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙📔
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌍🌍
Character development: 🤓😟🤯😎🥰
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Duet Narration
Character Backgrounds and Plot Overview
At fourteen, Ophelia sat outside her therapist’s office listening to her parents discuss how disturbed they were by her behavior. Her fixation on a boy had escalated into something they could no longer ignore. She was diagnosed with obsessive love disorder, a blend of borderline personality disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and attachment disorder. Her symptoms had intensified, and her parents believed she needed a more structured environment. Their disappointment only deepened her loneliness, especially after she was caught with a hoodie she had stolen from Nico at school. She hated herself for being the kind of girl who did things like that, and she knew the boy she obsessed over would never return her feelings. She spent the next two years in a psychiatric institution.
Returning home did not make life easier. Ophelia drifted through her days without purpose or direction. When it came time to apply for college, she chose a few local two-year programs. Everything changed when an advertisement for the University of Tennessee appeared on her screen. The moment she saw Matthew Adler, star football player, she felt a spark of purpose. She applied immediately. For the first time in years, she felt ambition and direction.
Once accepted, Ophelia began researching Matthew. She memorized his address and walked past his house on her first day at school. She watched him laugh with neighbors and disappear down the street with friends. Her dorm was far from his neighborhood, but she knew how to blend in and remain unnoticed. His voice, his movements, and even the way he carried himself became imprinted in her mind.
Highlights
I usually avoid stories where the heroine is the stalker. I prefer the anti-hero to carry the darker traits while the heroine remains grounded. Surprisingly, I liked Ophelia from the beginning. Her behavior was not written off as quirky or exaggerated. She had real diagnoses, real struggles, and a deep longing to be loved, especially since her parents had already given up on her. Her instability felt rooted in pain rather than shock value.
I also loved that Matty had friends who were stalkers themselves. Their history made him cautious around Ophelia, which added a believable layer to his hesitation. His friends had stalked their girlfriends before getting together, so Matty recognized the signs. He noticed Ophelia early on but chose not to approach her. Over time, he grew used to her presence and even looked for her car each day. He wondered if he would miss her if she stopped showing up. He liked that she watched quietly instead of throwing herself at him like other girls.
The best part was how hard Matty fell for her. He had no idea she was the girl watching him from afar, yet he became obsessed with her in his own way. He wanted to know how she looked when she slept. He imagined slipping notes under her door. He even fantasized about tracking her phone so he would always know where she was. Without realizing it, he became the stalker in the relationship.
Limitations
One limitation of The Wrong Catch is its uneven pacing. The beginning is gripping and emotionally charged, but the middle section lingers too long on repetitive internal conflict. Listeners who prefer tighter plotting or more external action may find certain scenes slow.
Another drawback is the character development. While the main couple is compelling, their emotional growth sometimes feels rushed or inconsistent. The push and pull dynamic leans heavily on miscommunication rather than natural conflict, which can be frustrating. Some listeners may find it difficult to fully connect with their choices or believe in the depth of their transformation.
Narration and Performance
The audiobook is told in dual points of view with duet narration by Lucas Webley and Alexis Page. Lucas Page has a deep voice that I like, he does sound a bit older that Matty, since Matty is supposed to be in college and Lucas sounds like he is in his 30’s or 40’s. Though that didn’t bother me much. Alexis Page, on the other hand, is excellent. She has a youthful, expressive tone that fits Ophelia perfectly.
The production includes a unique detail I had never heard before. When Ophelia speaks at one point when she is just getting to know Matty, you can hear her breathing heavily and her breath catching. It makes her sound nervous and overwhelmed by her own thoughts. This small choice adds authenticity to her mental health struggles and highlights how unfamiliar she is with being the focus of someone’s affection.
Final Thoughts
The Wrong Catch blends obsession, vulnerability, and romance in a way that feels both unsettling and strangely tender. Ophelia’s mental health challenges are portrayed with more depth than I expected, and Matty’s shift from wary observer to full blown obsessive adds an intriguing reversal to the usual stalker romance dynamic. The pacing and character development are not perfect, but the emotional tension and the unusual relationship dynamic make the story memorable. If you enjoy romances that lean into psychological complexity and morally gray behavior, this audiobook delivers a compelling and unconventional experience.
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April 15, 2026This was one of my most anticipated reads for a while and it just wasn’t what I was expecting. I still enjoyed it but it would have been nice for the start of it to be a little roles reversal an to see her do the scheming like maybe she did something to her building to make her have to move in with for once yk? I think I that’s what I was expecting haha
she saved one of his used condoms so before he saw her but she was stalking him he was with others 🙄
Excited for the mafia series (jagger) however from the little chapter we got at the end of this book it starts with him hooking up with someone else off page but dealing with her being mad because he fell asleep during it and him sending her home 😐😐😐😐😐
she saved one of his used condoms so before he saw her but she was stalking him he was with others 🙄
Excited for the mafia series (jagger) however from the little chapter we got at the end of this book it starts with him hooking up with someone else off page but dealing with her being mad because he fell asleep during it and him sending her home 😐😐😐😐😐
April 17, 2026
No one else seems to want to say it.... but what in the chatGPT was this disaster?
I've read and loved every single C.R. Jane book. This one, the writing was COMPLETELY different.
Using the word 'like' 43 times just in the prologue alone. 1200 times total in the book. 98% of those are for useless, weird similies.
I was FERAL for this release. The concept was so exciting to me! And it was absolutely ruined by the horrible AI writing.
CR was an auto buy author for me. Absolutely not anymore.
I've read and loved every single C.R. Jane book. This one, the writing was COMPLETELY different.
Using the word 'like' 43 times just in the prologue alone. 1200 times total in the book. 98% of those are for useless, weird similies.
I was FERAL for this release. The concept was so exciting to me! And it was absolutely ruined by the horrible AI writing.
CR was an auto buy author for me. Absolutely not anymore.
May 3, 2026
Top 3 books by her hands down and im so exited for the next like accidental Marriage in Vegas and student/ professor SIGN ME UP
Tropes:
- fmc is the stalker
- Mutual obsession
- No 3rd Act breakup
- Red flag mmc 🔥
Tropes:
- fmc is the stalker
- Mutual obsession
- No 3rd Act breakup
- Red flag mmc 🔥
April 25, 2026
I gotta say I skipped the whole thing about the trials Matty had to do to join that secret society. It’s the 1st book I’ve read in this series so idk if the others follow the same structure but dear author… you’re making it boring.
Having the mmc play some Temu James Bond doing secret trials without tying it to the fmc or getting her involved is crazy. Why would u think I wanna read so many chaps about that? I didn’t sign up for an action book 😭 If the fmc were involved somehow, it would actually honor the romance genre (!!!). This kind of plot works when the fmc is involved.
On the other hand, I felt like the fmc’s life revolved around the mmc (too much), and I kept waiting for the mmc to be on the same level and be the more obsessive one… but he never was. He still had a lot of other stuff to deal with his dad, the gambling, the secret society, Emma… Half of his chaps were abt that and the other half abt Ophelia. Meanwhile all of Ophelia’s chaps were abt him, so it felt VERY unbalanced for a love story.
I’m not even gonna criticize the weird stuff Ophelia did bc ok, obsessed woman trope, BUT keeping a used condom???! This one’s for the author: what the hell is romantic about that in this genre? Why would we want another woman’s leftovers? 🤢🤢 It was gross, and honestly I’m surprised I’m not giving this 1 star just for that. The only thing that kinda makes up for it is that he didn’t know Ophelia even existed, but he still knew he had a stalker so…??? I wish he’d been celibate since then. Like, seriously. It’s not even that crazy… we’re talking abt men who are already unhinged!
I’m still debating if I should read the other books in this series, bc if half the mmc POVs involve that boring secret society stuff, it’s not worth skipping that much of a book. The other series had truly obsessed men. Matty is more like “I can’t do that… it’d be weird,” and then Ophelia goes and does it lol. Like pls 😭
Don’t even get me started on the use of chatgpt. I’m pretty sure there was some of that going on, because at one point it felt like I was reading the character and then an AI.
Having the mmc play some Temu James Bond doing secret trials without tying it to the fmc or getting her involved is crazy. Why would u think I wanna read so many chaps about that? I didn’t sign up for an action book 😭 If the fmc were involved somehow, it would actually honor the romance genre (!!!). This kind of plot works when the fmc is involved.
On the other hand, I felt like the fmc’s life revolved around the mmc (too much), and I kept waiting for the mmc to be on the same level and be the more obsessive one… but he never was. He still had a lot of other stuff to deal with his dad, the gambling, the secret society, Emma… Half of his chaps were abt that and the other half abt Ophelia. Meanwhile all of Ophelia’s chaps were abt him, so it felt VERY unbalanced for a love story.
I’m not even gonna criticize the weird stuff Ophelia did bc ok, obsessed woman trope, BUT keeping a used condom???! This one’s for the author: what the hell is romantic about that in this genre? Why would we want another woman’s leftovers? 🤢🤢 It was gross, and honestly I’m surprised I’m not giving this 1 star just for that. The only thing that kinda makes up for it is that he didn’t know Ophelia even existed, but he still knew he had a stalker so…??? I wish he’d been celibate since then. Like, seriously. It’s not even that crazy… we’re talking abt men who are already unhinged!
I’m still debating if I should read the other books in this series, bc if half the mmc POVs involve that boring secret society stuff, it’s not worth skipping that much of a book. The other series had truly obsessed men. Matty is more like “I can’t do that… it’d be weird,” and then Ophelia goes and does it lol. Like pls 😭
Don’t even get me started on the use of chatgpt. I’m pretty sure there was some of that going on, because at one point it felt like I was reading the character and then an AI.
April 15, 2026
Poorly written and it really felt uncomfortable reading it. Ophelia was gross for me, I get it that you are obsessed but keeping the used condom from months ago?? Are you fucking insane? Whoops you are!
March 13, 2026
this was quite literally: Insane.
nothing, and I mean nothing, compares to the high of an unhinged MMC OR FMC written by C.R. Jane. The group texts, the banter, the most unhinged schemes to try and get the girl!
also, when Jagger came in and said “DON’T. Don’t say mafia” I did scream! I can’t wait for that book and also for the next book in this series!!!! ahhhhh
nothing, and I mean nothing, compares to the high of an unhinged MMC OR FMC written by C.R. Jane. The group texts, the banter, the most unhinged schemes to try and get the girl!
also, when Jagger came in and said “DON’T. Don’t say mafia” I did scream! I can’t wait for that book and also for the next book in this series!!!! ahhhhh
April 15, 2026
I had HIGH hopes for Matty + Ophelia — this was one of my most anticipated books this year.
While it’s absolutely my favorite of CR Jane’s books, I was a little underwhelmed too. 😭
I LOVE the girl obsessed trope, but I wish Ophelia was a little more morally grey and a little less clinical in her obsession/stalking. I wasn’t a fan of the reveal to Matty either — there were two moments earlier in the story that were such missed opportunities, where the reveal would have been perfection.
I still don’t get the point of all the Sphinx stuff, it’s so pointless & it seemed more like they are rushing a frat, not a secret society. 🙄 And wtf is the point of Emma’s character?
𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗟𝗟: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
𝗦𝗣𝗜𝗖𝗘: 🌶️🌶️.5
𝗧𝗬𝗣𝗘: Interconnected Standalone
𝗦𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗦: The Wrong Player #3
𝗔𝗨𝗗𝗜𝗢𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞: Duet narration
𝗣𝗔𝗜𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚: M/F
𝗛𝗘𝗔/𝗛𝗙𝗡: 💖
𝗟𝗚𝗕𝗧 𝗥𝗘𝗣: 🚫
𝗪𝗛𝗬-𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗢𝗦𝗘: 🚫
𝗠𝗔𝗜𝗡 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦: Ophelia + Matty
𝗛𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧𝗦:
♥︎ college romance
♥︎ sports • football
♥︎ GIRL obsessed
♥︎ she falls first, he falls harder
♥︎ eventual mutual obsession
♥︎ mental health rep
♥︎ pierced 🍆 mmc
♥︎ virgin fmc
𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦:
♥︎ praise
While it’s absolutely my favorite of CR Jane’s books, I was a little underwhelmed too. 😭
I LOVE the girl obsessed trope, but I wish Ophelia was a little more morally grey and a little less clinical in her obsession/stalking. I wasn’t a fan of the reveal to Matty either — there were two moments earlier in the story that were such missed opportunities, where the reveal would have been perfection.
I still don’t get the point of all the Sphinx stuff, it’s so pointless & it seemed more like they are rushing a frat, not a secret society. 🙄 And wtf is the point of Emma’s character?
𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗟𝗟: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
𝗦𝗣𝗜𝗖𝗘: 🌶️🌶️.5
𝗧𝗬𝗣𝗘: Interconnected Standalone
𝗦𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗦: The Wrong Player #3
𝗔𝗨𝗗𝗜𝗢𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞: Duet narration
𝗣𝗔𝗜𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚: M/F
𝗛𝗘𝗔/𝗛𝗙𝗡: 💖
𝗟𝗚𝗕𝗧 𝗥𝗘𝗣: 🚫
𝗪𝗛𝗬-𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗢𝗦𝗘: 🚫
𝗠𝗔𝗜𝗡 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦: Ophelia + Matty
𝗛𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧𝗦:
♥︎ college romance
♥︎ sports • football
♥︎ GIRL obsessed
♥︎ she falls first, he falls harder
♥︎ eventual mutual obsession
♥︎ mental health rep
♥︎ pierced 🍆 mmc
♥︎ virgin fmc
𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦:
♥︎ praise
April 15, 2026
This book is not serious! You shouldn’t go into these books expecting sane actions. As always with this author, her MMCs are unhinged, but in a devoted way. This one switches it up, because the heroine is also unstable. 😇
(Possible spoilers ahead)
It is a standalone, but reading the others will give you a better understanding of the friend group “drama llamas” and the secret society stuff.
“Obsessive love disorder is not officially recognized by the DSM-4, but the pattern is clear. She’s exhibiting signs of borderline personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and an attachment disorder.”
It starts off emotionally with h being a 13/14 year old. She has been caught stalking this guy at school, Niko. Her parents are straight up garbage. They have her committed and she spends 2 years there. They even shave off her hair.
The story then moves into her filling out college applications. Heroine sees an ad for the University of Tennessee and it shows Matty (H) playing football. She is immediately all like MINE MINE MINE
If you read the last book, then you know the bro groups has already mentioned that Matty has a stalker. Yep, it’s h. She just watches him. Knows his schedule. Knows basically everything about him from following him around. In this book- the same thing is happening except she overhears Matty being frustrated one day (after talking to his shitty dad) say his stalker was probably some “loser” girl. h then decided she was finished stalking him. 🥴 well, the next day, H finally noticed her for the first time. INSTA LOVE.
Their relationship heats up fasttt. Naturally, h is worried about him finding out about her “hobbies” (which is him) This h is a total red flag 🚩
The spice is spicing, and there is a lot of it. Personally, I’m not a fan of reading backdoor action, but that’s just me. I do feel like the author made the FMC leak and gush way too much. H was just shooting loads EVERYWHERE. i😩 At times, it felt repetitive.
In the background- you have h’s mom nagging h about keeping up with her therapy appts. Threatening h that she will remove her from school. (The mom was a confusing character to me. As a parent, I would also have huge concerns if my daughter acted like this. But mom was not shown as being caring)
Then you have Matty also dealing with his scummy dad trying to get money from him. Dad has also hooked up with a bad guy who is wanting Matty to engage in some insider betting for the football team.
Also, you have the secret society stuff. 🙃
Anywho, I’m just reading and enjoying the plot….thinking to myself “I don’t think h is *that* bad, UNTIL Matty finds her notebooks. 😂😂🥴🥴🤪😱. Look…I feel bad for laughing so hard. That poor girl is insane in the membrane.
“Oct 12-listened to him shower after a workout. Came twice in the stall next to him.
Nov 3- stole his hoodie from the dryer. Slept in it for three nights”
Then he looked in the lockbox
“A used condom-mine-from who knows when, tied and labeled in sharpie: Matty-locker rooms. My eyes widened as I briefly thought about the hookup I’d had one day.”
“A Polaroid of me sleeping, mouth open, sheets low on my hips.”
“A strand of my hair, tied with an orange ribbon”
H’s reaction
“I laughed, breathless and a little unhinged.
She’s insane.
She’s perfect. “ awe ❤️😂
I absolutely loved the final showdown with h’s parents and that it was Matty who told them to fk off.
”You don’t get to decide what she feels,” he snarled. “You don’t get to tell me what this is. I don’t give a damn what you call it in some office. What we have is real. You think it’s obsession? Fine. Then I’m obsessed with her right back.”
“Which means you’re not just bad parents—you’re conniving little assholes.”
“And if you want a diagnosis…because the two of you seem to love them so much…I’ve got one for you. She’s mine.
I’m definitely interested in Garrett’s upcoming book with the professor he married in Vegas.
If you enjoy OTT possessive MCs with no boundaries, then you’ll probably like this.
(Possible spoilers ahead)
It is a standalone, but reading the others will give you a better understanding of the friend group “drama llamas” and the secret society stuff.
“Obsessive love disorder is not officially recognized by the DSM-4, but the pattern is clear. She’s exhibiting signs of borderline personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and an attachment disorder.”
It starts off emotionally with h being a 13/14 year old. She has been caught stalking this guy at school, Niko. Her parents are straight up garbage. They have her committed and she spends 2 years there. They even shave off her hair.
The story then moves into her filling out college applications. Heroine sees an ad for the University of Tennessee and it shows Matty (H) playing football. She is immediately all like MINE MINE MINE
If you read the last book, then you know the bro groups has already mentioned that Matty has a stalker. Yep, it’s h. She just watches him. Knows his schedule. Knows basically everything about him from following him around. In this book- the same thing is happening except she overhears Matty being frustrated one day (after talking to his shitty dad) say his stalker was probably some “loser” girl. h then decided she was finished stalking him. 🥴 well, the next day, H finally noticed her for the first time. INSTA LOVE.
Their relationship heats up fasttt. Naturally, h is worried about him finding out about her “hobbies” (which is him) This h is a total red flag 🚩
The spice is spicing, and there is a lot of it. Personally, I’m not a fan of reading backdoor action, but that’s just me. I do feel like the author made the FMC leak and gush way too much. H was just shooting loads EVERYWHERE. i😩 At times, it felt repetitive.
In the background- you have h’s mom nagging h about keeping up with her therapy appts. Threatening h that she will remove her from school. (The mom was a confusing character to me. As a parent, I would also have huge concerns if my daughter acted like this. But mom was not shown as being caring)
Then you have Matty also dealing with his scummy dad trying to get money from him. Dad has also hooked up with a bad guy who is wanting Matty to engage in some insider betting for the football team.
Also, you have the secret society stuff. 🙃
Anywho, I’m just reading and enjoying the plot….thinking to myself “I don’t think h is *that* bad, UNTIL Matty finds her notebooks. 😂😂🥴🥴🤪😱. Look…I feel bad for laughing so hard. That poor girl is insane in the membrane.
“Oct 12-listened to him shower after a workout. Came twice in the stall next to him.
Nov 3- stole his hoodie from the dryer. Slept in it for three nights”
Then he looked in the lockbox
“A used condom-mine-from who knows when, tied and labeled in sharpie: Matty-locker rooms. My eyes widened as I briefly thought about the hookup I’d had one day.”
“A Polaroid of me sleeping, mouth open, sheets low on my hips.”
“A strand of my hair, tied with an orange ribbon”
H’s reaction
“I laughed, breathless and a little unhinged.
She’s insane.
She’s perfect. “ awe ❤️😂
I absolutely loved the final showdown with h’s parents and that it was Matty who told them to fk off.
”You don’t get to decide what she feels,” he snarled. “You don’t get to tell me what this is. I don’t give a damn what you call it in some office. What we have is real. You think it’s obsession? Fine. Then I’m obsessed with her right back.”
“Which means you’re not just bad parents—you’re conniving little assholes.”
“And if you want a diagnosis…because the two of you seem to love them so much…I’ve got one for you. She’s mine.
I’m definitely interested in Garrett’s upcoming book with the professor he married in Vegas.
If you enjoy OTT possessive MCs with no boundaries, then you’ll probably like this.
April 26, 2026
The Wrong Catch aka AL Birini Vur Ötekine 😙
Ergenliğinde kendisine bazı teşhisler konan Ophelia, üniversite tercihleri yaparken bir afiş üstünde Matthew’ ü görür ve olaylar gelişir. 2. Kitapta ufaktan ışık yakılan hikaye tam bir acıyo ama hoşuna da gidiyor durumu.
Seni uzaktan sevmek aşkların en güzeli diyerek stalkerlıkta bir marka olan kızımız bir gün değişmeye karar verir ve sonrasında rüzgarın tersine dönmesi ile Matthew de kızı farkeder 💚
Tam bir paket olarak bu kitap görevini yerine getiriyor, sadece bu yeni serisinde Sfenks secret Society olayları biraz kitabı uzatmak için gereksizdi yani o olayları kitaptan çıkarın çok bi fark olmaz.
Bu kitabın sonunda çok merak ettiğim başka bir karakter olan abilerden Jagger’ ın hikayesinin de yazın geleceğini öğrendim: Don't Say Mafia, onu da merak ediyorum, biraz daha adult dünyasına yazarın da dönesi varsa demek 😎
Kitabın Özeti: Her malın bir alıcısı var 🏈
Ergenliğinde kendisine bazı teşhisler konan Ophelia, üniversite tercihleri yaparken bir afiş üstünde Matthew’ ü görür ve olaylar gelişir. 2. Kitapta ufaktan ışık yakılan hikaye tam bir acıyo ama hoşuna da gidiyor durumu.
Seni uzaktan sevmek aşkların en güzeli diyerek stalkerlıkta bir marka olan kızımız bir gün değişmeye karar verir ve sonrasında rüzgarın tersine dönmesi ile Matthew de kızı farkeder 💚
Tam bir paket olarak bu kitap görevini yerine getiriyor, sadece bu yeni serisinde Sfenks secret Society olayları biraz kitabı uzatmak için gereksizdi yani o olayları kitaptan çıkarın çok bi fark olmaz.
Bu kitabın sonunda çok merak ettiğim başka bir karakter olan abilerden Jagger’ ın hikayesinin de yazın geleceğini öğrendim: Don't Say Mafia, onu da merak ediyorum, biraz daha adult dünyasına yazarın da dönesi varsa demek 😎
Kitabın Özeti: Her malın bir alıcısı var 🏈
April 21, 2026
4.5 ⭐️
This book was absolutely unhinged in the best way, so of course I devoured it. C.R. Jane’s writing is addictive I can never get enough. She creates the most chaotic, hilarious characters, and every moment had me hooked. The group chat, the banter, the spice, the unhinged chaos…perfection.
Matty did not disappoint, and I loved how he matched Ophelia’s obsession and possessiveness. They were incredible together, though Jace is still my favorite. And Emma creeps me out, but her scenes had me dying.
My only issue is that I wish the Sphinx had been more involved. The trials felt a bit pointless since Jagger ended up saving the day. I didn’t mind that because it makes me excited for his book but it just felt like the Sphinx subplot was irrelevant.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It had sweet moments, hilarious moments, and pure chaos in all the right ways.
This book was absolutely unhinged in the best way, so of course I devoured it. C.R. Jane’s writing is addictive I can never get enough. She creates the most chaotic, hilarious characters, and every moment had me hooked. The group chat, the banter, the spice, the unhinged chaos…perfection.
Matty did not disappoint, and I loved how he matched Ophelia’s obsession and possessiveness. They were incredible together, though Jace is still my favorite. And Emma creeps me out, but her scenes had me dying.
My only issue is that I wish the Sphinx had been more involved. The trials felt a bit pointless since Jagger ended up saving the day. I didn’t mind that because it makes me excited for his book but it just felt like the Sphinx subplot was irrelevant.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It had sweet moments, hilarious moments, and pure chaos in all the right ways.
May 11, 2026
I love a stalker female lead character! She's kinda psychotic, but sometimes I get it. I get why she was so easily obsessed. I get why she latched onto our love interest. And I fucking love that he gets her! And let her be obsessed with him, as he is with her. These two people are made for each other!
April 15, 2026
These two matched each others freak quite literally. I was amused and horrified at the same time.
April 16, 2026
I feel bad saying this, especially since I loved all the other books, but I really didn’t like this one. I know it’s probably not right to say but I found Ophelia to be sooo pathetic. It’s probably hypocritical to say that I love when MMCs are stalker level obsessed but with her it just gave me the ick.
May 2, 2026
These stories follow the same formulaic storyline for every single book. But I still enjoyed this story 😂😂 The author always does a good job with obsessed alpha Hs.
h's issue is that she starts to get fixated and obsessed with a person to the point that she takes medication and sees a therapist. His issue is that his dad is a user and an asshole who likes to use his son for money and help to pay for his gambling and stuffs.
I loved the banter with Jace, Parker and Matt and I loved that she was able to find someone who was equally obsessed with her.
The secret society shit is a bit dumb but it was tolerable 😂
h's issue is that she starts to get fixated and obsessed with a person to the point that she takes medication and sees a therapist. His issue is that his dad is a user and an asshole who likes to use his son for money and help to pay for his gambling and stuffs.
I loved the banter with Jace, Parker and Matt and I loved that she was able to find someone who was equally obsessed with her.
The secret society shit is a bit dumb but it was tolerable 😂
April 23, 2026
4.5 ⭐
OBSESSED
OBSESSED
April 16, 2026
1.5⭐️ Girl you need therapy
June 6, 2026
Well, this was something…
Okay so, first of all what is this book about?
The Wrong Catch follows Ophelia, a college student with an obsessive love disorder who chose her university specifically because her favorite football player, Matthew 'Matty' Adler, attends it. She's been watching him from parking lots, memorizing his schedule, securing a position as the team mascot just to get closer to him, even building a shrine months before he ever notices she exists. When he finally does, what starts as a one-sided obsession becomes something messier, because Matty, as it turns out, has his own intensity too.
Now my review/opinion:
The positives: The prose flows nicely, the lead chemistry works, and Matty Adler has moments where he's genuinely charming. His dialogue and the way he talks to Ophelia is very engaging. When he gives her his signature smile, calls her 'pretty baby,' or zeroes his entire world in on her, he is magnetic.
He has this approachable golden retriever energy (which I loved) that makes the romance genuinely work when it's just the two of them.
Now for the negatives.
(For reference:
MMC = Male Main Character
FMC = Female Main Character)
My thoughts are just coming in as I’m writing this so bear with me.
This MMC is a total peacock, in the most literal sense of the word.
This book tells you Matty is a dangerous, obsessive man who will do anything for his girl but you rarely feel it. The 'surveillance' he does (tracking apps, webcams, emergency contact swaps) is almost entirely done by his friend, Jace. It’s disclosed in a single internal monologue where Matty basically lists all the invasive things he had his buddy set up for him.
You never see any of it happen. You're told, and then the story moves on. It's bizarre.
The author's own content warning promises "the perfect shade of red" and states that "there is absolutely no shade of pink involved when it comes to what Matty Adler will do to get his girl.”, except this man's danger is entirely declarative.
He isn't a morally gray anti-hero.
This man is just a fiercely devoted narcissist. He doesn't love Ophelia's obsession because it's romantic, he loves it because it feeds his ego.
Then there's Emma.
Emma is a side character. She shows up about three times. She’s kind of a weirdo (one of Matty's stalkers). There's literally a moment where she's in the bleachers at his football practice holding a sign in all caps that reads: MATTHEW ADLER, I SEE YOU WHEN YOU'RE SLEEPING.
This girl watches Matty sleep whenever she gets the chance, tells him they're getting married in their graves, and speaks in nursery rhymes while staring without blinking. Despite the author writing her as a cartoonish gag, her behavior manages to be genuinely more unsettling than any threat Matty actually makes across the entire book, though it's worth noting she's less dangerous and more deeply unhinged.
Anyway, my point is: Emma is treated as a weirdo, while the FMC, who has a full shrine, volumes of journals, a stalker's knowledge of his daily schedule, and a... situation involving a used condom (I'll get to that) is handed a love story the narrative never really earns for her.
Ophelia's obsession is explained through her diagnoses: BPD, OCD, obsessive love disorder, which gives it psychological weight and asks you to sympathize. But then there's Emma, who exhibits the same flavor of fixation and gets treated as a sad joke. The book never stops to ask why one deserves a love story while the other deserves to get chased out of a bedroom with a fire extinguisher. The only difference the narrative offers is that Matty loves Ophelia back. Which isn't exactly a moral distinction, it’s just convenient for the plot.
Speaking of the fire extinguisher: there is a scene where Emma breaks into Matty's room in the middle of the night and stands over him while he sleeps. And our supposedly obsessive, possessive hero( the same man who will later say he'd burn the dorm down for Ophelia, kill for her, die for her yada yada yada) responds to Emma by emitting a shriek described, in the author's own words, as "not a tough-guy shout, not a football player's roar" but a "banshee shriek cracking so high dogs in the next county heard it."
I'm not joking. There is a literal line of dialogue where Matty goes:
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
And then, rather than removing her from his room, the way a man who'd burn the world down for his girl might be expected to handle a home invasion, Matty just... talks to her. Back and forth. For pages. He reasons with her. He shouts at her not to touch his trophies.
I'm like..this is getting absurd. Kick the woman out already.
This grown ass man hides behind his sheets and eventually his friend's girlfriend (yep, you read that right) has to rescue him with a fire extinguisher.
It also highlights the laughable lack of security in his dorm/house.
For a guy supposedly obsessed with keeping his girl safe, Matty’s room has a revolving door.
Stalkers, friends, and secret society members constantly wander uninvited, even right after he and Ophelia have been intimate. He mentions upping his security at one point but never actually does, which turns his 'I'll protect you from the world' routine into another unintentional joke.
There is also a scene, earlier in the book, during an intimate moment with Ophelia, the woman he is supposedly consumed by, the only one who exists for him, where he has to picture Emma and iced milk to stop himself finishing too soon.
I'll leave that there.
Oh, and I almost forgot: before he even meets Ophelia, there's a referenced moment in Matty's POV(chapter 3?) where his friend Jace had gone off to do something the “secret society” asked him to do (the secret society thing is a subplot, I'll get to that later) and Jace had made Matty download a tracking app so he could locate him if needed.
Matty had listened to about half of Jace’s instructions on how to use that app before tuning out.
“Come on Jace, how hard can it be?”
Let's see... your friend is about to venture himself into some sort of crazy secret cult like initiation that could get him killed, and you decide to ignore half of what he tells you.
In comes Darla, his older neighbor (the author seems to be going for cougar energy here). Matty negotiates with her in exchange to help him use the app.
What does this woman want? Hot pics.🔥
She tells him to remove his shirt, put on a cowboy hat, and pose like "a man who just lost his horse but still wants love."
And don't even get me started on Matthew's "This is a violation of human rights" complaint to Darla's nonsense.
The comedy in this book is so forced it reads like the author forgot what genre she was writing.
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Dark romance.
Dark romance who?
Exactly.
As I kept reading, I found myself getting less and less impressed by Matty and more like, what exactly do these women see in this man?
His danger is all style and no substance.
The book promised red flags and delivered a guy who, and I quote, talks himself out of a felony by reasoning he is "too pretty for prison."
There's also the touchdown celebration in chapter 23 or 24, I think. Matty scores, the crowd goes wild, and he responds by performing Ophelia's full tiger mascot routine on the field, in front of everyone. The concept isn't wrong, a possessive MMC humiliating himself publicly for his girl can work as devotion, right…?
If this were a standard, lighthearted sports romance, it would be a 10/10 swoon moment. But in a supposed dark romance, the moment immediately deflates into slapstick comedy the second his coach yells at him and his teammates crack up. A terrifying, obsessive MMC and a goofy golden retriever can exist in the same character, but here, they just take turns.
For real contrast, look at Jagger, Jace's older brother.
He barely appears in the book, but in the one scene where he steps in to confront the man blackmailing Matty's family, he completely steals the spotlight.
Jagger swoops in and terrifies the bad guy into bolting.
And what does our MMC do?
Our little peacock stands there absolutely dumbfounded while another man handles his massive blackmail problem for him.
In the limited space Jagger occupies, he does more damage to your sense of what genuinely threatening looks like than Matty manages across 300 pages.
Even when the book tries to put Matty in actual danger, the tonal whiplash ruins it.
Now, let's talk about the FMC.
First of all, her name is Ophelia. Shakespeare's Ophelia went mad and drowned for a man who never loved her back. I see the inversion the author was going for, but dropping the name on a mentally ill FMC is still about as subtle as a brick.
Ophelia was the more compelling character for most of the book… until she wasn't.
The book opens with a prologue that is pretty sad: a fourteen-year-old sitting outside a therapist's door listening to her parents discuss her diagnoses. Add in a moment of self-harm specific enough to land pretty hard, and I genuinely felt for her.
Ophelia’s self-awareness about her own disorders is what gives the story some real meat and bone. What made her genuinely interesting is that her obsession turns entirely inward, and honestly, that's not my problem with her character. The inwardness is what makes her work. The problem is it leads nowhere, and partly because there's nowhere for it to go.
This girl watches, collects all sorts of shit, suffers quietly, and tears herself apart over it, spending months following Matty before he even knew she existed.
Outside the obsession, Ophelia barely exists as a person. No interests, no worldview, nothing that operates independently of the MMC. The self-awareness is genuinely her most interesting quality, but even that exists only in relation to Matty. So, when the second half of the book drops it, there's nothing underneath. She stops being a person with some kind of damage and becomes mostly a surface for the story to happen to.
I can not stress this enough: Her personality is a mile wide and an inch deep.
Her mother is also an absolute cunt. She spends most of the book threatening Ophelia with some kind of forced medical leave if she doesn't comply with therapy check-ins and daily reports. At one point, Matty checks Ophelia's school file and discovers none of her mother’s threats were real. There was no monitoring program or restrictions placed on her. She invented the entire threat from scratch just to keep her daughter on a leash (she gaslit the shit out of Ophelia). The book moves past this way too fast for my liking.
When the confrontation with her parents finally happens, Matty is the one to step in for her. She just flips her parents off on the sidewalk right after. Yep, that’s it. Honestly, this doesn't convince me she'd actually grown a backbone.
There's also the medication problem. By the time Ophelia is deep into the relationship with Matty, she's stopped taking her pills entirely, she left them at her dorm because she didn't want Matty to see them, and her internal justification is that being with him “smooths the jagged edges” in a way the medication never did. The book presents this as a way to show how transformative their relationship is, but what it's actually doing is weaponizing a lazy ass trope: that his magic cock is so amazing it cured her clinical mental illness.
And then, there's her "collection" of Matty's junk.
First of all… the elephant in the room.
The used condom…
Look, I'm no prude about obsession tropes in this genre. That's the territory that comes with these things. But really?
A fucking used condom?
She even labeled it.
It’s diabolical.
No distress or jealousy over the girl he actually used it with.
Oh, and the shrine. A wall filled with photos and all sorts of stolen items from him and his name circled in red many times over. She even has “spiral” notebooks about him (which he reads top to bottom btw).
She’s basically curating an archive of this man like a museum exhibit.
As if that wasn't enough, there's also a secret society subplot.
It mostly involves a series of dangerous initiation trials Matty has to complete to earn membership, essentially his insurance policy against a future without football.
I skimmed most of it. It had almost nothing to do with the romance and felt like filler. I wouldn’t have skipped it had it not felt so dull and uninspiring.
The friend group banter between the MMC and his friends is also painfully generic and cringy.
They literally call themselves the 'No Drama Llamas.'
As for when Matty finally discovers Ophelia is his stalker: he breaks into her dorm, finds the shrine (the journals, all of it) gets hard and horny, and proceeds to make himself at home (literally, he masturbates all over it).
Meanwhile, Ophelia is running back to her dorm in a full panic because one of Matty's teammates just recognized her as the stalker. By the time she comes back to her dorm, Matty is already waiting on her bed.
She confesses everything (even that she had been obsessed with another boy once, and this doesn’t seem to affect him), he gets hard and horny again and shoots all over her bed, they fuck right after and that’s it.
Fantastic.
When your most loaded dramatic moment produces zero friction, you have to wonder what the tension was ever actually for.
As for OW drama, there is a woman who tries her luck with Matty but he dispatches her in about two sentences, which I suppose is a pro for most people. But for me, the story loses most of its friction after the halfway point regardless. Once Matty locks in, there's nothing pushing back, and the last third coasts on declarations rather than earning them.
Speaking of declarations: For a book this loud about forever, the ending lands closer to 'we'll figure it out' than a HEA. Which, after everything, feels a little underdressed.
You would also think our “violently possessive” antihero would lock her away in a private fortress. Nope, instead, they end up sharing a house with the other couples from Matty’s friend group, which, for a story that spends 300 pages building an obsessive, all-consuming cocoon around exactly two people, is a strange place to land.
The whole point of their dynamic was total possession and exclusivity. A shared house full of other people's love stories contradicts everything the romance was supposedly about.
Then there are two epilogues. The epilogue consists of Matty bending Ophelia over a locker room bench to check off fantasy number forty-three from her stalker journals. The second epilogue has almost nothing to do with them.
The smut is decent, I guess. The author isn't afraid of language or exploration. It's honestly where the writing feels most alive. The praise kink is top tier. My only frustration is the same one that runs through everything else: even here, the darker elements get dangled and then walked back.
Finally, the one thing I'll say in the book's genuine defense: when it works, it works. The first half earns its charm. Matty at his best is actually very good.
…but his best moments have almost nothing to do with “dark” romance.
The scenes with his family, the gambling father, the financial anxiety underneath all the NIL money, his refusal to be bought by Kenton, these give him a dimension the possessive MMC persona never quite reaches.
Basically, the book makes a lot of promises it doesn't keep, dresses itself in genre clothing it hasn't fully grown into and then asks you to find it threatening anyway.
I didn't. But I did finish it, which counts for something. 2.5/5
Okay so, first of all what is this book about?
The Wrong Catch follows Ophelia, a college student with an obsessive love disorder who chose her university specifically because her favorite football player, Matthew 'Matty' Adler, attends it. She's been watching him from parking lots, memorizing his schedule, securing a position as the team mascot just to get closer to him, even building a shrine months before he ever notices she exists. When he finally does, what starts as a one-sided obsession becomes something messier, because Matty, as it turns out, has his own intensity too.
Now my review/opinion:
The positives: The prose flows nicely, the lead chemistry works, and Matty Adler has moments where he's genuinely charming. His dialogue and the way he talks to Ophelia is very engaging. When he gives her his signature smile, calls her 'pretty baby,' or zeroes his entire world in on her, he is magnetic.
He has this approachable golden retriever energy (which I loved) that makes the romance genuinely work when it's just the two of them.
Now for the negatives.
(For reference:
MMC = Male Main Character
FMC = Female Main Character)
My thoughts are just coming in as I’m writing this so bear with me.
This MMC is a total peacock, in the most literal sense of the word.
This book tells you Matty is a dangerous, obsessive man who will do anything for his girl but you rarely feel it. The 'surveillance' he does (tracking apps, webcams, emergency contact swaps) is almost entirely done by his friend, Jace. It’s disclosed in a single internal monologue where Matty basically lists all the invasive things he had his buddy set up for him.
You never see any of it happen. You're told, and then the story moves on. It's bizarre.
The author's own content warning promises "the perfect shade of red" and states that "there is absolutely no shade of pink involved when it comes to what Matty Adler will do to get his girl.”, except this man's danger is entirely declarative.
He isn't a morally gray anti-hero.
This man is just a fiercely devoted narcissist. He doesn't love Ophelia's obsession because it's romantic, he loves it because it feeds his ego.
Then there's Emma.
Emma is a side character. She shows up about three times. She’s kind of a weirdo (one of Matty's stalkers). There's literally a moment where she's in the bleachers at his football practice holding a sign in all caps that reads: MATTHEW ADLER, I SEE YOU WHEN YOU'RE SLEEPING.
This girl watches Matty sleep whenever she gets the chance, tells him they're getting married in their graves, and speaks in nursery rhymes while staring without blinking. Despite the author writing her as a cartoonish gag, her behavior manages to be genuinely more unsettling than any threat Matty actually makes across the entire book, though it's worth noting she's less dangerous and more deeply unhinged.
Anyway, my point is: Emma is treated as a weirdo, while the FMC, who has a full shrine, volumes of journals, a stalker's knowledge of his daily schedule, and a... situation involving a used condom (I'll get to that) is handed a love story the narrative never really earns for her.
Ophelia's obsession is explained through her diagnoses: BPD, OCD, obsessive love disorder, which gives it psychological weight and asks you to sympathize. But then there's Emma, who exhibits the same flavor of fixation and gets treated as a sad joke. The book never stops to ask why one deserves a love story while the other deserves to get chased out of a bedroom with a fire extinguisher. The only difference the narrative offers is that Matty loves Ophelia back. Which isn't exactly a moral distinction, it’s just convenient for the plot.
Speaking of the fire extinguisher: there is a scene where Emma breaks into Matty's room in the middle of the night and stands over him while he sleeps. And our supposedly obsessive, possessive hero( the same man who will later say he'd burn the dorm down for Ophelia, kill for her, die for her yada yada yada) responds to Emma by emitting a shriek described, in the author's own words, as "not a tough-guy shout, not a football player's roar" but a "banshee shriek cracking so high dogs in the next county heard it."
I'm not joking. There is a literal line of dialogue where Matty goes:
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
And then, rather than removing her from his room, the way a man who'd burn the world down for his girl might be expected to handle a home invasion, Matty just... talks to her. Back and forth. For pages. He reasons with her. He shouts at her not to touch his trophies.
I'm like..this is getting absurd. Kick the woman out already.
This grown ass man hides behind his sheets and eventually his friend's girlfriend (yep, you read that right) has to rescue him with a fire extinguisher.
It also highlights the laughable lack of security in his dorm/house.
For a guy supposedly obsessed with keeping his girl safe, Matty’s room has a revolving door.
Stalkers, friends, and secret society members constantly wander uninvited, even right after he and Ophelia have been intimate. He mentions upping his security at one point but never actually does, which turns his 'I'll protect you from the world' routine into another unintentional joke.
There is also a scene, earlier in the book, during an intimate moment with Ophelia, the woman he is supposedly consumed by, the only one who exists for him, where he has to picture Emma and iced milk to stop himself finishing too soon.
I'll leave that there.
Oh, and I almost forgot: before he even meets Ophelia, there's a referenced moment in Matty's POV(chapter 3?) where his friend Jace had gone off to do something the “secret society” asked him to do (the secret society thing is a subplot, I'll get to that later) and Jace had made Matty download a tracking app so he could locate him if needed.
Matty had listened to about half of Jace’s instructions on how to use that app before tuning out.
“Come on Jace, how hard can it be?”
Let's see... your friend is about to venture himself into some sort of crazy secret cult like initiation that could get him killed, and you decide to ignore half of what he tells you.
In comes Darla, his older neighbor (the author seems to be going for cougar energy here). Matty negotiates with her in exchange to help him use the app.
What does this woman want? Hot pics.🔥
She tells him to remove his shirt, put on a cowboy hat, and pose like "a man who just lost his horse but still wants love."
And don't even get me started on Matthew's "This is a violation of human rights" complaint to Darla's nonsense.
The comedy in this book is so forced it reads like the author forgot what genre she was writing.
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Dark romance.
Dark romance who?
Exactly.
As I kept reading, I found myself getting less and less impressed by Matty and more like, what exactly do these women see in this man?
His danger is all style and no substance.
The book promised red flags and delivered a guy who, and I quote, talks himself out of a felony by reasoning he is "too pretty for prison."
There's also the touchdown celebration in chapter 23 or 24, I think. Matty scores, the crowd goes wild, and he responds by performing Ophelia's full tiger mascot routine on the field, in front of everyone. The concept isn't wrong, a possessive MMC humiliating himself publicly for his girl can work as devotion, right…?
If this were a standard, lighthearted sports romance, it would be a 10/10 swoon moment. But in a supposed dark romance, the moment immediately deflates into slapstick comedy the second his coach yells at him and his teammates crack up. A terrifying, obsessive MMC and a goofy golden retriever can exist in the same character, but here, they just take turns.
For real contrast, look at Jagger, Jace's older brother.
He barely appears in the book, but in the one scene where he steps in to confront the man blackmailing Matty's family, he completely steals the spotlight.
Jagger swoops in and terrifies the bad guy into bolting.
And what does our MMC do?
Our little peacock stands there absolutely dumbfounded while another man handles his massive blackmail problem for him.
In the limited space Jagger occupies, he does more damage to your sense of what genuinely threatening looks like than Matty manages across 300 pages.
Even when the book tries to put Matty in actual danger, the tonal whiplash ruins it.
Now, let's talk about the FMC.
First of all, her name is Ophelia. Shakespeare's Ophelia went mad and drowned for a man who never loved her back. I see the inversion the author was going for, but dropping the name on a mentally ill FMC is still about as subtle as a brick.
Ophelia was the more compelling character for most of the book… until she wasn't.
The book opens with a prologue that is pretty sad: a fourteen-year-old sitting outside a therapist's door listening to her parents discuss her diagnoses. Add in a moment of self-harm specific enough to land pretty hard, and I genuinely felt for her.
Ophelia’s self-awareness about her own disorders is what gives the story some real meat and bone. What made her genuinely interesting is that her obsession turns entirely inward, and honestly, that's not my problem with her character. The inwardness is what makes her work. The problem is it leads nowhere, and partly because there's nowhere for it to go.
This girl watches, collects all sorts of shit, suffers quietly, and tears herself apart over it, spending months following Matty before he even knew she existed.
Outside the obsession, Ophelia barely exists as a person. No interests, no worldview, nothing that operates independently of the MMC. The self-awareness is genuinely her most interesting quality, but even that exists only in relation to Matty. So, when the second half of the book drops it, there's nothing underneath. She stops being a person with some kind of damage and becomes mostly a surface for the story to happen to.
I can not stress this enough: Her personality is a mile wide and an inch deep.
Her mother is also an absolute cunt. She spends most of the book threatening Ophelia with some kind of forced medical leave if she doesn't comply with therapy check-ins and daily reports. At one point, Matty checks Ophelia's school file and discovers none of her mother’s threats were real. There was no monitoring program or restrictions placed on her. She invented the entire threat from scratch just to keep her daughter on a leash (she gaslit the shit out of Ophelia). The book moves past this way too fast for my liking.
When the confrontation with her parents finally happens, Matty is the one to step in for her. She just flips her parents off on the sidewalk right after. Yep, that’s it. Honestly, this doesn't convince me she'd actually grown a backbone.
There's also the medication problem. By the time Ophelia is deep into the relationship with Matty, she's stopped taking her pills entirely, she left them at her dorm because she didn't want Matty to see them, and her internal justification is that being with him “smooths the jagged edges” in a way the medication never did. The book presents this as a way to show how transformative their relationship is, but what it's actually doing is weaponizing a lazy ass trope: that his magic cock is so amazing it cured her clinical mental illness.
And then, there's her "collection" of Matty's junk.
First of all… the elephant in the room.
The used condom…
Look, I'm no prude about obsession tropes in this genre. That's the territory that comes with these things. But really?
A fucking used condom?
She even labeled it.
It’s diabolical.
No distress or jealousy over the girl he actually used it with.
Oh, and the shrine. A wall filled with photos and all sorts of stolen items from him and his name circled in red many times over. She even has “spiral” notebooks about him (which he reads top to bottom btw).
She’s basically curating an archive of this man like a museum exhibit.
As if that wasn't enough, there's also a secret society subplot.
It mostly involves a series of dangerous initiation trials Matty has to complete to earn membership, essentially his insurance policy against a future without football.
I skimmed most of it. It had almost nothing to do with the romance and felt like filler. I wouldn’t have skipped it had it not felt so dull and uninspiring.
The friend group banter between the MMC and his friends is also painfully generic and cringy.
They literally call themselves the 'No Drama Llamas.'
As for when Matty finally discovers Ophelia is his stalker: he breaks into her dorm, finds the shrine (the journals, all of it) gets hard and horny, and proceeds to make himself at home (literally, he masturbates all over it).
Meanwhile, Ophelia is running back to her dorm in a full panic because one of Matty's teammates just recognized her as the stalker. By the time she comes back to her dorm, Matty is already waiting on her bed.
She confesses everything (even that she had been obsessed with another boy once, and this doesn’t seem to affect him), he gets hard and horny again and shoots all over her bed, they fuck right after and that’s it.
Fantastic.
When your most loaded dramatic moment produces zero friction, you have to wonder what the tension was ever actually for.
As for OW drama, there is a woman who tries her luck with Matty but he dispatches her in about two sentences, which I suppose is a pro for most people. But for me, the story loses most of its friction after the halfway point regardless. Once Matty locks in, there's nothing pushing back, and the last third coasts on declarations rather than earning them.
Speaking of declarations: For a book this loud about forever, the ending lands closer to 'we'll figure it out' than a HEA. Which, after everything, feels a little underdressed.
You would also think our “violently possessive” antihero would lock her away in a private fortress. Nope, instead, they end up sharing a house with the other couples from Matty’s friend group, which, for a story that spends 300 pages building an obsessive, all-consuming cocoon around exactly two people, is a strange place to land.
The whole point of their dynamic was total possession and exclusivity. A shared house full of other people's love stories contradicts everything the romance was supposedly about.
Then there are two epilogues. The epilogue consists of Matty bending Ophelia over a locker room bench to check off fantasy number forty-three from her stalker journals. The second epilogue has almost nothing to do with them.
The smut is decent, I guess. The author isn't afraid of language or exploration. It's honestly where the writing feels most alive. The praise kink is top tier. My only frustration is the same one that runs through everything else: even here, the darker elements get dangled and then walked back.
Finally, the one thing I'll say in the book's genuine defense: when it works, it works. The first half earns its charm. Matty at his best is actually very good.
…but his best moments have almost nothing to do with “dark” romance.
The scenes with his family, the gambling father, the financial anxiety underneath all the NIL money, his refusal to be bought by Kenton, these give him a dimension the possessive MMC persona never quite reaches.
Basically, the book makes a lot of promises it doesn't keep, dresses itself in genre clothing it hasn't fully grown into and then asks you to find it threatening anyway.
I didn't. But I did finish it, which counts for something. 2.5/5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 11, 2026
3.75/5⭐️
April 5, 2026
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
I absolutely LOVED this book, dare I say it may be one of my new favorites of CR Jane’s!
It was really interesting to see the FMC in the relationship being the stalker and I was honestly hooked from the beginning. It was so nice to see a switch up from the typical stalker romance books we see! Now, let me also say, I was disgustingly fascinated by how far her obsession went (if you know, you know).
Ophelia was seriously pulling on my heart strings. I mean, yeah, she’s got some mental stuff going on (let’s be real, it’s a lot LOL), but at the end of the day, she just wanted to be loved. In her moments of insecurity, it felt like my heart fell into my stomach because I could feel how much she needed to be loved properly and have someone accept her as she was.
I love that Matty met her right where she needed him to and I loved the support and obsession he fed right back to her. I’m an absolute simp for CR Jane’s men and Matty isn’t any different.
As always, the relationships and banter between the boys and the No Drama Llamas was phenomenal and had me constantly laughing out loud.
The ending had me audibly gasping, for several reasons, but I was definitely surprised.
The previews for the next two books?! 👀 omg I am sat and READY!
Thank you so much to CR Jane for the opportunity to receive and review this eARC. All thoughts & opinions are my own 💚
Tropes:
- Sports romance
- Morally grey
- Boy obsessed
- She’s his stalker
- She falls first
- He falls harder
- Mental health rep
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
I absolutely LOVED this book, dare I say it may be one of my new favorites of CR Jane’s!
It was really interesting to see the FMC in the relationship being the stalker and I was honestly hooked from the beginning. It was so nice to see a switch up from the typical stalker romance books we see! Now, let me also say, I was disgustingly fascinated by how far her obsession went (if you know, you know).
Ophelia was seriously pulling on my heart strings. I mean, yeah, she’s got some mental stuff going on (let’s be real, it’s a lot LOL), but at the end of the day, she just wanted to be loved. In her moments of insecurity, it felt like my heart fell into my stomach because I could feel how much she needed to be loved properly and have someone accept her as she was.
I love that Matty met her right where she needed him to and I loved the support and obsession he fed right back to her. I’m an absolute simp for CR Jane’s men and Matty isn’t any different.
As always, the relationships and banter between the boys and the No Drama Llamas was phenomenal and had me constantly laughing out loud.
The ending had me audibly gasping, for several reasons, but I was definitely surprised.
The previews for the next two books?! 👀 omg I am sat and READY!
Thank you so much to CR Jane for the opportunity to receive and review this eARC. All thoughts & opinions are my own 💚
Tropes:
- Sports romance
- Morally grey
- Boy obsessed
- She’s his stalker
- She falls first
- He falls harder
- Mental health rep
April 4, 2026
This shouldn’t have worked for me—but it did. 💚💚💚
Read
April 16, 2026I was so excited to read this as the h is the stalker (a little role reverse for a change). But I read in a review that the h saves one of the H’s used condoms 😳 So she knows of these OW and it’s yucky to me 😐
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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