Isabel Murray: Not That Ridiculous Review

Charlie Galloway is handling it, okay?
 

Yes, he’s been left to run the family coffee shop all on his own, he’s up to his eyeballs in mortgages and loans, and his fixer-upper dream house is falling down around his ears. Big deal. He can handle it.
 

Just like he can handle being secretly in love with Kevin Wallis, Chipping Fairford’s favourite handyman, best known for once finding a dead body in a storage tub under a client’s bedroom floor.
 

Only it turns out that while Kevin might come across as a total cinnamon roll with his gentle brown eyes and his sweet, calm nature, he really is…not.
 

He’s not straight—not when it comes to Charlie, anyway—the things he keeps doing to Charlie are definitely not sweet, and he’s not holding back from letting Charlie know what he wants.
 

Not a problem. Charlie can handle that, too.
 

Charlie can handle anything.
 

Right up until Kevin decides to bust out his sledgehammer, work his handyman magic on Charlie’s dream house, and…well.
 

There’s a reason the local newspaper called him the Chipping Fairford Corpse Finder.
 

Not That Ridiculous is a 98k-word romantic comedy about a grumpy and overworked coffee shop owner and the sunshine handyman who wants to fix everything. Yes, there are some random dead guys in the mix, but that’s background noise. Who even cares? It’s incidental at best. There’s kissing and first times and way more interesting stuff going on. This is a romance!

Book no.3 in Isabel Murray’s Not That series, Not That Ridiculous delivers more or less the same light-heart and fun blend of comedic romance, spicy scenes, and a nice dose of character development and drama. I don’t know why, but I was not expecting a 3rd entry in the series considering it had been almost two years since Not That Impossible was published which felt like a perfect ending and companion novel to Not That Complicated. Yet Murray is able to somehow work a 3rd romantic couple out of the past books’ already limited side characters and base this novel around one of the most prominent Cotswolds locations previously featured. While I read and reviewed both Not That Complicated and Not That Impossible, each having their own specific strengths and weaknesses, Not That Ridiculous is definitely the most balanced of the three and will certainly satisfy fans of the previous novels (especially those that preferred the first over the second). Featuring an entertaining story and narration courtesy of Chipping Fairford’s resident caffeinated “grouch” Charlie Galloway paired off with Kevin Wallis, the famed general handyman that discovered the original dead bodies in Ray’s house, Not That Ridiculous is funny, silly, spicy yet also quite polished. Despite having a few minor nitpicks with the focus and pacing of the story, I enjoyed this a lot and breezed through it in two days.

Before getting into Not That Ridiculous specifically, I feel the need to add an upfront disclaimer to my review. Based on other reviews and scoring for Murray’s previous two Not That novels, I feel like I’m definitely in the minority for enjoying and preferring Not That Impossible more than Not That Complicated due to the former’s more ambitious character development, atypical pairing/chemistry, and having found Liam highly entertaining from his first appearance in the first book. While having stronger comedic shenanigans, I felt Not That Complicated was a bit slapstick-heavy, verging on cringe-y at times, and Ray/Adam lacked Jasper’s strong character story and complex history with Liam. In many ways, Not That Ridiculous feels like a happy medium between the two, though part of me suspects this one was crafted as a direct response to the negative reviews of the 2nd entry, one I don’t agree with. If I’m being honest, I was surprised Murray was able to make this 3rd novel work considering the original timeline of events felt already well-covered between the past two perspectives, and with Jasper and Liam paired off, there really wasn’t any other characters left to explore. I never would’ve imagined Charlie would work as a main protagonist considering he had such little presence in the first two books (his sister Amalie being the more notable coffee shop barista), let alone pairing him with Kevin Wallis who had more appearances but didn’t leave much of an impression for me (let alone being remotely interested in another man). Yet despite the unexpected combination, it works!

Unlike the previous two novels that covered roughly the same events from different perspectives, Not That Ridiculous instead is set four years after the previous two entries. A lot has changed in those years, namely the past couples are now married, Kevin is now a strong 24yr old young man, and Charlie is the financially-strapped and at capacity sole owner of the The Chipped Cup, the coffee shop frequently visited by all of the previous main characters. I’m a huge latte and coffee shop enthusiast so I obviously appreciated the story’s focus on the coffee shop, espresso drinks, vintage gaggia machines and Kevin’s fascination for latte art, but I thought the general business owner storyline plus the time jump was a refreshing change of pace. And after all the invasive residential destroying that was done in the first two books, it was also a fun idea focusing on the restoration process via Kevin’s occupation. Taking a page from Jasper’s character-focused story yet also keeping the spicy romcom hook front and center, Not That Ridiculous‘s story flows really well and avoids the tonal extremes of its predecessors. I also felt like Murray’s writing style just keeps getting better and better with each novel, and while the jokes and punchlines can still be purposefully comically goofy, they feel smarter and rely less on pop culture references or slang that will certainly age quickly (Not That Complicated in particular). Being set after the earlier stories also allows this novel to serve dual purposes of not only developing Charlie and Kevin’s relationship, but also serving as an extended epilogue for the other characters that are interwoven effectively into this story. While Charlie and Kevin’s romance was cute, I was almost more invested in Jasper considering where his novel left off and seeing Ray and Adam very settled compared to their whirlwind relationship.

While not nearly as charming as Jasper, I also loved Charlie’s character and enjoyed the duality between his grumpy and tired exterior with his sweeter and wholesome internal feelings. Professionally competent, responsible, and constantly overloaded (honestly what a mood), I appreciated how frank and direct his dialogue and character logic was, especially his “I don’t have the time or energy for miscommunication so this is how it is” (compare that to Ray/Adam). In general, his relationship with Kevin felt closer to Ray and Adam’s in terms of dynamics vs the Jasper and Liam’s rockier and edgier relationship. However unlike either of the other two pairings, Charlie and Kevin’s relationship doesn’t waste time with the usual will-they won’t-they, instead hitting it right off from the get-go and immediately getting into steamy situations quickly (a direct contrast to one the common complaints others made about Not That Impossible that I don’t agree with). Instead, this novel focuses on Charlie’s confusion trying to understand why Kevin is interested in him as a seemingly straight gym bro or more importantly, why he’s obsessed with trying to fix Charlie’s fixer-upper abode. Also, as a reader who is in his early 30’s (which is not THAT old I might add), Charlie’s lack of dating, relationship history, and inexperience with sex is relatable and nice switch-up for the series compared to Ray’s flamboyant demeaner and worlds away from Jasper’s storylines. As a direct result, the banter between a gay guy inexperienced with sex and a typically straight guy who is confident based on his extensive research watching gay porn is absolutely hilarious. It sounds silly on paper but Murray makes it comedy gold:

“Cute coffee shop barista twink gets railed,” Kevin said.
Well, that was a needle-scratch moment. What the hell?
“Hot coffee shop twink gets a triple shot,” he continued. “Handyman with XXXL tool nails twink to floor. Handyman surprises twink with his XXXL power tool.”

Owing to their rather limited appearances in the past two novels, one aspect I found interesting was how both Charlie and Kevin were mostly blank slates in terms of character narratives and personalities compared to Jasper and Liam’s portrayals prior to their novel. From what I remember, Charlie was merely an aloof and grouchy barista who seemed to have had a vague interest in Jasper at some point during his journalism days while Kevin was a masculine, not the sharpest tool in the shed laborer (also the only male character featured in this series to not have expressed any sort of interest or attraction to guys previously compared to the breadcrumbs left for Liam and Charlie). At times I did question the plausibility of all the various buddy buddy relationships that seemed at odds with how they were portrayed previously, particularly Charlie and Jasper who didn’t seem anywhere near that close in Not That Impossible as well as Kevin who seemed didn’t seem to be hugely familiar with any of the other guys before. Murray makes it work, but if you read the novels back to back it slightly stretches what’s believable and can feel a bit forced in.

While I found Not That Ridiculous to be a really fun and light-hearted read, the one nitpick I had was that the narrative content felt unevenly concentrated in the last third of the book. While not having nearly as ambitious character growth and storylines as Not That Impossible, I felt like a lot the real meat of the story came in relatively late. While I have nothing against books that feature falling in love (and into each other’s bed repeatedly 😉) fast, the character storylines involving Charlie’s unhappiness in life, feelings of abandonment by Amalie, his resistance to opening up to others and avoiding his problems all felt rushed and crammed in at the last minute. Additionally while Kevin’s straight boy > I love Charlie progression was cute and his occupation was quite interesting, his character felt less developed compared to past love interests Adam and Liam. Additionally, the book often foreshadowed some sort of character growth moment where Kevin would confront his questionable boss Craig or go solo based on how unhappy Kevin is with his job arrangement (or even just channeling a fraction of Charlie’s business ownership, professional independence), but what I actually got was a bit of a letdown. And while the strained relationship and conflict between Charlie and Kevin made narrative sense, I never really understood why Kevin came to his decision and worry about the situation and would have liked to explore the source of the miscommunication or his concerns more. Frankly, I would’ve liked their whole separation arc to be longer in general, not only for greater character growth potential, but also for more interactions with Adam and Ray which I really enjoyed. The story also never really explores Kevin’s bi/pan/demi(?) awakening which also would be interesting content and material to cover. With the way the book was setup and structured, there simply was not enough time and pages left compared to the first two thirds which, despite being entertaining and full of steamy sex scenes, felt like a lot of padded out fluff; cute and fun fluff, but fluff nonetheless. Perhaps this is me being picky and wanting more from this novel than what was it was written for, but while good as is, it’s awfully close to being great.

Like the previous novels in the series, I enjoyed Not That Ridiculous and read through it very quickly. Returning to a romance-heavy focus, this is a really fun, quick read and a great choice for readers looking for a hilarious light-hearted yet spicy M/M read. For readers that have been keeping up with the series, this one is like the best of both worlds of the past books. And most importantly, Not That Ridiculous finally addresses the source and possible culprit of the mysteriously bizarre costumed dead bodies mystery that stretches across all three novels. And with the possible culprit revealed and Murray exhausting just about every eligible male character in Chipping Fairford, this is likely the end to the series that is tied up in a rather satisfying way. Looking back, it’s funny thinking how invested I became reading Murray’s novels after picking up Not That Complicated on a blind automated algorithm Kindle suggestion, especially since I considered that first novel cute but very casual and low-stakes. While obviously not intending to be the most dramatic or moving material out there, Murray’s series has been a lot of fun and it’s been a great time reading along with it! That being said, I also wouldn’t be terribly surprised if Murray somehow manages to twist either Kevin’s handyman boss Craig or The Inquirer’s publisher Ralph that Jasper submitted his journalism articles to into a fourth romantic interest, despite how terrible these two would be in a M/M pairing in theory. That being said, they are both old and therefore would be on-brand for this series’ age-gap formula so… yeah, we are not manifesting that-