Mr. Wrong Number

Lynn Painter is an American author who specializes in contemporary romance novels, with a focus on the romantic comedy subgenre. Her titles include Better than the Movies (2021), Mr. Wrong Number (2022), The Do-Over (2022), Accidentally Amy (2022), The Love Wager (2023), Betting on You (2023), The Love Wager (2023), Love Game: Roman (2024), Nothing Like the Movies (2024), and Happily Never After (2024). Her novel, The Wish Switch, will be published in May 2025.

Painter lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with her husband and five children. She moved to Omaha when she was a child and her father was stationed at Offutt Air Force Base. Painter’s love for her childhood hometown is exemplified in her romantic novels, all of which take place there. Painter is also a “biweekly contributor to the Omaha World-Herald’s parenting section, even though she describes herself as the polar opposite of a Pinterest mom. When she isn’t chasing kids, she can be found reading, writing, and shot-gunning Red Bulls” (Brewer, Robert Lee. “Lynn Painter: On Rom-Coms and Escapism.” Writer’s Digest, 2021). Painter’s energetic lifestyle bleeds into her work, which often incorporates humor into complex human relationships.

Painter began her writing pursuits penning “women’s fiction, general fiction, romance, and YA” but didn’t establish herself in the industry until she published her 2021 debut Better Than the Movies (Brewer). This title was inspired by Painter’s innate love for romantic comedies, which she identified in her 2021 Writer’s Digest interview with Robert Lee Brewer as her “favorite genre to read” and her “favorite genre to watch” (Brewer). Painter’s appreciation for the genre is evident in her novel’s frequent references to popular rom-com movies. In Mr. Wrong Number, Painter creates a contemporary version of the 1998 film You’ve Got Mail, directed by Nora Ephron.