This book was so bad. Secondhand embarrassment galore. There wasn't any chemistry between the main characters which made it even worse.

I really wanted to like this as I think Wilsner is great and I enjoyed the heck out of their debut. Unfortunately, I really, really struggle with age gap romances sometimes and this was one of those sometimes. It's the way you have one actual true grown ass adult and one college student who really doesn't know anything yet. I have no issue with a one night stand on their parts, I have an issue with the believability of turning this one night stand into a relationship. At the end of the day, this romance just wasn't for me and I probably should have known better.

It’s an age gap sapphic romance with a whole lot of steam and I. AM. HERE. FOR. IT!!!!
I was so stoked to receive this ARC and it did not disappoint.
The book was well written, and the characters were so enjoyable!
This author was new to me and im so glad i took the chance on them.
This book was fun and fast paced. Though the ending felt a bit rushed.
overall this book was great.

Mistakes Were Made is a very unique book, having no hesitations to jump into the slightly taboo. I loved the sapphic romance and the spice levels, and the sheer uniqueness of the story. Erin and Cassie had amazing chemistry together, and I loved how their story felt (mostly) organic overall.

There is a pretty big age gap in this book, and Erin is Cassie's best friend's mom. This obviously makes things very complicated, and there is a lot of sneaking around and making out behind closed doors. I found myself really torn between rooting for their love and just being frustrated with the decisions they were making. I think this was partially the point of the book, and I did enjoy the fact that it made me reexamine some of my biases as well.

The ending was the biggest thing that made the book drop a star for me. It wrapped incredibly fast and conveniently. I think there was no other way that the story could have ended, but it was a little bit too much of a bow wrapped around an incredibly messy story. It just felt like no one had to answer to any of the consequences of the bad decisions they had made, which I didn't love.

However, this was a great read and absolutely worth the time spent to get lost in these two women trying to find themselves.

Wow, what a ride! I've seen this trope played out in non-lgbtq+ fiction, but it was great to see a sapphic twist on it. 5 stars!

This was my first time reading this author and I really enjoyed it! It was a good combination of friendship and romantic entanglement. I will definitely seek out more by this author!

This is an unpopular opinion but I'm actually not a huge fan of large age gaps in romance. By extension, that would include best friend's parent as a trope I don't normally read. But I've heard so many great things about MISTAKES WERE MADE and couldn't resist checking it out for myself. The story starts off with a bang (literally) and you can immediately feel the chemistry between Cassie and Erin. But because of the aforementioned "this is my daughter's best friend / this is my best friend's mom" relationship, they can't necessarily be together (or so they think, this is a romance after all!). Watching them try to ignore their attraction and fail miserably was SO fun - how many times can you sneak off with your best friend's mom before you start thinking that maybe this is more than just sex?? I can't deny I was worried about the inevitable moment when everyone found out but the ending was great. I'm not sure if I'll pick up another book with the best friend's parent trope, but! Never say never.

I won’t lie and say that seeing that as “the MILF book” all over the internet didn’t pique my interest. It did, so I requested the book and I’m glad I did. Yes, I t’s an age gap sapphic romance with a whole lot of steam, but it’s also much more. It’s about knowing what you want and going for it. It’s two very likable characters that are written so well that you can’t help but root for them and fall in love with them. The story was generally easy to read and follow and was fun for the most part. My biggest issue lies with the pacing of the novel and, what felt like to me, a rushed ending. Besides the pacing and our two leads being a littleeeee bit shady at times, I truly adored Mistakes Were Made. 3.75 rounded up to 4.

This book was steamy and fun, though I felt like the characters lacked a bit of an emotional connection. Maybe that was just Cassie's personality though. The lying to the daughter Parker was the one thing that kept me from really loving this though, as I felt like it went on for such a long time. Just something fun to read, nothing too deep.

A lovely and happy romance that made me fall for this author! Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner is a winner!

I loved Meryl Wilsner’s first book, but I just couldn’t get into this one. Not sure if I’m just not the audience for it, but I was unfortunately let down. After such a great previous book, I had hoped for more from the follow up.

Growing up without a father and with an uncaring mother, Cassie Klein learned early on that depending on anyone but herself was a recipe for disappointment. She’s lucky to have found her best friend, Acacia, and have been welcomed into her family, but no one else—not students, not teachers, not authority figures—cared about Cassie. Cassie’s saving grace is her smarts and self-confidence, and with her plans to become an engineer and attend grad school at Cal Tech, she doesn’t think she needs anyone else. However, Cassie hates having her lack of family shoved in her face and plans to spend Family Weekend pleasantly distracted, starting with a drink at a bar far from campus.

In the three years since her divorce, Erin Bennett has been trying to make it up to her daughter, Parker, and while there has been improvement, it’s still hard to not feel like she’s losing a competition for her daughter’s love. Having to share her time with Parker with her ex-husband during Family Weekend is no exception, and Erin decides to console herself at a bar while her ex has dinner with Parker. Erin didn’t plan to pick anyone up, but when the cocky blonde makes a play, there is just something about her that makes refusing impossible. Post hook-up, Erin’s not thrilled to find out Cassie is a senior at her daughter’s college, but since she’ll never see her again, it can remain a hot memory. When Parker brings her new friend, Cassie, to breakfast, Erin’s shocked, but still inordinately pleased.

As the months go by, neither woman can get the other out of their heads and when Parker invites Cassie to spend part of Christmas break with her, Erin and Cassie have a hard time keeping things platonic. Between their own baggage and the added complication of their independent relationships with Parker, neither woman wants to admit they have something special, no matter how often they keep in touch and how quickly they fall into sex whenever possible. As summer comes and decisions have to be made, Cassie and Erin will be forced to examine their feelings and if they will a have a place in each other’s future.

Mistakes Were Made is a getting together story with an “it’s about the journey, not the destination” style. I feel a lot of your enjoyment will depend on how much you like the secondary relationships the MCs have with others and how well you bond with the MCs, because even though the last line of the blurb is “…they start to realize they have something real. But is being honest about the love between them worth the cost?”, the acknowledgement that they could be dating happens very late and the “honesty” and “cost” of their love is pretty much absent. While I didn’t love the journey as much as I wanted to, the writing and dialogue are solid. Cassie’s longstanding friendship with Acacia and her newer bond with Parker are heartwarming and provide a nice insight into Cassie’s walls and difficulty acknowledging and accessing her emotions. They feel like regular young adults, and not solely represented by the typical college clichés and with that youthful fragility and resilience in their relationships. Erin’s relationship with her best friend is a bit more one-note, but is still a stable, supportive bond. Erin is even more self-contained than Cassie when it comes to her non-relationship relationship and, as she’s more self-aware, there’s less a need for her friend to point out the obvious to her. The theme of not looking too closely at anything is exemplified by Cassie, because even when her real feelings aren’t obscured to her, she downplays everything to prevent it having an impact, even the positive. Cassie has limited experience with caring and love and is basically clueless about any attachment she feels for Erin, reasoning that it makes sense that she’s into a hot, smart, older woman. The fact that Cassie eventually looks forward to just talking to Erin leaves no impression, and she has few qualms about boning her best friend’s mom, because a drunken Parker gave her permission to do whatever makes her happy, so all’s good!

Erin’s major arc is that she was groomed by her mother to be a people pleaser, keep up appearances, and always sacrifice her own happiness and self-worth. Having finally reached the point in her life where she could no longer do this, she divorced her husband (who she admits she shouldn’t have married and I wonder if she ever loved) and finds a therapist to help her begin to care less about other’s opinions and value her needs. Her mantra for this is “fuck should,” which is a great sentiment, but also gets translated into “do whatever the fuck I want no matter if it hurts someone I care about,” which is harder for me to get onboard with since her second main goal is to strengthen her relationship with Parker. On the one hand, she proclaims fixing their relationship is the most important thing in the world to her, while on the other, she’s fist-pumping “fuck should” to validate her choice to continuing sexing up Cassie—a choice that is tacitly endorsed as all of the emotional fallout and work involved for Parker to get over them lying to her for nine months is done off-page to give them a quick, no mess HEA.

I don’t mind messy characters and given that the journey of the book is one of self-discovery for both Cassie and Erin, I wouldn’t have cared as much except that to me, there is little in the way of character or relationship growth despite the book being close to 400 pages; the journey overall just didn’t click for me. The MCs are relatable, but there was just something missing to make this my-BF’s-parent story stand out for me or invest in the MCs as a couple. Each woman is so deep in denial that there is not much to propel the story forward and it definitely drags at times. They spend about the first third of the story separated and trying not to think of the other, then most of their on-page interactions involve/relate to sex. While there are some sweet or touching moments on page, most of what they build is off-page during their eventual daily texting/FaceTiming.

While I personally may have wished for a bit more growth and page time to show what they are building as opposed to just being told they had built something and repeating the same beats, Cassie and Erin are both smart, confident women with great chemistry who have a lot of fun with their loved ones and each other. Mistakes Were Made is a steamy, age-gap story with complicated characters struggling to figure it all out that may delight others.

There was so much about Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner to love. Yes, Erin and Cassie’s relationship arch was absolute perfection. Reading it, I felt the highs and lows, and the anxieties of worrying if it was one-sided. But there was so much…more. This book explored pretty much all of the relationships we have in life—parents, children, friends, chosen family, the family we’re stuck with and, perhaps most critically, the relationship with ourselves—the one we have and the one we want. It’s been quite awhile since I’ve read a novel that made me really think about how all of these relationships are nurtured, and how to help and support yourself in growth. There was a lot to unpack in this book and I loved every minute of it.

I also loved the writing and dialogue. It was so funny at times, heartbreaking at others. And despite there being a major age gap, each character was written so authentically and thoughtfully.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Ahhhhh! I’m screaming this was so amazing. This was new and refreshing. I’ve never read a story quite like this and it was sapphic so even better.

I adored this book! I read the entire book in a day. The character development was enthralling. I was constantly entertained by the characters' interactions. I would highly recommend this to any of my queer friends.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC of this novel. This was a different concept that most of the modern romance novels I have read and it was well executed. It was pretty easy to see in the middle when Parker discovered what was happening but it did not lessen my enjoyment of the novel. If you want a good amount of sex scenes, you will find them in at varying levels of explicitness. A quick read that does not warrant a re-read in the future but was a good way to pass the time.

F/f romance that includes mothers - which really we need way more of in romances so for this reason alone, definitely add it to your list.
Personally I wish the pacing was more consistent and I wasn't super fond of the storyline, but I know there's many out there that will enjoy this one greatly.

More representation is needed, and this was a fun one. Erin and Cassie meet one night not knowing how they might have one specific mutual person in their life. Follow their unexpected-expected journey in this book as they explore their relationship as well as their other meaningful relationships. This book provides how different people can interpret a situation and not come to a realization until the very end and still feel uncertain of how they came about. This book will help others understand how it's ok to deal with feelings and, how it's ok to be mad and angry and still be able to have a meaningful friendship.

I haven't read a premise like the one for this book so I was definitely coloured intrigued. While the book did not completely wow me, it kept me wildly entertained throughout, I enjoyed reading about Cassie and Erin's forbidden romance as well as Acacia's character. But I like to read the romance books that give me the yearning and emotions and well this fell flat most times. Combined with the number of sex scenes that felt like the story depended on them to move forward, I would've liked if it had more substance to it and Cassie and Erin's relationship in general, Overall, just a fun book, especially if you're looking for some sapphic steamy romance!

Literally so spicy I loved this. The pacing in the middle was a bit wonky but it didn’t even matter. I loved the real rip ship between all the characters and just loved a spicy milf book