I didn't hate it! It just really really was not the romance book for me. I thought it would be fun and MILF-y but I found the whole thing so cringe worthy at the end I had to start skimming just to avoid the intense second hand embarrassment I was getting.

Three stars. Maybe 2.5. I had to really push to finish this book. While I have a couple of age gap books I loved, I am realizing it's not my cup of tea outside of those books. Also, this couple wasn't interesting enough to me to be the whole plot. I was a fan of Erin's single mom empty nest journey though. It was fun at times and the friendships were a highlight. Still going to read more by this author.

I received a reviewer copy of Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner from the publisher St, Martin's Press from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What It’s About: Cassie ends up at a bar, to get away from the overwheslming family weekend on her campus, when she ends up picking up a beautiful older woman. They hook up and the sex is great, but the next morning when she meets up with her friend for breakfast to help diffuse a situation with their mom, shockingly the mom (Erin) is Cassie's hook up from the night before.

What I Loved: This book is sexy and fun. I really liked the chemistry in this book, Erin and Cassie were amazing to watch and really I felt like I was experiencing that new intoxicating love where you cannot stay away and just need to be with each other. This couple is relatable and I loved watching them grow to know each other. I thought that the friendship between Cassie and her best friend was delightful. I think Meryl Wilsner perfected simultaneously a hot chemistry but a slow burn connection.

What I didn’t like so much: I didn't like the way at times people in Cassie's lives were cruel to her. I think the cruelty at times took away from the stories and made some of these relationships with people who she loves and love her and has amazing connections with her seem unbelievable or not seem worth fighting for.

Who Should Read It: People who love a romance book with an age gap. People who love a MILF book. People who love forbidden romances.

Summary: A forbidden romance with charm and sexiness.

4.25 stars

Phew, okay: the main couple in the story has a lot of on-page sex (and you know, good for them). I wasn’t totally sure how I’d feel about the concept of this story, but the early reviews sounded so promising that I decided to check it out anyway, and I’m really glad that I did. I enjoyed the diverse representation of queer relationships, the plot was fun(ny), and some of the major characters grew/developed noticeably from the beginning to the end. While it sometimes felt like it would end up being too predictable or artificially perfect, the ending was ultimately happy and fairly satisfying, and I did appreciate the writer’s style, perspective, and humour. I may pick up a physical copy of this one as well in the future, and I can’t wait to see what else the writer comes out with next.

DNF.

I can count the number of books I have DNF'd this year on one hand.
Believe me, I love, love, love a good lesbian romance. Perhaps even more than the next guy, but this was one that could not hold my interest.

Good-looking college girl, annoyed by her peers finds hot-MILF looking for a good time. By the description I knew I would have to remain open-minded about the obvious age difference between Cassie and Erin. After all, that is the major conflict of the story. Oh, and the fact that she's the mother of a friend. I went in expecting a humorous romp about falling for someone you shouldn't with some heartfelt exposition about how age doesn't matter when love is involved. Instead, what I found was an unrealistic portrayal of overwhelming unflappable attraction without rhyme or reason. Despite it, by and large. Each narrator was frequently in agreement about how they should not be fit for one another, and compellingly at that,

I found myself chronically pulled out the story by the two-dimensional characters and predictable storytelling.

If this book does grab you in the first few chapters, it seems like it will read easy before finding its way into the next bookish donation box for someone else to hopefully get some entertainment from. Not something I can foresee dog-earing and revisiting.

[Thank you to NetGalley and St. martin's press for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.]

I am low-key scared to put this review out there because I anticipated really really loving this after super duper enjoying the author's debut, but this one just didn't quite reach my expectations. Please don't be mad at me.

I think I was just surprised at the sheer amount of explicit content on page especially after the author's debut had literally one sex scene at the very end, I just wasn't prepared and I should have been but threw me off.

So this whole book is about a hookup that happens at a bar between a woman in her 20s and a woman in her 40s and the next day they find out that the older woman is the mom of the younger woman's best friend. Yeah it's a hot ass mess.

So neither one of them are really looking for a relationship and they both realize that a relationship is not really feasible especially regarding their daughter and best friend respectively. But they continue to hook up when the one MC goes home with her best friend for a break in school and then they continue after that. I wish this book had like three less sex scenes and three more scenes with them having the conversations that were just told to us after the fact that they had. I missed out on some of the intimacy that I was expecting and that intimacy was an exchanged for sexual attention and sexual content. Of course intimacy can be sexual but I was looking for emotional intimacy.

Now even though this book is not my favorite, I would definitely still recommend it and I liked a lot of the things that it did. I really liked all of the characters and all of the secondary characters. It didn't feel like any of the characters were just thrown in for funsies and I liked that they all had a distinct reason for being in the book. I especially loved the ending and the big dramatic blowout that you all know was gonna happen.

As a whole, I think this is a book that I will recommend to specific people that I know would enjoy it but it's not one that I would recommend universally.

Following her divorce, Erin Bennett feels like she and her ex-husband are in a competition for their daughter, Parker's, attention. So, when Family Weekend rolls around at Parker's college, Erin and her ex decide to split the nights. On a night when Parker is having dinner with her Dad, Erin heads to an off-campus bar by herself. She's looking for nothing more than a cold drink.

For Cassie Klein, Family Weekend is the perfect time to avoid campus like the plague. All those happy families, gross. Thus, she decides to hit up an off-campus bar as a means of escape. She's not looking for anything, but when she spots a beautiful woman sitting alone at the bar, she offers to buy her a drink.

Little did Cassie know that harmless gesture was going to lead to the most enticing one night stand of her life. The next morning, Cassie's friend Parker convinces her to go to breakfast with her to meet her Mom. She's not super pumped about it, but Cassie tags along anyway. Imagine her surprise when she walks into the restaurant and discovers Parker's Mom is her steamy hook-up from the night before.

Erin is equally taken aback when her daughter walks in with the sexy girl from the night before. Erin had no idea Cassie was a college student, let alone a friend of her daughters. Both women cover it up well, but their mutual attraction burns through every moment they are together. More unsettling than this though, is the fact that they can't stop thinking about one another when they're apart.

Cassie and Erin cannot stay apart. It's like it's against the laws of physics. They are drawn together like opposite poles of a magnet. Having no choice, they begin sneaking around. It's risky as heck, but it's more than just great sex. Although neither wants to admit it at first, it's complicated, they grow to really care for each other, but how the heck are they going to make this work? Is it even possible?

Meryl Wilsner's debut novel, Something to Talk About was the first F/F Romance published by Berkley. I was so stoked about it for months, but at the end, it left me underwhelmed. I enjoyed the writing and the characters, but the pace was quite slow and it was lacking the steam I was looking for.

Y'all, at 5% into Mistakes Were Made we had steam; a lot of it. In fact, the pace of this one was night and day compared to that first book. I feel like Wilsner listened, because man oh man, did they deliver with this story.

The characters were still fantastic, there were some serious issues being explored, but the forbidden romance trope brought the fun. There were moments that I was a little uncomfortable for Parker, but at the end of the day, they are all adults and I liked how Wilsner wrapped it up.

Overall, I found this one to be highly entertaining. A huge success of a sophomore novel. I am definitely looking forward to more from Wilsner in the future. Thank you so much to the publisher, St. Martin's Griffin and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. This is a perfect example of why I never give up on an author after only one book.

The perfect quick, spicy, fun read. Great characters and banter. I already recommended to my bookclub friends.

Thank you to the publisher via NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Oh my gosh! This was so freaking cute!! Thank you Netgalley and St Martins publishing for this eARC!

Take some of my favorite tropes (age gap, one night stand, forbidden romance, best friends mom/dad)… and make it SAPPHIC!!

Erin is in town for one night when she meets a stranger at a bar. A steamy hook up ensues and they go their separate ways… until the next morning When Cassie shows up to breakfast with Parker, Erin’s daughter.

This was hilarious and emotional and sooooo steamy!! I fell in love with the entire cast of characters! I felt like the relationships were well developed and believable. The friendships felt true and not forced. The journey to accept that it’s okay to want what you want and do things for you, that make you feel good. To learning about acknowledging feelings, and self acceptance.

This was just… wonderful. I really really enjoyed it.

Bisexual college senior Cassie Klein accidentally has a one-night stand with her best friend’s mom in Meryl Wilsner’s Mistakes Were Made. To escape Family Weekend, college senior Cassie goes to an off-campus bar for a chill night out. When she spots a sexy older woman and buys her a drink, she doesn’t expect it to end with an incredible one-night stand that changes her entire life.

Mistakes Were Made draws you in instantly with fascinating, relatable, multidimensional characters and an intriguing, sexy, multilayered, emotional story. I love the chemistry, attraction, and connection Erin and Cassie share. While there’s an instant attraction that could have easily been insta-love, Wilsner gives us a beautiful, deep, multifaceted, and wonderfully written forbidden relationship without unnecessary drama. The author deftly develops their relationship with humorous and sexy banter, flirtation, and passionate love scenes. Erin and Cassie complement one another, balancing each other’s lives. Cassie forms a unique connection with Erin allowing her closer than she does almost everyone—physically and emotionally. She has emotional baggage/issues from a tough childhood and home life. But Erin makes her feel safe.

With Cassie, Erin feels seen, wanted, needed, cared for, and about because Cassie listens to and thinks about her. Erin’s burdened with guilt over her divorce and its effect on Cassie and their relationship. Cassie motivates Erin to pursue something for herself and step outside her comfort zone because of how she makes Erin feel. Cassie and Erin are so hungry and horny for each other and have so much sex. But it doesn’t detract from the story at all. Instead, their intimate scenes reveal their characters, helping show their evolution, the development/evolution of their relationship, and the story’s progression.

Wilsner nicely develops her characters and their relationships with each other. I love Cassie’s friendship with Acacia and how Acacia’s family is a surrogate family for her. Acacia is a loving, loyal, supportive friend to Cassie and Parker. However, Parker’s behavior makes her seem immature in the book’s first half. But Wilsner deftly evolves her character with the story.

To escape Family Weekend, college senior Cassie Klein goes to an off-campus bar for a night out. When she spots a sexy older woman and buys her a drink, she doesn’t expect it to end with an incredible one-night stand that changes her entire life. The following day Cassie’s friend, Parker, convinces Cassie to have breakfast with her and her mom, who turns out to be the woman Cassie slept with the night before. Bisexual Erin Bennett wants to get closer to her daughter over Family Weekend. So when her daughter Parker brings Cassie, her one-night stand, to breakfast, Erin can’t believe that she’d slept with a student, even worse, her daughter’s best friend. Erin wants to move forward and leave it as nothing more than what it was—one night of bliss—and move on. But their connection is as fiery and exciting as last night, making Erin want her even more.

Circumstances and her daughter keep throwing Erin and Cassie together, and neither can deny the attraction or connection they feel. So they continue to have sex but keep it a secret from everyone—especially Parker. At first, both believe it’s just sex until they can no longer deny that deeper feelings are involved and that what they have is something real, extraordinary, and worth pursuing. But can they have a genuine relationship while sneaking around and keeping it secret? And is it worth hurting Parker, the woman they both love?

Wilsner builds up the suspense and tension so well that you let your guard down. I couldn’t help being totally freaked and stressed out about them getting caught in a compromising position. I can’t even! They are so good together, making each other happy, filling in the empty spaces that neither realized nor acknowledged needed and were waiting to be filled by the other. That’s why you hate that they feel they don’t belong together or must keep their relationship a secret because of how people will react.

Mistakes Were Made is a sweet, sexy, humorous, angsty, steamy, and emotional LGBTQ romance recommended for age gap and forbidden romance fans. It explores themes of found families, friendship, belonging, mother/daughter relationships, first love, soulmates, discovering where you belong, learning to trust, taking risks, and opening your heart to love.

CW: Past child neglect

Advanced review copy provided by St. Martin’s Griffin via Netgalley for review.

This book was such a miss for me. I was really excited to be approved for this ARC - I wasn't the biggest fan of Meryl Wilsner's last book, but I thought it was okay, and this one sounded more appealing (no weird boss/employee power dynamic).

Booooy was I wrong! First of all, there isn't a single likable character in this book. Erin and Cassie are both insufferable. Erin is probably the worst mother figure I've encountered in media that isn't out to be a villain. She has a poor relationship with her daughter because she works too much to spend adequate time with her then spends what time she DOES have with her fantasizing about her college friend? The age gap itself wasn't a problem at all, but I had an incredibly hard time imagining that an almost 40-year-old couldn't keep it in her pants to spend time with her daughter. Cassie was annoying, but Erin absolutely came off the worse of the two for me.

This was just not good. Wilsner can write spicy scenes well but the rest of this book was not well-conceived.

I really enjoyed Meryl Wilsner's debut, Something to Talk About, and when I read about their new contemporary romance, Mistakes Were Made, I got really excited. It has a trope I’m really fond of, May/December (not everyone’s cuppa I know, but I really like it when it’s well executed), as well as a messy situation, which is another trope I’m drawn to.

In this case the messy situation is that Cassie Klein, a senior at her Virginia college (so probably twenty-one) picks up an attractive older woman, Erin Bennett, at a bar and they hook up for what appears to be a one-time-only, but the next day they meet again—this time when Cassie’s freshman friend Parker introduces Cassie to Erin, her mom. Oops.

Things only get more complicated from there out, as Cassie and Erin almost hook up again in the ladies’ room during a campus concert, and then, when they decide to stay away from each other, Cassie still drunk dials Erin and nearly gets caught by Parker. Cassie determines not to do that again (her and Parker’s mutual friend, Acacia, drives the point that it’s a self-destructive idea home) but then Parker surprises her with plane tickets to come visit her at her mom’s over Christmas.

At Erin’s house, it’s again difficult for the two women to keep their hands off each other, and they nearly get caught kissing. Parker is of course, completely clueless to what’s going on under her nose, and Cassie and Erin both feel terribly guilty over that.

So—I really wish I’d liked this book but I didn’t. The problems started right off the bat. Firstly, since their bar hookup happened on Parents’ Weekend, how surprised should Cassie have been that Erin was the mom of one of the students? And that holds even more true for Erin. She’s near a college campus; chances are that the young woman who is picking her up is a student, like her daughter.

Second, Erin was described as “two years out from forty” which made me think she was forty-two. Later reading clarifies that she’s thirty-eight, though, so I think the phrase should have been “two years away from forty.” In another book this would be a minor copy error and nothing more but here it really makes a difference. Cassie is, I’m guessing, twenty-one, and a difference of sixteen years in age isn’t as bad as a difference of twenty. Plus, once I had a visual image of Erin as forty-two, it was hard to think of her as thirty-eight.

Also, what was Erin thinking when she agreed to Parker’s plea that she purchase plane tickets to surprise Cassie with so she could come stay with them for Christmas? That puts Cassie on the spot—it’s not like she can easily turn Parker down once tickets are already bought. That really bothered me, especially given the other power gaps between her and Cassie.

This is a partial review. You can find the entire review at Dear Author, here:

https://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/dnf-reviews/review-mistakes-were-made-by-meryl-wilsner/

This book was so hot and chaotic. I loved it. I love drama and a messy love story, so this was perfect for me. Also it was just so freaking hot.

Loved it. Brilliant. Older woman, sapphic romance? I didn't know I needed it! I see things like this all the time that are hetero so it was so refreshing to see something else.

After the messy divorce from her husband, Erin Bennett decides she needs to go to a bar and have a day to herself. She definitely did not expect to have a one night stand with Cassie Klein, who turns out to be a friend of her daughters. Even though Cassie may be older than her daughter, Erin did not think that she would be caught in this situation.

I gave Mistakes Were Made four stars, really enjoying the romance between Erin and Cassie and the chemistry between the two. I really enjoyed the age gap romance that happened and found myself enjoying the moments where Cassie and Erin were together. I liked that they both tried to deny their love for each other but there were these small gestures that you could see were impactful. I found their relationship really interesting and how they were fueling their relationship on the secrets of hiding that they were seeing each other.

Something that Mistakes Were Made does well is making me want more of their relationship. Cassie and Erin were fun together and they were both mature about it. Even though Cassie was only a few years older than Erin’s daughter, Cassie’s friend, Cassie acted like an adult and didn’t act like a college senior. They were both just adults that had good chemistry together and that simply wanted more from each other.

Thank you again to NetGalley for providing me with and eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've had to sit and parse through my feelings on this book because on one hand, I really enjoyed the story whenever the characters were together on page but on the other, apparently friend's parent is a difficult trope for me because of trust between the characters. (Though I will say I liked how it was handled in this book.)

I still don't have a lot to say definitively but the book is definitely worth the read and filled with heat and fun times!

Mistakes Were Made was a steamy contemporary romance. If you want closed-door, this is not for you. If you don't mind spice, then this is great. There's a romance drama, there's friendship drama, there's mother-daughter relationship drama...all the things. It was a fun and entertaining read.

Thank you to St. Marin's and Netgalley for the electronic advanced copy.

Thank you so much Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this novel. This was such a cute, spicy, and steamy read! 😉 Cassie and Erin are so adorable together.
Cassie is young, scatter brained, and still hasn’t figure out her life or what she wants to do with her career while Erin is older, wiser, has a career and is fairly settled. Their personalities and life experiences are so opposite of each other but somehow they work out so perfectly!

Although i enjoyed reading this, I do think the novel over looked a lot of details in certain aspects. For example, I wish we got to know more about Cassie’s family and her childhood. This was completely overlooked although Cassie mentioned her childhood trauma multiple times.
Another aspect overlooked was Parker’s relationship with her mother. She dragged Cassie on her trip to visit her mom because of their bad relationship which didn’t make much sense to me? What led to this ordeal? Why didn’t she have the same issue with her father?

Overall, the novel was good! I had a fun time reading it and if you’re looking for a quick spicy read, i’d definitely recommend!

4/5 Stars. I was hooked from the first chapter. This story was so FUN. I felt like I was on the edge of my seat each chapter, wondering what was going to happen next. I didn't want to put it down! It was light and funny and sweet. Also: it was SPICY. Like, hello sailor spicy. Had to fan myself off a few times from the heat.

Only complaints/comments: I want more. I really want to know more about Erin and Cassie, and who they are. They are so much more than the glimpse this book gives them; and I feel like they are much more than the sex, which is what we mostly saw from them in this book. I want more of the side characters too. I wish we'd had a bigger dive into Parker and Acacia (but not Adam... ugh). Maybe more fodder for another book?!? Because I really don't want this to be the end of these characters!!

Also: I wish the second half of the book was more in-depth. I feel like the chase and the hiding of the relationship took SO much of the story, that we only got to see Cassie and Erin be a real-life couple for a short time. The epilogue gave us some closure, but I wish more time had been spent in the after instead of the chase.

Overal: fun, playful, sexy. good writing but want more of this story to unfold. more! more!

This book was so much fun to read. Cassie Klein walks into a bar and by the time she walks out, she has a beautiful woman with her. Little did she know that the woman is her roommates mother, who was there for Family Weekend. Erin Bennett is trying to stay close with her daughter but is shocked when she meets her. There was a spark between the two. They felt if they could just keep ignoring each other, it would go away. Only it doesn't. Trying to hide their feeling from themselves and from Parker becomes harder to do. What neither of them were willing to admit that the text and pulling open their computers and cooking together was dating. Also that they were falling in love. It takes nudges from Parker for them to admit their feeling.