This was a fun, very sexy FF age-gap romance. It was interesting to watch Cassie and Erin navigate their fling/dating/whatever as it went along, and to get to know the supporting characters. It had a satisfactory ending, but I wish we'd seen how they got there. I think it would have been better if some of the many long sex scenes had been replaced with character and plot development, showing us more of the journey to where they landed in the epilogue. Thanks to Netgalley and and St. Martin's Press for the advance digital copy!

What I Liked: A lot of romances that use the age-gap trope are hetero-centered and involve an older man and a younger woman, so this is a refreshing spin on that. What I found interesting is that a lot of “daddy” romances don’t address why the attraction exists between the characters while in this book, Wilsner takes the time to have her characters bring up why Cassie would want to be with Erin and whether she has “mommy” issues in a realistic and mature way. I liked both Cassie and Erin as characters and felt they had personalities that fit well together which made their relationship believable. Another thing this book does well is it captures the sadness you feel as you are growing up and friends start to drift away as a result of finding yourself in different places in your life. Cassie, Acacia, and Parker experience the normal growing pains of being in their young twenties and finding themselves having to work hard to keep their friendship together. I also found the sex scenes (and there are A LOT) to be realistic and hot which is tricky to do.

What I Didn’t Like: Can there be such a thing as TOO much representation? As thrilled as I am with the increase in LGBTQ+ romances, it seems that authors want to make sure their books scream REPRESENTATION and therefore make every single character not straight. In this book, we have bisexuals, pansexuals, and lesbians being recognized but I don’t know of any friend group made up of entirely hetero people or entirely homosexual people. To have very main character be LGBTQ felt unrealistic. Another small issue I had with this book is the pacing and the character decisions made by Erin and Cassie. The last half dragged on a bit which I believe was a result of Erin and Cassie continuing to hide their relationship from everyone for wayyy too long. I was at about 80% of the book and they were still keeping it a secret. And can there be such a thing as too many sex scenes? In a book like this, the scenes actually started to feel repetitive, especially as I was waiting for their secret relationship to be revealed.

Who Should Read It: Even if you didn’t like Wilsner’s first book (which I wasn’t a huge fan of) I think this book would be great for someone looking for a realistic age-gap romance and who wants something different than the typical “daddy” trope.

Review Wrap Up: Overall, I enjoyed this book and, in the end, found the issues I had to be small enough to keep reading. It was humorous when it needed to be, and I think portrayed female friendships remarkable well. This was a fun one and I recommend it.

Favorite Quote: “Plus, Rachel said, “last week you were practically glowing. Either you changed your skin care routine, or you got railed.”

Rating: 4 Stars

3.5 Stars

When Cassie Klein goes to an off-campus bar to escape her school’s Family Weekend, she isn’t looking for a hookup—it just happens. Buying a drink for a stranger turns into what should be an uncomplicated, amazing one-night stand. But then the next morning rolls around and her friend drags her along to meet her mom—the hot, older woman Cassie slept with.

Erin Bennett came to Family Weekend to get closer to her daughter, not have a one-night stand with a college senior. In her defense, she hadn’t known Cassie was a student when they’d met. To make things worse, Erin’s daughter brings Cassie to breakfast the next morning. And despite Erin’s better judgment—how could sleeping with your daughter’s friend be anything but bad?—she and Cassie get along in the day just as well as they did last night.

What should have been a one-time fling quickly proves impossible to ignore, and soon Cassie and Erin are sneaking around. Worst of all, they start to realize they have something real. But is being honest about the love between them worth the cost?

~ Landra

Meryl Wilsner writes a great open door romance scene. The characters are well developed and I was rooting for a happy ending. However, the conflict that all romances need was such a sense of betrayal that my anxious heart found it difficult to read. The tension was a bit too much for me, so I had to skim part of the book to get to the ending. which was a satisfying conclusion. The title of the book, Mistakes Were Made is accurate, but only in the characters' choices, not in the author's writing. I will go back and read her previous book when I get a chance.

"𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺. 𝘖𝘳 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘈𝘯𝘥, 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘪𝘧 𝘐'𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶. '𝘊𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘢 𝘩𝘶𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘯𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯, 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵? 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐'𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶."

I really, truly enjoyed Erin and Cassie's story. It's been a rough time in my personal life the last couple weeks, so I honestly wasn't able to appreciate ALL parts of this book, but it was still fantastic.

Sometimes it is so terribly hard to write reviews because there's so much you want to say but at the same time, you don't want to spoil the good stuff for everyone 😅

𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘞𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘥𝘦 includes:
🚀 Dual POV
🚀 Spice-level: 🌶🌶🌶🌶
🚀 Bisexuality
🚀 Coming Of Age

Thank you to Meryl, St Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for a review!

#mistakesweremade #netgalley #merylwilsner #stmartinpress #advancedreadercopy

Erin Bennett, a divorced mother of one, hooks up with a younger woman at bar one night. The next morning while visiting her daughter at college, she learns the young woman, Cassie, is her daughter's best friend - AWKWARD!

They both choose not to mention the encounter to Erin's daughter, Parker. Although Erin and Cassie have off-the-charts chemistry, they know they can never act on it again. But they do - over and over again, still keeping it from Parker.

Although I wasn't thrilled with how Parker was disrespected by both her mother and best friend, the chemistry between Cassie and Erin was undeniable. The story was somewhat predictable but Parker's response when she found out about the couple wasn't what I would have expected at all!

If you're looking for a spicy romance (and yes, this was SPICY!), definitely give this book a go!

**Received ARC with thanks from Netgalley and St. Martin's**

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Selling Pitch:
Do you want an easy read about a college student falling in love with her best friend’s mother? Can you tolerate some preachy woke bits? Can you ignore the age gap ick factor?

Pre-reading:
This is such a cute cover. I love the cartoony, colorful covers that are so popular right now for romances. I’ve been thinking of this as the Yung Gravy book on my TBR pile. Do with that what you will.

Thick of it:
Cassie chill!

This girl is ballsy, sheesh. She’s how old? A college baby? I’m nearly 25, and I could never.

Oh my god, the both of these ladies. So ballsy. So forward.

I had literally never heard the term clam jamming before, and now two books, in rapid succession, have used this. I hate this word.

I’m so tired of that line in rom-coms. Sometimes it works-I’ll give them that, but like everyone does it.

Cats out of rom-coms, please god.

OK, it’s kind of cute here. I’ll take back that rom-com sin, but only because they repeated it.

We love some good fuckstruckery.

That’s a huge age gap. Makes me pretty uncomfy.

I hate people who sing randomly like that. That’s so mean of me, but I do. Like shut the fuck up.

Have these girlies never heard of googling phone numbers?

OK, but if we gender swap, there’s no way this book flies anywhere outside of a porno.

Her mom drives a Subaru lol.

Nashua is not small 😂 also New England superiority.

Correct, Acacia. Self-control exists.

OH MY GOD CASSIE.

That would be a good pillow.

I need to Google what a shrimp puff is. Shrimp just seems like an odd filling to me. It’s just sweet and a little rubbery. I like shrimp, don’t get me wrong, but like grilled shrimp all nice and crispy, or like shrimp cocktail.

OK, he’s an ass, but like take the letter of recommendation. Don’t be dumb.

I love Christmas PJs.

Jesus that bit was cringe and emo.

Literally, what are you doing? Your daughter is in the bathroom. You guys cannot do this. This is so wrong.

Yeah, I don’t know what you would get her in the situation. Maybe a candle? I feel like a candle would be innocuous enough. White chocolate is gross.

I feel like there’s no world where your daughter is OK with you fucking her best friend who is basically the same age as her. Because then it means your mom is attracted to people your age, and that makes me itchy.

Rich people privilege truly is just choices and options for food for every single thing.

Middle part lol. Get out of here you millennial author.

Cap or Aquarius?

What is this passive-aggressive communication? That’s not friendship. That’s libra bullshit. I would drop her.

Literally so uncool. I would not want to be friends with Parker after this, regardless of what she has going on because I don’t want to be around people who react to stress and anger that way.

No, you’re not imagining. She’s literally being mean. She was mean and spoiled when she came home. This girl is kind of a shit.

What is the word loquacious doing in this book? Get it out of here.

We don’t leave people on read as passive-aggressive communication. That’s shit.

Acacia is a good fucking friend.

Also, I still stand by the idea that Parker is a shit communicator and that I wouldn’t want to be friends with somebody who reacts that way, regardless if she’s mad that her friend is fucking her mom. I feel like you should’ve communicated that and let that anger out rather than this passive-aggressive bullshit.

Post-reading:
This book is fine. It’s not particularly to my tastes. The age gap is too much for me to be believable. I just can’t imagine someone being okay with their friend becoming their stepmom when they’re basically the same age. It’s your classic bucket rom-com where all the characters feel a bit flat and cliche. Sometimes the story comes off as virtue signaling woke and preachy. Lots of sex scenes, but relatively tame ones. It’s not the worst thing you’ll ever read, but you can do much better.

Who should read this:
Sapphic romance fans
Age-gap romance fans

Do I want to reread this:
No

Similar books:
* Mr. Wrong Number by Lynn Painter-brother’s best friend romance

Aaaahhhh, I have such mixed feelings about this one.

Okay, here’s the two sides:

The Good:
Well-written, decently good sex scenes, great cover, and it reads like a mash-up of an early-2000s rom-com and one of those borderline-skeevy Kindle Unlimited books in a way that makes it really fun to read.

Meryl Wilsner has improved a lot since Something to Talk About - specifically, she’s figured out how to write sexual chemistry. Not only is there more than half a sex scene in this one, but these characters read like they’re actually attracted to each other. (Rarer than it should be in f/f! I swear sometimes people write a whole f/f novel, write women as the implicit object of desire, and then completely forget to also write women like they’re people actually doing the desiring. I have a whole literary theory about this, but now is not the time!)

The Bad:
When our older lead tells the younger one that she isn’t looking for “somebody with mommy issues who is going to obsess over my feelings” that scene is framed like it’s supposed to be a mean and untrue thing to say. But…uh…that’s the book. That’s what’s happening!

I actually expected that I’d be wigged out by some of the older woman’s chapters - but it turned out the reverse was true. Erin isn’t into Cassie because Cassie is so young - she actually, in some ways, feels like Cassie has more life experience because she didn’t stagnate in a shitty marriage for so long. It’s Cassie’s chapters that make it seem iffy - she’s the one who is so keenly aware of the age difference, she’s the one who compares herself to Erin's daughter, she’s the one who feels messy and immature and seeks the opposite in somebody else. The contrast makes it feel like only Erin thinks Cassie’s a grown up, and Cassie herself knows she isn’t.

And that’s…kind of icky. Not overtly so, but just enough to raise my hackles on the issue a little?

If it was a middle-aged man who slept with a college kid thinking they were “unusually mature” or whatever, we’d know he was either a massive creep or super delusional. Through that lens, Erin still doesn’t really read as a creep here, but she does read as pretty damn delusional.

??? Stars: Mixed Feelings Have Broken My Rating System, I Don't Know What To Do Now

Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner
My rating: 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Full disclaimer: I did not know what book I was going to read when I requested this! I enjoyed the cover and title of the book so I went in blind. Holy spice 🌶 forbidden romance and my first LGBTQ book I have ever read. I really enjoyed this one.

Cassie is a 21 year old college student studying to be an astronaut. She has her good friends and likes to have a good time, like most college students with her closest friends, one named Parker.

The book starts out with Cassie making eyes with an older woman at a bar, and their story starts there. Little did Cassie know, she would see this woman, Erin again.

Erin is Parker’s mom and after their night at the bar, Cassie and Parker go meet Parker’s mom at breakfast.

They both said that they couldn’t see eachother again, but that quickly dissolves and their connection gets stronger.

This was a fun read and was told in Cassie and Erin’s perspective which I think was a really smart play to really get to know the characters and their conflicts with this situation.

You can read this one now anywhere books are sold! Thanks Netgalley for this ARC!

To start with the positives, I really enjoyed the writing style here, and I thought that all the characters were incredibly developed and felt super real. I especially loved the bond between Erin, and her daughter, Parker. Their choices and relationships just felt super authentic even when I didn't necessarily agree with a lot of them. It was also just a super fun book overall, and it's really easy to get through if you just want a quick fun read about a messy MILF-y relationship. Though, there is an insane amount of sex scenes, like some of them make sense where they are, but others just feel thrown in, which brings me to my next problem of the pacing.

The first half of this book is super well paced and its super fun, but around the middle third, the pacing just gets so off in my mind. Also this was definitely a personal problem, but it prevents me from raising this book's rating any higher. I feel like I should've known this going into the book, but I just couldn't sometimes with the MILF relationship, like it just got uncomfortable at certain points WHICH BOTH OF THEM POINT OUT, especially when they're doing things in proximity to the daughter, Parker.

Overall though, I can totally get why people would love this and I think it'll do really well with a specific demographic, especially with the uptake of spicy romance books w/ more taboo elements, and this is a milder, better written version of those.

Stop it right now!!! Omg I love this book so much!!!! It was steamy and romantic and so much fun! Highly recommend

Mistakes Were Made was my first read from Meryl Wilsner. I thought the writing was good and for the most part there was a good pace to the story. I LOVED the chemistry between Erin and Cassie - the steam in this one is 5/5 - and I found that I kept wanting more. I also loved the age gap trope between two women. It’s not just older, alpha males who are hot!

My only criticism would be that in some parts of the book it felt wordy and unnecessarily descriptive. In these chapters it felt like it was stalking the great momentum that Wilsner has built up. I also didn’t love Parker and found her to be spoiled and hard to relate too, but that could just be because I’m in a very different place in my life.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this read and can’t wait to see what the author comes up with next!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Meryl Wilsner for and advanced copy. This is my honest review.

I mostly enjoyed this book. However I wanted to see more of a connection between Erin and Cassie. For way to much time I felt like their only connection was through sex. And the age gap wasn’t great.

When Cassie Klein hooks up with a gorgeous woman at an off-campus bar on Family Weekend, she thinks it will be an uncomplicated, one-time fling. But when her best friend drags her to brunch the next morning, she realizes that woman is Erin Bennet, her best friend's mom. Their accidental relationship is now very complicated, and they agree that nothing can ever happen between them again. But as they are consistently forced together, they realize they have something real. But is it worth the cost of their relationships with their best friend and daughter? This was such a great sapphic romance! (And VERY spicy!) I don't tend to like age-gap romances, so it was hard for me to get into this story at first. But the characters are so engaging, and the story is so fun that I was hooked in no time and loved the read!

this was EXACTLY the sapphic FF romance I was looking for!! 😍 and I devoured it in like a day lol

y’all know how much I love my age gap romances, and this one was no exception!!! cassie and erin were so HAWT and perfect for each other I was swooning the entire time!!

the concept of the first chapter had me in stitches! what if you accidentally hooked up with your best friend’s mom, not realizing who she was 😳 but … it was also the best sex of your life …

what I loved even more than cassie and erin’s steamy relationship was cassie’s typical college relationship with her besties, parker and kaysh. they definitely brought me back to my college days and made me smile with the ups and downs of any friendship 🥰🫶🏼

while the back and forth indecision between cassie and erin was a tad annoying at times, I didn’t mind the length at all! the miscommunication trope lifted its head once or twice, but luckily didn’t stick around for long 😅 I just wished cassie and erin came to terms that they deserved each other sooner

thank you to st martin’s press, the author and netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

rating: 4 stars
wine pairing: tavel rosé

I love romances, but I’m not a fan of insta-lust or one-night stands or frequent foul language. Reading a graphic description of the main characters having sex within the first few pages made me wonder if I’d made a mistake picking this book. I continued to feel unsettled as the characters obsessed about each other’s appearance and the quality of the sex without developing much of a deeper relationship. However, I liked the characters well enough (other than their dishonesty), and I thought the second half of the book was better.

The age gap didn’t bother me much because both main characters had some growing up to do, and they take turns taking care of each other. I really liked the friendships, and the fact that all of the women had interests and goals outside of their relationships.

If you will enjoy queer characters, graphic sex scenes, and a secret Sapphic age-gap romance and you don’t mind vulgar language or problem drinking, then you might enjoy this.

Thanks to St. Martin's Griffin for providing me with an ARC through NetGalley, which I volunteered to review.

Have you ever had a one night stand? Did you regret it in the morning or did you continue on your normal day? In Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner, we get to see the aftermath of a one night stand gone...well, not wrong per se, but let's just say the morning after was a bit of a shocker.

College senior Cassie Klein decides to head to an off-campus bar during Parents Weekend. While there, she spots Erin Bennett across the bar and the two make eye contact. One thing leads to another and they find themselves hooking up. Only afterward does Erin drop the bomb that she is only in town visiting her daughter for Parents Weekend. After Cassie tells Erin that she is also a student at the school, they have an awkward goodbye, not expecting to see the other again.

That is, until Cassie is invited to breakfast by her best friend Parker to act as a buffer between her and her mom...Erin. The two play it cool and don't give any indication to Parker of what had occurred the night before. What was supposed to be a one night fling soon turns into more with Cassie and Erin sneaking around and hiding what is happening between the two of them from Parker.

I don't know about you, but I am a sucker for a good rom-com. And I believe this is my first sapphic rom-com so I was extra enthused about it. The story jumps right into the spice at the beginning and continues to sprinkle in steamy moments throughout. Told using third person dual POV, we are able to follow along as Cassie and Erin navigate this "new normal" (for lack of a better phrase) that has developed after an unexpected night together.

As a bisexual woman, it was a delight to have several main and supporting bisexual female characters - especially since they weren't portrayed as overly sexual. I also really appreciated that the LGBTQIA+ characters are treated the same as everyone else, both by the characters in the story as well as by the author. There is a scene in the book where a character is outraged that two women are kissing, but for a reason completely unrelated to the fact that they are two woman and I absolutely loved that. A part of me is conditioned to believe that outrage is going to come in the form of hate and it was refreshing to see it was for legitimate reasons instead.

The story progresses as you would expect a rom-com to progress. There were no surprise twists or turns and I felt pretty secure in my predictions of how the story was to develop. Even with predictable outcomes, I enjoyed this story. The characters all felt like someone that I could meet on the street and their relationships with each other were heartwarming and relatable.

One thing I did miss was a dramatic climax. It almost felt to me like it happened offscreen and you didn't get to see or feel any of the emotion that would have come with it. One of our main characters, while incredibly smart in many ways, also came off as kind of oblivious because of it. During this particular point in the story, I remember thinking that it would have benefitted from the addition of two more POVs, but once I reached the end, I actually was able to come to terms with how it was handled.

The overall message of the story really tugged at my heartstrings. It was a pleasant (and much needed) reminder that you have to make sure you are doing things for yourself and make sure that you are not putting your happiness aside for anyone else. If you're like me and a people pleaser, you definitely need to pick up this book and have it whack you over the head with this message. Your happiness is just as important as the happiness of those around you and those you love. Be the best version of yourself.

Overall, this story was delightful. I love character driven stories which is why romance appeals to me so much. What it lacked in a dramatic climax, it made up for in...well, a steamy climax. Multiple steamy climaxes even.

4.50 Stars. The MILF book is a sexy hit! Two years ago, I was lucky enough to review Wilsner’s debut book Something to Talk About. I really enjoyed it and even with a few bumps I could easily tell that Wilsner had the potential to soon have a big hit on her hands, I just didn’t realize the hit could be her sophomore book. Wow Wilsner, where were you hiding all this chemistry and steam. I remember she had some good scenes in her first book but damn it’s like she went all out and had fun writing this sexy taboo read. If you are looking for something to spice up your Holiday season, then the MILF book is the right choice for you. But even beyond all the sex, the romance itself is really good too. However, if you are not a fan of explicit sapphic sex scenes or age-gaps, then this would not be a book for you.

I must admit that at first the book took me a little while to get into. While I liked the “meet”, I had trouble with the group of friends and how things felt a little stiff or maybe forced is a better word. It took me a little bit to feel comfortable with the main characters, the age-gap, and their attraction to each other. Once I did, the book just took off and I was able too really enjoy it. My biggest advice is to give this book a little time. This is not a book to stop reading early if you find it a little stiff too. Give it some time and keep reading or you will miss out on all the fun.

I did read a couple reviews that thought Wilsner’s writing was just okay, which everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but for me we are not reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo here, we are reading a book that has a nickname of the MILF book, so I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece, I was expecting some lightly smutty sex scenes and a fun romance, and that’s exactly what we got. And really besides the beginning being a bit stiff in parts, and the book feeling a tad too long for a romance in my personal opinion, I thought it was well done for a sophomore book. I was looking forward to this book, but even then Wilsner surprised me in the best possible way. I can only imagine what she might have in store for us next.

📖My Thoughts📖

This was such a spicy enjoyable read! Rom-Coms are among my favorite genres to read. You laugh, you cry, you swoon, and then you laugh and cry some more. This book was no exception! The plot was slightly different than ones I typically read, but nonetheless, it kept me interested. There was a fair amount of smut, but I felt like the plot wasn’t overshadowed by the spice, which I think allowed the reader to see the true nature of the relationship, even before the two involved characters saw it for themselves. This had alternating points of view between the two main characters, allowing the reader a broader perspective each character. I enjoyed this one. If you’re into rom-coms, be sure to pick this one up!
Thank you Netgalley, Meryl Wilsner and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Unfortunately, despite my excitement for this novel I did not enjoy this one. I really struggled to connect with the characters and the story and often found myself losing interest in the story. It was too easy for me to put this down, and after multiple tries, I have to admit that this book just may not be for me. It has all the makings of being a wonderful book, so I would still urge you to give it a chance if you are interested in the premise of the story or looking for LGBTQ+ rep and a steamy WLW romance.