As a lesbian I ate this up!!!!! This is one of my favorite books of 2022. I really cannot even put into words how much I enjoyed the characters, story, everything. This is one of those books where you’re just rooting for them so hard!!! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This book was great if you are looking for a sexy and funny read. However I kept expecting it to get deeper and it never really happened.

At the end of the story I still felt like their relationship was very surface level and they barley knew each other.

I still really enjoyed it. This was a really good book, but don’t expect it be deep.

It was super steamy. These two could not keep their hands off of each other.

This was such a fun sexy read! I was rooting for Cassie and Erin throughout the story. Their chemistry was off the charts. Loved the secondary characters as well like Parker and Acacia. The bisexual rep was on point. Highly recommend to fans of steamy romance and female / female relationships.

Mistakes Were Made is a fun and engaging read. Cassie and Erin meet in a bar, sparks fly and the story takes off from there. Of course there are complications , in this case Cassie is a close friend of Parker--Erin's daughter. There's some spicy sex scenes but the story is really about pursuing what you want and need to remain true to yourself.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The steamy, sapphic, taboo, age gap romance I did not know I needed.

Cassie is a college student with a bad family situation. So for family weekend at her college she goes out to a bar to avoid everything about it. There she meets an older woman, Erin, who she hooks up with. At breakfast the next morning with one of her best friends Parker, and Parker's mom who she realizes is the woman from the bar the night before. Will the fact that Parker is someone they both love and don't want to hurt stop them from giving into their undeniable chemistry, even when they keep getting thrown into situations together?

What I loved about this was the chemistry between the women. They smut was also fantastic, and overall the story kept me so engaged and entertained. My one criticism was how long it went on before characters actually spoke about how they felt and talk to Parker about the situation. There were also no actual conflict between Erin and Cassie. Overall a wonderful sophomore novel from the author.

A sexy and sweet rom-com with two very different but likable and well-drawn main characters. Cassie hooks up with an older woman at a bar one night when she is trying to escape Family Weekend at her college. They have a fantastic connection (warning: very, very open door if that's something that bothers you!) and Cassie thinks that's it - until she goes to brunch the next morning with her new friend and meets her friend's mom, Erin. Yep, her one-night stand in the flesh. I have to admit to a double standard here; if this were a older male-younger female pairing, I would be grossed out, horrified, and would have instantly DNFd the book. However, women are different from men with different maturity levels, and in my opinion, Wilsner really made this relationship work. Both women have vulnerabilities and issues to work through, and they both grow throughout the book as they try to figure out what they are to each other. As I mentioned earlier, this is very open door, not my favorite thing, but Wilsner is good at writing both fun sexy times and meaningful, romantic interactions. There are plenty of hurdles to overcome - as the title states, mistakes were made - but overall I really enjoyed this romance. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/St. Martin's Griffin for a digital review copy.

Personally? The so called "MILF romance" disappointed me. Fans of "Something To Talk About" should not expect another novel about tough topics like sexual harassments, racism, and ageism. So, overall, fine? But not great.

Mistakes Were Made was a fantastic book!! The amount of sexiness, love, and emotion that you get from this book is beyond astonishing. You can feel the chemistry between the main characters while reading and it screams at you from the pages. I enjoyed this book from start to finish. There was nothing about this book I didn't like and I am surprised about that because I feel like there is always something that stands out to me in books. A perfect sapphic romance in my head. Loved it!!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good sapphic book, but add in a milf and I’m sold. This was good; middle of the road. It was a bit predictable so I wasn’t completely pulled into the story like I could have been. I just wanted more from this.

This was such a fun book! I liked but didn't love Wilsner's debut, so I went into this with some trepidation but I thought it was a great time.

I really liked both Cassie and Erin and I thought they were well fleshed out as characters. While I didn't always agree with their choices, I was able to believe their motivations and I definitely believed their chemistry. I also liked seeing Cassie's relationships with her friends, though I didn't necessarily feel the same pull between Erin and her friend Rachel. I also loved Erin's relationship with her daughter and her willingness to make changes so that she doesn't make the same mistakes her mom did.

As a whole, I thought this was an entertaining read. It was well paced and I liked the writing and it was very spicy. It fully delivered on the queer contemporary romance plot it promises, which I appreciated after a string of "women's fiction" reads sold as rom-coms.

The unnecessary racial tokenism really soured this book for me. At times the book also read like a man writing a sapphic relationship. It didn’t feel genuine or realistic as a WLW relationship, and it felt like immediately there was the feminine/masculine roles. I had higher hopes.

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4* - Mistakes Were Made is a compulsively readable and thoroughly enjoyable ride. The characters felt authentic and I was truly rooting for them throughout the entire book.

My only gripe comes from the actions/motivations of a secondary character that a significant portion of the plot hinges on.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Mistakes Were Made is a split perspective romance centered around Cassie, a college senior, and Erin, the mother of one of Cassie's close friends at school. An anonymous one night stand at a bar during the university's family weekend quickly spirals out of control when Cassie's friend Piper brings her to breakfast with her mother the next morning only to discover they had already met the night before. Thus ensues months of secret texts, taboo hookups, and awkward situations that make up the rest of the novel.

I appreciated the bisexual representation in the novel (both main characters identify as such) that was not centered around strife over their identity or relationships. It was refreshing to read characters that were comfortable with themselves.

I did find some bits quite repetitive, especially when the characters are internally debating whether to continue their "situationship". The internal dialog is repeated with little change throughout the book.

Though the relationship in this book is between 2 consenting adults, I do expect this book to not be for everyone (I struggled with it at times). There is a significant age gap and a bit of a power dynamic at play here, so fair warning to those who want to avoid that kind of thing.

Crossposted to goodreads at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4981717574?book_show_action=false

A sizzling easy to read rom-com!

What happens when the hot cougar from the bar last night turns out to be your best friend’s mom? That’s what Cassie is about to find out when she joins her best friend Parker and her mom for breakfast.

Cassie is a senior in college and the unbelievably hot MILF she hooked up with is her best friend’s adoring mother. They shouldn’t take things beyond that first night but that doesn’t mean either one of them can stop themselves.

What happens when you throw “should” out the window and live your life according to your own expectations?

I read it in a day and not just because Cassie and Erin’s chemistry was palpable, I also genuinely wanted to know how it all panned out and the ending did not disappoint. The supporting friendships in the book are important too, each character feels unique and developed while contributing to the success of their best friends’ story. The author did a good job of conveying that this wasn’t about mommy issues or other Freudian assumptions folks might make while balking at the age split – showing us two adult women with their own flaws and strengths drawn to each other.

A hot sexy romance where the sex scenes read like they were written by someone who’s actually had good sex and not just fantasized about it. I’ll definitely keep an eye out for any of Wilsner’s other books in this vein because they

A big old “Thank You” to Netgalley, the Publisher and of course to Meryl Wilsner for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review. Your efforts are in good hands and I appreciate the trust.

Title: Mistakes Were Made
Author: Meryl Wilsner
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Pages: 352
Format: ePub read on Kindle (Will be sold in paperback, available for preorder now)
Publication Date: October 11, 2022

Cassie is a college senior and meets an older woman named Erin in a bar off campus. They have an amazing one night stand. When Cassie's friend Parker calls her the next morning to have lunch with her overbearing mother, imagine her surprise when Erin is sitting at the table.

I liked the forbidden and age gap romance aspect because it's not something I see in books very often. The steam factor is pretty high up there and as always it's refreshing to see queer rep in books. Once I got about halfway it started to feel a little long and I was struggling to finish. I wish there were more to the story than sneaking around and hiding a relationship. While I didn't love this one, I know that it will be a huge hit for some.

I loved this book. I knew from the second I read the blurb that it wasn't just going to be another romcom. It was an emotional roller coaster. Cassie and Erin were pure fire.

I'll preface this by saying that it was my first Sapphic novel, so I really had no idea whether I would enjoy it or not. That said, I did! I thought it was well written with endearing characters. Sometimes (particularly in the presence of Parker) I felt like Cassie came off a little immature, but other times not. I liked that she was intelligent with a good head on her shoulders despite her upbringing. I ultimately liked how the story unraveled, even though its still hard for me imagining someones best friend becoming their step mo, hanging out a lot and not having it be the most awkward situation in the world. But the friendships in the book felt genuine and I don't take issue with how things worked out.

Imagine hooking up with the hottest woman at the bar only to find out the next morning that she’s your best friend’s mom?! That’s the premise of this book and wow it did not disappoint. This book has everything - bisexual main characters, forbidden romance, FaceTime cooking sessions, MILFs, and so many spicy, well written s3x scenes (brace yourself for the one in Cassie’s apartment).

I loved not only the chemistry and romance between our two leads Cassie and Erin, but also the supporting characters and how everyone deals with their dynamic. Wilsner's writing is engaging and well written and I love this world that they created.

Spicy sapphic romance. Girl hooks up with a stranger at a bar, plot twist she’s her friends mom. Kinda long but I really liked it overall!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Cassie is a senior in college and looking to escape Family weekend by going to the bar away from school. Cassie picks up an older lady, Erin, and later finds out it is her friend Parker's mom. This story navigates college ships and long distance ships and the secrecy that us being pursued. I think the real MVP here is Parker and I enjoyed Acacia, friend to Cassie and Parker, being apart of the story line.

I also appreciated the internalized conundrum that Cassie exhibited towards the end of the novel and how it showed up in her behaviors. Overall, an enjoyable, can't keep my hands off of you story.