Thanks NetGallery for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book, I was so excited to read it but I couldn't connect with the main characters and that made me kinda disappointed.

Cassie was unbearable, like she repeatedly tried to embarrass Parker without reason and then she was awful to her, she even had the audacity to call her a bad friend when she was seeing her mom behind her back. Erin, on the other hand, was not so bad but I couldn't quite understand her behavior either, at the end she seemed too immature for me.

Now the good point is that it was a nice reading, although if it wasn't for the main characters I could've enjoyed more.

Mistakes were made but reading this book was not one of them! Cassie and Erin's relationship was sweet, sexy, and had the right mix of romance and drama. I was hooked from the beginning with their first meeting. When I wasn't reading this, I was thinking about it! This is a must-read for fans of age-gap romances or just a good wlw romance in general. 5 out of 5 stars.

Mistakes were made was a pretty solid read for me. I loved watching Cassie and Erin’s relationship bloom over the couple of months we get to follow their romance. I however did not feel comfortable with the 20+ year age gap and the whole situation with Cassie (early twenties) dating her best friend’s mother. It at times made me feel a little bit uncomfortable, but putting that aside, I loved the romance. I love Meryl Wilsner’s writing style so much. I followed her over to this book from her last book “Something To Talk About”. I would still very much recommend this title to anyone looking for a cute romance/light read.

A fun, witty romance. A few times I found myself confused and rereading paragraphs as the story would jump unexpectedly.

I’d been anticipating this release ever since it was first announced! Mistakes Were Made feels exactly like those nights where you cuddle up with a glass of wine to watch your favorite romcom. I think we all need more milf books in our lives! I was really happy that the inevitable conflict (something that can make or break a romance book for me) in fact played out differently than where I thought this book was going. The writing is light and the banter between our two protagonists made me giggle. However, I oftentimes found the characters to be a bit inaccessible and the ending felt too rushed (at least for my liking). Overall, it was an enjoyable reading experience with lots of humor and many heartfelt moments.

this was... A Ride lol

it was a fun (and definitely spicy) read that I flew through and enjoyed a good amount. there are just two small things that i would've liked to see to make it more of a 5 star read for me.

firstly, the pacing. i flew through the beginning and the (slightly underwhelming) end of the novel pretty quickly but i feel that the 2nd act dragged out quite a bit and the major conflict didn't really go anywhere? at least it felt to me that there was never really a major climax in the story. and the ending was also a bit rushed and underwhelming in my opinion.

and secondly, obviously Parker is the major foil in Cassie & Erin's relationship by being the daughter/best friend stuck between these two, but her character was really underutilized i guess is the best way to put it? i'm never a huge fan of the miscommunication trope and this book kind of falls into that category for me. the main relationship is taboo/not common so yes there was a lot of secrecy and sneaking around but i felt like her character in particular could have been used as a driving point for the conflict a little bit better.

I knew I needed this book the second it was announced. I love nothing more than when a book I’m excited for lives up to expectations. This book is steamy, swoony, and made me laugh several times. Highly recommend for a fun read that’s guaranteed to leave you smiling.

I am so bummed because I loved this author's debut was unable to finish this book. I found it to be too focused on sex and kept waiting for something more. Thank you so much for the opportunity and your consideration.

I really wanted to love this book and I absolutely adored Wilsner's debut. But as the parent of a kid who graduated college 3 years ago, I just could not get past the age difference. I think many readers will be able to get lost in the story, which is very sexy BTW, but I was just not one of them.

Mistakes Were Made is one of those books you grab when you’re looking for something simple. It’s one of those stories that’s interesting enough, you’re invested pretty early on to see how it plays out, but you probably won’t be re-reading often. It’s a great “beach read.”

Whew, this book was STEAMY. Cassie is in her final year of undergrad. When a one-night stand with a hot AF older woman turns out to be the mother of her best friend, it's awkward...but also not. The sexual tension is high, lots of flirty innuendoes, but at the heart of it are 2 adult women falling for each other even while utterly convinced that nothing could possibly come of this. I adored the 2 MCs, adored the side characters, and even though I saw the twist coming a mile away, it did not detract from the charm of this book. I also loved that there was lots of mention of on page therapy and I really liked that both Erin and her daughter went to therapy (separately) and I would have loved a mention of Cassie down the road also going to therapy.

Content Notes: parental alcoholism and abandonment, divorce, off page cheating in the past, age gap

I've always been a bit on the fence about 'age-gap' romance (they are definitely not my go-to genre, even if it's queer), but I am a huge fan of forbidden romance (turns out) so this book was actually a bit of a nice surprise since I had started reading without knowing too much about the storyline ahead of time.

I was lucky enough to receive an advance digital copy through NetGalley (thank you!) and requested the book based on the fact that this is a new book from the author of Something to Talk About (which I enjoyed).

The main characters were multi dimensional (continued to develop through the story arc), right from the start I cared about what was happening to them and wondered what is going to happen to them as their story unfold.

The secondary and supporting cast were kind of meh, maybe a few characters too many. But I get it, this is not a book about two people in a vacuum, 'real life' means there are people around, best friends, family friends, kids you grew up with, friends of friends that are always milling about. But, it was at times, a few too many.

I mean, I'm even a bit older than the 'cougar' in the book and seriously can't imagine seeing a university student (or really even someone from their LATE 20s)...BUT!! Reading sometimes is about entertainment, and this was an entertaining read.

I was so excited to get an advanced copy of this one on NetGalley after seeing it on TikTok. I couldn’t resist the appeal of an age gap, best friend's mom situation and was pleasantly surprised by how invested I became in the relationship. This one landed pretty middle of the road for me, so I'll list out some pros and cons.

Pros:
1. There is no miscommunication or unwarranted breakup that we have to deal with; the characters handle conflict and obstacles really maturely and much more realistically than we normally see in romance books
2. The relationship feels authentic and we buy it because of the time spent building it up
3. It really truly is a sweet book and I was tearing up by the epilogue

Cons:
1. As someone who never notices swearing or cursing in a book because I do it so much myself, this book had moments where there was constant unnecessary/inauthentic swearing.
2. In that same vein, how many times can we possibly call Erin a bitch? First of all, I found the attempts to make her seem annoying or nagging to her daughter very unnatural, but also, surely there is a way to pull in some better writing to convey her personality.
3. I struggled with the pacing a bit. I found the way we would just skip forward a month from one paragraph to the next to be very jarring. There were several times the author would allude to a future event and then suddenly we were describing it as if we had been there all along.

All-in-all, I enjoyed reading this one and I'd definitely consider picking up other books by this author in the future. Any "cons" I had were mostly up to personal preference and didn't impact my ability to appreciate the storyline.

If you are in the Queer BookTok community like I am, you will know this is one of the most anticipated titles for the 2022 publishing year. As a fan of Meryl’s previous release, “Something to Talk About” (2019), I have been really excited to read this book; it doesn’t hurt that Meryl was referring to this book as ‘the MILF book’ when they started working on it. The hype is real!

The tropes you’ll come across in this book are found family, age gap romance, forbidden love, and single parent household. This is a queer romance story, and features women-loving-women. Content warnings include discussions of divorce, and sex. Lots and lots of sex.

We have three main characters for this story: Erin Bennett, Cassie Klein, and Parker Bennett. Erin Bennett is a divorced single mom of a daughter (Parker). Erin is a doctor; she is working on fulfilling her dream of setting up a health clinic. Parker is Erin’s daughter, and she is a college freshman; She’s trying to figure out her place in the world. Parker is meeting new friends, trying to spread her wings, and trying to decide what she wants to do with her life. Cassie is in her last year of college, wrapping up her under-grad. She is working on picking which school she’ll attend for her graduate degree.

Our story kicks off with Erin and Cassie meeting in a bar during parents’ weekend and hooking up. Things get a bit more complicated when, the next morning, Parker takes Cassie to meet her mom for breakfast and Cassie discovers that she slept with her best friend’s mom.

The things that I loved about this book:
- The Bisexual representation! All three of the main characters are bisexual. There is also a secondary character who is pansexual.
- As a writer and consumer of erotica, I have to say that the sex scenes are A+. I also must give Meryl credit for writing sex scenes that are diverse and utilize several different techniques (including props).
- Another thing that was done extremely well in this box was the non-sexual intimate scenes between Erin and Cassie that build their bond as a couple; they were really well written and did a great job of showing us, the reader, just how close Erin and Cassie were becoming.
- The connection to “Something to Talk About”! I immediately picked it out of the story and was over the moon to discover that the two books take place in the same fictional universe.

I have to highlight that Meryl pulled a fast one on us, ha ha. Meryl is known for their ability to craft a slow burn romance. Yes, there is romantic tension and sex right off the bat in this story – but there is also a slow-burn element to it. This is a romance novel – so the happily ever after (HEA) is a given. But that also means there’s a third act conflict in there somewhere. I found I was waiting for that conflict to pop up; the closer I got to the end of the book, the more antsy I found myself getting for that conflict to happen. That said, when it finally did happen, it caught me off guard because it came up in a part of the story I wasn’t expecting to see it in.

The book lived up to my expectations of it – I feel it deserves the hype it has received. I consider this to be one of my top reads for 2022 so far.

I did not love this one. But I think it may have been an error of my own making as going in I was aware of what the story was: college senior hooks up with best friend's mom. I've been dabbling in age-gap romances and most have been older men/younger women (some older women/younger men but those gaps are... slim) so I was especially keen to see a sapphic age gap.

Trying to tease apart what didn't work for me, I can say what did work: the writing was well done and the book well paced, I thoroughly enjoyed the side characters and their relationships (if, possibly, they could have had more necessity at times), I liked Erin and Cassie - both as individual characters going through their own development and as a couple together, and it was steamy AF. So, you see, on paper this makes a pretty good read - I would definitely recommend it to folks. I love seeing sapphic romances and women going after what brings them joy - even when that isn't what the world expects of them. I loved Erin and Cassie's narrative around "fuck should" and not doing things just because you "should" or "shouldn't" based on expectations.

BUT... but... a somewhat turning point in the second quarter of the book is Erin flying Cassie home with her daughter for Christmas break which kind of kickstarts this into a relationship from just an "oh shit" one-night stand. And all of those chapters, for me, felt like blurring the line between flirting and mothering. Before that - great, hot ONS. After that - great, they want to be together. But because of this section, I really struggled to disentangle these two very different dynamics between the women moving forward.

This book was really cute. I did feel a little weird about the age difference, but that's a me issue, not a book issue. I enjoyed seeing the friendship between the three best friends.

This was confusing for me. I thought I would like it more than I did but I think I’m just not used to the age difference. The spice was good , but I just couldn’t completely get into it. I really tried , but this was definitely a harder read for me. I didn’t hate it , but it wasn’t my favorite. So three stars as a neutral opinion.

Talk about a sexy FF romance! It was fun and super hot to read about the unlikely pairing of Cassie and Erin, and I really loved the message to F*ck Should! Finding the freedom to prioritize happiness and let go of inhibitions is a wonderful thing we should all aspire to achieve. There were a couple times when I wished for more narrative progression than sex, but I did appreciate the way the characters grew in their emotional connections and maturity throughout the novel. It’s definitely a fun read I’d recommend to fans of female romance. Big Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review. I’ll be keeping an eye out for more from the author!

This was such a fantastic read! I loved her first book, and this one sounded just as good! I had such a great time with Cassie and Erin, and their relationship was so great to read about! I picked this book up, and I just couldn't put it down!

The idea of a college student hooking up with her friend's mom is a little strange, but oh, was it such an enjoyable read. I loved Cassie and Erin, they were both fantastic characters, and I had a really great time watching their relationship unfold!

Between the fact that there's the age difference-and Cassie is best friends with Parker, Erin's daughter-there's something a bit taboo about their relationship. But I couldn't help but root for it, because there's great chemistry between the two of them, and they get along together so well, they had to end up together!

Of course there's drama, from the fact that at various points they get cold feet, to outside influences, but of course things do work out in the end. I loved that ending, too, with how things worked out, that was just adorable to read!

Loved reading this book, and I can't wait to read more by Meryl Wilsner!

Overall this book had amazing potential but ended up disappointing a bit. The spice was excellent, but I didn’t feel a connection to either of the main characters, or their connection with each other. A lot of telling and not showing, I suppose. I don’t even have a great conception of what either character looks like, or what they liked about each other other than their chemistry. Which isn’t a bad thing, don’t get me wrong, I loved how celebratory of sapphic sexuality it was. But that felt like all there was to this book.