If you loved Mistakes Were Made, you'll love My Best Friend's Honeymoon!

My favorite thing about Meryl Wilsner's writing is the constant normalization of queerness and queer sex. They consistently depict aspects of my life (and sex) that I've never seen written elsewhere in books before. And not only is that hot, but its so powerful and comforting to have your lived experience mirrored back to you in a story - especially a joyful one. I'm so grateful to get an ARC of this book and have already started hyping it up within my network. What a gift, especially in these shitty times!

Meryl Wilsner is back with yet another banger of a queer romance book. I cannot wait to get this book in stores to recommend to my customers who are looking for a good sapphic romance—at this point half my recommendations are already Wilsner's work. Thank you St Martin's Press, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this before it officially releases, I will definitely be ordering this for my store and telling customers about it in anticipation for its release.
I loved the relationship between Elsie and Ginny, as well as the representation present in the book—both with their queer identities and also with Ginny being plus sized. I think Ginny's pronouns and the use of she/they for them was handled really well, there wasn't any point in which I was confused on what was happening due to the pronouns and I appreciated that Wilsner used both "she" and "they" for Ginny instead of going with what some people may consider to be the easier option of just using one of the pronouns the entire book.
I feel like there's so much I can say to praise this book. I loved the pacing, the writing, the side characters (Who I am desperately wanting to learn more about, I need a Dykes on Bikes short story or something! That whole group is so fun.), and oh my gosh the spice was top tier.
Overall, an amazing read and I cannot wait to have a physical copy on my shelf!

I am on a downhill slump when it comes to Wilsner’s books. The first word that comes to mind to describe “My Best Friend’s Honeymoon” is inexplicable. The pacing and flashbacks to when the characters were in high school didn’t flow well enough and I never felt like the plot made sense or was understandable. Ginny and Elsie have been best friends forever. Ginny asked Elsie to a dance when they were kids, Elsie said no, and they managed to maintain a friendship that was the most important relationship in their lives ever since. Elsie starts the book engaged to a “golden retriever” man named Derrick. The engagement has lasted nearly two years. Derrick believes her excuses about being too busy to plan and decides to plan it all himself and sets the date for a week later. I find the use of an overblown shitty or stupid ex-boyfriend to be lazy writing and it was a weird part of the book. I’m aware he’s required to send Ginny and Elsie on the honeymoon together, but the exaggeration of him felt off. The romance itself was fine. The book ends up being mostly sex that increasingly gets more intense. I struggled to understand the main conflict that begins once they leave the honeymoon and ended up uninterested in the rest of the book. The overall tone is still very “saying the right thing” which flattens out a lot of tension because each character is written with the fear of being a bad person and ends up being boring. Some of the scenes read as really performative and I didn’t really understand the point of them. Elsie calls out a waiter for calling her and Ginny “ladies” at dinner, but a few scenes later, another guest calls a group of (presumed) women “wives”, and that is apparently fine. Part of my problem is that I had to keep reminding myself that these characters are twenty-three, which I feel like explains a lot.

This is a really interesting concept for a queer romance! The characters are compelling and I like them. However, I found the writing style really hard to follow along with. I feel like focusing on one character’s POV would’ve been beneficial here. The perspective shifts fluidly and makes it hard to keep up with the story at times. But, I think if you want a good queer romance, this is definitely a great option.

My Best Friend's Honeymoon had all the ingredients for a great friends-to-lovers romance—years of pining, forced proximity in a romantic setting, and undeniable chemistry—but it didn’t fully deliver for me. The miscommunication trope was overused to the point of frustration, with both Ginny and Elsie making assumptions instead of having actual conversations. Elsie’s lack of backbone, especially in major life decisions, made her a difficult character to root for at times, and the reason behind her reluctance to acknowledge her feelings for Ginny felt weak.

The pacing was another issue. The flashbacks and POV shifts weren’t clearly marked, making the timeline feel disjointed. The biggest problem, though, was the structure of the book—what should have been a third-act conflict happened at the 50% mark, keeping the leads apart for way too long. For a romance novel, I wanted more on-page emotional connection between Ginny and Elsie to balance out the heavy physical side of their relationship. Instead, the spicy scenes took up so much space that the romance itself felt underdeveloped.

That said, if you’re looking for a quick, steamy read with some scorching-hot tension, this book delivers on that front. The honeymoon setting and years of buried feelings made for a solid premise, but I just needed more depth to the love story to fully buy into their relationship. A fun, sexy romcom, but not quite as satisfying as I’d hoped.

Many thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin for a copy of this novel. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

I love a friends to lovers, so I was excited to read My Best Friend’s Honeymoon. Elsie Hoffman has been engaged for a year and a half; Ginny Holtz has been in love with Elsie for more than a decade. When Elsie backs out of the already-planned wedding her fiancé surprises her with, he gives her the non-refundable honeymoon, and there’s no one else she wants to take but her best friend Ginny, and Ginny is determined that Elsie takes this trip to learn how to speak for herself, but when Elsie decides she wants Ginny, their whole world is flipped upside down. Ultimately, this one didn’t work for me. It relies so so heavily on the steam, which is fine, but I wanted more from the plot. I don’t mind the steam, but it does bother me when it feels like it’s stopping the romantic/emotional development to be explored. And the introspection they both have gets pretty repetitive that it feels like it takes a while for the story to really move forward. It also relies on the miscommunication trope to push the story forward, which isn’t my favorite. They don’t talk about their feelings until things fall apart, and they’re supposed to be best friends, so that felt frustrating. Ginny is so sweet and caring, they would do absolutely anything for Elsie, and I love the growth they go through to not only support Elsie but support themselves too. And Elise, she wants so much but is so afraid to make waves. I loved how Ginny encouraged Elsie to take the reins. It’s a quick read that’ll have you wanting to book your next vacation.

I don’t normally pick up friends to lovers, it’s typically lacking for me and I don’t enjoy that the characters already know each other well. I picked this one up because I liked that it sounded a little different, with Elsie breaking off her engagement and her and Ginny going on the honeymoon together. Sadly, it still fell pretty flat for me. Both characters took awhile to feel real to me, and they still didn’t completely by the end. I really loved that Ginny was fat and non-binary but that’s still not enough reason for me to love this book, just for rep. I also wasn’t wowed by the writing style, it’s very… flat and plain. I’m not opposed to reading from this author again but I am a little hesitant. This just wasn’t for me.

my first meryl wilsner book!!! i feel like the queer gods just took a deep sigh of relief (or exasperation)

these two bestie pals who were secretly pining for each other their entire friendship into adulthood have go away on a romantic ass honeymoon…what could go wrong- or right? turns out, not a lot because i feel like they came outta nowhere with their physical relationship, and then because their secret romantic development was all off page, i can’t say i ever truly bought it! 😭

what REALLY put me off though was the third act conflict actually being a 50% conflict, and them spending the entire last half apart. that was unbelievable i was so upset we never got more from them. i digress a smidge because what we *did* get was hot as fuck though. i’m talking dripping down your thighs, slap a wet floor sign down because there’s a flood type this. the mouth (and fingers, and tongue, and all capable limbs at this point) on these two fools had my ghasts FLABBERED. 10/10 y’all 🥵🥵 soo if youre looking for a quick, easy, and spicy spice romcom this is ABSOLUTELY your girl!

If you love friends to lovers, then this one is for you. Ginny is a non-binary, earnest, adorable woodworker with a crush the size of Lake Superior on her tall, blonde, indecisive best friend Elsie. When Elsie's engagement falls through and someone has to go on the honeymoon with her, what's a pal to do? This book had heart, yearning, and laughs. I enjoyed it a lot.

I was so excited to see I got approved for this because I liked Mistakes Were Made.

I thought this book was good - I think it just needed a little more to make it great. It was very easy to see where the story was going to go from the beginning and where the conflict was going to arise. I wish we had a little more chance to dig in to their emotional journey and more backstory /nuggets or flashbacks of them falling in love when they were kids.

This is the second book I've read with they/them pronouns, the first I've read that is in third person. It didn't take as long as I thought it might for me to not notice it. There were just a few times when I had to reread something - but thats my brains fault not the writing. I think the pronouns were done well.

I just wish this world could have been built out more. I think I needed a little more from our side characters. I think if both Elsie and Ginny talked about their relationship more with the people around them it would have solidified their issues a little more. I wish we could see that work they did to come back together. I wanted more.from Sue and the hot drag queen friend as well as Elsie's family.

I loved the spice - but usually don't love it when it's all in one part of the book. I wish we had a little more of a slow burn into their first hook up.

Another queer romance by Meryl Wilsner! I was super excited about this one just from the cover. A plus-sized MC is rare. And to have nonbinary representation too! Exciting! That said, “My Best Friend’s Honeymoon” didn’t quite meet my expectations.

Personally, I’m not a fan of romance books that involve a main character just breaking up with someone. It creates too many passages of a romance between two people to be focused on someone else. Elsie ends her engagement when he tries to spring a surprise wedding on her but since the honeymoon is nonrefundable, he is nice enough to suggest Elsie takes her best friend, Ginny, with her instead. The inevitable comparisons between Ginny and her ex, Derrick are plentiful enough to be annoying. Especially during sex. Even though they’ve been best friends for years, I found the no-questions-asked, immediately sleeping together after one statement a bit unbelievable. I did like that sex was looked at in a healthy way and lots of consent was given even after multiple times. Though the romance and plot felt a bit predictable, I still enjoyed the read. The book had lots of spice and some less typical sex, too, than you’d expect from reading Wilsner’s other books.

Overall, you can’t lose reading a Meryl Wilsner book. Even if this isn’t one of my favorites of theirs, the book is still a fun ride. Maybe I had too high of specific hopes for this book. It’s still a good read even if I’ll recommend “Mistakes Were Made” first.

Meryl Wilsner’s hottest book yet!!!

I’ve been a fan of Wilsner since Mistakes Were Made, but My Best Friend’s Honeymoon absolutely stole my heart. It takes the classic best-friends-to-lovers trope and dials up the tension, the yearning, and the heat—all while delivering a heartfelt story about self-discovery, learning to ask for what you want, and stepping into the life (and love) you actually deserve.

Elsie is stuck with a wedding she doesn’t even want when she realizes her fiancé has planned every last detail without her. So she calls it off and takes her non-refundable honeymoon to the Caribbean with her lifelong best friend Ginny, who’s been secretly in love with her for over a decade. But here’s the thing: Elsie might not have named her feelings before, but the attraction has been there all along. She just never let herself acknowledge it.

And that’s what makes this book so good. While Ginny’s been pining, Elsie’s been unconsciously repressing. When Ginny lays down the challenge that Elsie can have whatever she wants, as long as she asks for it, Elsie starts to realize what she wants most. And once the floodgates open? Whew. The tension builds in such a delicious way, and when it finally snaps, it snaps.

Beyond the romance, I loved the way Wilsner incorporated themes of communication, self-advocacy, and truly seeing yourself and your own desires. The nonbinary and fat rep is fantastic — Ginny is confident and unapologetic in their identity, and the way Elsie adores them (even before she fully admits to herself what she’s feeling) is so tender. Their dynamic is just so good — playful, intimate, and full of history, but also charged with this slow-burning realization that they could be so much more.

If you love best-friends-to-lovers, forced proximity, and pining with a side of serious spice, this one’s a must-read!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy!

DNF'ed at 23%. This book was unreadable to me as the two main characters were so deeply unlikeable. We start in the POV of Ginny and she is so in love with her best friend that all of her internal monologue is actually quite negative, cynical, and rude at times. I know we are supposed to dislike the boyfriend but he really didn't do anything out of ill intent! Derrick planned her wedding and honeymoon because he genuinely thought he was being helpful and taking stress off her plate. Then when Elsie dumps him he insists she go on the honeymoon he planned and paid for because "it would make him too sad to go" heartbreaking! I felt like I was reading a book in the POV of the villains of the story and I'm a lesbian! A lesbian who found herself rooting for the ex-boyfriend. Justice for Derrick! He should have gone on the honeymoon and found himself a nice himbo surfer dude. That's a story I would have read instead of this!

Full review to come on Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy.

I really enjoyed Elsie and Ginny’s romance. They had a great classic childhood best friends to lovers dynamic but done in a new way. It takes a bit for the book to pick up but once it does it’s really enjoyable.

Not a bad story. Not a fan of their kink but still a great quick read. A first for me. Overall, definitely a read.

I received a free copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press; all opinions expressed are exclusively my own.

Again, I'm coming back after a long review hiatus, so it's been quite some time since I read this book. I do remember it was a sweet, spicy, friends-to-lovers story with a lush vacation backdrop. Definitely worth a read if any of that sounds appealing to you!

Unfortunately, no warnings as I can't rely on my memory to be accurate.

This was a super cute book! I do wish there was more substance to the relationship as far as it going beyond just hooking up, but I mean, the title says it all! MC calls off engagement, instead takes honeymoon with their best friends. BOOM! I do love a good friends to lover trope. so that makes sense that I enjoyed this book!

Meryl Wilsner writes fabulous dialogue and Elsie and Ginny's relationship sparkles with the feelings of a true friendship with years of history through their conversations. They built references and had fun together throughout the book. I loved the setup of the book too with Elsie realizing her fiance wasn't the one for her with as little drama as that scenario could possibly have, and Ginny being there for support.

Ultimately the degradation kink that popped up about half-way through the book meant this one wasn't for me, even though everything else was on the right track. If that's not something that bothers you (or is something you're into!), I think this one is a ton of fun otherwise.

I love a friends-to-lovers novel! This is the first story I’ve read with a pan FMC and a transgender MC. This is a story of two best friends who go on a luxury vacation together and realize their attraction and love for each other through this forced proximity and one-bed in an off shore cabana. Be forewarned- it’s very spicy! If you are a fan of lengthy spicy scenes, this will be right up your alley!