Elsie has been engaged for a long time. However, she seems so uninterested in planning a wedding. Long story short, the wedding was canceled but the wedding and honeymoon was already planned. Elsie then takes her bestfriend,Ginny, to the honeymoon. Ginny has always been inlove with Elsie. What happens when they go to the carribean for Elsie’s honeymoon?

If you’re looking for an easy read with A LOT of spice this is for you! I would say though that the romance got lost in the spice. I really didn’t feel the chemistry of the two main characters. With that being said, its still good and a great spicy vacation read!

✨ The Vibes ✨
Spicy friends-to-lovers with great representation

📖 Read if…
✨ You’re looking for a f/nb romance
✨ Friends-to-lovers is your favorite trope
✨ You want a book with vacation vibes

On paper, My Best Friend’s Honeymoon feels like an early 2000s rom com (minus the elements of those movies that haven’t aged well). It’s a friends-to-lovers story with a touch of forced proximity, a lot of pining, and some stellar representation, which was honestly one of the highlights of the book for me. In my opinion, Meryl Wilsner does a great job of finding ways to incorporate the energy and tension of a slow burn, even when the burn isn’t that slow, and I truly love that about their writing. Those vibes shine through, and made me enjoy the book, even though I didn’t love it.

What put me off from this story was unfortunately the friendship dynamic. I’m typically a fan of the friends-to-lovers trope, but the friendship between Elsie and Ginny felt a bit toxic. Some of Elsie’s actions read as though she was only there for Ginny when she needed something, and that she didn’t really care about Ginny’s own feelings or experiences. With that as the foundation, it made it hard to root for them as a couple because I wanted to tell Ginny to run for the hills. The spice level was also a challenge as the number of spicy scenes came at cost, with more time spent on those moments, rather than developing Elsie, Ginny, and the relationship between them.

Overall, I think I’d still recommend this book because I thought it had some cute moments and great representation, but I don’t think it’s one I will revisit in the future.

My Best Friend’s Honeymoon is out now. Thanks to St. Martin’s Griffin and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Nobody is doing traditionally published sapphic romance like Meryl Wilsner right now. Representation matters, and we've got a non-binary fat protagonist and a bisexual femme having an unproblematic romance with no threat of homophobia. The biggest family dilemma is the gruff dad having a hard time passing along the torch of the family business. That's what I like to see. The spice level is definitely high on this one so I won't be recommending to the WordSmarts newsletter audience, but I'm in support of more of this representation in the publishing industry.

This is a good pick if you're looking for a fun, sexy, queer beach read. I would suggest the plot is maybe a little thin, but I definitely didn't mind that.

Elsie finally breaks off her engagement after avoiding the inevitable for too long. I did like that her fiance wasn't a bad guy, just totally clueless. Elsie's best friend Ginny is there with anything she needs, like always, and this time it means coming along for Elsie's honeymoon. You'll never guess what happens next!! (Except you'll totally guess what happens next- it's vacation sex, but it's what you're here for anyway, right?)

I really loved Cleat Cute. I liked this one a lot, but not quite as much. It's probably now my second favorite book by Meryl Wilsner.

I am really sad to say that this book was entirely not for me. The communication issues both in the book and in the backstory were rough and it felt terrible that Elsie had apparently strong someone along for years. Then everything between her and Ginny happens too quickly, it's 0 to 100, trying things they've apparently never done before with anyone else. I don't know. It all just felt very rushed and at the end I didn't really care for any of the characters.

Not for me personally, I liked the characters and the concept, but felt like the way the plot was written ended up being very toxic and that the two FMC were not very compatible outside of the bedroom. In the end, it just felt like one character would have to bend or give up parts of themselves to make the relationship work.

I wish there were more books with fat nonbinary lesbian main characters because reading about Ginny was healing for me. The chemistry with Elsie was wonderful, and I can't resist friends-to-lovers (it's my favorite trope). I did end up putting the book down for a few weeks when the conflict started. The conflict kind of soured me on one of the characters a little, but I'm really glad I went back to it.

Thank you to Netgalley, Meryl Wilsner and St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I always love Meryl Wilsner’s books but sadly this one was hard for me to get through. It was simply too spicy for me! I wish there had been a bit more plot and less spice. But to each their own!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC. I had high hopes for this book but execution wasn’t there. While I like spice in a romcom, this felt more like porn with very little plot in between. It just seemed unrealistic that two best friends would secretly fall in love with each other, have nonstop sex, but then have all these communication issues!!

This story was one that I ended up skipping rather than reading. I was intrigued when reading but then researched those who read it and it seemed it was something that might not interest me. With it being due soon I did not read this book

My Best Friend's Honeymoon follows Elsie as she breaks off her engagement with her long-term boyfriend, and finds herself in possession of non-refundable honeymoon tickets. She decides to invite her best friend, Ginny, who just so happens to be in love with Elsie.

While overall I enjoyed this romance, and think others would love it, I struggled with the pacing of the plot. The main characters are, understandably, worried that their new sexual relationship would ruin their close friendship. I felt as though there was a quick jump between friends to lovers, and not enough communication between the MC's. I will say, I love how Wilsner writes lovable queer characters and is able to give them the happy endings they deserve.

The cover of this one caught my eye and made me request. THis was a fun quick summer read that I think will be popular as a beach read. Thanks so much for the gifted copy

I liked that different body types were represented and appreciated. There were some very spicy scenes. However, the ending felt abrupt. I wanted a bit more.

My Best Friend's Honeymoon got put onto my TBR immediately after hearing about it back in June of 2024! Between this steamy cover and absolutely adoring Meryl Wilsner's Mistakes Were Made, I simply had to read their next release!

Let's start here:
The third-person perspective made it so hard to truly feel the romance and chemistry between Elsie and Ginny. This friends to lovers trope didn't help either, as I just didn't feel much buildup and pining between the two main characters. Elsie's feelings really needed to be processed more - her whole life changed in such a monumental way, and there just wasn't enough (any) conversation about it between herself and Ginny. I'm honestly still trying to decide if I liked Elsie or not, and both main characters often felt immature. At one point, I was shocked to realize just how much more I had left to read, making this book seem slightly too long overall. The two audiobook narrators sounded so similar to one another, which caused confusion at which POV each chapter was from. I truly disliked the voice used for Elsie's dialogue when either narrator was speaking.

And finish on a positive note:
I loved and adored the huge amount of representation!

Finally:
Although it wasn't one of my favourite reads, I enjoyed being whisked away to a tropical destination, and I'm still blushing over this cover!

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin and Macmillan Audio for the complimentary copies to read and review.

Meryl Wilsner’s “My Best Friend’s Honeymoon” is a sapphic romance centered on two childhood best friends rediscovering their bond and their feelings during a week-long trip to paradise.

Twenty-three-year-old Elsbeth “Elsie” Hoffman has spent most of her life avoiding confrontation and suppressing her desires. She has been engaged to Derrick for a year and a half, yet she’s never had a say in planning their wedding, from the venue to the date. She works as a cashier at Hoffman Hardware, her family’s store, feeling frustrated that her parents refuse to let her use her business degree to modernize the business and attract more customers. When she finds out that Derrick has arranged their entire wedding without consulting her, Elsie realizes that while she may not know exactly what she wants out of life, she knows she doesn’t want to marry him. After calling off the wedding, Derrick insists she still take their nonrefundable honeymoon trip to Saint Lupita-and invites her to bring along Ginny, her childhood best friend.

Non-binary Virginia “Ginny” Holtz has secretly been in love with Elsie for years. After Elsie turned them down for prom in high school, Ginny buried their feelings, content to stay close as friends. But when Elsie asks Ginny to join her on the honeymoon, Ginny agrees, vowing to help Elsie discover what she truly wants. Early into the trip, Elsie confesses she wants Ginny, and their vacation quickly transforms into a sensual escape, packed with passion and desire. However, once they return home, the pair must determine whether their newfound connection can survive the reality of everyday life and the pursuit of their individual dreams.

While the premise is promising, the execution falters, particularly in pacing and character development. Nearly forty percent of the novel is consumed by steamy sex scenes, one after the other, during the Saint Lupita portion of the story, leaving little room for plot progression or emotional growth. Though it's realistic that some couples may spend most of a romantic getaway behind closed doors, the absence of meaningful interactions or shared experiences outside the bedroom make this section feel repetitive. The erotic content is vividly written, but it does not deepen the characters or advance the relationship in any significant way.

After returning from the island, the tone shifts abruptly. The couple’s sudden and intense argument feels contrived, as if Wilsner struggled to introduce meaningful conflict. The final portion of the novel slows considerably, with both characters trying to navigate their futures individually. Unfortunately, the emotional depth and growth that were missing earlier are not compensated for in this segment, resulting in an unsatisfying resolution. The novel presents little personal or relational development beyond the sexual experimentation, which ultimately leaves the romance feeling underdeveloped.

I was not a fan of this book. I loved the premise but felt the author spent too much time focused on repeatedly announcing that the non binary character was in fact, non binary. I prefer books to have characters that span race, sexuality, etc that are woven into the story rather than the story being about their "difference." I also was particularly turned off by one of the intimate scenes. Most of them were sort of steamy but had a lot of language that made them hard to get into.

This was just fine. I liked the premise but it was a lot of inevitable, plus miscommunication, which is always annoying.
While some folks might enjoy the spice level, it felt like spice over substance for me, personally.

4.5 stars

4.5/5

This was really cute and fun and steamy. I would definitely categorize it as New Adult and not adult.

My only wish is that this author would write characters that are older.

I also wanted this to have an epilogue, just because I feel like both characters did a lot of work on themselves after they got back from the honeymoon so I kind of wanted to see how that panned out in the future and what they ended up doing.

Other than that, I really enjoyed this book!

Thank you to the publisher for an ALC and an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

My friend and I read this book and it was good, but there was just a lot of spice scenes and going into this I was expecting a more wholesome cheesy read. There wasn't even much of an actual relationship they were just hooking up all the time and it really threw me off. Wasn't for me but I would still recommend