This was an ok read for me. I've heard good things about Meryl Wilsners' novels and things my first experience with her. I liked some.parts more than others but I couldn't completely connect with the writing at times. I found myself finishing the book cause I always want to give queer books a chance.

So, I liked this. I didn't love it, and that's okay, but I did like it.

This is a friends to lovers story that follows two lifelong friends, Ginny and Elsie, as they go on Elsie's honeymoon together after she breaks up with her fiance before their wedding. Smut ensues.

Here's the thing—I felt like a lot of the personal growth and character development happened veeeeery quickly. Like, Elsie's whole thing is putting people above herself/not having boundaries/not being able to stand up for herself. And that gets worked through with incredible speed for someone who has presumably dealt with this her whole life. IDK, the pacing of the whole book felt off too me, and I wanted the ending to be more fleshed out.

Anyway, I will never not read a Wilsner book, but this isn't my favorite of their work. While I enjoyed it, it's not something that I'll be holding close to my heart the way I have with some of their other stories.

This was a DNF for me unfortunately. I couldn't get into it at all. I found it to be extremely slow. There wasn't any true romance with the characters- it was purely hooking up and that gets old super quick for me. I have another Meryl Wilsner book on my shelf that I will definitely give a try. This just wasn't up my alley. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this early, though!

While this book did have its cute moments, it just didn't work well for me as a whole. It felt very rushed and clunky and I would have liked a little more from the ending, even just an epilogue jumping ahead a bit. The spice was incredibly well written but I was not expecting it to take up practically the entire middle of the book. Worth a read, but not Wilsner's best.

I would like to start off with thanking both the publisher and netgalley for allowing me to read this book!

I am a huge Meryl Wilsner fan and this book did not disappoint!! I loved the inclusion of nonbinary characters and also a character who is bigger. I think their friendship was very sweet and wish for someone who only wants the best for me lol. I highly recommend this book!!

I would say this is a solid 3.75 stars. I loved the premise of it but Elsie kind of drove me nuts being so.... docile. I did love Ginny, they really saved the book for me. I didn't necessarily "feel" the love between the characters but I think it's because the romance took a back seat to the sex in the book. I was craving a little more but did enjoy this overall

This was an enjoyable reader! I enjoyed Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner and this was a good follow up.

I enjoyed how fast paced it was and this was a great F/NB book to start with, as I had never read one before.

I’m always a sucker for the friends to lovers trope. This did not disappoint! I loved the plot and the slow burn romance. The spice level was just right! The story is about two best friends (Elsie and Ginny) who go on a nonrefundable honeymoon together after Elsie dumps her boyfriend.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

There were a lot of things I really liked about this book – especially in the first half. I also read this pretty quickly, and it was a great fun read, definitely on vacation or in the summer. However, I felt like the spice in this book took over the plot & sidelined the romance. I don’t mind spice in my romance stories, and the scenes were good, but the way these two got together seemed so quick & didn’t make sense given the years of secret pining. I also don’t love miscommunication as the driving conflict, but I did like how Ginny & Elsie developed as characters after the third act conflict.

I love Meryl Wilsner’s books and will continue to pick them up - I just wanted more emotional depth while the romance was really developing.


Thank you to NetGalley, the author, & the publishers who sent me this ARC to read & review! <3

Already going in a big fan of Meryl Wilsner I had my hopes up for this book and was not disappointed at all. The slow build of this book was worth the wait with the level of spice Wilsner gifted us with. I finished this book caring about the characters and am already ready to add this to my reread list, Definity a recommended read to anyone who is a fan of a spicy friends to lovers read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Meryl Wilsner delivers on the steam in My Best Friend’s Honeymoon. Their talent for writing sizzling, well-paced intimacy is undeniable. Unfortunately, the rest of the novel didn’t quite work for me.

Elsie was insufferable—I struggled to connect with her and found her frustrating rather than endearing. The friends-to-lovers trope also fell flat because we didn’t get enough of their actual friendship before the romance took over. Simply stating that they’ve been friends since childhood isn’t enough to build a strong emotional foundation. I wanted more depth and development before they jumped into bed.

Overall, this was a quick, steamy read, but I needed more from the characters and their relationship to be fully invested. Three stars, but only because of the steamy scenes.

This was a fun read! I really enjoyed Ginny as a main character, especially. She was so protective of Elsie, and I could really feel their chemistry! I will absolutely be adding it to my recommended lists.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read the ARC.

After being completely obsessed with Cleat Cute I was so excited to get another ARC from Meryl Wilsner.

This book is about two long time best friends Elsie (she/her) and Ginny (they/she) who go together on a nonrefundable honeymoon after Elsie calls off her wedding and are forced to face the truth of their feelings for each other during their week in paradise.

**Spoilers below**

At face value this book seemed like it would be right up my alley but unfortunately it really wasn’t. I found both main characters, but especially Elsie, to be quite unlikeable and it made it so hard to root for them. Then when Elsie finds out Ginny didn’t tell her that they quit their job and she completely freaks out and says some cruel stuff to Ginny I found myself outright wanting them to fail.

I’ve also felt like Wilsner has done a great job in previous books of writing inclusivity in a very natural way but I didn’t get that with this book. Having Elsie lecturing people about how they treat Ginny and the way that Ginny’s fatness was talked about ending up feeling like it was trying too hard.

Ultimately I didn’t dislike this book strongly enough that I won’t read others from this author but I definitely disliked it enough to not recommend it to others.

i loved the premise of the book but at times, the execution fell short.

i'm a sucker for friends to lover. i'm even more of a sucker when it's queer. elsie and ginnny have been best friends forever but the secret is? they both want more. the book is an exploration of what it means to finally go after what you want.

the book fell short when it comes to communication. there's so many times a simple talk would have fixed things and even in the end, they didn't talk about some of the huge issues. the book kind of cut off abruptly. i would have loved more exploration and communication.


book: 3.5/5
spice: 4/5

content warning: sexual content, blood, emotional cheating (maybe?), misgendering, secrets

tropes:
- best friends to lovers
- she falls first but she falls harder

I enjoyed both of Wilsner's other books I've read (Mistakes Were Made and Cleat Cute). Unfortunately, I enjoyed both of those more than this one. Wilsner's books are generally on the spicier side than most of my reading but I have found, in the past, that there is substance to back up the steam. I just didn't get that with this book. That may be because this book follows two folks who have been best friends forever. They have a long history where the possibility of a romantic relationship has been suggested and shot down and so they have settled in to be great friends. When one of them, Elsie, dumps a super mid fiancé and is still able to go on the honeymoon, it is only natural that they chose their best friend to tag along with them. On that vacation the best friend, Ginny, spends the entire time encouraging Elsie to really go for what she wants. At some point, she decides she wants Ginny and the two have quite the set of sexual exploits while away. I just didn't find that I was invested in their relationship because, I think, too much of it was expected to be built on parts of the relationship that the reader didn't watch happen because it was all in the already-established-past. There didn't feel like there was a build up or chemistry really.

The conflict also felt kind of clunky. The thing they disagreed on was mentioned throughout the story in the leadup to the conflict but it felt kind of randomly inserted. Ultimately, the point was that both of these folks needed to find and be happy in themselves in order to be good for each other. That's great and totally true especially when you've been in a long-term relationship of any kind but that part of the plot didn't really have time to breath in amongst all of the sex scenes (which were also not for me but I guess that's kind of a personal preference? Not going to say more about that...you'll have to read it to see if you agree.) I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading this if you're looking for a fun LGBTQ romance but I would also encourage you to look into Wilsner's other offerings first.

I love Meryl Wilsner’s books (Cleat Cute was arguably one of my favorite books of 2024), and this was a great read. I do love the in love with my best friend trope, but I was internally screaming WHY DIDNT YOU JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER throughout the entire book.

i’ve read and have loved two of meryl wilsner’s other books (mistakes were made and cleat cute), so i was really excited to receive an arc of my best friend’s honeymoon. the premise is super fun: elsie breaks off her engagement and sets off on what would have been her honeymoon with her best friend who she might just be in love with). i was also super excited to see nonbinary rep in a trad published romance! unfortunately, my best friend’s honeymoon just didn’t strike the same chord for me as wilsner’s other works.

i didn’t dislike the story, but there were a few things that really impacted my enjoyment while reading. the jump from friends to lovers felt really abrupt and unnatural and occurred far too early into the story to hold my interest throughout the second half. the pacing felt off overall—a solid 20% of the book was just straight sex scenes with no other plot points, then the characters have a fight and spend the majority of the book apart.. there was also a fair amount of telling rather than showing what was going on, which was frustrating as i think it led to the characters not feeling fully developed.

overall, i think the idea of my best friend’s honeymoon is cute, but could have been executed a bit better. even so, i’m still super happy to see a nonbinary mc in a traditionally published romance novel!

3.5 Stars. When Elsie calls off her wedding, her now ex-fiancé gives her the honeymoon and she invites her best friend Ginny. Both are queer, have been friends forever, and may have been having feelings for each other for ages. They enjoy the Caribbean resort together and it creates a lush and beautiful backdrop for them to act on their feelings, but whether or not the honeymoon can continue when they return home is in question.

I love love love this cover and it captures the vibes of this book exactly. I loved Ginny and in addition to being great non-binary lesbian representation, they are also fat and not self-conscious about it (and Elsie loves them that way), which was just refreshing. I struggled more with Elise as she was more flighty and frankly her freak out leading to the third-act breakup didn’t fully make sense to me. The book is high heat but I wish we had gotten more romance and not just steam. I think the friends to lovers trope was doing a lot of the heavy lifting and we unfortunately didn’t see much development. I also struggled identifying the flash backs because they weren’t marked as such and sometimes had to restart chapters. This wasn’t my favorite of Meryl’s books but it was a short and fun read.

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

This was a spicy, fun time! I love a tropical vacation setting!! I really enjoyed the plot and the characters individually and this was a very quick read - perfect beach read. But I had a hard time believing that the couple will last long term which is why I wasn’t completely connected to the story. Overall, I recommend.

Given that Meryl Wilsner's Cleat Cute was one of my favorite reads of 2024, I had high hopes for My Best Friend's Honeymoon. Unfortunately, this one was a miss for me. On paper I love the trope of two best friends finding love, but the pacing felt off.. Although Ginny and Elsie's close, nearly lifelong friendship is established early on, I wanted more time getting to know their characters before they gave in to their mutual pining. At the heart of the story was Elsie's dependence on those around her--her ex-fiance, her family, Ginny--and her growth as she developed the confidence to live her life on her own terms. The story was strongest when it focused on this inner conflict.

Despite this not being the book for me, it does do a lot of things well:

- non-binary and pansexual representation
- mutual pining between longtime friends is always a fun trope
- Elsie's growth as she learned to speak up for herself
- Ginny's growth as they considered what a life less dependent on Elsie might look like
- Meryl Wilsner is a skilled writer; their prose always flows well and is a delight to read