You might like this (I thought it was just fine). The plot of friends to lovers on vacation together is fun.

Meryl Wilsner’s books are possibly not for me. I love to read as many queer books and authors as I can but I guess I can’t love all of them. I think it’s their writing that I just don’t vibe with, the stories are good I just end up annoyed by the POV and structure of the books.

Audiobook specific, I liked both of the narrators and it was well done.

If you love friends to lovers romance then look no further. Elsie is engaged to be married to a super great guy. The problem is that he's so great he decides to take some stress off her plate and plan their wedding without her. It's at this point that Elsie realizes she cannot go through with the ceremony. Her ex is kind enough to send Elsie on their non-refundable honeymoon with her best friend, Ginny. Ginny would do anything for Elsie. She's been in love with her best friend for as long as she can remember but has never acted on it since a heartbreaking rejection in their younger years. Now, they are headed to a tropical all-inclusive destination where anything could happen.

I enjoyed the message behind this one. Wilsner demonstrates that it's good to speak up for what you want and not to settle for less. That being said, this book just wasn't for me. Even knowing Ginny and Elsie had known each other for years and years, the romantic side of their relationship simply progressed too fast for me. I love a slow burn and this is not that. I sadly never felt the chemistry between these two. I do believe there will be many out there who will enjoy this one, though. The spice positivity is great. The setting was wonderful as it provided a great escape from everyday life.

Pick this one up if you enjoy a romance with a ton of spice intermixed with sweet moments. The dual narration in the audio version is great. Both narrators brought to life these fantastic characters and made you fall in love with them. While the romance in this one wasn't for me, I will for sure be looking for more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC

I was excited to read My Best Friend’s Honeymoon because of the much needed non-binary representation in romance novels. But Ginny fell a little flat for me in the way they were portrayed. I almost wish that Ginny had not been the one harboring a long time crush just to break from the stereotypes that so many people have about trans and non-binary folks. I have to give it to the author, I imagine it can be hard to write a nonbinary character with depth and also with care and I do think that they did a great attempt at this.

The sex scenes were less about the depth of the connection and seemed to overpower the story line. It didn’t bother me too much, but just wish there was more substance and more story to go with them.

I do like that the third act conflict didn’t happen when I imagined it would and it did keep me on my toes there.

3/5⭐️ for me

Really strong start that didn’t go where I had hoped it would. The communications challenge was hard to read and wish there was more romance

this was spicyyyyyy.

ginny and elsie have been best friends forever. and ginny has been in love with her since then. when elsie breaks off her engagement, she invites ginny to go on her honeymoon with her.

the entirety of their relationship development is spice. I wish we got more of them growing together rather than just hooking up. the third act conflict was so drawn out and I felt like it was also underdeveloped- they go off and figure out their jobs and they’re suddenly ready for a life-long relationship at 23 🥲

the vacation aspect and honeymoon vibes were really fun. ginny was so down bad for elsie and it was really cute. I just wish we got a little more.

what to expect
⟢ f x nb queer romance
⟢ best childhood friends to lovers
⟢ love after breakup
⟢ vacation/summer vibes

3 stars

This wasn’t bad by any means but I felt a lot was lacking . The first 1/3 of the book was just ragging on the ex-fiancé calling him dumb and making fun of how supportive he was of Elsie’s queer identity. The second 1/3 of the book was just sex scene after sex scene back to back to back with almost no gaps. And the last 1/3 was them not speaking because of a very blown out of proportion argument. I felt there was next to no yearning like we should get in a friends-to-lovers romance. And the 5 second change from “let’s date” to “I don’t want to talk to you” was intense whiplash.

Also there was no need to Elsie to be rude to that server.

Regarding the audiobook, I really enjoyed the narrators and their performances. They did well with what they were given.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ALC.

Friends to Lover's trope! Elise is engaged to Derrick and has been for the past year and a half. While she knows he treats her well and everything, she is still on the fence about getting married. She's indecisive about getting married because it seems so final. Derrick's quick wedding planning forces Elise to realize she doesn't want that. Breaking off the engagement, Derrick still wants Elise to go on the Honeymoon because it's nonrefundable. Ginny has been Elise's best friend since grade school, and she has watched Elise always do for others and never do anything for herself. Genny thinks it's time to change that, so she goes on the honeymoon with Elise, hoping to help Elise realize what she wants.
Ginny will do what Elise wants to do, but she only has to ask for it. At first, it seems like Elise struggles to ask for what she wants, but slowly, she gets to where she can ask for it.
However, slowly, Elise and Ginny start having feelings for each other, and they act upon them. And then Elise is kinda on the fence, not wanting to go back to her regular life in a different relationship when she just broke her engagement. This caused a rift between Elise and Ginny because of her indecisiveness.
While I am not the intended audience, I think the message of the book is universal, and everyone can appreciate it! You cannot live your life for someone else; you have to live your life for yourself.
The writing is AMAZING. I received the audiobook to listen to and review. The narrators, fitting the characters perfectly, brought the story to life and enhanced my appreciation for it! Thank you Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press, and Netgalle,y for the opportunity to listen/read and review this one! I enjoyed the ride!

Elsie has been engaged for a year and a half, but has done absolutely no wedding planning, so her fiancé takes the lead. When Elsie finds out that he planned their entire wedding and honeymoon without her, she realizes that she isn't really interested in marrying him. That's how she finds herself on their honeymoon with her best friend Ginny instead of the man she was supposed to marry. Ginny has been (not so) secretly in love with Elsie since they were kids, and now, she might finally have a chance to be Elsie's everything.

I loved the overall premise of this, but wish there was a little more plot/storyline. Elsie was really hard to connect to as a character because she had no idea what she did or didn't want in life. There was a ton of unnecessary miscommunication, and also a ton of spice. So much spice that there were long chunks of the book without anything except for spice. I'm happy that Elise and Ginny finally were able to connect, I just wish we could have gotten more emotional connection from them.

I paired the ebook with the audio. The audio was well done and I enjoyed the duet narration. Both narrators were great and I didn't have any issues distinguishing the characters.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and St. Martin's Press for the advance copies!

3.5 ⭐️

When Elsie learns that her college boyfriend turned fiancé of the last eighteen months has planned their entire wedding and honeymoon as a surprise, she realizes she’s not at all ready for the future he has planned.

Instead she breaks off their engagement and drags her cradle to the grave bestie Ginny, who may or may not be head over heels in love with her, onto their non-refundable honeymoon.

Obviously lines blur and things get hot and heavy between Elsie and Ginny, and boy do I mean HOT 🔥🌶️🥵

Buuuttt like a flash in the pan, things go sideways and Elsie and Ginny have a third act breakup… I just hated the whole miscommunication/lack of communication thing these two had going on with their feelings and just ughhhh. It wasn’t necessary! The character growth however was 👌🏻

What to expect:
- best friends to lovers
- nonrefundable honeymoon
- plus size + nonbinary mc
- all the spice + dirty talk
- miscommunication/lack of communication
- third act break up

There's a conversation among some on my bookish friends, and in other book corners of the internet, about the surprising differences between queer romance and hetero romance and why some people who don't identify as queer might find a queer romance novel more appealing. Basically it boils down to where the conflict in the story originates. Frequently, though not always, in queer romance, the conflict is external (either originating from family, societal shame, sometimes inner shame not directed at their partner, etc.) while the conflict in mainstream heterosexual romance novels is more likely to come from the relationship itself and/or the interactions between the people in it. A talented author can do this is an engaging way that still manages to depict a pretty healthy and ideal relationship but that takes talent. Writing about conflict in a relationship is kind of a minefield of avoiding toxic traits and behaviors in your characters. Perhaps that's true to life, but in a novel, if your characters are not behaving in psychologically healthy ways and the reader is still expected to root for relationship and the characters to the point of overlooking the bad behaviors, then isn't the author literally romantisizing toxic traits?

What does that have to do with this queer romance novel, you may wonder: everything! Because in that regard, this book reads like a heterosexual romance. The conflict in this story is bad relationship behaviors and the characters are not people I wanted to root for in terms of getting a happily ever after together.

That being said, it did remind me in many ways, of my not-at-all-healthy relationship with my ex-girlfriend so it does get those "true to life" points in my book.

There's also a lot of spice in this book. Like A LOT, but squeezed into like 3 or 4 chapters. It's basically 3-4 chapters of p*rn with a novel spilt up of either side of it. Or in other words: normal book, normal book, normal book, "let's have spicy time", spicy time, spicy time, spicy time, spicy time, third act begins, fall out of the third act beginning, small semblance of character growth, the end. So because all those scenes just come one, after the other, after the other, after the other (pun intended) it feels like A LOT. Not to mention some of the spice is soooo much spicier than I expected.

I did enjoy Ginny's character. I like the representation of a non-binary person and how that aspect of them was both central to who they are and also sometimes an insignificant part of themself. That felt realistic to me. I also appreciated the fat representation. We don't get enough of that in romance novels and considering how many people there are in the world who are both fat and in a relationship, it seems like we should be seeing it in our books too.

Overall, I personally didn't love this book, but I think there's an audience for it for sure. Just as long as you're interested in the relationship being the drama of the romance novel and want a large and concentrated nugget of spice right in the middle, then this book might be for you.

First, Elsie did not deserve Ginny. Ginny is amazing! I thought Elsie was immature and during conflict said some pretty cruel things to them. I want my sex scenes to serve the story and these just did not do this. And they went on for pages and pages. I know they already had a solid friendship base so maybe that’s why because they already know each other so well. But I just didn’t feel like they had a strong connection outside the bedroom. I have been anticipating this book and it just did not live up to premise.
I really enjoyed the narrators of the audiobook!

Elsie has been engaged to her college boyfriend for a year and a half. When Elsie discovers that her fiancé has planned their wedding to take place in a week, she realizes that this is not what she wants at all. She breaks things off with her fiancé, and a week later, she's on a non-refundable honeymoon with her best friend, Ginny. What starts as choosing fun activities and taking pictures together soon turns into kissing and much more. But what happens when the honeymoon ends?

The setting of this one was perfect. I totally felt like I was there with the characters. However, I felt like there was something missing between the main characters. It went from 0 to 60 really quick. I felt like there was a lot of spice, but there wasn’t enough time for chemistry to develop between the main characters. I also didn’t enjoy how long the conflict went on once the characters returned from the honeymoon. I enjoyed the audio with narration by Blair Baker and Emily Shaw. I give this one 2.5/5 stars. If you’re looking for a quick, steamy read with a lot of tension between the characters, this one is for you.

Meryl Wilsner writing an incredibly fabulous book. Finding yourself and finding the line of your life is pay of the wonderful pay of living. Ginny and Elsie have lived most of their lives together bucks they take the leap.

I love this book for these reasons:
This was a great escape.
The characters are on vacation, but there’s actual descriptions of the location and details on the trip, making it feel like you as a reader are on the trip with the characters
I found the beginning to be funny, hopeful, but also drastic. There was a breakup, someone quitting, and then a trip. Then there is a lot of sex. Initially, this felt slightly thrown together with too much smut.
The characters are relatable
Then about 65% in, conflict started to genuinely build up and I got stressed!

Things that could have made this a 5 star read:
A bit more plot
Elsie to be less of a mess, like yall have been friends you’re whole life it shouldn’t be surprising that you love each other just be happy

Thank you to NetGalley for the e-ARC and ALC of this book!

I loved the narration! I thought both narrators did a great job of bringing these characters to life.

I'm a big fan of Meryl Wilsner. Their book Mistakes Were Made is probably still my all time favorite sapphic romance. So I was really excited to read this one.

Friends to lovers is not usually a trope I gravitate towards. Nothing irks me more than people in love holding back because they may ruin their friendship. But this was really cute. Elsie and Ginny have basically grown up together, and while Ginny KNOWS they've loved Elsie that whole time, it takes Elsie calling off her own wedding and going on the honeymoon with her best friend to realize she loves Ginny too.

I loved the vacation part of the story.

It's Spicy (I mean we are talking spice before the halfway point) and it's got all types of spice as they are so comfortable with each other they try some things! Them being comfortable with each other is actually the best part for me. It's so endearing how they love each other.

It's when they get back home and the 3rd act breakup comes into play that the story fell a little short for me. It seemed a dumb reason to part, even though these two maybe did need some time to figure out what they wanted on their own. The reason... was dumb.

This is still a super cute, sweet, SPICY, lovely sapphic story and I enjoyed it a lot!

I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK. and you should read it too, but only if you love love, love women, and love a tension-filled friends-to-lovers trope, but like....one of the best ones you've ever read. My only beef with it was that the ending could've been a little bit longer or more drawn out...ended a little too abruptly for me. So maybe, like, a 4.5 <3

Also: I listened to the audiobook version, and WOW. Loved the narrator too!

I really liked the way identity was intergrated into the novel for both protagonists. As usual Wilsner excelled at crafting chemistry between the love interests

I enjoyed this book! Thus far I've really enjoyed all the books I've read by Meryl Wilsner (there is just one I haven't gotten to yet).

While I did enjoy this book, I did find it a bit challenging to read because it has my least favourite trope/plot device: miscommunication/lack of communication. GAH! I hate it! The story gets to where it's going quite quickly, which I appreciated, but then you have the whole *do they really want me? are they really in love with me? is this what they want?* BS. I do think that the story was really good, I just hate that that was the device that got it there.

I have to say that I really loved the beginning of the book, as Elsie is engaged and her boyfriend plans the entire wedding and honeymoon without her. Like, DUDE. DUDE NO. I was absolutely cringing through that entire section, but it was also just really good. Wilsner 1000% showing us what's going on and not telling *at all*. So well done.

Overall, a good story that I enjoyed!

OKAY MERYL, I SEE YOU!!!!

This was a really really fun book. I thought Elsie and Ginny were so cute and their connection was undeniable. I found Ginny a little bit of a simp at first but once I understood the plot on a bigger scale I could see where it was going and what needed to happen.

I had so much fun reading about these two, and besties to lovers PLUS dual POV/mutual pining is a new favorite trope combo. It was such a good read and I cannot wait to tell Meryl in person how much I enjoyed their book at their next signing in my city.

I cannot recommend this book enough!

Am I glad I read it? I don't regret reading it, but it also didn't blow me away. I had a really good time with the first half, but the second half is where the story lost me.

One of my favorite romance tropes is friends to lovers because I love the idea of friendship as a strong foundation for the characters' newly ignited romantic relationship. Wilsner wrote a convincing friendship, with the added texture of a past rejection as reason why Elsie and Ginny, despite being obviously in love with each other, were not already *together* together. This last point (the past rejection) was a particular highlight of the book for me because it 1) addressed a frequent weakness of books utilizing this trope and 2) it added some nice depth to Elsie's character. with the backstory driving her rejection of Ginny's advances.

There are plenty of other things I liked: that Elsie's fiance wasn't written as a jerk as justification for her breaking off the engagement; that we have a fat, masc nonbinary MC (Ginny) who uses multiple pronouns and is written as dead sexy to their partner; the ~variety~ in Elsie and Ginny's marathon sexy times (lots of rimming, a near-fisting, degradation).

By the end of the honeymoon vacation early in the second half, though, it became clear that Ginny was less developed as a character than was Elsie. A significant part of that was because the central conflict revolved around their (i.e., Ginny's) codependency and focus on Elsie, which is fine in theory, but the 'whatever Elsie wants' set-up of the first half wasn't ever meaningfully offset with deeper character development for Ginny. During their time apart for ~independence~ and ~figuring out who they are without the other~, Ginny fosters and ultimately adopts a dog (they're a long-time pet foster parent, so this is not a new, Elsie-independent activity for them) and decides to turn woodworking into a job (it was already a long-time hobby and they'd quit their job to go on the honeymoon). So Ginny "grows" by doing things they already did, and any internal, emotional growth happens either off-page or not at all. (I don't actually think Elsie's "growth" during the separation period was much better, to be honest, but it doesn't sit right when the masc character is the one who feels less developed.)

Further, perhaps it's because Wilsner did such a good job convincing me of how strong Elsie and Ginny's friendship is, but I simply did not find the reason for the third act break-up to be even remotely convincing in the first place, despite Elsie's reasoning being explained late (late!) in the book (and this is coming from a reader who DOES appreciate a good one).

For readers who want something spicy, fairly quick, and easy to read, I can definitely see how this could be a winner. For me, though, it just didn't deliver on what I need for a really great romance.

I read this via audiobook and enjoyed the production and narration with the strong exception of the narration of Elsie's dialogue. Whichever narrator this is, their efforts to make this character's voice femme made her instead sound young to me, and that was mildly uncomfortable to listen to given how spicy this book is.

Rating: 🤷🏼‍♀️ (it was fine; 3.5 rounded down)

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the advance copy of this title!