We once again begin our review with a word of thanks: Thank you, NetGalley, and thank you, St. Martin’s Griffin, for allowing me to read the MILF book before it was published. Now, on to the meat of the review!

So, those of you who follow creators on social media who talk about queer books have probably heard of “the MILF book.” I think Laynie Rose on TikTok has posted about it like 5 times. So, I’d definitely heard about this book before I requested it on NetGalley, which doesn’t always happen. When I got approved to read this ARC, I was so excited, but I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Let me tell you what I didn’t expect though–a sex scene in chapter one. I thought The Kiss Quotient was zero to 100 because the guy touches his willy in chapter two? Well, chapter one of Mistakes Were Made has some ladies touching some ladies, if you know what I mean. (You definitely know what I mean because I just said what I mean–one woman was touching another woman in a sexual manner.) Like, the beginning of this book moved fast. I was a little shocked by this, but in retrospect, it makes perfect sense. You need to have sex in chapter one so you can set up the realization that Cassie is friends with Erin’s daughter, Parker, in chapter two, and that realization is what the whole rest of the story relies upon. Why put it off when you can have it in chapter two and let the rest of the book be falling in love?

And the rest of this book is about falling in love, guys. Like, sure, they still do more sex, but I don’t care about that. I care about sending flowers to each other just because you want her to smile, and FaceTiming so you can cook dinner together or watch a movie together, or buying each other cheesy cute Christmas gifts, or surprising each other with time spent together when you didn’t think you’d be able to see each other for a while. Like, the falling in love in this book is so cute, guys.

But then you add a level of drama to the falling in love because Cassie and Parker are friends, and Erin and Cassie neither want to tell Parker that they’re sneaking around together to bone and romance because what will Parker think? They can’t do that to her. She’ll hate them forever! So there’s clandestine meetings in bathrooms and bedrooms and hotels, and there’s early morning cups of coffee and late night kisses, all with the hope that they can keep it a secret because neither of them are ready for the fall out that will come with Parker finding out.

Honestly, I just really, really liked this book. I will definitely be adding it to my library’s October purchase list, and then I will be adding it to my personal October purchase list because I would like to reread it ASAP.

My second Wilsner book (after Something to Talk About), both of which are angsty, captivating, age-gap rom-coms. Mistakes Were Made describes the hook up and subsequent accidental encounters that bring temptation and unrestrained attraction between a college senior – Cassie Klein and a sexy MILF who turns out to be her best friend’s mom – Erin Bennett.

The events are infused with tension and emotions for each character. They can’t get enough of each other even when they know it is not in their best interests. Wilsner did a great job of keeping me on the edge of my seat throughout most of the book.

The middle of the book lagged just a bit with Erin’s push-pull attraction to Cassie. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely, without a doubt, enjoyed this book! I have to be honest, I do not love age gaps, but I something about the premise of this from the blurb left me intrigued and I'm glad I read it. I have to commend Wilsner for being able to write an age-gap romance without making it feel uncomfortable or overly toxic.
Erin and Cassie are such interesting characters to follow, and each of their perspectives offered a different insight into, not only who they are as characters, what they experienced and the kinds of marks it left, but their individual perspectives when it came to life experience and how that influenced their decision making. It made for a compelling read watching the two of them navigate complex feelings wrapped in this sort of "forbidden" affair and the grey area between right and wrong.
The writing was purposeful, the development felt true to the characters and we didn't lost that core sense of self for either despite watching them change as they navigated their relationship.
My only complaint is some of the pacings felt off at times, it felt jarring to be moving with speed through some of the significant plot developments, or the spicey scenes, and then slowed down into a solo POV with some inner thoughts. I found this to be most noticeable through the middle of the book, especially after we are hit with so much in the first quarter of the story. I also was surprised about Parker's lack of presence throughout the book, she is obviously the connection between Cassie and Erin, and a major hurdle to overcome. Still, overall, she asked questions but wasn't very involved, and I was a little surprised by that given the lengths Cassie and Erin go to hide from her.

Cassie Klein decides to have a one-night stand… that causes her to accidentally hook up with her best friend’s mom, Erin, during her college’s Family Weekend. What follows next is angst, secret romance, and STEAMY shenanigans. This was an age-gap lesbian romance with Cassie being a college senior in Aerospace and Erin being a doctor in her 40s.

This book also emphasized the importance of women doing what they want, when they want and allowing ourselves to pursue desires outside of the obligations we feel. It was being unapologetic and ruthless about chasing your happiness, at whatever stage in like you are at.

This one was steamy, steamy! Like 4 habaneros out of 5 steamy. 🥵 Erin and Cassie had a lot of emotional chemistry and it definitely translated into their sexual chemistry.

The was a pretty fast-paced book in parts but then it would suddenly become too fast and weeks had suddenly passed. It didn’t ruin the book for me and was more than manageable but that was my main issue.

Overall, this was an awesome steamy sapphic romance with good characters, witty dialogue, and some emotional heft.

Mistakes Were Made releases on October 22, 2022. Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the advanced copy. 😊

*Note—the character Cassie has a “found family” in this novel consisting of her other best friend’s Black family. She refers to her friend’s mother as “Mama Webb” and it comes off as the Mamie stereotype to me. Another reviewer had issue with a few lines related to race in this book, as well. However, the author has said that these lines would be taken out in the final version.

This book was VERY spicy. It almost scared me off at the start. And for a lot of the book it felt like the main conflict was so obvious, so why make it take so long? But it ended up different than I thought, and looking back is a gorgeous story of discovering feelings and pursuing them no matter how wrong others might think it is. Very sweet and I can definitely see myself revisiting

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I liked this book more than I expected to. The premise was intriguing but also a bit uncomfortable, but the author handled it well. It started out a little cheesy for my taste, like the characters came on too strong, but by the end I didn't want to stop reading. And fair warning, the sex scenes are long and STEAMY.

In a combination of the age gap between Cassie & Erin, their initial inability to communicate, their unwillingness to tell Erin's daughter (Cassie's best friend), & the semi-awkward time jumps, I just could not get into this book. I wanted to. I kept trying. But I constantly found myself putting it down to scroll IG on my phone and not wanting to pick it back up. So unfortunately, I DNF'd this one at 25%.

So thankful to have been given an Digital ARC of this book! It was my first read by this author and I’d certainly enjoy reading more. My overall rating is 3.5/5 stars. This will be a spoiler free review!

To start with what I really enjoyed:
1. The characters. I love how Meryl writes their characters - both Cassie and Erin draw you in separately as individuals and are well thought out. You learn a lot about them not only within their relationship, but also in their friendship with others. I’d love to be Cassie’s friend and jump on the back of her motorcycle.
2. Discussions about sexuality: the labels of the characters was not wildly important and I loved that that wasn’t the focus. Almost all of the main characters discuss sexual/romantic experiences with all genders, and you don’t find out till later in the book that they mostly seem to identify as bisexual! It’s normalized to just have that openness. Also loved (mini spoiler) the supportive parental figures and that one of the side characters was very nonchalantly gender queer! None of the characters were rejected because of their sexuality and it was queer almost immediately.
3. The Spice: god damn, the queer sex in this book is really well written. It happens almost immediately which was unexpected - but it really just elevated the entire story.

Now, into what I personally did not enjoy as much! I know for me, that this had a bit of a forbidden romance/MILFy aspect - but found out that those are not my favourite tropes to read about. Definitely made it challenging to get through certain parts of the novel and left me a bit underwhelmed. Warning again: I’ll be discussing some major plot points but not spoilers.
1. How taboo the relationship was and just felt like they had no consideration for others. Personally I had a really hard time getting over this! With their sneaking around, I felt like Cassie and Erin were just really not a great friend/mother. I wanted to like them, but at times it was hard!
2. I thought Parker’s character was underutilized - there were definitely some directions that could have been taken to continue to grow all the different character arcs. But I was really underwhelmed by this part, felt like she could have been one of the main problems that the two face but it fell a bit flat.
3. Pacing! I know I already talked about the spice in this book, but at times I really wish we delved into more of the side characters’ stories and involvement instead of more spicy scenes. They were written so well and I’m not complaining, I just felt there were definitely other ways to further their relationship that weren’t focused on. Also felt that if this book was split into three acts, then the second one dragged on a bit too long and I found myself fighting to stay as engaged. I wish there’d been more room for the ending also because it felt rushed and didn’t land for me!

Overall, if someone is looking for a sapphic novel with lots of spice and likes the MILF trope - then I would definitely recommend it. Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the ARC!

I already had misgivings about this one based on the premise but decided to give it a try anyway. A woman starts a relationship with her daughter’s college-aged best friend, and while Wilsner never made it seem predatory (the college senior was the instigator), I still felt squicky about the whole situation. It did not help that their entire relationship was them lying to and sneaking around said daughter/best friend. The fact that Cassie and Erin were in completely different stages in their lives was never really discussed in depth other than a handwaving they both think the other is hot so it's okay.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for the Advanced Reader Copy in advance for an honest review!

I wanted to love this, i did. I loved the concept. I loved that it was GAY AF… but.

I honestly didn’t love Cassie or Parker. Erin was gr8, we love a good MILF… but idk I couldn’t stop thinking the whole time about how Parker would react and feel and then it was anti-climatic???

The epilogue was hella hella cute though and actually raised the review from a 3 to a 3.5 so.

It was gay. But it did not slap.

The spice was fantastic tho hot damn.

I had such a great time reading this! I was a little hesitant because I’m not a big age-gap romance reader, but Meryl Wilsner totally sold me on Cassie and Erin’s relationship. Cassie is a college senior and doesn’t realize that the woman she hooked up with during her school’s family weekend was actually her new best friend’s mom… whoops. There are so many amusing scenes of Cassie and Erin trying to keep Erin’s daughter Parker from figuring out what is going on between them.

While there definitely isn’t a slow burn with the sexual relationship, the romantic and emotional relationship is definitely a takes a while to develop. I liked watching them learn more about one another and try to figure out how a relationship could even work between them. Also, there are a lot of great sex scenes in the book.

Something else that I appreciated was Cassie trying to figure out what to do with her life after she graduates. Her feelings for Erin do factor in, but it isn’t something where she throws away what she’s been working for just because she’s in love. And outside of the romance there’s a lot of great friendships and found family within the story. Definitely check this out if you’re looking for a steamy sapphic romance.

"Mistakes Were Made" has been one of my favorite releases this year. The novel goes by breezily, exploring and pushing its sexy premise to a satisfying degree while delivering two lead characters that are well-rounded and intriguing. Come for the sexy times and stay for the surprisingly mature love story that asks: What's the worse thing that could happen when you go after what you want?

Thank you Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is between a 3 and a 3.5 star read for me. I immediately loved the premise of this book and while it did follow through in lots of things i was hoping for, there were few moments that fell flat for me. I loved the relationship between Erin and Cassie and how there was no creepy power dynamic issue that’s often present in age gap romances. I just felt the development of the relationship happened a little too fast which is why i didn’t connect with them as strongly as I could’ve. This book also struggled with the pacing and repetitive lines, as well as seemingly unnecessary conflicts that could’ve been removed without the book changing.
But overall i was looking for a fun sapphic romance with a happy ending which is what i received! yay :)

I was lucky enough to receive an early copy of this book from #NetGalley....thanks #NetGalley for trusting me to write an honest review for #MistakesWereMade!

Here goes!

If you are any number of WLW who have had some type of fantasy about an older woman and/or a crush on a friend's mom...then this is the book for you!

If you've read this author's previous book (Something to Talk About), then you know she does age gap romance excellently. I appreciated the levels of spice (and there were some AMAZING spicy scenes!). This is definitely not a slow build type of book. This is right to the point in the first chapter!

Pros:
-Sapphic
-Fantasy come to life!
-Age Gap Romance
-Excellently realized spicy scenes that didn't take away from the plot

Cons:
-I kind of had a hard time that the two love interests (Erin and Cassie) called each other "babe" and so did Cassie and Erin's Daughter. That's probably a super small issue, but one that I found difficult to overlook at times. In the grand scheme of the plot and the book though it is really the only thing that bugged me!

The synopsis of this book made me a bit nervous as I though it would be a bit ridiculous but after the first few chapters I immediately knew that this book was going to be good. The way Wilsner developed Cassie and Erin's relationship was adorable.

This book is definitely a guilty-pleasure read for me. I found this to be extremely addicting to read and was happy for the couple and plot progressions.

I would 100% to people wanting a cute sapphic rom-com with a good amount of romance I'd definitely recommend Mistakes Were Made.

*I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

4.5/5 stars

If I could sum up this review in one word it would be: Yes.

If you like:
- chaotic bisexual energy
- forbidden romance
- strong female characters
- strong relationships (including friendships)

Then this book is absolutely for you!

Erin, Cassie, Parker, and Acacia were all such wonderful characters and their various relationship dynamics were so wonderful. I particularly loved that each friend had a unique friendship with the other, it wasn't just a trio of people connected and interacting in the same way. The friendships were so strong, and I loved watching Parker and Erin strengthen their mother/daughter bond. This book had so much depth to it, I really loved how the author tackled a variety of subjects that are often tough to write. The writing was also excellent, I can't WAIT to read more from Meryl Wilsner!

Ok this is a tough review for me. I am split 50/50 down the middle with me thoughts, so hear me out. 3.5 ⭐️
Things that worked well in this book:
The spice and the sex scenes in this book are excellent. This is top tier, well written desire on the page. The intimate moments between Cassie and Erin are what make this book work so so well. I would read it again and again just for the spice alone. We’re talking multiple scenes (with the first being in Chapter 1–way to get my attention!). The beginning of the book really grabbed me with its immediate random hookup and instant desire between college-aged Cassie and middle-aged Erin. To be honest, I wasn’t bothered by the age discrepancy and found this to be an easy attraction. But as the title suggests and the reader will imagine, discovering you’ve hooked up with your daughter’s best friend puts a wrench in things.
Here’s where I struggled with Mistakes Were Made. The relationships between Erin, Cassie, Acacia, and Parker were just sub-par to me. I wanted to get into more of Erin and her daughter Parker’s relationship, but found that I just didn’t care that much. And seeing that there is a moment of pause between Parker and Cassie’s relationship gave me hope that we would discover more about them as friends, but it just fell flat. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there’s no big blow up between Parker and Erin, but found their mother-daughter relationship to be a little too perfect with how things wrapped up. To be honest, most of my enjoyable reading was with Cassie and Erin’s scenes, because again, did I mention how hot they are?!? I’m curious to see what’s next for Meryl Wilsner because she can CLEARLY write a sex scene which will have romance readers clamoring for her books. I hope to try more from her and just figured perhaps this was not my favorite trope. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book was a little bit heavier than I thought it was going to be. Yes, I know that it’s called ‘mistakes were made’, but this book definitely did not depict a light and fluffy path to an HEA. However, it’s probably one of the more realistic love stories I’ve read. Despite being an age gap romance (with a friend‘s parent) the way the friendships and relationship was treated was very relatable. Also, no matter what these characters had to go through to get there, it’s probably one of the cutest HEA’s I’ve ever read.

If your enjoy F/F romance with lots of spice and heart, I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Mistakes Were Made was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022 so finding it to be a two star book is so disappointing.

The characters are so blah. They aren't likeable, but they also aren't unlikeable. There isn't anything to them outside of the relationship and what is intended to be character information reads as like an afterthought that the author realized they needed to add in last minute. I think this book definitely would have benefited from starting out slower and actually introducing us to the characters before the book picked up.

Besides being good in bed together, there is no substance to Erin and Cassie's relationship, which makes it hard for me to root for them and makes the epilogue seem out of place and forced.

Everything was so meh. I wanted to like it so much, but nothing about Mistakes Were Made really stands out.

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If slow burns were located in Antarctica, this book would be the North Pole and I am not complaining. When I requested this book, all I knew was that it was sapphic and involved MILFs. I probably should've read the plot description more, but this book was a ride for me. I loved both characters immensely and how their relationship was very much a slow burn even if their sex lives were not. It was a fun read with just enough plot to keep me interested.
As a grad student in engineering, that's not quite how grad school applications work nowadays, but it was fun to see 2 women in STEM just having a good time. I appreciated just a hint of sexism to keep it real, but it wasn't important to the plot.
I really enjoyed the ending and how Parker dealt with the whole situation. I thought that that ending was very well put together and *spoilers* I love a good double proposal for LGBT+ couples.

TLDR: fun, sexy women in STEM who just so happen to be 18 years apart in age. Oh well, it is what it is.