I have mixed feelings about this book - I am not a fan of one night stand stories - they are usually predictable, awkward and rely on extended sex scenes more than plot and character development.

The characters are not really likeable. Their lack of communication, self absorbed behavior left me feeling unsympathetic to will they/won't they get to understand one another without sex.

I was so excited to read this book! And it sort of lived up to the hype. While the characters and relationships are well developed and thought out, the pacing felt a bit off and I just got kinda bored. It was also pretty predictable so I wasn't all that surprised by the end

DNF at 75%

Couldn’t force myself to finish. The two main characters are so selfish!! Poor Parker, man. I can’t even imagine how I would feel if my mom was screwing my best friend and they were both lying about it to my FACE.

This book starts out with a bang! The author did not hold back the spice at all in this book and I loved every second of it. From the first chapter when Cassie and Erin met all the way to the end I was hooked. I knew before I was halfway through the book that I was going to need to pre-order a copy because I wanted to read it again before it was even over. If you're looking to read a spicy sapphic romance look no further.

This book was marketed as "A sexy rom-com about a college senior who accidentally hooks up with her best friend’s mom.' It sounded unlike anything I'd read before and was immediately interested.

I am usually not a fan of one night stand tropes, the awkward levels can be cringeworthy. But author Meryl Wilsner pulled this one off. The awkwardness and secrecy were there but I wasn't hiding in my blankets from it. The lack of communication however did make me feel angsty. When you know one conversation would shut down issues in 30 pages of the book, it's hard for me not to be a bit resentful. One of the main character's is 40 and I feel like by now she should be able to articulate her feelings, confusing as they may be. Overall the book had witty dialog, scenes I hadn't experienced before and a small but colorful group of characters. 

Mistakes Were Made is an age gap, one night stand, STEAMY sapphic romance.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press & NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

There's A LOT I loved in this book and I finished it really quickly. I love the "forbidden" relationship (college student and best friend's mom) as well as the forced proximity in parts! This has been so high on my anticipated TBR list and I was sooo excited that it lived up to the hype. I loved Cassie and Erin and their relationship. Both characters were well-thought out and developed. I did sometimes get confused about which chapter I was reading since this is a duel-POV book and their characters read very similar. This book used the MILF trope really well and I didn't feel that their relationship was too cringy. The book also has some HEAVY sex scenes which could be a positive or negative, depending on the reader.

My major problem and the reason I took off one star was with the timeline and the speed. The pacing was rough, with the beginning moving super fast and the middle kind of slowing down. I also felt Parker's character was underdeveloped and underutilized. I wished I got more of her perspective (I mean her mom and her best friend are dating??). I did like how Parker dealt with her feelings on her own and we saw that play out through Cassie/Erin. Overall, a solid sapphic love story that I really enjoyed!

A story about a college girl accidentally falling for her best friend's mom? Immediately yes.
I really enjoyed how light-hearted and spontaneous this one was but still discussed the crucial parts of both women discovering themselves.

I would’ve liked if Cassie aversion to relationships or touch was explained a little better and her thinking wasn’t do circular.

I feel Erin and Parkers' harder conversations were a bit rushed and there wasn’t an emotional connection when they had these conversations that were supposed to be emotional.

For most of the story, she was the sheltered girl whose parents did everything for her and didn’t really want to offer much help or seem appreciative of Erin. Still, in the end, she turned out to be more understanding and mature after one conversation with a different. person, outside of the situation.

I liked the story overall and smiled all the way through it but I wished Parker’s relationship with Erin and Cassie after she found out was more fleshed out seeing as she was the main reason they wanted to keep everything a secret.

This was a great rom com read - the characters are engaging and the author weaves a bunch of relationships together that are believable and fun to follow. You find yourself rooting for Cassie and Erin throughout. I basically couldn't put it down and loved every minute of my reading it.

4.5 star
I loved this story. It was a cross between a YA story and an age gap romance. I say that because 3 of the main characters are college students and we spend a lot of time with them at their wild parties and in their dorm room dealing with many of the problems college students are confronted with. And one of those problems is the age gap romance between one of the college students and the mother of one of the other students.
Most of the book was sex scenes between the age gap couple but it was necessary to build the story. The encounters slowly grow from friends with benefits to real feelings.
And then their is the delema of how to deal with that and many other entanglements.
I liked how the author got us through the "incident " and the relationship with the students.
Very clever dialog....some humorous...some very insightful. Great story.
I would have given it 5 stars but I thought the age gap was just a bit too large. But I suspended my disbelief for 200+ pages.
I was given this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book is wild! And the book definitely delivered! It was funny and sweet with emotional depth. There were parts of the story that didn't work for me, but I'm not letting that affect my review as I think they really have nothing to do with the book and more to do what kinds of tropes I do and don't enjoy. If you like age gap romances, falling for a friend's parent, and/or fwb to lovers, I think you'll enjoy this! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Mistakes We Made was honestly addictive from the first few pages. Its the seasons of the MILFS, and youll love every second of it. Meryl Wilson knows how to wrote a good romance, even when all the cards and opinions are stacked against them, they find each other and more of themselves.

Mistakes Were Made feels like it should be the title of my life, and honestly, I think that is why I liked this book so much. I know some people have a hard time reading about characters who make decisions you would never make in a million years, but that’s life, and everyone goes through their own paths.

While both Cassie and Erin make some questionable choices, the biggest thing you have to give them credit for is going after exactly what they want, no matter what people are going to think of them. I feel like this is something I have talked to a lot of friends and family about in how difficult it can be to really make decisions based on what you actually want, instead of what you “should” want.

My college theatre professor, and honestly my favorite human on this planet, always used to tell us to “Never Live in the Land of Should”. I used to joke about this phrase so much, but as time passes, I have found myself repeating this more and more and realizing how much better off I am when I stop trying to do what I think I’m supposed to, and just live my life.

Anyway, this super long winded rant comes from this book really speaking to me and reading it at a time when I really needed to. I really enjoyed this and there is definitely a good amount of spice too, so overall a really enjoyable book!

Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review!!

This book is so steamy! I actually liked the age gap here between Erin and Cassie. Their characters are very mature and I liked that they were well developed. The writing was very good, very fun book to read and it just couldn’t hurt that it is queer!

I struggled to write this review, not because I didn’t like the book but because I loved it. I’m not sure I can convey how much in a way it deserves, but please go read it!

This book has a lot of things I have been looking for: a steamy secret romance (without adultery) / one night stand to friend with benefit to lover with a side of age gap. It was perfect.

The steamy scenes were hot but not distasteful. The story felt complete which I don’t often get. I normally feel like I would have like more of something such as more details or more time getting to know the MCs or a longer time enjoying their HEA. I feel like I got it all from this book, a feeling of completeness which I absolutely love such (it reminded me of Those who wait from Haley Cass. ).

I’ve read it 3 times now and I enjoyed it more each time. I will be purchasing it when it comes out and am praying for an audiobook version.

** Arc generously provided by the publisher on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review **

I went into this expecting a fluffier sapphic romance, and it was very much not what I got lol. And no slow burn here by any means—you jump straight into smut.

I'd give it a 3.5 stars. While I wasn't necessarily in love with the characters or the storyline, this book was ridiculously hot. I was engaged enough to read it quickly, but I don't really know if I'd rec it unless it was to someone who wanted a raunchier rom-com without much else.

Mistakes Were Made was a great read! Loved both Erin and Cassie and I felt the character development was great. Using both of their perspectives helped me understand each of their motivations and relate to both of them throughout. I am not really a fan of age gaps and when I realized how young Cassie is I cringed a little bit, but this was so enjoyable that it was easy to overcome and root for them. Also a lot of spicy moments!

This had some cute moments and I’m all for an age gap sapphic romance story - but I don’t think I ever fully bought into the chemistry between Erin and Cassie. We jump right into the physical and then they are both immediately hung up and it just was hard for me to believable follow without any depth given to the relationship at first.

I was hoping for more yearning and feelings and pining etc. (a large reason I read romance). But maybe I’m just be too critical and in my own way to fully enjoy this one.

i haven't read a sapphic romance in a while and this is what i needed, from the beginning of the book to the ending of the book sparks were flying between erin and cassie meet. cassie is a college senior and erin is a woman that caught cassie eye at a bar during family weekend at cassie college and hook up, but the next day cassie goes with her friend parker to have breakfast with parker's mom (aka erin) and is shock when she finds out that erin is parker's mom her best friend but the two cant seem to turn off there feelings for each other.

i love the friend dynamic between parker,cassie and acacia

the reason i gave this book 4 stars is because i wish we got more of a back story and what happen between her mom and her life before college also we got more og how parker was feeling about when she found out erin and cassie were having a secret relationship behind there back and just a little bit more about parker character.

i loved the chemistry cassie and erin has it was everything and they spicy scenes and there character devlopement.

i want to thank netgalley and st.martins publishing for giving me this arc.

I was very excited about this novel because I enjoyed Meryl Wilsner's other book, Something to Talk About. The two could not be more different. Mistakes Were Made is being marketed as "The MILF book" and I thought that it would be a fun read, but ultimately it is not really what you think of when you think of a romance book. The two characters, Cassie and Erin are more in lust than they are in love.

The whole premise of the book is the fact that mom Erin sleeps with college senior Cassie and then the next day finds out that Cassie is a college friend of Erin's daughter. The premise seems great. We've been getting the straight equivalent of the story for years so to finally have a sapphic edition, I was thrilled. Ultimately it fell very flat for me. It felt like the entire purpose of the book was to just show them having sex.

First off, the pacing is very slow and I ended up skimming the last 150 pages because I was so bored. The only thing moving the story forward for the majority of the book was the sex scenes between Cassie and Erin and even those did not have any real weight. It felt like I was reading the same scene over and over. If the plot was a graph... it would be flat. So much of the story just fell flat for me.

I also got a major ick. We have been getting variations of the "best friend's father/mother" story for years so that wasn't my problem. My problem was the fact that Erin and Cassie seemed to be trying to fill the mother/daughter holes in each other lives rather than romantic holes. The story is rooted in mommy issues, but I think it is taken a little far. Cassie has a bad relationship with her mother and Erin has a very strained relationship with her daughter. I think the thing that ruined it for me is the Christmas scene where Erin gives *almost* matching PJs to both Cassie and her daughter, Parker. It was weird.

The characters also don't have any real personality or chemistry. You could stick any number of characters in the story and it would still read the same because of the complete Y/N nature of the characters. In the end, I think this is what killed the book for me, I couldn't connect to the characters.

This just isn't realistic. And coming from someone who reads romance for escapism and not realism, that is saying something.

Thank you to Meryl Wilsner and St. Martin's Press for an arc of Mistakes Were Made in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, this is my Book of the Year. I have no questions about it.

It has literally everything that i love in a story- queer, conflict, forbidden lovers, emotions, and SPICE!

The characters in this book were literal perfection to me. Erin & Cassie stole the show as the main characters, but boy did all the supporting characters such as Acacia, Parker and all the other college friends were great inclusions as well.

10/10 will recommend to LITERALLY everyone!