I am not a huge age-gap romance fan so this had a lot of winning me over to do. And... it was actually pretty successful! I was cheering for their relationship by the end, which is a really necessary quality of a romance.

Did it help or hurt that the older woman was younger than me? REALLY HARD TO SAY BUT I FEEL ANCIENT NOW THANK YOU.

I liked Something to Talk About, where Meryl Wilsner convinced me that there can be boss-employee romance novels that i don't hate, so maybe this is her thing; trying to get me to be like, "power imbalance? what power imbalance???" while really naming the power imbalance?

Anyway, pretty fun book! I'll take it!

This takes forbidden romance to a different level. It’s the ultimate
your mom joke trump card.
But really it cannot be this difficult to keep it in your pants (though I say this as a demi)
Although I found the synopsis really intriguing I just couldn’t really get by the fact she was hooking up with he best friends mother but I knew that going in to it. Other than that it was a cute romance if you just ignore the other half of that.
Mainly thank god for Acacia without her it would have been more of the third act shit show I was bracing myself for.

thank you st. martin press and netgalley for giving me a arc in exchange for an honest review.


I'm not a fan of age gaps, especially between someone in their early 20s and the other one is 30+ but, once I saw this book was sapphic I had to give it a try, and I'm glad I did! Sure, the whole conversation and conflict about the couple going behins Erin's daughter, and Cassie's best friend -Parker- sometimes made me uncomfortable, buuut, i knew what i was going into so, i can complain much.

Still, the book was enjoyable, and it was fun, and it had smut, everything I ever wanted in a sapphic book and hadn't found yet, so I'm happy about that!!

Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner is a sapphic romance that I could not put down. Forbidden romance, age gap, sneaking around, and more. It caught me up in a way that I did not expect and made me want more.

I was so excited to read this arc, and then my friends who read it before me warned me about the heavy duet culture language and I saw a tiktok from @Amivi about racist language. These two things ruined the book for me. I hope the publisher and author make edits before this goes to print.



Tiktok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@amivireads/video/7076179306396847402?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESPgo8VtI0FNZq6Hv3ZA19GlE0JNqgz%2BDMBKuuqiEBwah8OtO%2FtWyvSJG2aKL%2F8Q4aroC8FreSEC9Ou19SFiu1GgA%3D&_r=1&checksum=8d268d75ac7f6889f4c7d80ebfeee5f9468944ee9b3506150f4af28709335e28&language=en&preview_pb=0&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAGIb_fznu22vTzaWXXCjXFNgLFza5pyqYg3lxhkAbroaEW5wwW1ZMG-ZdEePDidJ_&share_app_id=1233&share_item_id=7076179306396847402&share_link_id=F55C2DFA-0548-411C-A156-23BB3B5076E9&source=h5_m&timestamp=1647610917&tt_from=copy&u_code=d875m7j9m744bg&user_id=6734706741194769414&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=copy

When Cassie hooks up with a woman at the bar, the last this she expects is for that woman to be her friend's mother. Needless to say, parent's weekend at college just got a whole lot more interesting. However, this book takes place throughout a span of a year, so clearly things continue to progress after family weekend.

One thing that should be noted is that spice level in this book. The author did not hold back when it came to Cassie and Erin's late night activities. Which made for a pretty interesting plane ride where I hoped no one read over my shoulder because they would definitely get an eye full. I am all for an explicit sex scene, but I know some readers would not be comfortable with it, so I felt like it was worth mentioning.

While I enjoyed the story as a whole, I do wish that the characters were a bit more fleshed out. Everything felt so superficial, as if the author was more interested in writing the sex scenes than building the world and characters up. Cassie is supposed to be going to school to potentially be an engineer for NASA, yet it's only mentioned here and there. I wish we could have actually gotten a bit more in her head on that one. Erin works long hours at the hospital, and I would have like to have seen her at her job and interacting outside of her time with Cassie. The characters just never fully felt fleshed out to me and therefor I didn't find myself falling into their romance like I did.

I had really high hopes for this one and thought I was going to fall in love with it. However, I didn't connect with the characters, and therefor couldn't really grasp their relationship. I was hoping to fully immerse myself in this story and unfortunately that was not the case.

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

This book was... it felt like somewhat of a letdown, unfortunately. It had been one of my most-anticipated reads of the year, and I'd really loved Something to Talk about. I'd been so interested in the appeal-- milf book, messy, drama, complicated, something to be quickly read, while hoping no one was seeing my face journey.

Unfortunately, what had drawn me in with the previous book felt somewhat flat in this. It may, of course be, that I am too ace to understand the pull of horniness, as many of my thoughts were *here? now? you promised! you can't hold it in for another 20 minutes?*

I agree with some earlier crit that's been stated-- Parker felt like a somewhat flat character, pushing the plot and relationship along. While we did see her have an arc, and could guess at most of another-- and certainly, she had an amazing moment towards the end, she felt almost the Perfect Fanfic Child as the book wrapped up. The mentions of antebellum architecture (in an almost positive light?), and an interracial couple making the town better were still in my arc as well, but those have been expanded upon by far better reviewers than I.

I appreciated Erin's journey outside of the romance? Coming to terms at least, with the ways she was letting her mother down (in her mind) and how she couldn't, wouldn't be perfect. I also appreciated how visibly, her priorities would shift when it felt like Parker needed her.

I wasn't so much a fan of Cassie's competitiveness for Erin's attention with Parker. It absolutely shows her youth, but it also made me feel somewhat squeamish. This might be more of a personal thing but somehow? not what i was expecting, for some reason.

3.5 out of 5 stars!

Oh wow, okay. I went into this knowing I loved the premise, but the I didn't expect to love the author's writing style this much. This was so good! It honestly caught me off guard, and keep in mind I went into it with high expectations. This book has an incredible premise, the character's have really palpable chemistry and they behave like real people.

Alone during her college’s “family weekend,” senior Cassie Klein heads to the bar in search of a distraction. She finds it when she makes eye contact with a gorgeous woman across the room and follows her out to her car to hook up. Little did she know, Cassie’s simple one-night stand is about to become a lot more complicated. The following morning her best friend, Parker, forces Cassie to breakfast to meet Parker’s mom, Erin…. who just so happens to be the woman Cassie left the bar with the night before.

But it was just a simple one-night stand that they could put behind them, right? Not when Cassie can’t get Erin out of her head. So one night, turns into two… how long can they keep it up?

---

This book wastes NO TIME getting into the plot. Seriously, it hooks you right on page one and doesn’t stop for the rest of the book! The chemistry between Cassie and Erin is undeniably strong and the forbidden romance aspect only adds to the steam.

Speaking of steam, the spice level is absolutely off the charts. This book might hold the record for most spicy scenes among the books I’ve read. And wow, they were incredibly well written!

Also, I’m a huge fan of split POV books and I think that style really worked well with this story. I loved getting to see things from both Cassie and Erin’s perspectives.

I have to address the elephant in the room, though—it’s really weird to sleep with your best friend’s mom who’s 18 years older than you. But if you’re reading this book, you know that’s what you’re getting yourself into. After all, this has been dubbed *The MILF Book.* Honestly, I think Meryl Wilsner did a great job writing the age gap and taboo relationship. Out of context, it can seem like some kind of conflict of interest, uneven power dynamic, boundary-crossing relationship—and while that does leave a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, with these specific characters it doesn’t feel too strange or problematic. At worst, they’re being careless toward Parker. Obviously, that isn’t great but because the motivations are so well fleshed out I think as a reader you can empathize.

If you love sapphic romances with loads of spice, I’d definitely recommend picking up this book when it comes out in October!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for providing the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a cute, quick read. There was more smut than I was necessarily prepared for, and I do have to admit that as interesting as the plot synopsis look when I read it, I hadn't thought about how complicated and messy of a situation it was.

Part of the reason why I wasn't huge on this just has to do with my dislike for age gap romance in general. Every so often, I give it another try to see if my feelings on it have improved, and they have not. These feelings of discomfort only grew with all of the sneaking around they did. I felt Parker was underutilized as a character as well, and though I liked that there were no main male characters, Erin was the only main character that I truly enjoyed.

Overall, though, this was an easy read, but I doubt I'd recommend it to people who didn't like age gap (as a large part of the plot centers on it).

Thank you St Martin Press and Netgalley for giving me access to such an amazing ARC!

Immediately after seeing the cover I requested the arc, and let me tell you I absolutely loved it. I enjoyed this read so much I plan on purchasing the physical copy when it releases October 11th. The spice is amazing🔥 The tropes are secret dating, age gap, and a happy ending. It's such a fun read and takes you through all the emotions. I really think if you enjoyed The Love Hypothesis you'll love this book.

Blurb:
Cassie goes to a bar across campus to get away and not run into anyone she knows. While at the bar Cassie runs into a hot older women who she hooks up with. Little does Cassie know this hot older woman is actually her friends mom.

4/5⭐️
3/5🌶

OMG, I love Something to Talk About so much, that I had really high expectations for Mistakes Were Made and Meryl Wilsner far exceeded them.

When Cassie Klein goes to a bar on the first night of Parents Weekend to avoid the happy families on campus the last thing she expects is to hook up with much older attractive women. The next day, when Cassie's best friend Parker drags her to breakfast to meet her mom, Erin whose in town she does not expect to come face to face with the women from the night before.

Erin came to Family Weekend to see her daughter, not have a one-night stand with a student. And her one night stand shows up at breakfast the next morning has her panicked.

The sparks between Erin and Cassie can't be denied and this one-night stand quickly becomes something more. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this book. This book was steamy and full of so much passion and emotion. Can't wait for Wilsner's next book.

Another romance I enjoyed, but that I wanted a bit more from.

I liked Mistakes Were Made: the characters were distinct, the romance was developed, and there were some solid side characters. But as with so many of the 3-star romances that I've read, I wanted this book to go deeper than it did. The two main leads definitely got to know and grow closer to each other over the course of the story--it wasn't an insta love situation or anything--but I still felt like that emotional connection was not as developed as it could've been. There was more that the author could've explored, especially on Cassie's side, that could've made the relationship feel a bit more fleshed out and grounded. That being said, I feel like a lot of people will still really enjoy this one, and I'll definitely be looking forward to Meryl Wilsner's future books (I know they have a couple coming out in the next few years, which is very exciting).

Thank you St Martin's Press for providing me with an e-ARC of this via NetGalley!

Mistakes Were Made is a sweet age-gap romance with lots of angst.

I loved how we really got to know Cassie and Erin, their strengths and fears, and their relationship hang-ups. Both women have excellent friends and support systems they can go to with their issues, so I was surprised how insecure they were. The main conflict in this story is how neither woman wants anyone to know about this relationship because of the age difference. I hoped someone would be mature and at least attempt to be open and honest, but instead this is a sneaking around and lying about it story that doesn't show either of them in a good light. However, the two of them were so good together and brought out the best in each other that I could almost overlook the sneaking around.

Overall, a fun and well-written story even if it follows one of my least-favorite tropes.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for early review access to this book.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and St Martins Press for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I liked a lot about this book. I’ve always been one for the trope where it’s like oh no we are actually connected tangentially (through a job, best friend, sibling etc.) after a supposed one night stand (it’s ✨never✨ just a one night stand). And this best friend’s mom was definitely that! I like the way Cassie and Erin grow as people throughout the story, and the push and pull of their interaction really made their relationship a 5 star one for me.

Overall the story was excellent, dialogue funny and interesting, but I did find some parts at the beginning to be a bit forced and kind of hard to read smoothly. I picked it up and put it down a couple of times because of this, but as soon as I was past the first couple of chapters it was smooth sailing. Maybe the awkwardness is intentional and I missed it, but as I am reading this release in April and it’s out in October, I’m hoping there is time for it to be cleaned up just a bit still. I would absolutely change my rating to a 4.5/5 ⭐️ if the beginning was polished up.

“F*** Should”
On the surface, Mistakes Were Made tells the tale of a cringe hookup between a college senior (Cassie) and her best friend’s mom (Erin). However, once you read between the steamy scenes, you’re drawn into a story with complex characters dealing with their own trauma and reaction to society’s perceived rules and our place within them, as exemplified by the above quote. It’s a touching, steamy, romp of a fun easy-to-read book, definitely worth reading.

Mistakes were Made was just ok. I wasn’t overly impressed. The whole thing was very immature. I know most of the characters were college students, but Erin was supposed to be a middle-aged physician and she didn’t really make it feel any better. The book opens up with a one-night stand that wasn’t believable or sexy and the romance pretty much remains that way for the first half of the book. I do feel like it improved towards the end when they finally did more than have rushed sex scenes. I finished this in one day, so it kept me reading. Unfortunately, I just didn’t love it.

This was a really fun romance and I overall had a great time with it. I throughly enjoyed reading Cassie and Erin’s romance and I liked all the characters most of the time. My one critique was just that the big reveal was so underwhelming and I felt like a lot of the end of this book was just kinda dragging

My sapphic heart was not prepared for how much I would ADORE this book. I absolutely could not put it down and I can not wait for it to come out so I can buy a copy for every lesbian friend I have.

This book was so sexy and so horny so if you're not into books with a lot of intimate scenes this probably isn't for you but if you love a sexy and emotional read this is 100% for you,

I will say, I was iffy on the age gap but I think Wilsner did a very great job with character development not only for Erin and Cassie but also the side characters and the age gap didn't feel important to me as much as their connection to each other.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review, 5 stars.

This book was truly FUN. From start to finish I enjoyed myself, and I found each character to be richly written and engaging throughout the story. Cassie is a great character, dynamic and flawed and intriguing, and Erin is the perfect foil to balance her out. Everyone who called this the MILF book was not wrong (including the author themself) and wow the whole thing delivered. My only complaint is that the second half of the book seemed to drag a little, feeling repetitive, and made me lose a little momentum in reading. Overall I found Mistakes Were Made to be exciting and addictive, and I read the whole thing in a frantic marathon because I didn't want to put it down. Such a fantastic time!!