4/5 stars
3-4/5 Spice

Rep : Bisexual (Saphic Relationship), Non Binary Side Character

TW : Alcoholic Parent (Past), Cheating Partner (Past), Lying, Family Tensions, Sexual Content, Alcohol Consumption, Drug Usage

I received a Free E-Arc in exchange for an honest review through Netgalley. Thank you to the Publisher and Netgalley.

I want to start off this review by saying that there were a couple of instances (I counted 3 but there could have been more I missed) of racist comments that did absolutely nothing for the story and could be easily removed. I have also seen some reviewers mention ableist comments also which I think I accidentally skimmed but want to acknowledge. Now back to the rest of the review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and if you are looking for a spicy WLW fun read this is it. This book is a Romance that starts off with what both Erin and Cassie believes will be a fun one night stand to blow off some steam but then the following morning when Cassie goes to lunch with her friend Parker to be a buffer between Parker and her mom, Cassie realizes she slept with her friends mom and Erin realizes she slept with her daughters friend.

I enjoyed all of the characters and I thought the friendship between Cassie and Acacia was well developed. I would love to see how Cassie and Parker became friends in a short story as I feel like that would be interesting.

The book is spent by Cassie and Erin trying to ignore their feelings for each other but failing miserably and then later trying to become closer while avoiding telling Parker about the relationship. We get great scenes of them becoming closer slowly and having a relationship that felt real in its progression as they develop as partners over months. While they started off as lets sleep with each other for fun it later turned into hey I kinda like talking to you let's go on Not Date Dates.

Erin and Cassie felt real they were developed and had flaws that they were trying to break free of. Erin especially as we saw her struggle constantly with breaking free of the ingrained expectations she has had pushed on her since her childhood by her mother. I loved seeing Cassie help Erin overcome her ingrained behaviors like in the Christmas party scene, where Erin tries to make everything perfect until Cassie talks her out of it.

If you're looking for a Witty feel good Romance that brings the spice and tension all at the same time, this is it. (And yes it is labeled the MILF book for a reason.)

This book was so sweet!

I'm always a little hesitant to read age gap romances as I've found that the power dynamic can easily become toxic, so I was very happy to read about a healthy one! Also, a GAY ROMANCE! I loved the connection between Cassie and Erin, and it was amazing to watch them fall in love, even when they didn't see it themselves. I loved how much they cared about each other, and it was so sweet how they were always doing little things to make each other happy. Their genuine happiness made me feel giddy inside!

I also appreciated the copious amounts of well-written spice! I've read a lot of queer books where the author shies away from detailed smut, but Wilsner made sure to write a lot and keep it varied, which was awesome.

I loved this book!

This is my first Meryl Wilsner read but it certainly won't be my last! Meryl has the ability to plop the reader right into the story, sketch out a clear, vivid picture of the characters we'll come to care deeply about in about 0.5 seconds, and hook us with the plot. MISTAKES WERE MADE was a beautiful, sexy romance with so many utterly realistic moments of intimacy and heartache that sometimes I had to put my kindle down and take a breath. An effortless 5-star read!

I can enjoy an age gap story however I have a hard time accepting an age gap with a kid's friends. There were parts of this book I loved and some I found hard to take in. I found the storyline hard to believe especially the reactions to her relationship with her daughter's friend. People just seemed to accept it and that doesn't seem like a proper reaction
If Cassie seemed more mature I would b able to accept it more but she was the kind of childish and the whole thing felt wrong.

I feel like this could have been better with some reaction changes and the characters acting more mature.

Loved the idea of such a complicated relationship but as I read it, I realized It just wasn’t for me. The Taboo of this college student/mother of her friend just became too much for me to properly enjoy the story: which is wonderfully written! No shame on the author! I think the sneaking around became too much when they began being a bad friend/mother because of it. I want to love my main characters and I found myself disliking them more often than loving. If Taboo spice is your jam then this book will be AMAZING!

The world needs more queer spicy romance, and this is exactly the kind I've been looking for.
This was such a fun read. I was hooked from the very beginning and had fun the whole way through.
Cassie and Erin were compelling, both together and separately. I loved that they were both women in traditionally male dominated fields, but Wilsner didn't make a big deal about it (because it isn't a big deal!). Their chemistry was off the charts and to be completely honest, spice in books doesn't always do it for me, but this was some of the best spice I've ever read, period. There was even an excellent mix of plot and spice, nothing felt too forced and the story flowed very well.
Cassie even made me feel old with the line "Who even prints photos anymore? Were you born in the nineties?" Ouch, but it made me chuckle!
I loved Meryl Wilsner's ability to make even the side characters a lot of fun. Madison was everything. I wouldn't really call Parker a side character, but I even liked her even though she was the main reason for Cassie and Erin's relationship being so taboo.
This may not be a popular take, but I actually loved that Parker wasn't too upset in the end. Low stakes (but seemingly high stakes) is. a breath of fresh air.
This book was inclusive, hot as hell, and again, so much fun.
Fuck should!!!
This was my first book by the author, but now I'm going to check out her other novel. Thank you so much to the author and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy!

I loved Mistakes Were Made so much! It was fun and sexy and was exactly what I wanted it to be.

The characters were well thought out and established and whilst I didn't agree with some of their actions, they were consistent within their character's actions.

I did find Parker a bit underutilised. She was the main thing coming between Cassie and Erin and I thought this could have been used a bit more.

This book took a popular trope and put a fresh and unique spin on it. I think there was a lot that was great with the book in terms of representation however there were some moments that fell flat in terms of mentions of toxic diet culture? It like almost didn’t make any sense to be there - it was really easy to miss but certainly s stuck out to me and felt unnecessary. Overall, a great read that offers positive representation for an age gap trope but definitely need the mentions of toxic diet culture removed from the final book.

This book was okay. I liked the cover and that’s what interested me, but the beginning of the story just wasn’t for me. The whole best friends mom is just not my vibe, I thought I would end up liking it but it was just an ok book for me.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Meryl Wilsner, and Netgalley for an e-arc of Mistakes Were Made in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book a lot. I was expecting fun MILF smut, but I was not expecting the book to be PURE SMUT! It has sex scenes galore. Which is wonderful and it makes the tension really suspenseful. Do I wish there was more plot and struggle? Yes. Did I skim through one or two of the sex scenes because there was so many? Maybe.

The biggest problem with this book, as said by my friends of color who have previously reviewed this book, have mentioned their frustrating with one or two unnecessary comments about Blacks and Asians. There is one referencing how she had a black friend and thought it was cool or something that she was woke and it was just dumb. And the other was about the scene in the nail salon. Again, just unnecessary and not nice comments about race & ethnicity.

This is a fun book if you like older women, lesbian smut, and live in Virginia. As someone from the New River valley I laughed that is where the made-up college is from. It’s a good one if you just want spice but it could’ve done without one or two scenes for my own personal taste.

If you take the unnecessary comments out, the book will be splendid.

I don’t know what possessed my brain to think that requesting a copy of the MILF book was a good idea, but I did it, and I got it a day later, and I read it a couple of days later after that.

Yes, I knew, going into the book, that it was a romance between a college senior and her friend’s mom. And I knew that that there are approximately six to eight sex scenes. And I even knew that some of these sex scenes would take place somewhat in public.

In case you didn’t know: I am aromantic and asexual. While I do read plenty of books with sex scenes in them, I have an upper limit as to how much I can read without getting a little uncomfortable.

And yet, here we are.

Cassie Klein, a senior in college, has an earth-shatteringly good hookup on Parents Weekend with a hot older woman she met in a bar. Come to find out the next day, her hookup was Erin Bennett, her best friend’s roommate’s mother. They’re happy to keep this a one night stand, but as the year goes on, Cassie and Erin can’t seem to stop talking to each other. (Among other things.)

I don’t even know what to say about this book. It was actually incredible. Meryl Wilsner is a fantastic writer, and I applaud their ability to write an entertaining story with a forbidden romance that was not based in racism or homophobia. Pretty much the entire plot hinges on Cassie and Erin trying to keep their relationship a secret from Erin’s daughter, but somehow, it works.

It’s a little ridiculous. It’s very, (very, very) raunchy. It is unabashedly bisexual. As a college student myself, yeah, it was really weird for me to think about someone my age hooking up with and dating a person in their late thirties. But somehow, against all odds, it worked.

“Mistakes Were Made” comes out on Oct. 11, 2022. I received an early copy from St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

Meryl Wilsner's earlier novel, Something To Talk About, is one of my favourites so I was thrilled to receive an advance copy of their new book! This one has all of Wilsner's excellent character development and writing, with a lots of extra spice! Absolutely loved this one. Thank you!

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m so gay. While I take issue with certain plot points and the way certain people of color were referred and used, this books was almost all it was hyped up to be. I want more books like this now.

Either this was the wring book for me or I was the wrong reader for it. I'm giving it three and a half stars, rounded up to four, in an effort to evaluate how it would be for someone who didn't have my particular idiosyncratic issues with it, and I'll let you know what they were and you can see whether they'll affect you or not.

I really, really loved Something to Talk About, Wilsner's previous book, so I was excited to get the ARC for this. What I hadn't counted on was that the premise is a major squick for me. I have teenage (though pre-college) kids myself, and it turns out that a story about a college student's parent having an affair with one of their kid's friends, even a 20-year-old legal adult just hits a little too close to home.

The other thing that got me was that the two of them spend a lengthy portion of the book continuing in their connection even though they think it's the wrong thing to do. I don't really like reading about people who are doing something that's against their ethical judgment. To be clear, it's more that they're keeping the secret from the daughter/friend that feels wrong to them, not the age gap per se.

Other than those two issues, the book is well executed. The writing is crisp and lively, the characters are well-drawn, the sex is plentiful and hot (and lets hear it for 40-ish women having all the hot sex, amirite?) and we definitely get to see some good pining.
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There was one emotional conflict that got handled off-page and related to the reader after the fact, and I'd like to have seen that hand;ed differently, but except for that, if the age gap and the I-shouldn't-but-I-want-to-and-I-can't-stop-myself thing don't make you want to nope out, I recommend this book. For some people, the characters being so attracted that they can't stop from doing something they think is unwise could even be a draw.

Another 5 Star book by Meryl Wilsner. Mistakes were made starts off with a bang, literally. Cassie meets a beautiful older woman at a bar and takes her “home”, its not until later that she realizes that the same woman she had a mind-blowing night with is her friend’s mom. Wilsner wastes no time, immediately plunging you into the drama that follows sleeping with your best friend’s mother. The taboo relationship sets the groundwork for a book full of drama.

This book has been highly anticipated by me, after reading Wilsner’s debut book “Something to talk about”. I felt “Mistakes were made” took what I loved from that book and improved it. The characters are even more likable, the relationship is just as gratifying, and you aren’t waiting the entire book for something to happen. If you are a fan of age-gap romance or are looking for a fun sapphic book that will have you grinning stupidly in public, then check this book out.

Without delving too far into spoilers, my biggest criticism of the book is the pacing. The book starts off strong, and immediately plunges you into the life of Cassie and Erin, as they struggle to define their relationship, and deal with the implications of such a large age gap in a relationship, not to mention the implications of being romantically involved with someone who is friends with you child. After you are thrown into the deep end, the book slows down a lot, and for a relationship that is so “taboo” there is surprisingly little actual conflict in the book.

I felt Wilsner handled the relationship very well, they don’t shy away from how such a relationship may seem, and really make the couple believable as a pair. I particularly like how Erin being attracted to another woman is handled. The main conflict is not that she is attracted to a younger woman, but simply that she is seeing someone much younger than her. Which is very refreshing to have queer literature that isn’t about coming out. If you want a fun, steamy, and heartfelt story of two woman falling in love check out this book, or if you just like MILFS, also check out this book.

Wow, this book had a lot in terms of romance! I was happily surprised given Something To Talk About was more slow burn. The plot was enticing at first, but then it turned into your average adult romance. This wasn't necessarily a bad for me because I enjoy this genre. I wasn't particularly captured by either of the main characters, but they were interesting enough to keep reading. I would definitely read a second book about Parker's love life! Overall, I recommend this book if the plot sounds interesting to you and you like steamy romance!

I LOVED this book!! I braced myself for a very difficult ending, but I was so pleased with the wrap up. This is the second book I read by Meryl Wilsner and I am a big fan! This book has everything: steam, forbidden romance, and friendship.

I am so thankful to NetGalley for sending an ARC of this book. It was on my list of must reads this year.

What a sexy little read! I go absolutely nuts for two main characters who crackle with so much chemistry that they can't keep their hands off of each other no matter how much they try. This book has layers on layers of angst and drama and it is steamy all over. I was gripped from moment one and absolutely NEEDED to know how it was all gonna work out, what an incredible ride.

Eeeeee I really liked this one. It was sexy, sweet, and all around a good time. When I heard the concept of the main character hooking up with a woman who turns out to be her friend’s mom, I was hooked. This book was steamy, omg. However, along with the steam, it also had some really cute moments as well. I will say, there were some moments that felt a little repetitive, like I just wanted them to stop tiptoeing around and admit their feelings for each other. But overall I really liked the characters and the story!

I was able to read Meryl Wilsner's Something to Talk About early last year through NetGalley and I thought it was pretty exceptional. When I heard that she was going to drop another book in 2022, I was ecstatic. When I found out that it was about a college student accidentally hooking up with her BEST FRIEND'S MOM...I started legitimately checking NetGalley every single day until it dropped.

Not only did Mistakes Were Made meet my expectations but it *exceeded* them. Cassie Klein is a college senior. She has lofty but attainable goals of being an aerospace engineer. During the first evening of her college's Family Weekend, Cassie ends up hooking up with an attractive older woman fully expecting to never see her again. The following morning, one of Cassie's best friends--Parker--asks her to join her for breakfast with her mom and she is floored to see none other than Dr. Erin Bennett at the table.

Erin is a successful doctor with a strained relationship with her daughter. Parker blames Erin for the divorce that happened between her parents and Erin hasn’t figured out the best way to bridge that gap. When Erin heads to a bar, she goes to one far from campus to avoid something messy happening. (Un)fortunately, love always finds a way.

After their passionate first encounter, Erin and Cassie swear that they will not risk their respective relationships with Parker based on a fiery connection. Will they be able to stay apart? Is what’s between them just sex or the potential for something more?

Y’all. I cannot rave enough about this book. It was phenomenal. This is going to be one that I read and reread because I just love everything about it. Erin and Cassie are both dynamic characters. They are relatable and multi-faceted. The additional characters are beautifully fleshed out to create a fully actualized story. On top of this…it is hot. It is so hot. I kept going back and rereading scenes. Ugh. All of you should read this and hype it up because it is GREAT.

**BIG, big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC copy in exchange for an honest review.