Meryl Wilsner has done it again! My Best Friend’s Honeymoon is the kind of book that reminds me why I fell in love with their writing in the first place—full of chemistry, tenderness, and characters who feel so real that you can’t help but root for them.

This book had me from the premise alone: a nonrefundable honeymoon, a best-friends-to-lovers dynamic, and a nonbinary love interest? Sign me up! Wilsner has always been a master at slow-burn romance with electric tension, and they bring that same magic here. The dynamic between Elsie and Ginny is everything—playful, intimate, and so deeply layered with years of unspoken feelings. Ginny’s love for Elsie is palpable from page one, and watching Elsie come into her own, learning to ask for what she truly wants (and realizing that what she wants is Ginny), was immensely satisfying.

Beyond the romance, this story carries Wilsner’s signature themes of self-discovery and learning to live for yourself. Elsie’s journey is just as compelling as the love story, and I adored seeing her grow into her confidence.

If you loved Mistakes Were Made or Something to Talk About, My Best Friend’s Honeymoon is a must-read. It’s fun, heartfelt, and utterly swoon-worthy—exactly the kind of book that makes you want to hug it when you’re done. Wilsner fans, you won’t be disappointed!

i wanted to love this more than i did. the premise made me feel like i would get butterflies in my tummy and it would be such a great queer story but i think i might have gone in with too high of expectations so its on me honestly. i'm not mad that i read it but i just didnt end up loving it as much as i thought i would

I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly this book got right into the plot and how fast things started happening. I had a hard time putting it down for the entire first half because I was invested in the plot and the characters. The middle felt a tad repetitive to me, but that didn't last for long and then the last third moved nice and quick again. I really enjoyed the main characters and their personalities in this and the way things with the fiance were written. I felt like we didn't get much of the background characters, but that's partly because much of the book is spent with just the two of them. Overall, this was a fun quick read. It had good representation too. Just be aware going into it that it is very NSFW, I would say even more so than Cleat Cute.

Meryl Wilsner's latest book centers on Elsie and Ginny: childhood best friends who end up going on an all expenses paid vacation together after Elsie breaks things off with her fiancé Derrick. Their friendship was beautiful to see and I loved the flashbacks Wilsner included about Ginny and Elsie's individual explorations of their sexualities and gender identities. I loved seeing the character growth that they both experienced throughout the story. My only critique is that the middle of the book was extremely heavy on the spice. It felt a bit out of balance with the rest of the story. I would've loved to see more of their adventures in Santa Lupita because their friendship was really beautiful.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book and I love Wilsner's LGBTQIAP+ representation in their books.

Not my favorite Meryl Wilsner book, but still a nice story and I loved the non binary representation. Will recommend to other readers.

“The best book I’ve read this year”
"Gripping from start to finish"
"A powerful exploration of self discovery"

Ginny and Elise's story had me from the very beginning. I was totally invested in the story and what was coming next. I want to read every book by this author! If you love love you need to read this book. It was AMAZING! Can't recommend enough!

2.5 ⭐️
I really wanted to like this book, but it was just ok to me. I don’t know if it was the writing style or if I couldn’t connect with the characters, but this was just alright.

I just finished a good romcom. My Best Friend’s Honeymoon by Meryl Wilsner was a good read. Don’t skip it.

rating — 4.5 out of 5 stars.

i can’t lie, my rating here is pretty much entirely devoted to one ginny holtz. i am OBSESSED with them. a strong, fat nonbinary lesbian woodworker??? PLEASE call me, i will literally do anything!!! anything at all!! they’re absolutely perfect in every way and no one can change my mind.

to be honest, this did have a couple of issues with pacing/conflict, but i truly enjoyed myself so much that i didn’t really care about that stuff at all. the premise of going on your best friend’s honeymoon with her after she breaks up with her fiancé… and you’re best friends… and you’re secretly in love with each other… is undeniably delicious. it was pretty fast paced but i felt like i really believed their history/friendship, so i didn’t mind that! you could sense the years of angst behind it all which made it more believable. the near endless hooking up was possibly a little excessive, but it was well done, so… who cares!

i didn’t love elsie’s reactions during the inevitable conflict (once again, ginny pls call me, i would never do this to you), but i appreciated ginny’s handling of it and the resolution was well done. i ate it all up!! a quick but very enjoyable read.

If you’re looking for inclusivity in a romance, then Meryl Wilsner is the right author for you. My Best Friend’s honeymoon features a plus-sized non-binary main character that made me feel seen. Ginny’s personality makes them so incredibly hard not to love.

If you loved Mistakes Were Made, you'll love My Best Friend's Honeymoon!

My favorite thing about Meryl Wilsner's writing is the constant normalization of queerness and queer sex. They consistently depict aspects of my life (and sex) that I've never seen written elsewhere in books before. And not only is that hot, but its so powerful and comforting to have your lived experience mirrored back to you in a story - especially a joyful one. I'm so grateful to get an ARC of this book and have already started hyping it up within my network. What a gift, especially in these shitty times!

Meryl Wilsner is back with yet another banger of a queer romance book. I cannot wait to get this book in stores to recommend to my customers who are looking for a good sapphic romance—at this point half my recommendations are already Wilsner's work. Thank you St Martin's Press, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this before it officially releases, I will definitely be ordering this for my store and telling customers about it in anticipation for its release.
I loved the relationship between Elsie and Ginny, as well as the representation present in the book—both with their queer identities and also with Ginny being plus sized. I think Ginny's pronouns and the use of she/they for them was handled really well, there wasn't any point in which I was confused on what was happening due to the pronouns and I appreciated that Wilsner used both "she" and "they" for Ginny instead of going with what some people may consider to be the easier option of just using one of the pronouns the entire book.
I feel like there's so much I can say to praise this book. I loved the pacing, the writing, the side characters (Who I am desperately wanting to learn more about, I need a Dykes on Bikes short story or something! That whole group is so fun.), and oh my gosh the spice was top tier.
Overall, an amazing read and I cannot wait to have a physical copy on my shelf!

I am on a downhill slump when it comes to Wilsner’s books. The first word that comes to mind to describe “My Best Friend’s Honeymoon” is inexplicable. The pacing and flashbacks to when the characters were in high school didn’t flow well enough and I never felt like the plot made sense or was understandable. Ginny and Elsie have been best friends forever. Ginny asked Elsie to a dance when they were kids, Elsie said no, and they managed to maintain a friendship that was the most important relationship in their lives ever since. Elsie starts the book engaged to a “golden retriever” man named Derrick. The engagement has lasted nearly two years. Derrick believes her excuses about being too busy to plan and decides to plan it all himself and sets the date for a week later. I find the use of an overblown shitty or stupid ex-boyfriend to be lazy writing and it was a weird part of the book. I’m aware he’s required to send Ginny and Elsie on the honeymoon together, but the exaggeration of him felt off. The romance itself was fine. The book ends up being mostly sex that increasingly gets more intense. I struggled to understand the main conflict that begins once they leave the honeymoon and ended up uninterested in the rest of the book. The overall tone is still very “saying the right thing” which flattens out a lot of tension because each character is written with the fear of being a bad person and ends up being boring. Some of the scenes read as really performative and I didn’t really understand the point of them. Elsie calls out a waiter for calling her and Ginny “ladies” at dinner, but a few scenes later, another guest calls a group of (presumed) women “wives”, and that is apparently fine. Part of my problem is that I had to keep reminding myself that these characters are twenty-three, which I feel like explains a lot.

This is a really interesting concept for a queer romance! The characters are compelling and I like them. However, I found the writing style really hard to follow along with. I feel like focusing on one character’s POV would’ve been beneficial here. The perspective shifts fluidly and makes it hard to keep up with the story at times. But, I think if you want a good queer romance, this is definitely a great option.

My Best Friend's Honeymoon had all the ingredients for a great friends-to-lovers romance—years of pining, forced proximity in a romantic setting, and undeniable chemistry—but it didn’t fully deliver for me. The miscommunication trope was overused to the point of frustration, with both Ginny and Elsie making assumptions instead of having actual conversations. Elsie’s lack of backbone, especially in major life decisions, made her a difficult character to root for at times, and the reason behind her reluctance to acknowledge her feelings for Ginny felt weak.

The pacing was another issue. The flashbacks and POV shifts weren’t clearly marked, making the timeline feel disjointed. The biggest problem, though, was the structure of the book—what should have been a third-act conflict happened at the 50% mark, keeping the leads apart for way too long. For a romance novel, I wanted more on-page emotional connection between Ginny and Elsie to balance out the heavy physical side of their relationship. Instead, the spicy scenes took up so much space that the romance itself felt underdeveloped.

That said, if you’re looking for a quick, steamy read with some scorching-hot tension, this book delivers on that front. The honeymoon setting and years of buried feelings made for a solid premise, but I just needed more depth to the love story to fully buy into their relationship. A fun, sexy romcom, but not quite as satisfying as I’d hoped.

Many thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin for a copy of this novel. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

I love a friends to lovers, so I was excited to read My Best Friend’s Honeymoon. Elsie Hoffman has been engaged for a year and a half; Ginny Holtz has been in love with Elsie for more than a decade. When Elsie backs out of the already-planned wedding her fiancé surprises her with, he gives her the non-refundable honeymoon, and there’s no one else she wants to take but her best friend Ginny, and Ginny is determined that Elsie takes this trip to learn how to speak for herself, but when Elsie decides she wants Ginny, their whole world is flipped upside down. Ultimately, this one didn’t work for me. It relies so so heavily on the steam, which is fine, but I wanted more from the plot. I don’t mind the steam, but it does bother me when it feels like it’s stopping the romantic/emotional development to be explored. And the introspection they both have gets pretty repetitive that it feels like it takes a while for the story to really move forward. It also relies on the miscommunication trope to push the story forward, which isn’t my favorite. They don’t talk about their feelings until things fall apart, and they’re supposed to be best friends, so that felt frustrating. Ginny is so sweet and caring, they would do absolutely anything for Elsie, and I love the growth they go through to not only support Elsie but support themselves too. And Elise, she wants so much but is so afraid to make waves. I loved how Ginny encouraged Elsie to take the reins. It’s a quick read that’ll have you wanting to book your next vacation.

I don’t normally pick up friends to lovers, it’s typically lacking for me and I don’t enjoy that the characters already know each other well. I picked this one up because I liked that it sounded a little different, with Elsie breaking off her engagement and her and Ginny going on the honeymoon together. Sadly, it still fell pretty flat for me. Both characters took awhile to feel real to me, and they still didn’t completely by the end. I really loved that Ginny was fat and non-binary but that’s still not enough reason for me to love this book, just for rep. I also wasn’t wowed by the writing style, it’s very… flat and plain. I’m not opposed to reading from this author again but I am a little hesitant. This just wasn’t for me.

If you love friends to lovers, then this one is for you. Ginny is a non-binary, earnest, adorable woodworker with a crush the size of Lake Superior on her tall, blonde, indecisive best friend Elsie. When Elsie's engagement falls through and someone has to go on the honeymoon with her, what's a pal to do? This book had heart, yearning, and laughs. I enjoyed it a lot.

I was so excited to see I got approved for this because I liked Mistakes Were Made.

I thought this book was good - I think it just needed a little more to make it great. It was very easy to see where the story was going to go from the beginning and where the conflict was going to arise. I wish we had a little more chance to dig in to their emotional journey and more backstory /nuggets or flashbacks of them falling in love when they were kids.

This is the second book I've read with they/them pronouns, the first I've read that is in third person. It didn't take as long as I thought it might for me to not notice it. There were just a few times when I had to reread something - but thats my brains fault not the writing. I think the pronouns were done well.

I just wish this world could have been built out more. I think I needed a little more from our side characters. I think if both Elsie and Ginny talked about their relationship more with the people around them it would have solidified their issues a little more. I wish we could see that work they did to come back together. I wanted more.from Sue and the hot drag queen friend as well as Elsie's family.

I loved the spice - but usually don't love it when it's all in one part of the book. I wish we had a little more of a slow burn into their first hook up.

Another queer romance by Meryl Wilsner! I was super excited about this one just from the cover. A plus-sized MC is rare. And to have nonbinary representation too! Exciting! That said, “My Best Friend’s Honeymoon” didn’t quite meet my expectations.

Personally, I’m not a fan of romance books that involve a main character just breaking up with someone. It creates too many passages of a romance between two people to be focused on someone else. Elsie ends her engagement when he tries to spring a surprise wedding on her but since the honeymoon is nonrefundable, he is nice enough to suggest Elsie takes her best friend, Ginny, with her instead. The inevitable comparisons between Ginny and her ex, Derrick are plentiful enough to be annoying. Especially during sex. Even though they’ve been best friends for years, I found the no-questions-asked, immediately sleeping together after one statement a bit unbelievable. I did like that sex was looked at in a healthy way and lots of consent was given even after multiple times. Though the romance and plot felt a bit predictable, I still enjoyed the read. The book had lots of spice and some less typical sex, too, than you’d expect from reading Wilsner’s other books.

Overall, you can’t lose reading a Meryl Wilsner book. Even if this isn’t one of my favorites of theirs, the book is still a fun ride. Maybe I had too high of specific hopes for this book. It’s still a good read even if I’ll recommend “Mistakes Were Made” first.