Elsie always gets what she wants!! Ginny will make sure of it!
Best friend to lovers what a perfect world

Omfg, this is a god tier romance! I am never going to get over how perfect and hot and sweet Elsie and Ginny are. Meryl Wilsner, you just keep getting better!

I really liked this book until about halfway through, Sadly there were scenes that were not for me and I found myself not wanting to continue it. But for the most part the story was fun and the writing was really great. Excited to try this author again.

I’ve been a huge fan of Meryl Wilsner’s books for years and this one holds true! I really enjoyed Elsie and Ginny, their story was so fun and spiiiiicy 🌶️ my only drawback is my biggest disliked trope is miscommunication and I felt that the miscommunication fell a little short for me. Though, it was addressed by characters knowing they overreacted.

Another win for Meryl! Thanks for writing a great book!

⭐️: 4/5
🌶️: 4/5 On. So. Many. Pages. 🥵
I genuinely liked the book. It lost one star due to the conflict being so minor and the character blowing it out of proportion (even confirmed by a family member later on). I found the book a little hard to continue after this.

I am glad that Elsie and Ginny, and even Derrick, worked on their mental health to figure out what they actually wanted in order to be better people in the future.

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin’s press for the ARC (even though I didn’t start reading it until after it was released. 😔)

Elsie Hoffman, engaged to her college boyfriend for a year and a half, breaks off the engagement after realizing she’s been too comfortable with a future she never wanted. She takes her non-refundable honeymoon to the Caribbean with her best friend Ginny Holtz, who has secretly loved her for almost fifteen years. Ginny encourages Elsie to speak up for herself, leading to a week of indulgence and unexpected romance between them. As their friendship turns into something deeper, they must face the reality of what happens when the honeymoon ends.

I really enjoyed this read- it was cute, spicy, and had all the right amount of banter. I devoured the book in less that 24 hours. I was rooting for Ginny, while at the same time I was sooo frustrated with Elsie. But I think in the end, I quite enjoyed how the book ended.

I loved the vacation/honeymoon spin on the book, and the change of scenery from real life to vacation life. I do wish there would have been a little bit more to their relationship while they were on the honeymoon, but that didn't take away from me enjoying their story one bit. Overall, I definitely recommend this, especially if you're looking for a good Sapphic romance.

Rating: 4/5
Spice: 4/5

Tropes:
F x NB queer romance
Friends to Lovers
Second Chance?
Miscommunication
Third Act Break-Up

Thank you so much St Martin's Press, NetGalley, and Meryl Wilsner for this eARC. All thoughts are my own.

I was really excited for this book when I read the synopsis but it fell a little short for me. Elsie and Ginny needed to work on their communication the whole book and it just got tiring after a while.
The island was my favorite part and I really wanted to read more about them connecting on a romantic level and not just a sexual one. The spice was nice, but after years of secret pining for each other I really wanted them to talk a little more about their feelings.
The pacing was really interesting to me too, it was a little slow in the beginning, jumped up a few notches really quickly and then fizzled again after a pivotal moment without ever really picking up speed again.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I adore Meryl Wilsner, Something to Talk About is one of my all-time favorite romances. However, long-time pining for a friend is one of my personal icks, so I was cautiously optimistic because if anyone could make it work for me, it'd be Meryl Wilsner. The spice is top tier. The author consistently makes every subsequent book of theirs spicier, but not in a way that it overtakes the romance. Overall I think Elsie and Ginny made a nice couple, and I enjoyed the pining trope more than I have in the past. It's still not a favorite, but the author made it work in a way it didn't make Ginny feel pathetic.

Overall, this was a lovely romance, my only reason for the 3 stars is the miscommunication trope and a drawn out conflict kinda took the wind out of my sails for the couple by the end.

Ever since picking up their first book, I've been a fan of Meryl Wilsner's writing. They balance lighthearted rom-com moments, hot and heavy romance scenes, and themes regarding queer identity very well. And while I still love Meryl Wilsner's writing style after finishing this novel, unfortunately, My Best Friend's Honeymoon just didn't do it for me. I liked the characters and the emotional arcs they went on. My problems mostly fell with the plot.

For one, this novel made me realize I'm not actually a big fan of childhood friends-to-lovers romances. I like when two characters form a friendship before falling in love. But often, with childhood friends-to-lovers stories, the audience doesn't get to see the main characters fall in love. Instead, we just are told that they already love each other from the start of the book. I really wanted to see more scenes of Elsie and Ginny falling in love, even if they were in flashback.

My other issue with this book was, as much as I loved the tropical, summer-y setting, the set up of this book had me feeling bad for the main character's ex. This book's premise is that our main character, Elsie, dumps her fiancée and goes on her non-refundable honeymoon with her best friend. And weirdly enough, I think that this premise would have worked better if Elsie's ex was some cartoonish, over-the-top villain. Instead, he's just a really kind guy. When Elsie cashes in on the vacation you feel genuinely bad for him, or at least I did. It almost distracted me from the plot, as throughout the book I had a nagging reminder that some heartbroken fool is paying for this trip.

Overall, there was a lot I did like about this novel. As I stated, I really liked Meryl Wilsner's writing, particularly of their themes and characters. I just think there were some hiccups in developing the plot.

Meryl Wilsner knocks it out of the park again with My Best Friend's Honeymoon. Ginny, who has been in love with Elsie since childhood, is invited along on Elsie's honeymoon when her wedding is called off. A game of Ginny's design to get Elsie to speak up for herself soon turns from silly to sexual. The two must navigate this new layer of their relationship, especially as they come back to real life after the honeymoon trip. It is an absolute delight with great depth to the characters. The motivators behind the characters actions are interesting and make sense, and Wilsner does a fabulous job of using the setup of a wedding being called off without us having to hate the former fiance or question Elsie's decision making prior to the start of the book. A wonderful read!

• when elsie calls off her wedding last minute after realizing she doesn’t love her fiancé, she takes her best friend ginny on what would have been her honeymoon. little does she know that ginny has been in love with elsie for years. when ginny suggests that the trip be about elsie using her voice to speak up & say what she wants, resort activities quickly turn to the two of them sleeping together. a lot. what happens when the honeymoon is over though?
• my main gripe with this book was how heavily it relied on the miscommunication trope. the reason it takes so long for ginny & elsie to get together is from not talking about their respective feelings for one another, but it drags to the point of frustration.
• the spicy scenes were fine, but their relationship stays in the “hooking up” space for so long, that the plot doesn’t progress much. it’s not really adding to the development of their romantic relationship, which made the HEA feel rushed at the end.

My Best Friend's Honeymoon is about two best friends who are secretly (only to each other) in love with each other. Throughout the honeymoon they fall in love and have a more traditional honeymoon than what they were expecting when it was supposed to be with one of their male fiance's planned trip. A lot of this book is definitely predictable (but in the great way that most romances are) but I appreciated how the character developed. A lot of the situations felt authentic to how real people would grow and develop through these situations. I do wish that Elsie had had a chance to grow separately from her family but at the same time I appreciated that she was able to more positively navigate the situation and get her family to actually listen to her. I also really liked how Ginny was able to find herself. one of the things I love about reading romance, especially queer romance, is how it is about self discovery and this one definitely came through on that aspect. The ending was a bit abrupt but still enjoyable. Just an FYI that the sex scenes were very much open door so if that's not your thing definitely skip this one. Overall a 3.5 star read for me. Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

I really liked the story and character development in My Best Friend's Honeymoon and I wish there had been more of that. The majority of the book was the two main characters having sex. Don't get me wrong: I enjoy that part of romance novels, but it was too much. I think the sex was a third of the book. I, personally, would have liked more plot and more character development.

This was so spicy. I loved it. I feel they jumped a little too quickly into everything though. It was like zero to 100 once they finally went for it. Maybe that was the point but I wasn't expecting that.

This was a DNF at 11%. Elsie was giving me the ick. Couldn't even break up with a fiancé she knew she had no interest in marrying. I also think the story being told in third person was pulling me out of it. Won't force myself to finish it.

This was a little spicier than I like so I didn’t finish it. I see the appeal for specific audiences (queer, spice lovers) and would recommend accordingly.

4 ⭐️ | 3🌶️

This is my second queer romance read from Meryl Wilsner (I read “Cleat Cute” earlier this month) and they did not disappoint.

Elsie is set to marry her fiance Derrick and after doing everything else everyone else wants her to do, she realizes she’s actually not going to marry Derrick. With the nonrefundable honeymoon on the horizon, Elsie takes her best friend Ginny. Things turn unexpectedly steamy quickly as they both discover what they want and who they want.

🏳️‍🌈 queer romance
💜 nonbinary main character
🤝 friends to lovers
🌶️ spicy

I liked this for what it was, which is basically two friends having lots of sex on what was supposed to be the honeymoon one of them. I’m also happy with the separation that occurred before the reconciliation. However, I just found this to be fairly repetitive and I wish I had more of the friendship prior to them adding in the benefits.

I’ve read several books from Meryl Wilsner. They’ve all been enjoyable - very gay, very smutty. This one, My Best Friend’s Honeymoon, was very much the same.

I really enjoyed this premise of the story - best friends to lovers trope. After breaking off her engagement, Elsie is gifted their scheduled honeymoon from her ex. So of course, she asks her lifelong best friend, Ginny, to come along. Over the course of the honeymoon, their feelings for each other come out and the rest is history.

My biggest complaints were really based on the actions of characters, and therefore it’s kind of silly to be mad about them. It’s part of the storyline and people have flaws and make dumb decisions or say dumb things. That’s life.

I have seen a lot of people complaining about Elsie and how she has no backbone. Be that as it may, it provided a space for the story to start and grow. Sometimes it’s hard to advocate for yourself, especially if you grow up in a large family and often go unheard or ignored. I appreciated Elsie’s growth. This book says a lot about learning to ask for what you want - the worst that can happen is someone could say no. But so much good can come of that too.

I loved that Ginny was fat and that wasn’t ever really talked about as a bad thing. They loved their body and so did Elsie. It felt very empowering to see a fat character that was strong and healthy and not treated less than because of their body. I loved that.

The sex scenes in this book were graphic. Wilsner is a very smutty writer, but I think this was more than I’ve noticed in any of their other books. The whole middle part of the book is just sex scenes, and this isn’t a long book. I did kind of feel like it was almost half of the entire book. So reader, note what you’re getting into if that’s not something you’re interested in.

Overall, very sweet queer love story, with a lot of insight into how childhood trauma (even of the less severe variety) can impact folks for the rest of their lives.

if you omit about 20% in the middle of this book and add some plot to the romance and sex then it would be 3 or 4 stars.
This is a fast paced, cute story with likable characters. I think I wanted more in the buildup to the romance rather than what happens in this book. Also, the first little bit is overly angsty. These are just my opinions, and I think I will give more Wilsner works a read to see if this is typical of their work or if it was just the way this book was written.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the earc of this book in exchange for my honest review.