This was such a good read. I loved that it blended together some of my favourite tropes, and the chemistry between Cassie and Erin. The pacing does falter a little in the middle, but the charm keeps you hooked throughout. The spice - HOT. Loved this book and recommend to anyone who wants a fun queer romp.

This was a really fun and delicious read with an enthralling premise and delightful characters. I really enjoyed this one.

This was a really fun book. The characters felt fully realised (something you sadly don't always get in romances) and the relationships also felt very real. There were some issues with pacing but overall a good read.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌶🌶🌶🌶

“Fuck should. It doesn’t matter what I’ve been trained to think I’m ‘supposed’ to do. What do I want? What makes me feel good? What will make my relationships stronger? Those are the questions that matter. Not what should I do.”
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I couldn't put #MistakesWereMade by @merylwilsner down and there's one part where I definitely thought I was going to need a cold shower 😈🥵
This is a cute romance that has some real heart and compassion. I would recommend you grab yourself a copy and dive in. I will also be adopting "fuck should" as a personal motto.

This is a fun and sexy read, perfect for a lazy afternoon with a bit of angst and a fantastic ending. Definitely worth picking up. I loved this! . . . This book had cute lines, all the feels and just enough drama.

4.5 stars
I absolutely loved this one. This was so messy and I loved every second of reading it.
After reading Meryl Wilsner's other book 'Something To Talk About', which I did not like, I was so hesitant to read 'Mistakes Were Made' but it sounded so good that I knew I had to at least give it a go and I am so glad that I did because I loved this.
It did take me a while to be fully invested and there were times throughout the story where I found myself losing interested/being a bit bored but the story kept picking back up and I found myself wanting to know what was going to happen next.
I found the relationship between Cassie and Erin to be really cute and I enjoyed them both so much as characters.
The writing was not my favourite as it is written in third person and third person writing also takes me a while to get into but I don't think it affected my enjoyment of the overall book.

3.5* rounded down

For the most part I enjoyed Mistakes Were Made and preferred it to Wilsner's previous novel.

This was definitely steamier than the first novel and I enjoy an age-gap romance when done well, so this ticked some boxes for me! The relationship was best friend's mother, which on the face of it didn't really bother me even though I recognise that it isn't for everyone. However, I felt that the secret aspect went on for too long and I felt like Cassie and Erin didn't consider Parker (when it was such a big secret) so this knocked it down for me a little.

I will definitely read more from this author though, and I am grateful for the opportunity to read it.

This was a solid queer romance with plenty of spicy scenes. I wasn't sure about the premise of the central relationship dynamic, and it definitely did provide some cringe at times, but I didn't dislike it as much as I was worried I might! I also found that the writing had improved from the author's previous book, so I'll happily pick up their next work when it is published.

(Many thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the eARC.)

This was a highly anticipated release to me. I enjoyed the author's debut, and the blurb of this one drew me in. However, this felt very eh to me. There's nothing wrong, writing wise. I enjoyed the writting, it was witry and funny. Erin and Cassie, despite the very questionable nature of their relationship, had good chemistry. They were funny together and I loved the banter. The smut scenes were nicely done too, very steamy. But god, some of the characters were so annoying. I think the only one I really liked was Acacia. I liked Erin too, but there were a lot of moments where she was frustrating. Cassie and Parker are another story however. Cassie kept making up the shittiest excuses to keep sleeping with Erin, her best friend's mom, to keep the guilt away. Idk, some of her excuses just felt like they were in bad taste and very disrespectful. Parker was spoiled and annoying, and I didn't like how she blamed Erin for the divorce. The climax of the book flopped too. While I do enjoy a happily ever after, it does feel like everything was just tied up with a nice bow with no effort for the characters to get to that happy ending.

Headlines:
Age-gap and incredibly messy love
Steamy

The character and the plot of Mistakes Were Made centred on a significant age gap between two bisexual women in additon that connection in the form of having a thing with your best friends's mom... Right at the beginning, I thought oh hell. Suffice it to say, the title seems a little understated.

As the situation at the core of the story played out, I wanted to be on board with it but it felt somewhat icky to me from beginning to end. The one night then affair with your best friend's mom got me so uncomfortable. I felt that Parker's feelings and were never really considered as they should have been by the MCs and that made me overall sad at the plot and a reluctant by stander to the ensuing drama. The resolution felt unrealistic to me.

Having read and enjoyed Wilsner's debut, it was a bit of a suprise how steamy this read was. Her last book really wasn't. I was mostly on board with that element but the scenes felt a little too frequent at times.

Overall, I could have got on board with the age gap much easily without the triangular connection. I'll definitely seek out Wilsner's next book and hope for a less messy context.

Thank you to Piatkus Books for the eARC.

Erin & Cassie have such amazing chemistry, it made it easy to believe the situation they found themselves in & why they wouldn't be able to just give it up. The friendships in this book were also wonderful & touching. But honestly this book was just so Hot. Loved this book.

Considering I've not been blogging requesting an arc on Netgalley was probably a little silly and impulsive but I love to browse on there to plan ahead for books I want to buy and when I read the summary for Meryl Wilsner's Mistakes Were Made I couldn't help but request in the hopes I could read that bit earlier. I loved her debut novel Something to Talk About and so I knew I wanted to see what she came out with next. When I read it was a college student who hooks up with an older woman at a bar only to discover that she in fact her friend's mother? Well come on guys? That's a ridiculous brilliant plot I obviously want to read so that's how I got a new Netgalley read even though I actually planned on not requesting ARCs anymore.

This book opens and pretty much throws us into the plot, Cassie reveals her personality in the first pages eyeing up Erin at the bar and sending her a drink and they're hooking up within the first few pages in the back seat of Erin's rental car. Obviously, by the next chapter Erin's waiting at a diner to meet her daughter, Parker, and Parker's friend and in walks Cassie and that's the big reveal. You would think that would be the end of any potential romance because it's obvious that there would be drama, sneaking around, and just too much chance of upsetting someone for a romance to be worth it. But it's a romance book, logic does not come into it and although Cassie and Erin both worried about upsetting Parker neither let that chance stop them. They both used some giant leaps of logic to figure she won't find out or that she couldn't possibly be upset after some throwaway comment Parker made.

My biggest issue reading was you have to fully believe in the chemistry between Cassie and Erin and that the spark between them was enough that neither really wanted to keep their hands off. I got their bar hook-up, and even a later one before Erin left after family weekend at the college, but then when they were texting and over the holidays? I had to suspend my disbelief a little at that point. It didn't take me out of the book but I was raising an eyebrow that the plot conveniently had Cassie invited to Erin's for Christmas to spend time with her daughter, Parker. By the end I did love Cassie and Erin's romance but I guess it felt a little convenient that they got to spend more time together. It could also have easily fizzled out if they didn't spend time together in person again.

I sound really miserable about this book but I did enjoy it, in fact I flew through it. It took me a while to get fully swept away though. The romance moved slowly at first and that might have been my issue. I loved the will they/won't they aspect of their romance and them hopping straight back into bed probably would have made me hate it, but there needed to be more in the plot to distract me and keep me invested. Once we were on their sneaking around part of the romance I was much more invested. I was convinced there'd be massive fall out with Parker and that would split them up and then they'd get back together with parker's intervention and it just didn't go as expected.

What I liked is this book wasn't about being sensible with love. It was about finding someone who brings out the best in you and supports. Cassie was fun and impulsive and got Erin to relax and not think 'what will people think'. Erin had spent her marriage to Parker's dad following weird expectations her mother had placed in her. Her romance with Cassie was her chance to actually enjoy hersekf even when loving Cassie went against everything which was right. And for Cassie Erin brings stability, something she hadn't known in her childhood, and represents something she hadn't thought she deserved. She viewed herself as a free spirit not being tied down, especially after her hirt from her boyfriend cheating on her. Bother of them were better together and that was so obvious as the romance progressed.

I don't want to spoil all of the plot but if you can get past the start and how their romance first started you're in for a great read.

If you like a lot of sex, this book is for you! The two main characters, Erin and Cassie, are absolutely brilliant. They meet in a bar one evening and sparks fly. The following day they both turn up for breakfast, Cassie with her friend Parker, and Erin to meet her daughter.... Parker! It turns out Erin is visiting the college campus.

Erin is devastated, how could she have slept with her daughter's friend?! But the more she encounters Cassie the more attracted they are to each other. Parker is completely oblivious.

An easy book to enjoy.

I read Wilsner's debut a few years ago and ended up really disappointed, because I just didn't vibe with that book. But I figured I'd give her another go, since this book sounded different enough to the first one. I actually had quite high hopes for it. And I'm so happy that all those hopes were met and more! It's like all the chemistry and steam that was missing from the first book was just being saved up to make this book one of the hottest reads of the year.

Cassie, hoping to avoid Family Weekend at her university, goes to an off-campus bar and ends up having a one-night stand with an older woman. The next morning, Cassie's friend Parker convinces her to go out for breakfast with her and Parker's mom. Which is the point at which Cassie realised her one-night stand was none other than Erin, Parker's mom. The two of them try to stay away from each other, but the attraction between them is simply too strong to overcome. They keep sneaking around behind everyone's back, expecting this thing between the two of them to fizzle out eventually. Because a future for them together is impossible. Right?

I'm quite partial to a forbidden/taboo romance from time to time, but I was a little hesitant at first if and how Wilsner would manage to pull this off. But by Jove, they did it. They really did it. There's a pretty large age gap, complicated backstories for both women, a host of secondary characters with their own loud opinions, and Wilsner has fit all of that into a very neat, and very smutty, romance. And I do mean VERY smutty. To the point where it felt like the plot was being sacrificed in favour of yet another sex scene. But looking back on it, it definitely worked well. And I'm actually looking forward to whatever Wilsner comes out with next.

My favourite book of the year by a mile. Highly recommend. I wasn't really a huge romance reader, but at the beginning of the year I read Delilah Green by Ashley Herring Blake and was completely converted (I followed up with Talia Hibbert's Brown Sisters trilogy, and gained my certification in romance reading). If you enjoyed Delilah Green or any of Hibbert's books, I think Mistakes Were Made would make a great addition to your shelves.

I was so excited about this book because, based on the tropes, I thought I would really love it.

Unfortunately, it was a little disappointing. Although there was good chemistry between the characters, the pacing was inconsistent and I found the writing quite jarring at times.

I would still recommend it to people looking for an age-gap sapphic romance. I liked the idea of the plot, I just didn't like the way it was executed.

Did I love it... no? Did I hate it... no?

This is the first queer age-gap that I've read and I NEED MORE! Cassie and Erin’s relationship seemed so natural and really proved that if mature enough and of consenting age - age is really just a number.

The friendship dynamic was so much fun, and the relationships in the larger friends and family settings seemed extremely genuine and were pleasant to read.

The smut scenes... DAMN you are in for a treat, some of the best I've read in a queer romance.

This book had so much potential but it just fell a little flat during the 3rd act, others may love it but I was expecting more from the conclusion. Like the 'drama' isn't dramatic but if you like books with no conflict then this could be great for you!

I...enjoyed this to a certain extent but my overall takeaway from this book is: annoying.
I only liked the part that it was so easy to read, I finished it pretty quickly in spite of reading an ebook. But unfortunately, it felt very chaotic and could've been edited a bit more to remove the unnecessary stuff. It honestly didn't feel like it should've been this long and...it is a pretty average-sized book.
The characters were really annoying, this book can honestly be summed up in only these lines:
<spoiler> Cassie
I probably shouldn't be sleeping with my friend's mom but I'm gonna do it anyway.
Erin
I probably shouldn't be sleeping with my daughter's friend but I'm gonna do it anyway.
Cassie
Whoops, I've feelings for my friend's mom and it's only now hitting me that I've feelings for my FRIEND'S MOM. Guess somebody should tell Parker. Oh, wait she already knows.
And they lived happily ever after.</spoiler>

I know I oversimplified things but I was genuinely very annoyed by this book. It has been about a month since I read it and I'm still annoyed...so I guess read at your own risk.

Plus Acacia seemed to be there just to be used by Parker and Cassie in some way or another which is a hard pass from me, thanks.

This was a fast-paced, witty and entertaining novel. It's been on my tbr for a while and it took me a beat to get into it once I did it was impossible to put down.

There is a lot of drama in this but it works and the characters are nuanced and engaging. The romance element was great but so were the friendships between Cassie, Parker, and Acacia. There was a lot going on and all of the relationships worked so well and felt incredibly authentic, particularly how Parker was characterized.

This was a fun read that I really enjoyed.

This book was incredibly entertaining. It was fast paced and full of friendship and self-discovery alongside the romance. Cassie and Erin’s relationship was simultaneously incredibly cute and nerve wracking but I loved it and the ending was absolutely perfect!