Book Overview

Title: Mistakes Were Made
Author: Meryl Wilsner
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin, October 11, 2022
Pages: 352
Intended Audience: Adult
Genre: Romance
Sub-Genre/Tropes: Single Parent, Forbidden/Secret Relationship, Best Friend’s Parent, Caretaking While Sick, Holidays, Characters in Therapy, Women in STEM, Age Gap, Texting/Epistolary
Representation: LGBTQ+ (Bisexual), Mental Health
Spice Scale: 🌶🌶🌶🌶
Content Warnings: Divorce mention, Past Infidelity mention, Parental Abandonment (Past), Misogyny

Summary

When Cassie Klein goes to an off-campus bar to escape her school’s Family Weekend, she isn’t looking for a hookup—it just happens. Buying a drink for a stranger turns into what should be an uncomplicated, amazing one-night stand. But then the next morning rolls around and her friend drags her along to meet her mom—the hot, older woman Cassie slept with.

Erin Bennett came to Family Weekend to get closer to her daughter, not have a one-night stand with a college senior. In her defense, she hadn’t known Cassie was a student when they’d met. To make things worse, Erin’s daughter brings Cassie to breakfast the next morning. And despite Erin’s better judgement—how could sleeping with your daughter’s friend be anything but bad?—she and Cassie get along in the day just as well as they did last night.

What should have been a one-time fling quickly proves impossible to ignore, and soon Cassie and Erin are sneaking around. Worst of all, they start to realize they have something real. But is being honest about the love between them worth the cost?

Review

I picked this up purely because it had been described as “the MILF book,” and it did not disappoint. When there was a sex scene within the first eight pages of a book, I expected the book to be more spice than plot—which wouldn’t have been a problem for me at all. However, I was pleasantly surprised because Mistakes Were Made struck the perfect balance between spice and plot.

There was such amazing character growth for Cassie and Erin, and the emotional slow-burn of them getting together after their initial meeting was so well done. How Wilsner was able to write such effective mutual pining while the characters were actively hooking up was nothing short of amazing. Their chemistry was off the charts, even when they were separated. I loved the long-distance texting and FaceTime dates; they’re two of my favorite micro-tropes, and there aren’t nearly enough books that do it so effectively.

I loved the found family aspect of this book. It was a little messy, considering Erin was Cassie’s friend’s mother, but that didn’t detract from the tight-knit friend group feel. The messy conflict was also handled really well at the end.

Mistakes Were Made was heartfelt and fun, and I can’t wait to see what Wilsner does next.