Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner

Publication date: October 2022
LGBTQ+ author? Non-binary and bisexual
Setting: Modern day East Coast USA

Erin is visiting her daughter for Family Day weekend at college. On a free evening, she heads to a bar and hooks up with a hot stranger. The next morning at breakfast she realizes that this hot stranger is her daughter’s best friend, Cassie.

This isn’t just an age gap romance, it’s a literal MILF book.

First the good stuff. Meryl is obviously a skillful writer and the book moves along with a good pace. There is fun dialogue. It’s easy and fun to read. Perfect beach read.

Everyone in this book is bisexual and nothing bad happens to any of them because of their sexual orientation.

This book is also what I’d call “extra spicy” for the large number of very detailed sex scenes. Depending on how you feel about Erin and Cassie this is either exciting or uh… not.

I fell into the “uh… not” category.

I have no problems with an age gap romance either in real life or fiction. I really liked it when Alexis Hall did it. But Cassie is Erin’s daughter’s best friend. And they hide the romance from her for almost a year, which involves so much lying. What a betrayal! This is SO WRONG.

So I didn’t find it sexy at all. It gave me the ick, as the kids say.

Why did I keep going with this 12 hour audio book when I was so bothered by the premise?

Well, I wanted to see what happened the daughter found out. Turns out she was OK with it. (WHAT?!?!) Only the “bad guys” in this book had a problem with their romance or the lying.

The moral of the story seemed to be that after putting her kid first for so long, Erin needed to starting doing things for herself. Which yes. But DOES THIS NEED TO INCLUDE HER DAUGHTER’S BEST FRIEND. I argue, no, it did not.

Also Meryl Wilsner was on a very short list of trans or non-binary romance authors so I really wanted to read their work! And I now have. Talented writer. Premise of this book, not for me. Which I should admit, seems to put me in the minority of reviewers.