Rick Osborne reviewed Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner
Review of 'Mistakes Were Made' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
I admit, I really did not expect to 5⭐️ this book. There was no way, I thought, that an age-gap casual-consequences best-friend's-mom combo was going to be anything other than popcorn. Warm, buttery popcorn, maybe, but popcorn nonetheless.
And yet, it's absolutely worth the 5⭐️.
Both women are interesting, and thoughtful, and imperfect, and relatable. Both women know what they want, or at least, they're pretty sure they know. I loved how, though they are aware that being public would complicate things, neither feels particularly strong shame about anything. Neither gets wrapped up in the "oh, but this is bad" for more than fleeting moments at a time before the "no, I'm an adult and can make adult decisions" voice kicks in. I loved that even the friends kept reinforcing that the relationship wasn't shameful, just complicated.
I also am ridiculously surprised and pleased that Meryl Wilsner was somehow able …
I admit, I really did not expect to 5⭐️ this book. There was no way, I thought, that an age-gap casual-consequences best-friend's-mom combo was going to be anything other than popcorn. Warm, buttery popcorn, maybe, but popcorn nonetheless.
And yet, it's absolutely worth the 5⭐️.
Both women are interesting, and thoughtful, and imperfect, and relatable. Both women know what they want, or at least, they're pretty sure they know. I loved how, though they are aware that being public would complicate things, neither feels particularly strong shame about anything. Neither gets wrapped up in the "oh, but this is bad" for more than fleeting moments at a time before the "no, I'm an adult and can make adult decisions" voice kicks in. I loved that even the friends kept reinforcing that the relationship wasn't shameful, just complicated.
I also am ridiculously surprised and pleased that Meryl Wilsner was somehow able to seamlessly merge both insta-lust and the slowest and sweetest of slow-burn. I am usually not a fan of the former, but it was so well done here.
Sex: <spoiler>8.5 R/NC-17-rated scenes (really, y'all, there is a lot of sex in this book, and it pretty much never gets repetitive)</spoiler>
Tags: #AgeGap #BestFriendsParent #CasualConsequences #DismissiveFearfulPair #DualPOV #ExpirationDate #HiddenRelationship #InstaLust #RomCom #SlowBurn #Therapy #ThirdPersonPOV