Mistakes Were Made

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She kissed Cassie softly, sweetly, and neither of them looked over their shoulder to see if they'd been caught. HAPPY PUB DAY TO THIS FANTASTIC BOOK!! still one of the best (and spiciest!) books I've read this year!

Eighteen-year-old Mallory Greenleaf is no longer interested in chess, not since her hypercompetitive dad left—the game calls up painful memories. But she grudgingly agrees to play in a charity tournament as a favor to best friend Easton Peña. After she unexpectedly beats current world champion Nolan Sawyer, she’s offered a fellowship that will prepare her to play professionally. Even though Mallory doesn’t want to play anymore, she needs the money that winning would provide; she’s delayed college to support her family, since her mother is chronically ill with rheumatoid arthritis and is unable to work regularly. The more time she spends with Nolan, the more Mallory comes to like and respect him—and the more time she spends playing chess, the more she remembers how much she loved it. But when she learns that Nolan has been keeping a big secret from her, she isn’t sure if she’ll be able to move past it to build a relationship with him. Filled with the author’s signature humor, well-developed characters, and realistic conflicts, plus the fully realized setting of competitive chess, this captivating romance will delight teen readers as well as Hazelwood’s adult fans. Mallory and Nolan are both cued white; there is some racial diversity among the supporting cast. Mallory and Easton are queer.Erin Bennett is at the family weekend at Campus to bond with her daughter, Parker. While her ex-husband is enjoying the evening with Parker, Erin decides to head to a bar for a drink. Cassie buys Erin a drink and Badda Bing, Badda Boom, they have a one-night stand! Neither expected to see the other, but the next morning, Parker brings her best friend, Cassie to breakfast to meet her mom and Cassie and Erin meet again! Oops! It was, however, a huge issue for me where Erin was concerned, because Erin was in control of the situation, to a large degree. For Erin not to think about it was somewhere between thoughtless and clueless (and not in a good way). I don’t care how caught up she is in her attraction for Cassie and her fears that Parker will find out (understandable since there was tension between Parker and Erin over Erin’s split from Parker’s father, and Erin felt insecure in her daughter’s love), Erin should still care enough about Cassie to think about what she’s doing to her, how the power dynamics might be affecting Cassie. And instead it was a constant mantra of “What if Parker found out?” and guilt for being a bad mother to Parker, and no thought to the fact that she was mistreating Cassie by putting her in this position. And this despite the fact that she was the adult in the situation. I don't know what I did to deserve a book fairy who placed one of my most anticipated reads straight into my hands, but I thank them and the sapphic Gods for aligning to make my dreams come true. I knew I had to read it immediately.

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 Second, Erin was described as “two years out from forty” which made me think she was forty-two. Later reading clarifies that she’s thirty-eight, though, so I think the phrase should have been “two years away from forty.” In another book this would be a minor copy error and nothing more but here it really makes a difference. Cassie is, I’m guessing, twenty-one, and a difference of seventeen years in age isn’t as bad as a difference of twenty-one (double Cassie's age!). Plus, once I had a visual image of Erin as forty-two, it was hard to think of her as thirty-eight. It's a romance between a 38-year-old, Erin, and a 22-year-old college senior Cassie ... who is good friends with Erin's 18-year-old kid. It's as sweet as it is dirty, very light and fun, an "idiots to lovers" story where the people around the couple know they're really in for it before the couple does. Cassie made it to the bar without any more strangers putting their hands on her. There were three open stools, and she pushed herself up onto the middle one. The bartender didn’t ask for ID, just made her a dark and stormy then left her alone. Cassie was perfectly happy getting slowly drunk by herself in a bar where she knew no one. Cassie pulled out and thrusted again, adding a twist of her hips at the end, and Erin cried out. Her legs were trembling, her hands still clutching the blankets.Thanks to Macmillan Audio, Meryl Wilsner and NetGalley for the advance audiobook. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review* Prefacing this review by saying while I don't explicitly spoil anything I do discuss plot points which are not clear from the blurb!! So if you want to go into this book completely blind this is not the review for you!! I will be discussing aspects of the main relationship below, which includes the development of that relationship :)

Beware, this book brings all the heat! It started from chapter 1, and many, if not most, chapters had spice! i was literally yelling out loud, "i hate this" "pls stop talking" "absolutely do not do that" on my walks, to and from work, AT work sometimes, my neighbors must rlly be curious, but i also tend to react to MOST audiobooks i read, so it wasn't new, per say, but it was... A LOT!) It can be hard to figure out what books are worth spending your time and money on when there are so many recommendations and only so many hours in a day.I am writing this article to try to convince you that ‘Mistakes Were Made’ by Meryl Wilsner is one of those books you need to add to your list.” - Her Campus, "Why You Should Add MISTAKES WERE MADE to Your To-Be-Read List" Imagine her surprise when she walks into the restaurant and discovers Parker's Mom is her steamy hook-up from the night before. On a night when Parker is having dinner with her Dad, Erin heads to an off-campus bar by herself. She's looking for nothing more than a cold drink.

Featured Reviews

Overall, I found this one to be highly entertaining. A huge success of a sophomore novel. I am definitely looking forward to more from Wilsner in the future. Well, I finally read the milf book! I had a really great time with this story, despite some initial hesitations that I’ll mention later. Both of our main characters, Cassie and Erin, were well developed and fun to read from and I adored the progression of their relationship from a hook up to an ‘oh shit!’ moment to something really tender and full of feeling. Their chemistry was, of course, brilliant and the sex scenes were well written with an obvious passion. It wasn’t just the steamy scenes that were well written — I was immediately hooked by Wilsner’s writing and flew through this book over just a couple of days. Also, especially towards the end of the novel, I felt the intimacy and emotional development was nicely done. As I'd previously mentioned, it was nice to see Cassie nervous and blushing when it came to Erin, just as it was lovely to see Erin's affection for Cassie as well. I'm not even going to lie, I was tearing up a little in this moment:

The characters were still fantastic, there were some serious issues being explored, but the forbidden romance trope brought the fun. There were moments that I was a little uncomfortable for Parker, but at the end of the day, they are all adults and I liked how Wilsner wrapped it up. You'll fall in love while rooting for this sexy, forbidden, and adorable love story' Denise WilliamsCassie hadn’t planned on hooking up with anyone tonight, but plans could change, and Erin was hot, and it was sure to make her less annoyed about Family Weekend. From Meryl Wilsner, the acclaimed author of Something to Talk About, comes Mistakes Were Made, a sharp and sexy rom-com about a college senior who accidentally hooks up with her best friend’s mom. To a point, I could go with Cassie’s focus on the question of what would happen if Parker found out almost exclusively; it made some sense since that was pretty high stakes for her and she wasn’t in control of the fact that she was essentially at Erin’s mercy. A lot of people minimize their own powerlessness by focusing on something else because it makes them feel more okay, and this fit Cassie’s personality, so it wasn’t a huge issue for me. This book had not only the best romance but also the best friendships! Cassie and her friends, Parker and Acacia, were so precious! Honestly, I could read a book just about their friendship! They are best friends and you can really see how much they love each other. Their interactions had me smiling and wishing I was part of their friend group. I did want to see more interactions with Parker toward the end of the book. But, other than that I think that they are fantastic, they are the definition of a found family!