Mistakes Were Made

by Meryl Wilsner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a really funny, cute, and sexy romance. I would definitely use the term rom-com in this instance. There were so many moments that had me laughing out loud. The characters, especially the protagonists’ Cassie and Erin, were really well written with personalities that they stayed faithful to throughout the whole book. The supporting cast was also utilized effectively to progress the story and character development.

I enjoyed the narrative and progression. The relationship developed in a way that felt realistic. I had a few moments where the story would jump ahead a bit that felt a bit jarring, but this didn’t happen often enough to take me out of the plot at all really.

All My Thoughts

May contain spoilers.

I loved this book. This story was so fun and I laughed several times. This was pretty much exactly what I expect a rom-com to be. I admit this was quite a bit steamier than I was expecting, but that is absolutely not a bad thing. It worked for the story and character progression. I never felt like any of the sexy bits were there just to be there.

I loved the protagonists of this story. Cassie is a fun and cocky college student that was actually pretty relatable. I loved that she definitely had this insecure side under all her bravado. I could also appreciate how well her backstory was written. She had a complicated childhood that, while it was important to understanding her character, didn’t become a driving plot point in the rest of the narrative. Erin was a great opposite for her. A much older woman who is finally starting to do some things for herself but also has a complicated past. Erin however is much more affected by her upbringing. She has a hard time loosening up and not stressing about how she’s “supposed” to live her life. These two characters balance out nicely over the course of the book.

I loved the budding feelings between them. They start with a purely physical attraction, and honestly once the taboo of “oh you’re my best friend’s mom/you’re my daughter’s best friend” comes into play it’s obvious that adds a bit of excitement for them both. The feelings side of things developed in a realistic way, the drama genuinely made me feel tense while reading it. I loved constantly wondering if they would get caught and also really wishing they would just tell each other how they felt.

I absolutely loved that by the end we find out they were stressed out about everything for nothing. It ended exactly the way I had hoped it would, but couldn’t predict. My only real issue I had through the whole thing was that a couple of times there felt like a bit of a time jump that would confuse me. For instance, there is a moment where Cassie is doing a sort of internal monologue about her desire for Erin early on but then it moves right into her making out with someone during a party that evening. It was a bit confusing at first and I thought I had missed something. A similar situation happened again, only somewhat less confusing. These broke me out of the narrative for a moment but didn’t really kill my enjoyment of the story as a whole.

Overall

An absolutely fantastic rom-com with a good balance of steamy scenes and cute humor. The characters were fantastic and really made this book what it is.