MISTAKES WERE MADE
MERYL WILSNER
c.2022, St. Martin's Press
$16.99
346 pages

The bar wasn't one she usually frequented, but it was as far from the dorm as Cassie Klein could possibly get. It was Family Weekend at the college she'd be graduating from soon, but the whole "family" thing was ridiculous. No, the bar was a better place to be, and she was preparing to get drunk. Until she started watching the older woman who was watching her.

She bought the woman a drink, and one thing led to another, which led to the back seat of the woman's car, the exchange of first names, and a semipublic one-night stand that Cassie was sure she'd never forget.

Erin Bennett had hoped being at Family Weekend might heal the broken bond she had with her daughter, Parker. She knew Parker was still angry that Erin had filed for divorce, and Erin wished she could explain things, but she wasn't exactly sure herself why the divorce was important. She was mulling this over when Parker arrived at breakfast with one of her closest friends in tow — a friend that Erin had never officially met, but that she knew very well.

Intimately, in fact.

It was the woman she'd had sex with the night before.

Clearly, this was awkward, and Parker could never find out what had happened. While the obvious thing to do was to put the brakes on, that was impossible — especially after Parker wouldn't take "no" for an answer when she invited Cassie to her mother's house for Christmas break. Being in the same home together was hard enough, but being in the same room, and in pajamas? How could anyone resist that?

There are really two basic ways to perceive Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner. It's either an overly long, mostly bare-bones story that contains some explicit bedroom scenes... or it's soft erotica with a tissue-thin story between steamy trysts.

Could it be better? Well, that, too, will depend on what you want in a novel.

Wilsner's bedroom (kitchen, back seat, living room) scenes are hotter than a baked potato straight from the oven. They're steam-your-glasses hot, and there are enough of them to seize your interest and handcuff it to a bedpost — if that is, indeed, your interest. If you come to this novel for a romance-y tale, though, and you could be bored, because, while girl-meets-girl is all over this book, it's frustratingly slow getting to it.

And so, know what you want before you pick up Mistakes Were Made. If erotica is your thing, stay for the heat. If you want a good story, though, it'll leave you cold.