Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Mistakes Were Made

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner

26 reviews

cozycritiques's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

”She’d done a bad thing. Because that’s what this was: bad. How could sleeping with your daughter’s friend be anything else?”
- Mistakes Were Made

Tropes: Single Parent, Forbidden/Secret Relationship, Best Friend’s Parent, Caretaking While Sick, Holidays, Characters in Therapy, Women in STEM, Age Gap, Texting
Representation: LGBTQ+ (Bisexual), Mental Health
Spice Scale: 🌶🌶🌶🌶
CW: Divorce mention, Past Infidelity mention, Parental Abandonment (Past), Misogyny

I picked this up purely because it had been described as “the MILF book,” and it did not disappoint. When there was a sex scene within the first eight pages of a book, I expected the book to be more spice than plot—which wouldn’t have been a problem for me at all. However, I was pleasantly surprised because Mistakes Were Made struck the perfect balance between spice and plot.
There was such amazing character growth for Cassie and Erin, and the emotional slow-burn of them getting together after their initial meeting was so well done. How Wilsner was able to write such effective mutual pining while the characters were actively hooking up was nothing short of amazing. Their chemistry was off the charts, even when they were separated. I loved the long-distance texting and FaceTime dates; they’re two of my favorite micro-tropes, and there aren’t nearly enough books that do it so effectively.
I loved the found family aspect of this book. It was a little messy, considering Erin was Cassie’s friend’s mother, but that didn’t detract from the tight-knit friend group feel. The messy conflict was also handled really well at the end.
Mistakes Were Made was heartfelt and fun, and I can’t wait to see what Wilsner does next.

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things100's review against another edition

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funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book made me laugh so hard and I loved the couple. A great wlw book to read.

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sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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jbpalumbo's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was a bit of a slow burn for me. It took about 100 pages for the characters to turn from somewhat annoying stereotypes into characters that stood on their own. Once they did, though, they were quite endearing and I, frankly, was relieved that the third act crash wasn’t as bad as it could have been because the main two are just so stinking cute. Bonus points for digging into some of the difficulties of parenting.

Deliciously open door: Wilsner doesn’t hold back on the spicy elements.

Overall, it landed on a bridge between Ashley Herring Blake’s Bright Falls series and Susannah Nix’s STEM series (not quite rapid-fire geek/charmingly awkward to venture into Ali Hazelwood territory) as a solidly charming read.

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ienbdri's review

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emotional funny hopeful relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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lidia710's review against another edition

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hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

Content Warnings

rrenreads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

tbh not something i would usually read, but the synopsis got me hooked and let me just say i was not disappointed!!! this was a fun ride, what an interesting read :p

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abigailkokitus's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was certainly a fun read, and the sex scenes were admittedly fantastic. I read the whole thing over the course of 48 hours. And there were times I laughed out loud. But I just could not force myself to like the two main characters. Cassie is annoyingly arrogant and conceited. Erin is constantly toeing the line between following her heart and being overly, grossly selfish. The “fuck should” gets annoying after a while. Going to the bathroom to make out with a girl when you’re supposed to be watching your child’s concert? Having sex with this girl when your daughter is literally down the hall? I’m sorry but that’s all a little icky to me. Those are things you “should” NOT do. But Erin doesn’t seem to care because she’s seemingly blinded by sex with a much younger woman and seems willing to throw away everything else to keep having that mind-blowing sex. It’s also strange how Erin notes how gross the fetishization of youth is… just to do exactly that. Just… ew. Ew to all of that. And sometimes I’m like… I just wish I could read a steamy romance that’s about NORMAL people. Not breathtakingly conventionally attractive people that are rich, working their dream jobs, achieving all of their dreams, etc. That’s just so unrealistic. When I read the words “when they bought the lake house” my eyes rolled so far into my head I thought I’d see my brain. Maybe it’s just because like, you know, eat the rich, but I hated that aspect of the story. And I know not ever book is meant to be realistic or whatever. But… anyway. Despite really not liking the characters or feeling connected to any of them, and despite the writing being fine but nothing to write home about, I’m still giving this three stars for the humor and the sex, and for the fact that it’s an easy, fun read overall.

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dropshift5568's review

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hopeful informative lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

bookishmillennial's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

disclaimer if you’ve read other reviews by me and are noticing a pattern: You’re correct that I don’t really give starred reviews, I feel like a peasant and don’t like leaving them and most often, I will only leave them if I vehemently despised a book. Thus, no stars doesn’t indicate that the book wasn’t worthy of any starred system. It just means I enjoy most books for what they are, & I extract lessons from them all, even if the lesson is that I’m a ho for the smut, recognizing a genre/book/author is not for me, or confronting my own mommy/daddy issues lol. Everyone’s reading experiences are subjective, so I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Happy reading! Find me on Instagram: @bookish.millennial

general premise:

contemporary age-gap/secret romance
third-person limited dual-POVs
21-year-old college senior Cassie has a one-night stand with an older woman at a bar during parents’ weekend
that older woman turns out to be her room mate Parker’s mom (Erin) 🤭
Cassie & Erin continue to be in close proximity, trying to ignore the chemistry between them & keep it a secret from Parker & Cassie/Parker’s bff Acacia
steam: 4/5— these two can’t keep their hands off of each other OMG 🥵
cw: abandonment, alcohol, misogyny

thoughts:
OH MY GOSH THIS BOOK IS SO MUCH FUN !!!!

I absolutely loved Cassie's confidence and boldness -- she says "I don't believe in guilty pleasures. Like what you like. I'm not embarrassed to be a nerd. You don't have to be embarrassed of reading mysteries. Why would that even be embarrassing?" & this just sums up her general outlook on life. She does not live for or care for anyone else's expectations or "should"s; she is genuinely just confident in who she is as a 21-year-old. As an almost-32-year-old now, I sometimes miss that spritely self-assuredness and this was a fantastic reminder to stand strong in my confidence and to continue to boldly and loudly be myself. #ForeverCringeAndProud

It's so funny because Erin is supposed to be the older woman and I had to funny lil moment of realizing I was probably closer in age to her than the 21-year-old college student. I was like "bish, you are now officially the older woman. THAT'S HOT" hahaha. Anyway, I'm assuming Erin is around 40 and I loved the tenderness and cautious nature of her character. Unlike Cassie, she isn't 100% sure of herself and who she should be post-divorce yet. She is unlearning all of the messaging that her mother passed onto her of "keeping up appearances" and she is navigating what living a joyful, full life feels like for her. I especially appreciated her therapy sessions and the representation of seeing a mental health professional in a romance novel. THANK YOU MERYL!

I am officially on a mission to now read everything Meryl Wilsner has published because sheeeeeesh can they write fun steamy scenes and such palpable chemistry throughout the damn story!

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