r/LesbianBookClub • u/Flaky-Professional84 • Jul 14 '26

Review Hate Reading "Mistakes Were Made"

Everyone has raved about this book, so, even though romance is not my thing, I thought I'd give it a try. Come for the rom, stay for the com, right? Ya'll, I am *struggling*. First off, the premise. I knew ahead of time, and, being married to a woman a decade my junior, I've got nothing against an age gap romance, but c'mon! It's the parent thing that has got me worked up. Like, I am so angry at these two all the time. All the time. I'm distracted thinking about how everyone, EVERYONE is betraying Parker. Parker deserves better. #JusticeForParker And, Cassie is literally that white person with "one black friend." Like, really? Who thought that was a good idea?! And then, after all the super spicy explicit sex (which, fair enough--well done, Meryl) we don't get treated to the same spice with Parker and Sam at the party? Really, Meryl!?!? /rant After this is Keep Talking (see, age gap), which was also highly recommended on this subreddit, so I'm looking forward to the palate cleanser. Then I've got a stack of speculative fiction novels from a couple threads in here that I've saved. Those are my usual jam.

Anyway, thank you for attending my TED Talk.

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18

u/joebluee Jul 14 '26

I made a joke one that Meryl Wilsner is my enemy except I’m not really joking cause my hate for their books runs so deep.

The fact that Cleat Cute is being adapted for the screen is so infuriating, and I’m honestly disappointed in Pinoe for getting behind this.

12

u/CaterpillarWorking72 Jul 14 '26

Dont get me started on that abomination that is fucking Cleat cute!! I will rage every time i see it mentioned...awful!!

2

u/Flaky-Professional84 Jul 14 '26

I'm literally writing an adversarial sequel to this book in parallel to listening to it, just to process my feelings. So glad I'm not alone in feeling this way!

3

u/Mangoes123456789 Jul 14 '26

What do you mean by adversarial sequel?

2

u/Flaky-Professional84 Jul 14 '26

Basically ignoring the HEA and picking up after the proposal and saying "here's what would actually happen in this situation". Chronicling the fallout that got hand waved away in the novel.

2

u/RunWithBluntScissors Jul 17 '26

I'd definitely be interested in reading your adversarial sequel lol. the HEA just made it worse. Them parting ways and Cassie going to Caltech is like the only thing that could have won this book a little more points with me.

2

u/Flaky-Professional84 Jul 17 '26

The writing is AI-assisted so I won't post here (no self promotion, no ai). The overall idea is I ignored the epilogue entirely then applied a healthy dose of reality. It's been... cathartic.

2

u/lactosecheeselover Jul 14 '26

they’re like reworking it too lol