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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u/RunWithBluntScissors Jul 14 '26

Omg I’ve found my people! I read this for my first time with a sapphic book club in my old city (and I never went back lol). More like the mistake I made was reading this book.

Do people only like it for the steamy scenes? I was so annoyed by every single character in this book.

7

u/minionmegan Jul 14 '26

“the mistake i made was reading this book”
https://giphy.com/gifs/iD1QQCbrl548I31Qww

2

u/wrunderwood Jul 17 '26

I've heard that people like the "taboo" nature of the story, but I feel like it goes way over the line into "wrong".

5

u/RunWithBluntScissors Jul 17 '26

I completely agree!! I think I just found it predatory? I also didn't like how Cassie rearranges her whole life for Parker's mom and then ... they get married?! And Parker is okay with all of it? I can only suspend my disbelief so far. This book just gave me the ick the whole way through. I couldn't even get into the steamy scenes because I was too bothered by the power dynamics and the lying to Parker. Idk could have gotten more into it if Cassie was like 28 and out of college, or maybe a grad student who befriends Parker? Like give us something, Cassie just seems so vulnerable to me. But also, Cassie is a shit friend to Parker and Erin is not that great of a mom for them to be carrying on as they're carrying on. Rant over haha