But then the next morning rolls around and her friend drags her along to meet her mom—the hot, older woman Cassie slept with. Erin’s major arc is that she was groomed by her mother to be a people pleaser, keep up appearances, and always sacrifice her own happiness and self-worth. When Parker brings her new friend, Cassie, to breakfast, Erin’s shocked, but still inordinately pleased. Imagine her surprise when she walks into the restaurant and discovers Parker's Mom is her steamy hook-up from the night before.

That puts Cassie on the spot—it’s not like she can easily turn Parker down once tickets are already bought. I liked that it wasn't just a moment where everything would blow up, which is often how these 'taboo' books go. I knew this was going to be a best friend's mom/age-gap romance, which didn't bother me (then again, not much does). Erin’s relationship with her best friend is a bit more one-note, but is still a stable, supportive bond. the acknowledgement that they could be dating happens very late and the “honesty” and “cost” of their love is pretty much absent.I'm a big proponent of going into books with a very open mind and one way I do that is to avoid looking too much into it beforehand. Speaking from my memory, it became a phrase once Reagan said it, much like when our current President said, "I'm the decider. Each woman is so deep in denial that there is not much to propel the story forward and it definitely drags at times. While we get somewhat of an explanation of her daughter’s thoughts throughout the entire novel, it all happened at once. Joking aside, I really enjoyed the way this age gap was written and I think part of that is getting both Cassie and Erin’s perspective and knowing that they were both equally committed and attracted to one another.

She's gone through a lot after her divorce from Parker's dad, and it did kind of punch me in the gut to see how hard she was trying to get her daughter to love her back again, while also being new to feeling loved herself. If you enjoy contemporary romance novels with amazing friendships, tension, and lots of spice, then this one is for you! The relationships depicted between not only Cassie and Erin, but also between Cassie and her friends and Erin and Rachel felt vey real, and I loved how there were literally no prominent male characters lmao. Particularly when I also factor in the fact that Cassie was more or less abandoned by her own mother, and Erin was the mother of a friend.

Probably because this is the author's actual demographic, but, for once, I actually felt like an older female character acted and had traits of other women her age. I’m normally a slow-burn kinda person, but this one had a super intense sex scene just a few pages in! Clinton] acknowledged that the White House should not have invited the nation's senior banking regulator to a meeting where Mr. A review in O, The Oprah Magazine praised the book for "the scientific evidence it provides and the charm of its down-to-earth, commonsensical tone.