This summer, I really fell in love with reading by the water. I did some beach reading, but mostly, I just packed a bottle of water and a snack, walked myself down to the waterway, found a bench, and cracked open a book. It’s so peaceful. And between the cover and setting of My Best Friend’s Honeymoon, I decided I would read it only by the water. I ended up finishing it in one day, meandering along the inlet. It was a lovely experience—though next time, I will probably would pick a book that isn’t quite so packed with steamy scenes. There’s something about reading in public about rimming that—for me!—isn’t ideal.
My Best Friend’s Honeymoon is about Elsie, who has been agreeably sleepwalking through her life until her clueless boyfriend announces that after a years-long engagement, they’ll be married in seven days. He planned it all himself. Surprise! This is the shock that makes Elsie realize she doesn’t want this life, and she breaks up with him. Because her now ex-boyfriend is actually a pretty nice person, he tells her to go on the Caribbean honeymoon regardless, since she needs a break and it’s already paid for. So, she does, and she brings along her best friend, Ginny.
Ginny has been in love with Elsie since high school, but they took being turned down gracefully. Now, they’re glad to see Elsie finally stand up for herself, and they encourage this by promising to do whatever Elsie wants, as long as she asks for it. But Ginny wasn’t expecting Elsie to ask to kiss them.
I’m a big fan of the friends to lovers trope, which I think this does well. There’s a lot of yearning, and I love the “I already know all your faults and love you because of them” aspect. This is dual POV, so we see how Elsie’s desperation to stay closeted as a teen led to her turning Ginny down. There are many layers of history to their friendship, which adds both to their relationship and to their inevitable conflict.
I liked the representation of Ginny as a fat nonbinary lesbian. They explain that they don’t have a relationship to gender except that they love women in a gay way. They are secure in their fat body and describe matter-of-factly the stress of flying as a fat person (including packing a seatbelt extender) and annoyance at sitting in chairs that seem designed to torture fat people.
As I mentioned earlier, this has a lot of steamy scenes. There’s a bit of build up to get there, but a good chunk of the book is back to back sex scenes. Which I’m not complaining about. There’s a lot of variety. I will say that in the first few sex scenes, Elsie is constantly comparing it to sex with her ex, which is understandable, but jarring.
There were some moments—including the transition into the first sex scene as well as the climactic ending—that felt abrupt to me. This is my first Meryl Wilsner novel, so I’m not sure if that’s an element of their writing style I don’t jive with or if it’s unique to this book. Both times, the narrative seemed to leap suddenly from a long internal monologue to very dramatic action in a way I had trouble following. I also would have liked a little more time with them as a couple at the end, maybe in an epilogue.
Still, I had a great time reading this. It’s a great pick for a steamy beach read!
Content warnings: homophobia (including use of the d-slur), consensual degradation during sex
Erik says
“There were some moments—including the transition into the first sex scene as well as the climactic ending—that felt abrupt to me.”
I haven’t read this one yet, but I really enjoyed her first two (“Something to Talk About”, which only has one sex scene, and “Mistakes Were Made”, which was quite horny). As I recall the first book did leave me wishing for just a little more ending, but the second felt more whole.
Danika Ellis says
That’s good to know!