Meryl Wilsner Books in Order

Meryl Wilsner was born in Michigan and has lived in Portland, Oregon, and Jackson, Mississippi, before returning to the Mitten State. They graduated from Lewis & Clark College in 2011, and time studying abroad in Kenya and Tanzania gave them a close-up view of giraffes, an animal they still enjoy talking about.

Before publishing novels, Wilsner was already deep in romance. They read and wrote fan fiction, producing hundreds of thousands of words and learning what kept them invested in a love story: emotional honesty, longing, and an ending where queer characters get to be happy.

It took time for them to name romance as the genre they wanted to write. Wilsner has spoken about growing up around the idea that romance was less serious than other fiction, even though romances were always the stories they loved most. Seeing too few queer characters receive happy endings pushed them from fan fiction toward original work.

That choice became the center of their career.

In 2018, Wilsner joined the Pitch Wars mentorship program, where novelist Farah Heron helped them revise a manuscript that would become Something to Talk About. The program's showcase also connected Wilsner with an agent, turning years of writing practice into a route toward publication.

Published in 2020, Something to Talk About follows Hollywood showrunner Jo Jones and her assistant, Emma Kaplan, after a red-carpet photograph starts dating rumors. It is a slow-burn workplace romance that gives its characters room to think about consent, public scrutiny, career goals, and whether a relationship can work across a real power imbalance.

The next book, Mistakes Were Made, takes a much faster route into trouble. College senior Cassie Klein has a one-night stand with Erin Bennett, then discovers Erin is the divorced mother of Cassie's best friend. The setup is messy, funny, and high-heat, but the book stays interested in the choices both women make once their secret begins to feel like something more.

With Cleat Cute, Wilsner moved to professional soccer. Grace Henderson is a longtime U.S. national-team star recovering from an injury, while rookie Phoebe Matthews is the bold player competing for her place. Their rivals-to-lovers story brings in team pressure, the approach of the World Cup, and the awkward business of realizing two people may not define their relationship the same way.

My Best Friend's Honeymoon returns to a familiar Wilsner strength, people who have known each other long enough to miss what has been in front of them. After Elsie calls off her wedding, she and her best friend Ginny take the nonrefundable Caribbean honeymoon together. It is a friends-to-lovers story about asking clearly for what you want and allowing yourself to want a different life.

Across Wilsner's books, readers will find queer characters balancing attraction with work, family, friendship, public expectations, and their own uncertainty. The tone can range from a long wait for a first kiss to open-door heat, but the destination is consistent: a hard-won happily ever after. Wilsner lives in Michigan with their wife and still counts all four seasons, button-down shirts, and the way giraffes run among their favorite things.