Mistakes Were Made (2022) is the second installment in Lucy Score’s contemporary romance cycle, the Story Lake series. A New York Times and USA Today bestseller, the novel follows Zoey Moody, a vibrant but impulsive literary agent whose career has stalled, forcing her to relocate from Manhattan to the small Pennsylvania town of Story Lake. Zoey’s life is further upended when sparks fly with her handsome and highly organized landlord Gage Bishop, and she begins to discover there is more to life than she believed.

The novel explores themes including Redefining Success through Self-Acceptance, Humor as a Coping Mechanism, and Community Support as an Antidote to Individual Failure. Score is a prolific romance author known for creating heartfelt, humorous stories set in close-knit small towns, often in her home state of Pennsylvania. The characterization of Zoey is particularly informed by Score’s personal experience; in the author’s note, she reveals her own late-in-life diagnosis of ADHD, which lends authenticity to Zoey’s struggles with executive dysfunction, emotional regulation, and internalized shame.

This guide is based on the 2022 Bloom Books edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide feature depictions of cursing, sexual content, and illness or death.

Plot Summary

After events in Story of my Life (the first book of the series), literary agent Zoey Moody has temporarily relocated to Story Lake to support her best friend and only remaining client, romance novelist Hazel Hart, who is staging a career comeback after a difficult divorce. Hazel is soon to be married to Campbell (Cam) Bishop, the contractor with whom she fell in love in Story of My Life. Zoey’s finances are dire: She has drained her savings, and her agent’s commission will not arrive for seven weeks. When her cousin Inez informs her that their Manhattan apartment building is converting to condominiums, giving tenants 30 days to buy or leave, Zoey finds herself effectively out of a home. Hazel suggests Zoey settle down in Story Lake, like Hazel herself, but Zoey vows to get herself out of the small town as soon as she can.

While walking into town, Zoey is startled by Goose, Story Lake’s resident bald eagle, who drops a live snake on her head. She sprints into the road and collides with the truck of Gage Bishop, local attorney and contractor, and Cam’s younger brother (Gage, Cam, and their older brother Levi were adopted from foster care by the Bishops). Gage scolds Zoey for being careless, his disproportionate anger rooted in family trauma: Gage’s sister Laura was paralyzed and her husband Miller killed when a distracted driver struck them during a morning run. Though Zoey is only bruised, the incident establishes the friction and reluctant attraction that define their dynamic. Gage finds Zoey beautiful but considers her reckless, the opposite of the organized partner he envisions for himself. Zoey is attracted to Gage as well, but knows she cannot offer him the serious relationship he seeks. 

Zoey begins putting down roots in Story Lake despite herself. Teenage mayor Darius Oglethorpe hires her as the town’s part-time publicist to boost tourism and counter the neighboring town of Dominion, whose scheming mayor, Nina Vampic, repeatedly tries to undermine Story Lake. During a pizza pickup for a Bishop family gathering, Zoey and Gage share their first vulnerable conversation. Gage confesses his rage over the light charges against the driver who hit Laura, and Zoey comforts him. Gage asks Zoey about the disco ball necklace she wears. Zoey explains that the necklace represents the idea of locating beauty in broken things, and decides “disco” will be a code word between her and Gage whenever they want complete honesty from each other. She also pitches Reader Weekend, a town-wide event to celebrate Hazel’s book launch, and Gage calls it genius. Meanwhile, Gage renovates the vacant apartment above his law office and offers it to Zoey. His brothers, Cam and Levi, suspect his motives, but Gage insists the arrangement is platonic. Gage and Zoey negotiate a six-month lease.

At Hazel’s creative writing class at Story Lake Haven, the town’s retirement community, Zoey discovers Opal Mallory, a 73-year-old retired psychologist who reads aloud a vivid romantasy excerpt that stuns the room. Zoey as asks Opal if she can be her literary agent and pitch her work, but Opal rebuffs her. Convinced of Opal’s talent, Zoey visits her again to persuade her to pitch her writing. Opal recognizes classic ADHD symptoms in Zoey and tells her there may be a reason why Zoey thinks of herself as impulsive and disorganized, giving her books on the subject and urging a formal evaluation. Zoey realizes there is a scientific reason for her lifelong struggles with organization, impulsivity, and shame. Opal also reveals a drawer of unpublished romantasy manuscripts and agrees to let Zoey read them.

The romantic tension between Zoey and Gage escalates through a series of charged encounters. When Gage knocks on Zoey’s door one evening, he finds her trapped in a sports bra and frees her by ripping it apart, the closeness leaving both of them shaken. Zoey propositions Gage, but Gage walks away, insisting he wants more than a physical relationship. Later, Gage takes her to chaperone the Story Lake High prom as a surprise date, and they share a slow dance that stirs feelings Zoey is not ready to name.

Laura drops a bombshell on Gage when she brings Valerie Hillport, the driver who killed Miller, to his office and asks him to represent her. Laura reveals that the two women have been in contact since the accident and that she has forgiven Valerie, a young mother and former ICU nurse who took her eyes off the road for one second to retrieve her toddler’s pacifier. Gage is furious at the ambush but cannot refuse his sister and takes the case pro bono, though he keeps it a secret from the rest of the Bishops.

At a bar one evening, Zoey shares her ADHD diagnosis with Gage while Gage shares the weight of defending Valerie. Both seeking comfort, they agree to a single night together at Gage’s family home. The next morning, Zoey panics and tries to flee the house as Gage is sleeping, fracturing her wrist after she is startled by Pepe, a miniature donkey on the porch. Gage takes Zoey to the doctor. Over breakfast, Gage proposes they continue their relationship without the pressures of formal dating, and Zoey agrees.

Their arrangement deepens into something neither anticipated. Gage meal-preps for Zoey, and she introduces spontaneity into his structured life, including a skinny-dipping excursion at the lakefront cabin of Levi, Gage’s other brother and the town’s police chief. Zoey confides in Gage that she cannot carry children due to a medical condition, and Gage responds that there is more than one way to have a family. Zoey begins taking ADHD medication and experiences a revelatory first day of focus.

When Gage’s family discovers at a preliminary hearing that he is representing Valerie, the Bishops erupt in anger. Gage’s mother, Pep, summons everyone to the farm, where the siblings hash out their anger and agree to support Laura’s wishes. Reader Weekend preparations intensify when Nina announces a competing event, and the town rallies behind Zoey. On Zoey’s birthday, her dismissive parents arrive for their annual obligatory visit and spend the meal belittling her. Gage arrives with flowers, tells them to leave, and organizes a surprise birthday cruise with his family. That night, he tells Zoey he is falling for her and asks her to consider a future together. On the morning of Reader Weekend, Zoey privately tells Hazel she has decided to stay in Story Lake and say yes to Gage.

Reader Weekend is a resounding success. Hazel’s signing sells out the bookstore, and when Dominion dumps 14 shelter animals on Story Lake as a disruption, Zoey transforms the situation into an adoption fair. That night at the celebration bonfire, Zoey spots Gerald, the violent ex-husband of Gage’s divorce client Audrey, grabbing Audrey by the neck on the beach. Zoey screams for help and tackles him. Gerald punches Zoey and cuts her arm with a knife before Gage, Cam, and Levi subdue him. Consumed by fear and flashbacks to Laura’s accident, Gage lashes out at Zoey in front of the crowd, calling her reckless and telling her he is done with her. Zoey walks away without defending herself.

The next morning, Hazel throws a glass of orange juice in Gage’s face at the lodge brunch for his mistreatment of Zoey the previous day, and Zoey throws a second. Zoey breaks her lease and departs with Hazel on a book tour, adopting a shy pit bull named Buttercup before she goes. Over the following week, a contrite Gage emails and texts Zoey daily to apologize and explain the roots of his fear: his childhood trauma, his promise to Miller, and his inability to protect the people he loves. Zoey reads everything but does not respond.

During her absence, Gage visits Valerie and sincerely forgives her, then persuades the district attorney to offer a plea deal of careless driving with no jail time. Opal’s romantasy series goes to auction among three publishers, resulting in a seven-figure advance. Hazel’s novel reaches number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

When Zoey returns for a town bingo event, the community honors her by renaming the bingo free space after her. Gage kisses her in front of everyone and declares he loves her. Driving to his house for dinner, she discovers a roll of dimes lodged inside her car’s door panel, an echo of Miller’s tradition that she interprets as a sign. At his house, Gage has hung a disco ball from the ceiling and built out the closet into a dream wardrobe space, having moved all of Zoey’s clothing there. Goose has returned Zoey’s stolen pink sequined bra, which hangs on a bedazzled hanger as the final touch.

Zoey forgives Gage and tells him she loves him. They discuss adoption as a path to the family he has always wanted. An epilogue set a few months later finds Zoey narrating from Cam and Hazel’s wedding, where she serves as maid of honor. She and Gage are engaged and planning a fall wedding on the Bishop farm, with conversations about adoption ongoing and Story Lake thriving.