The Plus One is the third book in the romantic comedy series A Brush With Love, but it can be enjoyed as a stand alone as well. Indira has recently lost her boyfriend and she needs a date for a wedding. Her childhood enemy, Jude, is now a traveling doctor and very successful. They start up a fake relationship so she can bring him to the wedding. I'm a sucker for a fake dating relationship trope. This one was entertaining, but a bit of a slow slog at times. I enjoyed the first two books in the series much more.

I did not read the series this is a spin off from. I didn't know it was a spin off until I was done, and I will say, you don't need to read it first.

Enemies to Lovers meets grumpy sunshine. These are 2 of my favorite tropes! It's steamy, it's emotional and I surprisingly enjoyed it.

Jude was an amazing character. Daria was great, but Jude had my heart. I give this 4/5 and I highly recommend.

I thought the character arcs were very well done. Eddings explores traumas and fears with so much rawness and respect, and I appreciated that the dual perspective writing allowed readers to see not only through both of their perspectives, their vulnerabilities and fears, but also the way they see each other. This book balances the the heavier and lighter themes and does a fantastic job at showing the ups and the downs of falling in love and getting to know someone else and ourselves.

I found The Plus One to be a pretty average romance. The characters had great chemistry. Mazey Eddings does great mental health representation. But the plot did not particularly excite me. What did excite me was no accidental pregnancies. Let's hope she keeps those in her past! For me, I will be giving Mazey Eddings one more book to impress me; otherwise, I will be skipping her future books.

Okay, I’m loving maizey eddings! Her books are laugh out like funny, and I loved the buildup of the main characters relationship. Was not disappointed at all with this book!

If you're a fan of fake dating or enemies to friends to lovers, then this book was written just for you! A fantastic closing novel to the AvBrush With Love trilogy, this novel stands out because of the way Eddings has managed to entwine past and present—not only the recent past, where both Jude and Indira have experienced different forms of trauma—but also the distant past where they knew each other as children.

I really enjoyed this book. Mazey's writing and the way she crafts neurodivergent and characters struggling with mental health challenges is perfection.

The book did feel a little slow at some points of the story.

This was such a good book! This is the third book in the A Brush With Love series. You will want to read the series in order for it to make more sense. The author does such a great job at making her books feel so realistic and relatable. Her characters are so great, you will love them. There’s also a ton of steam in this book! If you haven’t read this series yet, I recommend checking it out!

This, the third enstalment of the A Brush with Love series, is easily my favorite of the three books included in this fun series. Each of the women that we have met in these books are characters with strengths and weaknesses that are relatible. We have the honor of getting to know Indrina better throughout this book. I was excited to start to get to know her and was easily pulled into her life right from the start, she is a strong, smart, perfectionist that has been hurt in her previous relationship so she has her defenses up when it comes to a new relationship. Her story is full of depth and shows her growing attraction to Jude from a different perspective.

Indrina has a history with her brother's best friend, Jude. They have always been at odds with each other. She was less than thrilled when she was reintroduced to him when she fled to her brother Colin's house after finding her live-in boyfriend cheating on her. Jude had been traveling the world but was back in town for Colin's wedding. Even though Jude and Indrina have never got along they decide to throw their disagreements aside with her brother's wedding quickly approaching and form a pact to fake date throughout the wedding festivities. As they spend more time together the harder it is for them to die the chemistry between them.

Indrina and Jude make a charming couple that I could not help but hope they would allow themselves to be happy together. Their dynamic was very well written and the storyline was well conceived and carried out wonderfully. The tropes of forced proximity, enemies to lovers, fake dating and her brother's best friend were pulled together flawlessly.

Though this is a part of a series it could very well be read as a standard alarm block. I do recommend reading the previous two books in order to get the most from this well-grounded romance.

I am grateful to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read a digital copy and I am voluntarily leaving my honest review of this endearing book.

I love this series so much! While this book did not quite live up to how much I adored the previous one in the series (Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake), it was still filled with plenty of wit, charm, and chemistry.

FMC Indira finds her boyfriend in bed...well, couch? I think? with another woman. She ends it, but can't completely get away from him because he is the cousin of her future brother in law.
MMC Jude has just returned from a traumatic time working as a doctor overseas, and is staying with his best friend who is about to get married. That best friend, is Indira's older brother.
They both end up staying in the same place, sadly there were two beds :( BUT they hatch a fake-dating scheme so that Indira doesn't have to feel alone or pitied during the wedding festivities. Since Jude and Indira have a rather contemptuous history, this also brings in the enemies to lovers trope.

As romance readers know, there's a fine line between love and hate and the line is usually at the doorway to the bedroom because holy chemistry, Batman! This book was deliciously spicy!

While there are times that the dialogue is over the top, there are also some amazingly tender and real moments. I appreciated how the author works to normalize therapy and de-stigmatize mental health struggles, too.

I definitely recommend this whole series!

The plus one is charming, endearing and a lot story you can help but to root for to the very last page. While this book is a series it can easily be read as a standalone. Every book in this serious has a center around the struggles of mental health. The way they are described and explained in these stories make these characters feel like real life people. It helps you feel seen and heard. The care and thoughtfulness this author has put behind these characters and these struggles help you connect in a deeper level to these two and make you root for them every step of the way. This is a beautifully written novel about Indira and Jude who have always bickered as kids but find them selves in a fake dating arrangement at Jude’s best friends wedding but soon those fake feelings start to feel too real. We watch Jude and his struggles of PTSD and indira trying to move on from the betrayal her ex boyfriend caused her. This story has the most likable characters and a plot line that keeps you interested to the very end.

I love Mazey Eddings so much for writing books that make me feel SO MUCH!

The Plus One was no exception, it had amazing writing and lovable characters! I love the PTSD rep, and how real the characters faced felt!

Mazey Eddings has a talent for writing a rom-com with depth. Indira and Jude’s story was a great conclusion to the Brush of Love series. The focus on mental health and therapy felt genuine and grounded. The childhood enemies to lovers (with a sprinkle of fake dating) was well paced and made sense to their character development. I loved that we got to visit with the characters in the previous books. Overall, this was an absolute heart-string pulling delight!
Thank you St Martin’s Press, St Martin’s Griffin, for the copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Such a cute enemies to lovers/ fake dating romance! If you need a plus one for the weekend, this book is it.

3.5 stars rounded up.

This was very sweet and well-written, but the story itself was forgettable. I hadn't read the first two books of the series before reading this, but it didn't take away from my reading experience.

I enjoyed observing Indira and Jude growing together and opening up to each other more and more. I felt that the author handled the difficult topics well. It was so interesting to read about the fictional global health organization that Jude was shackled to in order to escape from his crippling medical school debt. The mental health crisis those medical professionals experience as a result of the horrors they witness isn't really something I've ever thought about before.

That said, I wish there was a little more conflict between the characters. This is marketed and posed as a childhood-nemeses-to-lovers story, and I didn't feel satisfied with the setup of that plot point. In my opinion, a trope like that requires a lot more tension in the relationship before they discuss their differences and points of view and move forward with the romance aspect.

All in all, I enjoyed reading this and will definitely read more Mazey Eddings in the future!!

Thank you, Griffin and NetGalley, for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

I wasn't sure how I would feel about this one once I started it, but I fell for these characters so fast! I laughed out loud in chapter one... PEANUT BUTTER??? IYKYK, right? Anyway, i immediately loved Jude and was so excited to hear about his job, life and trauma. I loved that bond between the main characters and the unresolved hidden feelings. Great read, loved every minute.

Well that was a disappointing end to the year. I had been sinking into a depression and couldn't bring myself to read anything but fanfiction. Finally I felt better enough to try a book again, so I picked one that looked sweet and funny and adorable. Everything about the cover and synopsis: "a sparkling romantic comedy" led me to believe that would be what I would get.

Unfortunately, that was *not* what I got. What I got was a depressing tale that started with Indira walking in on her boyfriend and another woman. In a failed attempt to perhaps inject some humor, they were coated in peanut butter. It wasn't funny. Just gross. From there we get many sessions of Indira with her therapist talking about her childhood trauma and fear of inadequacy. And from Jude we get PTSD flashbacks to working at an emergency hospital in a war zone.

They snipe at each other a little bit but mostly are miserable. Here and there were flashes of something that could have been connection or sweetness and that's all that kept me reading. Unfortunately, somewhere around 40% in we switch to full on lust and constant sex scenes (that weren't written very well). The language tended toward the crass. Indira's brother and her husband were truly insufferable as they dragged their wedding party from one event to another and forced them to make the decorations. They were also incredibly blind to Indira and Jude's suffering. The brief glimpses we get of other side characters aren't really much better.

I gave up at 60% after admitting to myself that it wasn't funny, it wasn't romantic, and I hated all the characters.

*Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Griffin for providing an early copy for review.

Mazey Eddings books are always enjoyable and downright perfect for when you’re in a reading slump. Her writing has a way of just pulling you in to the story.

I love Mazey Eddings and I have loved this series about this group of friends. While I really enjoyed The Plus One, I do think it was my least favorite of the series, but really that just goes to show how strong the series is! Normally, brother’s best friend is not a trope I particularly enjoy, but the author combined that with childhood rivals to lovers in a way that I found really fun to read.
One thing I think this author does so well is write about mental health. I have found all of her books so relatable and felt very seen by her mental health representation. I will pick up whatever Eddings chooses to write! 3.5 stars.

This was on my list to read forever and I needed something different between reading a series. But then I realized this was part of a series, and left me a little confused. However, I enjoyed this - highly emotional book, lots of complex issues to uncover. I enjoyed the character development throughout. I will check out other books from Mazey! Thanks for the ARC! :)