This did not feel like a dentist book. I thought they would be swooning over each other in a workplace romance way, but nope. They’re both in school and we barely got to see any dental or oral surgeon stuff. We rarely see them dentist. Even if I knew Harper was an oral surgeon, we rarely got good behind the scenes look at what it was like. It was mainly just about the rigor of the school and pressure of it all. Yes, that’s useful information for Harper’s character, but it didn’t feel like the book I signed up to read.

I get the summary says oral surgery but every piece of marketing laid so thick into toothbrush, toothpaste, and things that make you think “dentist” not “major and intense oral/facial reconstructive” surgeon. I get it, it’s on me. This is the one time the summary was actually very accurate. But the cover? The connotations? “Dental Dam” Dan being a dental student made zero sense and was only added to make it more dentisty. It honestly terrified me because he was really going to become a dentist, something he literally hated and that grossed him out. A DENTIST. KEEP HIM AWAY FROM MY MOUTH IN ALL SCENARIOS.

As for Dan and Harper, I disliked them both. First it was Dan, then it was Harper, then it was both. What a journey! Like ping pong! Neither felt like they were actually 26-year-old adults. They acted like undergrads in most scenarios, even younger in others. Their decisions were embarrassing at times and I never felt the connection because this was the, and I mean THE, most instant case of insta love I have ever experienced.

I couldn’t even tell you the timeline of their relationship. They met and BOOM they’re all touchy feely, wanting to lick random extremities and graze teeth everywhere. (I assume this was because it was a “dentist” book? Tongues, mouths, teeth, etc. Idk just stick with oral.) He was saying she’s the most gorgeous gorgeous brained girl. She was saying he was her safe space from anxiety. It felt like a week for a relationship that had the familiarity of three years. He was kissing her forehead, slow dancing and humming in her kitchen, and being SO touchy before they even kissed. They were nearly getting it ON before they even kissed. It just seemed way too intimate, way too fast. Dan had absolutely nothing more to his name than being obsessed with Harper and being in dental school for a ridiculous ridiculous reason. Oh baby, lemme lick your nose.

Dan has Harper so high on a pedestal she can see across the Pacific. He’s eager in the worst way. Like just so obsessed with her. He is painfully obtuse, singleminded, heavy handed, and absolutely unrealistic. I was never attracted to this weird man child. He was never a cinnamon roll. He was an untoasted, unbuttered, unflavored piece of sandwich bread.

He is the type of man you dream up in the first draft. Dan is your ideal, your wet dream. Just so goddamn devoted to you. Then you start dating him and realize he is an absolutely boring shadow following you around. You realize the chase was more fun than the catch. Then you realize that this book didn’t even have the chase! It was so insta love I was distraught. They met, he was like wow, she was like wow, he was like marry me, she was like tbh I’m tempted but women can’t have a relationship and goals because that’s #hard. She blames him for making her like him so much that she forgets deadlines. Not just blames, but reads him to filth. HONEY WHAT THE FUCK.

Harper as a character was trying to accomplish way too much in one book. Her character was being pulled in so many directions they effectively canceled each other out in the story as a whole. I just couldn’t with her blaming Dan for everything. I’m sorry but she’s very very bad to Dan and she admits she is being cruel and lying and wrong but she keeps laying it the fuck on. It was really fucked up. I support neither of these characters.

I think being “a relatable teen” is a huge thing this book tried to do. It tried to do it too hard and too much. The main culprits were Harper’s caricatures dressed up as friends. Some of the words they came out of their mouths just really baffled me. Half of this book was Harper and Dan. The other half was a mix of weird phrases and cringey one-liners from the supporting cast. Most landed severely off beat for me.

Her friends were simply included to be “comic relief,” which is fine I suppose, but they weren’t funny, just cringey. Sorry, but I draw the line and one “titty” mention per book. Also randomly trying to get a Brazilian? So fucking bizarre. I have never wanted to strangle anyone with my Fallopian tubes, thank you very much. I would never go anywhere near a bone zone. Alex having sweet relief? Good God I’m sorry but NO. It was a bad mix of frat boy, dad, and Twitter language. I genuinely wouldn’t want to know any of these people in real life.

As for the audiobook, I didn’t mind Harper’s narrator but good lord Dan’s guy just… went for it. Unfortunately, I didn’t particularly like any way he got the get. His voice for Harper was grating to say the least, making her sound about 16 years old. It was horrifying during the sex scenes. Not only did we have him doing Harper’s weirdly young voice, but we also had this man being so overcome. I would have preferred Harper’s narrator to narrate the whole thing. The narrators also spoke slow which would have been fine, but the NetGalley app does not adequately support speeding up audiobooks. I listened to this at 2.0 speed and it felt normal! But it also felt like the female robot from Bicentennial Man.

Stripping away everything else, the main, driving force working against our “lovers” was Harper not being able to balance Dan and her school obligations, aka homework and tests. This made Harper, who could have been an incredibly nuanced character, turn into one bad decision after another.

⭐️⭐️/5 🌶🌶🌶/5

Thank you to the publisher for an advanced audiobook. All opinions are honest and my own.

A Brush with Love by Mazey Eddings is a spectacular and top romance read of 2022. I'm saying it now! This book is a rom-com literary genius with all the powerful topics incorporated throughout the chapters and characters in the book. These characters were well developed, and the audiobook was outstanding with giving a voice to this dual POV story between Harper and Dan. I loved their chemistry, passion, vulnerability, and believable romance. I laughed, cried, and empathized with the truly raw emotions on the page. I also loved the medical student element since I'm in healthcare myself and understand the stress of graduate school and patient care. Everyone needs to get a copy of this one immediately when published. You won't regret it!

Thank you, Macmillan Audio and St. Martin's Griffin, for my ALC for my honest review.

This story centers around Harper and Dan who are in their 4th and 1st year of dental school. They have an adorable meet cute and an instant attraction that had you feeling the chemistry between them. I was not expecting to enjoy this as much as I did! Literally within the first 5%, I had literally LOL'd multiple times - there is something amazing (playful) banter in this book! And while there were plenty of laughs, don't let that fool you -- this book touches on some very important topics that pulled at my heartstrings! Both Harper and Dan are battling their own demons and working to overcome them - the mental health rep in this book is fantastic - it felt so raw and real.

While this started out as a 5 star read for me, the pacing of the story (plot and relationship arc) was a bit off for me and I found myself a little annoyed with Harper at different times. That being said, I really did love her and Dan together!

Can't believe this is Mazey's debut novel - I will definitely be reading more from her!

Oh and also, the audiobook for this was fantastic and would def recommend!

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I really wanted to love this book. I was really looking forward to it based off of the description and the start of the book. However I just couldn’t finish it. I struggled with the narrators in the audio version. Perhaps I would have been better reading a physical copy.

Harper and Dan are both dental students. She is an incredible student in her fourth year, waiting to learn where she matches. He is in his first year and less excited to pursue dentistry.

Their meet cute is so delightful that even her friends comment that it's straight out of a rom-com. Indeed, I loved Thu and Harper's other friends as much as Harper and Dan.

The couple had immediate chemistry. It was a mix of a slow burn with lots of steam. I found their relationship quite believable. Their tough patches made me want to scream, but were simultaneously relatable.

The book incorporated nice Jewish representation in Harper's character. I also really appreciated the Author's Note. She wrote about sensitive content with such care, and that flowed into the book. Most notably, she pointed out generalized anxiety disorder, sexism, and ableist language.

I listened to this on audiobook and started while I was on the train. I laughed so much that I got quite strange looks from the other commuters. I thought Vikas Adam was an especially fantastic narrator. In his reading, he adjusted his pace to the emotional tone of the story and do well with accents and voices. While Emily Lawrence did an excellent job voicing Harper and the other female voices, I was less impressed by her impression of male voices.

Thank you to SMP Romance, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the advanced copy. These opinions are my own.

A Brush With Love by Mazey Eddings started out strong, with humor that made me lol, characters I cared about, and curious central wounds for protagonists Harper and Dan. But like so many potentially great characters, these two fell victim to a thin plot with weak external conflicts; to compensate, Harper's internal wound ballooned from believable to outrageous, triggering a series of decisions that not even Dan's instalove devotion could overcome.

Before I get to the thick of this feedback, I want to reiterate how much I wanted to love Harper. She's an anxious, ambitious, perfectionist Jewish woman with a fluffy cat -- all traits I personally identify with. The setting is in Philadelphia, not far from my home town. Harper's love interest is named Dan -- which happens to be my husband's name. Though we seriously diverge in our feelings about teeth, Harper and I have enough in common that I really, really wanted to like this book. That said:

Harper's central wound revolves around anxiety, and the early representation on this was fantastic. But for a wound to be an effective piece of characterization, it must directly impede the character's primary goal -- in this case, Harper needs to secure a residency. The logic devolves quickly, but I'll try to sketch it out: Harper is anxious >> Harper is obsessed with school >> Harper gets straight A's >> Harper rejects Dan because being in a relationship with him is so distracting, she got her first sub-A grade and confused the dates of a test. >> Harper arrives at her Dark Night of the Soul as a result of being offered makeup work for a missed test.

If you're confused, you're not alone. Harper rejects personal accountability for her behavior and emotions, which gives the whole relationship big YA energy. The idea that a woman empowered enough to face down misogyny at work can't set boundaries within a relationship and find time to do what needs doing is antifeminist and frankly, silly.

I don't want to issue a major spoiler here, but suffice it to say, the "work/life balance" debacle is not the only way in which Harper's wounds (there are multiple!) are stretched to the limit. Her reason for pursuing the surgical track in school is offered as a throwaway during a long conversation between her and Dan, but it was like a record scratch in the narrative. "You're becoming a dental surgeon because WHY?!?!?!?!?" is a good approximation of my reaction to this reveal.

I haven't even gotten to Dan. Poor Dan, whose instalove is so severe, the rest of his personality is smothered beneath it. Dan, who at 26 years old allowed his mommy to bully him into an unwanted career change. Dan, who is almost constantly daydreaming about running his teeth over various parts of Harper's body. Dan, who is voiced by Vikas Adam on the audiobook, and who therefore sounds about 16 years old.

A Brush With Love might have been an exemplary debut with better editing (to start, Eddings should have been challenged to consolidate Harper's central wound and reframe Dan's situation so he's not actually in dental school). Maybe the whole thing should have taken place in a magnet high school, where the characters' emotional immaturity would have felt authentic instead of annoying. We can't know for sure what could have been, but what we got didn't live up to its potential.

3.5.
Things I liked about this book:
- I thought the way the author wrote about anxiety and grief accompanied by untraditional family dynamics was great
- The writing was funny at times, and overall was of good quality
- I'm a sucker for a will-they-won't-they scenario
- The dialogue felt natural

Things I didn't like:
- The pacing was a bit off kilter, and the book was hard to push through at times; had this not been a review opportunity I definitely would've DNF'd sometime in the middle to third act.
- The male love interest insulted Andrew Garfield and I'm being so serious when I say biggest turn off lmao. Like literally threw the book across the room. This will not bode well in this economy.
- The writing/plot felt kindaaa generic. I don't think I'll remember much about this book when I look back on it 6 months later.

Audiobook: I was able to listen to this on audiobook which I am so grateful for!! Audiobooks are a lot easier for me to read with. I enjoyed Harper's narrator, and Dan's for the most part EXCEPT when he was trying to imitate a woman's voice when reading Harper's dialogue. It felt very grating.

I was so excited about the premise of this one and unfortunately the characters made me quickly annoyed... As in by the first chapter 😭

The narrators weren't great fits for the rolls in my opinion so it made me hard to get lost in the story when I was distracted by their voices.

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to listen to this one!

Great narration. I think both narrators did an excellent job. The chemistry felt intense and believable.

The story itself is super cute romcom. I loved all the characters. I can totally see her being able to make a series out of Harper’s friends.

I've been hearing rave reviews for this debut dual perspective, slow burn romance that revolves around two dental surgeon students, Dan and Harper, and it did not disappoint! The mental health rep in this book is fantastic! Harper has anxiety and is dealing with a lot of self-imposed pressure to perform well in school, while also dealing with grief over the loss of her mother in a car crash. Dan is also under a lot of pressure to live up to his parental expectations.

The two bond over shared connections and the mental health journey Harper goes on is wonderful to witness. Raw, real and so relatable. This book was a win for me. I loved the supportive found family and the open door scenes and just how normalized therapy for mental health is handled. Highly recommended for fans of Weather girl or Must love books and great on audio. Much thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan audio and St. Martin's Press for my advance listening copy.

TW: grief, death of a parent, car crash, cancer, anxiety, mental health

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

CW: anxiety, panic attack (on page), death of a parent (past), grief, sexism

I adored this as an audiobook, both narrators did an excellent job adding to the story and if anything I fell in love with this story even more

I would recommend if you're looking for (SPOILERS)

-m/f idiots to lovers
-insta attraction
-a crash of a meet cute
-graduate school romance
-oral puns
-major, major horniness, like we cannot stay away I want to rip your clothes off
-deep deep, we are just friends denial
-great group of friends
-two very awkward, blushers bumbling their way into love
-a very large cat
-forehead kisses

OOOMF. I will do my best to be articulate. But this book, just grabs you from the beginning and doesn't let you go. It is so funny, heartfelt and endearing. Sweet, Type A, earnest, perfectionist Harper. Loves her friends, is about to get everything she wants out of dental school, she does not have time for love. Her journey with anxiety, how it's described, how all consuming it can be, the walls she protects herself with. Whether you have moments of anxiety or it is something that holds you and affects you daily like it does Harper so many can relate to how hard it can be to open yourself up to friends, to love, be intimate.

Soft, tall, bumbly, blushing dental dan. How he has wrecked me for all other men. He just likes Harper immediately and is gone on her. Patient, observant, always sweet, kind, and an all-around nice guy. Trying to figure out his own life, stuck in a situation out of loyalty that he hates. He's not perfect, but he's perfect for Harper and he just gripped my heart.

Harper's amazing group of friends who I can't wait to see get their own happily ever afters, Big Booy Judy who was a rockstar. How Harper and Dan grew both apart and together, how they saw each other, their intimacy. And dear lord the horniness of this book, I mean, I was screaming at times for these two idiots to stop fighting it even though I understood the reasons.

Read this book, devour it. These two bumbling, blushing idiots fall in love, figure out their own passions, and let someone into their own life. About mental health and letting someone else in, taking care of yourself, and letting someone take care of yourself. Self-love, friend love, and romantic love, and the all-important Big Booty Judy Love. Read this book.

Rating: 5
Steam: 3 (But 5 horny teeth for sexual tension)

Relationship disclosure: Mazey and I are mutuals on social media and I might have force friended her