A Brush with Love by Mazey Eddings

A Brush with Love Book 1

I received an advanced listen copy from Netgalley and this is my full and honest feedback.

This book follows Harper as she makes her way through her final year of dental school, when she crash lands into Daniel, a legacy who doesn't want to be a dentist.

I didn't really care for the audio of this book. I did end up getting the ebook so I could follow along while I listened to it. The male narrator was ok, but I don't know if it was the female narrator or if it was a combination of her and Harper's character that made me not care for Harper's chapters.

There was a good 15% that I did like after 70% but then Harper got on my nerves that I couldn't shake until the last 5%.

I really tried to like it because I have a friend who loved it, but I don't know if it was the audio or this book just wasn't for me. I may try reading the book again with just the ebook in the next year or so, to see if that might improve my rating.

There was one major thing about the audio that I didn't like and it had nothing to do with the book or the narrators. I like listening to my books for the most part at 2x or higher, one because I lack patience and two because my brain hates to focus when it feels slow. I ended up needing to crank it up to the 2.5x option that Netgalley has, but when I did that it caused the words to break off so instead of "huge" it came out as "hu". I don't know if this was a Netgalley issue or an audio issue.

Overall Ratings:
Book: 3 stars
Audio: 2 stars

Harper and Dan are both dental students who meet cute when she destroys his project. Harper suffers from panic attacks and Dan helps her through them. This was a great debut!

5 stars, hands down.

I went into this blind. I had heard only snippets of how this book was adorable with just a dash of spice. I was expecting something terribly cheesy. Let me just say, what a pleasant surprise.

This book was all-around delightful. A rom-com (And yes, I do mean rom-com...I laughed out loud a lot throughout this book) set in a dentistry doctoral program. Our FMC is an extremely anxious overachieving type, who works herself so hard she doesn't give herself much room for a personal life. Our MMC is a non-traditional first year legacy at the school and is currently working through complicated grief of both his recently departed father and the life he left behind to help with the family dentistry practice. While more laid back in nature than the FMC, he is still very driven...just not for dentistry.

The story touches on aspects of complicated grief, severe generalized anxiety disorder, general mental health, the importance of a support system, and the overwhelming stress put graduate students.

While covering these topics, the story also provides a fun romance with delicious spice as well as my favorite women friendship groups I have ever read about. The amount of true support and love shown among that friendship group is so heart-warming, you'll wish they were your own friends.

I loved everything about this book, including the main character's Maine Coon. I want one.

Please go read this now. Tell your friends. Shout it from the roof tops.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Emily Lawrence and Vikas Adam, via NetGalley. An advanced reader's copy of this audiobook was provided to me via NetGalley by Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review.

A Brush with Love is a cute and sweet rom com with some surprisingly heavy content, like mental health, racism, and death. The characters are lovable but also feel real and relatable.

I absolutely loved so many parts of this book! It was a nice light read, with some real-life struggle moments built in. The realness of Harper's anxiety and Dan's hate of dental school created the struggle and tension you want to see in books. The fun of Dan meeting her cat for the first time. These moments built a story together that made you want to keep reading (or listening). Harper, of course, wanted nothing to do with Dan because he wasn't in her plan; Dan refused to take no for an answer creating a 'just friends' trope that was a struggle for both of them. At the breakup to makeup part- it was difficult to read- they both had to really find themselves and their new goals for the future, creating a possibility of it not being with each other.

Audio book review

A cute and fun rom-com, narrators Emily Lawrence and Vicas Adam really give you a feel for the characters. I don't personally deal with anxiety but I really felt what Harper was going through. I truly felt the attraction between the two characters, also the struggles they dealt with individually and together.

I thought this audio book was absolutely delightful. I've read quite a few medical romance books, but this was the first one that I've read about dentists!

Now granted, I'm terrified of the dentist, however I thought this book was great.

This book gives you all the feels. Love story of college students, Dan and Harper, trying to make their way through dental school. There is a fun group of friends that give you laugh out loud moments but then also show the true meaning of friendship when they would do anything to help their friends. I appreciate the author giving a warning on anxiety being in the book because it does consume quite a bit of it. It makes you love the character even more and keeps you rooting for Harper to get all she wants in life.

“A Brush With Love” was cleverly named and it is a romance that takes place in dental school. There are real life complications-anxiety, loss of a loved one, etc, I thought it started off stronger, but I just felt it dragged a bit in the middle. It’s a solid piece of romantic fiction, but it’s not a book that will stay with me for a long time. There was some steam to the bedroom scenes. 3 stars ⭐️. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy for review.

OH MY GOD. I loved this book. The way Mazey Eddings writes about anxiety is SO relatable. I loved the representation of someone who has panic attacks in this book. Loved the plot, loved the ending. These characters were so cute! 4/5 stars.

A Brush With Love is the first novel by Mazey Eddings. This is the tale of two dental students, Harper and Dan. Harper is about to graduate and is waiting for placement in an oral surgery residency. Dan, although the same age, is a first year after a stint in investment banking frowned upon by his parents. After his father’s death a year ago Dan had been guilted into going back to dental school so as to work with his mother in the family practice.

Dan has hated every day of this semester until literally running into Harper. Now, there is someone he is actually interested in seeing. Trouble is, although there is definitely chemistry, Harper avoids his every advance. You see, Harper does a very good job of masking her anxieties. In fact, she does so well that her best friends have no idea of the extent of effort Harper must put forth.

This is a very intricately written story that has not only a deep understanding of the issues presented but also a lovely story of finding the right people to have on your personal journey. I did enjoy this story and do recommend it

When this book first came out, I decided it wasn’t for me because I have extreme phobia of the dentist. But I am so glad that I gave the audio book a chance.
This was a great read that touches on the pressures of women in stem, anxiety disorder symptoms, and what a difference a supportive friend can make in those situations.
I loved the love story. I can’t wait to read Mazey Eddings next book. I enjoyed the way she writes.
The audiobook performance was very good. The only downside was I like to listen to the audio sped up, and it got somewhat distorted when I would try to listen faster.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to A Brush with Love.

Throughout the book, I felt like there was a disconnect between the way the characters were supposed to feel versus the way the scene actually seemed to demonstrate. Some of the characters had situations where their words or actions didn't align with their described personalities or mannerisms. Toward the end of the book, I was able to feel more alignment.

There were scenes throughout that brought great value and detail, which I appreciated. Some of the comments and phrases were laugh out loud funny. The title was clever. It was interesting to see the characters defend stereotypical comments, actions and remarks. Shining a light on these areas was done with ease and nicely intertwined.

4 ⭐️
2 🌶


This book touched my soul and made me feel so seen with my anxiety disorder and how it manifested while I was in school. I’m so thankful for the author for writing that into the world so others can connect with that. It normalized getting help and that’s a good thing.

I loved that this was a slow burn and build to the relationship with friends to lovers.

I enjoyed the honesty about anxiety that is woven throughout the book. The story was okay but not as engaging as I thought it could be. It was a little too drawn out and could have been more concise.

This book is a book that truly touched my heart. Mazes Eddings made the most honest and raw characters. Harper is a dentistry student in her fourth year, she suffers from severe anxiety and panic attacks and is just trying to get through year four and get placed in a residency program. Daniel is in his first year of dentistry school and is there due to family guilty and wanting to help his mom in their family practice than truly having a passion for the job.

Harper falls for Daniel, literally, and the two become friends quickly. Daniel becomes Harpers confidant, friend and lover through the book and truly is the dream book boyfriend. The characters are neurodiverse and that is truly beautiful to see, especially for me since I am also on the neurodiverstiy spectrum. The audio book was so immersive in the story I fell more in love with the characters. Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and Mazey for the #gifted copy.

This book I will be buying a physical copy so I can reread it in the coming months.

A Brush With Love by Mazey Eddings is an absolute delight and I loved I every second of it!!

I switched between reading my physical copy and listening to the audiobook. I am a big fan of dual POV novels but have a hard time with them in audiobooks with 2 narrators. I also found the narration slow. Even with the speed turned up, it just didn’t do it for me and I much preferred my physical copy.

If there is one thing I could have changed it would be that I wish it was written in first person instead of third person. I will definitely be picking up more of Mazey’s books in the future!

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 0.5 🌶

Thank you @netgalley for the audiobook! I purchased the physical copy myself :)

#romancereads #bookstagram #booknerd #books #readingislife #smutsquad #netgalley #abrushwithlove

neva eva eva did i think i would read a DENTISTRY romance but oh boy here i am… this was goood i can’t even lie like. it definitely was a tad bit goofy at times and mega unserious but i throughly enjoyed myself! loving the stupid cheesy rom coms with the emotionally unavailable fmcs! dan u are too good for this world i need you to know that my pookie pie. (would like to note that i DID pick up on the subtle philly mentions here and there!!)

Love this book! I kept thinking I had a solution to everyone’s problems but the author solved them better than what I had figured out. Cute book!

I was able to listen to an audiobook of this cute rom com. The audiobook uses a male and female voice to go back and forth between the main characters as the book is written from both alternating perspectives. This was a cute romance and friendship story. There is some language for those who are sensitive to it.
I recommend this book to rom com lovers or someone looking for a story of different types of friendship and successful women.