Indira is getting ready for her brother’s wedding as a newly single woman when she runs into her old childhood friend/nemesis, Jude. Jude has been dealing with significant anxiety after working as a surgeon in war-torn areas. To make Indira’s ex jealous, they “act” as though they’re dating…. And they’re there for each other as no one else could be.

Sweet and quite steamy. Mental health issues were described well and handled with grace by Eddings. Excellent narration.

GENRE: Romantic Comedy
RATING: 5/5
SPICE: 4/5
SUB-GENRES: Fake dating, Enemies to Lovers, Mental Health
​RELEASE DATE: APRIL 4, 2023

"I'm not here to fix you! I'm here to love you!"
****

I could not put this book down. It is my second 5-star book of the year, and it was so unexpected and wonderful. "The Plus One" by Mazey Eddings is a romance novel that tells the story of two childhood enemies, Jude and Indira. Despite their initial hatred for each other, they end up fake dating, and their relationship grows into something more.
One of the standout aspects of the book is the witty banter between the two characters and how Eddings expertly weaves in emotional moments that tug at the heartstrings. The book tackles deeper issues such as sensory overload and therapy, which adds an extra layer of complexity to the characters. Eddings explores these issues in a sensitive and nuanced way that is both relatable and thought-provoking.
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Additionally, Eddings' writing style is engaging and easy to follow, making it a quick and enjoyable read. The characters are well-developed and their chemistry is palpable. Their relationship is not without its challenges, but it's heartwarming to see them work through their issues and grow closer.

Honestly, "The Plus One" is a must-read for me. If you love humor, heart, and spice with well-developed characters and emotional depth. Mazey Eddings has crafted a beautiful love story that will leave readers feeling satisfied and swooning for Jude and Indira. Pick it up at your local bookshop when it comes out April 4th. You won't regret it.

Please note: I received this ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Enjoyed the story and characters. Didn't love it though. I do like how Mazey Eddings writes her conversations and the characters internal thoughts - both real and entertaining. I really like Indira and her character arc and relationships and her personality and how she dealt with stuff; but I could not get into Jude. I didn't not like his character, and I saw glimpses of why him and Indira were good for each other, but I couldn't get into him as a character or really see their attraction. Because of that, I just couldn't get fully invested in the characters or the story as much as I would have wanted to.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc.

This was my first Mazey Eddings book, and it won't be my last!

I loved the mental health representation in this romance. It made the characters' relationships feel genuine and realistic. The story has it's humorous moments, but it also went deep with emotions. It was the perfect balance!

The audiobook quality was fantastic, too. I was able to go up to 1.8x speed.

There are truly not words perfect enough to describe this book and it’s beautiful humanization of mental illness. I laughed at the banter, I cried at the therapeutic words, I screamed when Indira and Jude kissed for the first time. And of course, it’s a romance book, so steamy scenes were involved! This book sucked my soul from its body and shot me into literary heaven.

The portrayal of two characters with different types and degrees of mental illness, and their journey to work through and support each others recovery should honestly be require reading for every human on the planet. Many authors write about mental health in their characters as flaws to be fixed by their lovers or as fun, personality quirks. They turn mental health into a sideshow and exploit toxicity in the name of romance.

But Mazey writes about mental health how it truly is and should be: an ironically taboo yet universal human experience that we can support each other to overcome, and live with, and love with. That being imperfect does not mean settling for less than, and imperfection does not mean unworthy. I knew that Mazey could see me when I first read about Lizzie, but now I know that Mazey can see the whole world when I read about Indira and Jude.

💭Thoughts:
This is book three in the Brush With Love series. It can be read as a stand-alone. Though I really enjoyed book two in this series, so it was fun to get glimpses of Lizzie, Rake, and their sweet baby in this book.

I was really interested in the premise of this book due to my work as an ER nurse. I was looking forward to learning about Jude’s mental health issues related to his job as a emergency physician. I ended up feeling very conflicted about Jude’s work with the GHCO. On one hand I felt terrible for him because of his PTSD and secondary trauma from the things he saw during the war, but then he sounded so selfish when he talked about how he embellished his skills to get the job. That innocent people may have been hurt because of his lack of skills.

As the book progressed, I started to feel like there were more and more pieces of the story that were missing. It isn’t explained well why Jude and Indira are childhood enemies, especially when both frequently look back on seemingly positive memories. The enemies to lovers vibe just isn’t there in this one. I’d say this is more of a older brother’s friend to lovers trope. Snarky without the enemy part.

The middle part of the book really slowed for me and I caught the urge to skip forward. The ending is sweet and I felt like it helped counteract some of my earlier frustrations. Overall, it’s a quick and snarky romance.

I didn't realize this was book 3 but I'd read book 1 and there wasn't anything I couldn't understand without reading past books.

Indira has a bad day: a bad day at work, she's ignored her therapist, and she walks into her boyfriend getting peanut butter all over her couch and another woman. When she packs up and heads to her brother's house, her childhood nemesis, neighbor and brother's best friend is already crashing there as well.

Over the course of a beautiful discussion of love, mental health, PTSD, as well as a funny commentary on weddings, Indira and Jude move from Nemeses to Friends as they help each other to grow, get help, stand strong and stand strong for one another. Mazey Eddings has a talent for discussing mental health in a meaningful way that gives proper weight yet is still lighthearted and allows for her characters to be quirky, real, and grow within the stories.

#arc
#netgalley
#theplusone

This is a fun enemy to fake dating to lovers read. It's a bit heavier than I had anticipated, but very entertaining nevertheless. Despite their resistance, Indira and Jude were meant to be together. I loved how good they were for each other and how they both blossomed through the story. Both narrators did a great job bringing this story to life. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Plus One was not at all what I was expecting but that’s not a bad thing. The story follows Indira and Jude who were childhood enemies.

Indira is fresh off a horrible breakup where she walked in on something you never want to walk in on. Jude is a doctor who is dealing with a lot of trauma from treating patients in different parts of the world during emergency situations.

Indira's brother is getting married and that’s what brings Jude and her together. Indira keeps running into her ex and the crowds and loud noises are triggering PTSD from Jude’s work. They pretend to be a couple which will end up helping both of them in this situation.

Seeing how Indira and Jude navigate all these difficult scenarios was touching. This book really hits some hard subjects and does it all well. This book also promotes the importance of using tools around you like therapy and it handles all that perfectly.

My biggest complaint about the book has to do with the romance elements. I don’t like the explicit detail that so many books go into now. I do not think graphic sex is the only way to show two characters love each other. So many books show a couple's love without going into all the bedroom detail and in my opinion that is more effective.

* childhood "enemies" to lovers
* brother's best friend
* fake dating
* forced proximity
* no 3rd act breakup

Oh, wow I really enjoyed this! It was definitely a bit heavier than I had anticipated - both of our characters are struggling with their mental health (our MMC is struggling with PTSD and our FMC is working through effects of abandonment), and I enjoyed how they both became each other's support system. It started with small acts of kindness which then blossomed into bold and outward support that was driven by love and protectiveness. And while it did cover some serious topics, it did have fun banter and great secondary characters.

Rating: 4 stars

Mazey Eddings has a knack for writing romance stories that feature quite serious topics. The Plus One is the third and final book in a series but you can easily read this one without reading the others. You’ll miss the backstory of the secondary characters but it won’t affect the main story at all.

This one features some familiar romance tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, and fake dating. But the underlying story of Indira and Jude is so much more than those tropes. Indira is a psychiatrist who still suffers from the feeling of abandonment she experienced as a child, when her father left her family. Jude is a surgeon who signed up for a stint with a humanitarian medical organization in exchange for paying his medical tuition, thus leaving him without a major debt burden, but his experiences in “trouble spots” around the world have seriously messed with his head, and he suffers from PTSD. They were childhood “frenemies”, as Jude was Indira’s brother’s best friend, and now her brother is getting married, which is why Judy is on the scene. In addition to the Indira-Judy story, we have some truly laugh-out-loud situations related to Collin and Jeremy's wedding plans. Having just participated in our son’s same-sex wedding process, this whole story arc really touched my heart.

Warning: there are some very graphic steamy encounters, so if you’re listening to the audiobook, I advise using headphones!

The audiobook featured two narrators, one for Indira’s chapters and one for Jude’s: Imani Jade Powers and Joe Arden. I bounced between the audiobook and the ebook for this title, which was very convenient and let me finish the book very quickly.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook and to St. Martin’s Griffin and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Although I listened to this book fairly quickly I was not completely enthralled by the plot. I did not feel there was enough sexual tension built up before the two main characters got together. It was okay overall in the rom-com category.

I loved this next book in the A Brushed with Love series.

We are now following Jude and Indira’s story. They both have gone through so much and must deal with past issues as well as current issues. The biggest thing to overcome …they can’t stand each other.

This book deals with some real issues in the best way. The characters are well developed and will make you feel with them. They are also hilarious and have many good moments also.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review this book.

The Plus One is the third book of the A Brush with Love series. Jude, a combat zone surgeon, and Indira, a psychiatrist, were childhood nemeses who are thrown together again for Indira's brother's wedding. Indira has just suffered heartbreak at the hands of Chris, and decides that fake dating Jude would be the best course of action to show Chris what he is missing.

This book is your typical fake dating/enemies to lovers story. The first half was definitely more interesting to me than the second. Once the big reveal happens, it got slow. I enjoyed the character arcs, but thought that they waited way too long to address Jude's obvious PTSD.

I would recommend this to those who enjoy the fake dating/enemies to lovers trope and are looking for a quick read. I didn't read the first two books of the series and that didn't seem to cause any issues with this one. The main characters from those two stories were only very minor characters who show up at the wedding.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARL.

The Plus One is a cute, witty enemies-to-lovers rom-com. I really enjoyed the salty banter and laughed out loud quite a few times. I appreciated the attempt to de-stigmatize mental health struggles and to address them head on.

Really great audio narration.

This had all of the basic tropes in it. Always love a friends to lovers & childhood sweethearts story. This book was emotional, sweet and steamy! This is definitely a must read book!! I highly recommend this book so if you like any of the above tropes this book is for you. The narrator were amazing. I had such an easy time listening to their voices .

Thanks NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this ARC.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC audiobook. This book was Soo perfect. I’m a sucker for enemies to lovers and this was everything I love in that troupe. There was so much depth to each character that all I wanted for each of them was to find healing and happiness. I thought the audio narration was amazing. My only feedback was the chapter breaks were uncomfortably long that I would check my phone or headphone to check if the book stopped.

This book seemed to suffer from too many tropes giving none of them enough attention to make an impact. Brothers best friend under the same roof should have brought tension and there was none of that. Actually conflict was almost non existent for the main characters. Speaking of, how can you have any form of enemies to lovers without conflict? I would have enjoyed the story more if Eddings leaned into one more than the other.
I did find the writing to be very funny and there are ALOT of spicy scenes if that is what you are looking for!
Both narrators were fantastic and highly recommend listening to this on audiobook.

I received an arc in exchange for an honest review.

There are so many books out there that make light of trauma and mental illness, but this is most definitely not one of those! This book was so beautiful in the way that the issues were discussed and worked on in such a real way rather than dancing around them or suddenly everything is all better. Indira and Jude may have thought they always hated each other, but very quickly, the reader realizes that’s just not true. I loved everything about this story!

'The Plus One' is my favorite book in Mazey Eddings' 'A Brush with Love' Series. I read the other two books this week, and I loved them too. This can be read as a standalone, but I would recommend reading the other two books to get a full picture of the group of friends. The four friends from the book series (Harper, Lizzie, Thu, and Indira) had their happily ever afters, and I loved revisiting them and their friendship. These characters feel so real, and I was so happy to get an update on all of them.

The narrators did an awesome job with the audiobook. They conveyed so much emotion in their reading, and they made me feel everything while I was listening. I cried at several points in the book, and the narrators added so much to the story.

One of the main reasons that I love this series is become of the setting. I'm from Philadelphia, and this entire series shows Philadelphia in such a great way. I wish that I could meet these friends in real life and hang out with them. I love reading stories about my hometown!

This book wasn't like a typical romance story because it also handle heavier topics, such as PTSD, mental health, and trauma. The heavier topics felt very realistic, and I could really connect to what the characters were feeling, even though I hadn't experienced their pain. Even though the book had heavy topics in it, there was still enough romance and fun to balance it out.

'The Plus One' centers around Indira, who has to pick up the pieces after she finds her boyfriend cheating on her. She goes to live with her brother, Collin, and his fiance, Jeremy. Also living at their house is Jude, who is Collin's best friend since they were in kindergarten. Jude and Indira grew up together, but they never got along. As children and now as adults, they love to annoy each other and get under each other's skin.

Indira and Jude start to reconnect as they work on activities and plans for Collin and Jeremy's upcoming wedding. They come up with a plan to pretend to date each other, as a way to get revenge against Indira's ex, who is also in the wedding party. The more time they spend together, they start to wonder what is real and what is fake about their interactions with each other.

Indira and Jude's relationship is one that I really enjoyed reading about because it wasn't a cookie cutter relationship. They had a great backstory and they also had things that they needed to overcome separately and together. I loved their interactions and how they were around each other.


I would definitely recommend this book. Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an ALC.