Sweet romance. Childhood enemies. Fake dating. Enemies to lovers. Chemistry leaps off the page. Relatable characters.

An absolutely darling novel that I would reread in a heartbeat!

I fall in love with Eddings' characters every time. I loved getting to know Indira and Jude. Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake was a total smash hit for me, so I was unsurprised at how quickly I fell in love with The Plus One.

The chemistry in this book is so gorgeous and makes for a quick and fun read. What I loved most about this book was the complexity of Indira and Jude's mental health and the role it played in the novel. It was so powerful to see characters grappling with anxiety and PTSD while navigating love.

This one will stay with me for a while. Eddings does a phenomenal job bringing characters to life.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.75 out of 5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I will admit to never having read the first two books in this series but I really loved this one. I guess I will have to read the others. Mazey Eddings is a fantastic author. First off Indira and Jude were extremely well written and actually very real characters. The narrators Joe Arden and Imani Jade Powers had me hooked right away.

The tropes in this? Well, they are some of my favorite tropes, frenemies to lovers and fake dating. I love the way that this novel handles PTSD. As someone who suffers from it I really felt seen. There is some spice in it but it was very sweet. Pick this up!

I absolutely love this author and I LOVE this series. One of my favorite books last year was Lizze Blake's Best Mistake, so it's no surprise that I also loved her newest one!! This book was so cute, and funny too, but with plenty of deep and truly meaningful moments. I really love and appreciate the way the author handles different areas of mental health throughout the book, and the positivity/support surrounding therapy and medication! Jude and Indira's story was sweet and absolutely beautiful in the way they understood each other and healed each other heal.

I read this as an audiobook and thought it was perfect! I loved both narrators and thought they did a phenomenal job. I was immediately pulled into the story and didn't want to stop listening!

I love that this book had a perfect mix of humor and emotional scenes. The characters were really fleshed out and meshed so well together and I liked that this had these tidbits of tropes like fake dating without it feeling like it was too much trope. The characters each had their own issues that they needed to work through and it balanced out really well.

The discussions of mental health, especially in the medical field profession was really great, especially as someone in the medical field! The audiobook felt engaging and the narrators did such a good job conveying the emotions!

Overall, I would definitely recommend this because of the mental health discussions more than I would the romance. The romance in general was cute and I liked the individual AND together growth that the characters did throughout the book.

Mazey Eddings is officially an auto-buy author for me. Even when I thought I wouldn't end up liking her work, I end up LOVING it. Her writing is just so raw but relatable, cackling funny and sobbing emotional. Her characters are ones you want to be friends with in real life. They face challenges we all are familiar with and how they handle their issues is so well done. I do think this book is my favourite of the series, but I can absolutely confidently say Jude is my favourite book boyfriend of all three!

The Plus One takes on two of my favourite tropes - childhood friends/enemies to lovers/best friends brother and it does NOT LET YOU DOWN in the steam department! But there's just SO much more to the relationship between our two main characters in this one. It's a romance novel with so much substance and oopmh, you know?

I enjoyed this cute romance! It was so nice to read a healthy relationship where both characters had issues to work on. The growth through this book was so cathartic. Plus no 3rd act break up!

Tropes:
Brother’s best friend
Childhood enemies
Enemies to lovers

Potential Triggers:
Cheating
PTSD

This was the perfect audiobook to start spring with. I listened to it to and from work and most of the time didn't want to get out of the car. I just wanted to stay and listen to this book. The characters were amazing and it was fast paced. The narration was pleasing to listen to.

This book was fantastic. Make you laugh, cry, swoon, and blush fantastic. Go get it. You’ll thank me later.

I typically prefer audiobooks and if this wasn’t an ALC I would have absolutely stopped the audio and purchased the ebook for a hybrid read. I had 42 bookmarks for this book. 42! I’ve never wanted to highlight or digitally annotate more in my life.

This book has swoon, humor, and spice (open door). Somehow, Mazey was able to weave all three elements together beautifully while still tackling some heavy topics like PTSD, mental health, divorce, infidelity, and abandonment. As someone who has been struggling with anxiety and depression, I found her emphasis on mental health to be incredibly refreshing.

Tropes: Brother’s best friend, forced proximity, fake dating, and childhood “enemies” to friends to lovers. So many good ones! I like the author’s use of some of these as it’s not the typical drawn-out fake dating (since some of the friends/family are in on it) and childhood enemies might be more like frenemies.

Characters: Indira is smart and witty. At times her humor might have even borderline on juvenile but in the best way. Jude is kind, sweet, and so swoony. I immediately connected with his journey to healing. I loved the vulnerability between the two of them and watching their growth in the process. Oh, and their banter was top-notch.

🎧 This is my first audiobook with either of these narrators. I thought their voices matched well with the characters, enhancing the overall experience. The book had some emotionally gutting moments and I really felt what the characters were experiencing because of their superb performances.

This was the third book in a series but can be read as a standalone, which is what I did. The first two books are Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake and A Brush with Love.

This review was posted to social on publication day and listed under monthly favorites.

Realistic characters in a delightful, steamy romance that accurately deals with PTSD
It’s rare that I absolutely fall in love with a romance author within the first few chapters of starting the first book I’ve read from them, but that’s what happened here. Mazey Eddings portrayed PTSD and anxiety with such deft, compassionate realism that I looked up her bio and was thrilled—but not surprised—to see that she specifically writes romance novels about and for neurodiverse people. Her familiarity with neurodiversity was evident in this book, and it led me to look up and read all her other books after I finished it.
Eddings accurately reveals what PTSD looks and feels like without ever letting the reader look down on Jude or feel sorry for him, and she similarly does a great job of showing the frustration and challenge of trying to reach someone going through what he’s going through. Eddings paced the book beautifully, with just the right amount of hints of what was to come without moving too quickly into the romance. Once she got to the physical romance, it was just the right amount without being too much — steamy yet playful, real and fun.
I enjoyed the other characters as well — which I got to know better after I read the other books about their romances — and I especially enjoyed the well drawn characters of Indira’s brother and his fiancé. I highly recommend this book, particularly for those who don’t see enough neurodiveristy or realistic portrayals of anxiety or PTSD in their romance reading.
I listened to the audio version and enjoyed the narrators. This review is based on reading a complimentary advance reader copy of this book from NetGalley.

This story really touched my heart. The characters are well developed and they are likeable and relatable. I’d have to say that the characters in this book are some of the most well written ones I’ve ever had the pleasure to get to know! Mazey Eddings was a new to me author. Can’t wait to read other books by this author.

Okay now I know I gotta read the other 2 books in this series! This was so fun and spicy omg! Mazey Eddings's writing is so fun and romantic. These characters were so easy to love!

This book started as your typical romcom and quickly grabbed my attention, but it didn't hold it throughout the entire book. I really enjoyed Indira and Jude's banter. It was witty and fun! The author did a great job placing emphasis on mental health and the positive outcomes when help is sought out.

I did feel their relationship was rushed and didn't particularly like the spice in this book. It felt awkward, maybe because I was listening to it instead of reading it (to no fault of the narrator) but it seemed forced. I would have preferred to get to know each character individually a bit more.

Unfortunately, this one wasn't for me but that doesn't mean it isn't for you!

Thank you, NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an ALC in exchange for my honest review.

As usual if I see a book where there’s a fake wedding date, I know I’m going to love it. And then this is by Mazey, so yep I definitely did like it. This was actually my favorite of the three I think. I rated them all 4 stars, but for real for real, this one was my favorite lol

So first things first, I really liked the way the mental health aspect was done. It was a good depiction of PTSD and anxiety. It wasn’t one of those ones where the main character is suddenly healed. It was more like the main character is healing from this thing and the other main character is helping them. Those are the themes in mental health representation that works best for me. As someone with anxiety, I wasn’t healed when I met my husband, but I did feel highly blessed to have found someone who helps me overcome those anxious times and those panic attacks. This is exactly like what happened in the book. BUT I still think they got together too soon? I really think they should have given more time to healing themselves vs them being together so quickly. Does that make sense?

I also really liked the way Indira handled her situation. She was really a bad ass for not killing him. But then again, I think it would be really weird because of the peanut butter thing. Yeahhhhh It was weird. But I was proud to see Indira taking charge of her mental health by therapy. I did wish Jude had been more receptive. Especially since he had all the proof that it helped. But I did understand him not wanting to talk to her. I just wish he had talked to someone.

The romance between the two of them was really cute tho. Best part hands down was the day after Halloween. In true Mazey Eddings fashion I was laughing loud and long. But even though I liked watching them fall for each other, I liked seeing them together more. They had so much fun together and they were really into each other. It was refreshing to see. The spice was ok. I think I would put it at a 3. It wasn’t a huge part of the story because it started so late in the book, but once it started happening, it was happening frequently lol

Mazey’s writing style was what really sucked me in. Indira’s family and relationship issues and Jude’s past work experiences were tough to read, but I had to stick it out to see what happened to them in the end. Her work will do that to you. It’s emotional and might reduce you to tears, but there’s some comedic relief (i.e. the peanut butter thing lol) and a really super sweet romance to keep you invested. I know it said on Goodreads that there was was no more in this series, but I really have to say I need there to be more. Please be more. I need to know how these people are and how the one we didn’t get books on are doing too. This series was too fun to lose!

I received this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I don’t want to say that I’m disappointed with this one. I just kind of felt like it was all over the place and I found it extremely hard for me to stay focused on it. Even though I was listening to this on audio, it took me an obnoxiously long time to get through this book. I had some high expectations because of the first book in the series and it didn’t quite meet them. I also think it didn’t help that I didn’t really connect with the two main characters of this book at all. I tried really really hard to at least like them a little bit, but I just really didn’t fall in love with them.

So this one wasn’t for me, but I definitely can’t wait to read more by this author. I absolutely love her writing style.

I did have the pleasure of reading this book on audio and I mean, Joe Arden is always an absolute Fuck (said in his voice) Yes in my mind. I thought they did a really good job with portraying the characters in this book.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (3.5)

The Ripped Bodice always hosts the best panels at LA Times Festival of Books. Do yourself a favor and attend next year. Here for the laughs. Here for the crying.

I had the pleasure of hearing Mazey speak on Sunday morning at the Love at Any Age: Writing Romance from Middle Grade to Adult panel. Her newest book is young adult, so I searched for something not. I hadn't realized this was sitting on my Kindle.

I was promised a sad boy. I love a sad boy. I need help. I did not get help. What did I get? A sad boy. Plus a sad girl. Sadness all around.

Why the three stars? Three stars aren't inherently bad. I mostly enjoyed this. There are things I didn't enjoy. The mental health rep is a pro. We often sit in on Indira's psychiatrist sessions in the book. As someone that grew up in a marginalized community that did not discuss mental health, this is really important for me to read about as an adult.

So I didn't love the romance. The main trope here is brother's best friend. And there's only one bed? More like one tent? Which I'm generally good with, but I don't feel like there was a ton of chemistry. But maybe that's because they've known each other since they were children. And I get that, friendship to lovers is like that. But since Indira and Jude butted heads so much, it was more like wannabe enemies to lovers, even though they weren't quite enemies.

Another pro was that this was set in Philadelphia. I feel like most books are set in LA or NYC. Or that the cities authors choose to feature aren't ones they've been to. See every book set in Paris.

That was a ramble. I've had two very large cups of black coffee and absolutely nothing else. Send help.

HOOOOOOH MY GOD. I loved this one SO MUCH. It was so incredible. I LOVE that she mixes serious mental health issues (in a non-performative way) with A LOT OF SPICE. It was VERY NICE. 🤌🏻

I NEED MORE. I COUNT DOWN TO THESE BOOKS COMING OUT, SO PLEASE. GIVE ME MORE!

This had so many rom-com tropes that I love. Fake dating, only one tent, frenemies to lovers, with a sprinkle of grumpy/sunshine. But it also had a lot of emotional depth that I was not expecting and dealt with some hard issues. There is a lot of focus on mental health, overcoming trauma, and seeking help when you need it.

Jude has PTSD from his work as a doctor in war-torn/natural disaster areas. He and Indira go through so much healing together and individually. Despite dealing with such heavy topics, there were still a lot of light hearted moments and fun to be had.

This is the third book in the Brush With Love series, but it can be read as a standalone.

The audiobook was really well done. I liked both of the narrators.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Griffin, and Mazey Eddings for the advanced listening copy of The Plus One in exchange for an honest review.

THE PLUS ONE, the newest installment in Mazey Eddings romance series, was unexpected in a great way. In the previous two books I haven't enjoyed Indira as a side character very much so I wasn't sure how I would feel about her own full-fledged novel, but I enjoyed her romantic arc almost as much as the last book. Mazey Eddings does lack some consistency to me as a romance author (first book was 2 star, second book was a 5 star, and here we are landing at 3.5 stars) but I do see so much potential for her. I love how she doesn't shy away from the gritty and the real in the inner lives of her characters.

I started this book not realizing it was the third in a series from this author. I decided to go ahead and dive in, and I feel like this can be a stand alone read.

I was excited about this book because I am a fan of fake dating troupes. It started out strong, but then quickly became a struggle to get though. I ended up calling it quits at the 70% mark.

I just didn’t buy the back story of the two MC love interests. They were suppose to be enemies but when reading diary entries and reliving old stories, I didn’t get enemy vibes. And they went from dating to banging in no time. While the author wove in a story line of of heavier topics I just didn’t feel like this story gelled. I was bored. I was annoyed and I just wanted it to end.

I say all this and realize I am in the minority here. I think of you are a fan of Mazey’s you will enjoy this book. This was my first read of hers and I might try a different book from her some day.

Thank you to Netgalley and MacMillan publishing for an E-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.