This was such a cute, unique story. I love that it had a dental student as a main character. That’s not something I feel we see too often, and I’m here for it. I also really appreciate the care Mazey Eddings took while writing this. She wrote Harper’s character with an anxiety disorder that I feel is so well done.

This was such a wonderful debut! Perfectly written with dual POV, we follow two dental surgeon students, Dan and Harper. So much great mental health rep in the book. I couldn't put it down and really felt a connection to the characters. Reminds me of Amy Lea where serious topics are written with care, but there is also laughter and big emotions!

I liked it. The hero and heroine have an adorable meet cute and you can feel the chemistry between them right away. I enjoyed their banter. Both of them felt like well-rounded characters. The anxiety representation in this book was so real that it was hard for me to read.

I feel conflicted about how to rate this book because the romance was amazing and Harper's passion for dentistry was wonderful, but the part about her anxiety felt triggering to me, and the family drama that Dan was dealing with felt like a lot. The writing style was nice and the story flowed really well.

Overall, I think it was a solid debut and I would read more by this author.

Dental student Harper is focused on one thing - getting into a top oral surgery residency program. When she literally crashes in first year student Dan, her anxiety will only allow her to be "just friends." However, her heart feels differently...

This was super cute - and I am not a fan of going to the dentist! I loved Harper and Dan's relationship. The audiobook was great! This was a debut, and I can't wait to read more from Mazey Eddings!

Book wasn't meant for me. Hopefully someone will enjoy it more. I will look into renting it in the future

This was such an incredibly cute, funny, sexy, endearing little rom com of a book. I loved the mental health rep and the fact that the hero & heroine didn’t “cure” each other’s anxiety etc, plus the friendships in this were also so real and pure! What a wonderful debut.

A Brush with Love is a romance novel set in dental school. The premise had me interested - I'd never seen anything of the sort before; I mean, dental school is not typically seen as the most romantic setting.

What I received was a fun romance novel set in Philly (imo one of the best cities in the country; fight me) with enough detail to make it feel totally real, and a Jewish heroine. I almost wish these things had been clearer from the start, because either one would have been enough to have me totally hooked.

I really loved how the story developed, and the relationship between Harper and Dan. They both felt absolutely real, and Harper's struggles with anxiety were dead on.

Overall, a lovely book, and I'd absolutely be interested to read anything that Mazey Eddings comes up with next!

I received a free eARC of this book from St Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review.

cute. cheesy. lighthearted with realistic representation. everything you want and expect from this kind of story.

The full review of this title appeared on Pages and Pictures.

This is the perfect love story for dental hygiene aficionados everywhere. With endearing characters and an authentic love story, this is a whole package. Jewish representation and disability representation just make this entire title that much sweeter.

So full transparency I hate the dentist... so to find two characters that make me not only love their love but also love the dentist... albeit fictional is a big feat. I also appreciated that under the feel good sweet story there were topics of grief and anxiety, because honestly it came at a perfect time for me to appreciate it. Overall I just adored listening to this story and I loved the characters both individually and together.

Mazey Eddings is my new gold standard for reading about real characters dealing with real mental illnesses in the most dignified way possible.

Harper is in her final year of dental school- she’s confident in herself and her abilities while also living with the monster of anxiety, PTSD, and panic attacks. There are some definite content warnings because of this, but both of our main characters are on their healing journey by the end of the book.

There’s a meet cute, which we love to see, and then I also love that she’s academically superior to him- kind of just because of her passion for the career but she’s also almost done with school while he is in his first year. Harper literally bowls him over and knocks his lab project on the ground. With such a strong start, it’s no wonder that they form a quick connection. He’s impressed by her skills as she helps him redo his project and she is pulled in by his kindness and gorgeous face. With so little time to herself and so much commitment to school, Harper shuts down those feelings for as long as she can while Dan PINES. Oh lord does he PINE. This is prime slow burn with the sweetest friend moments interspersed. I read Lizzy’s story first just because that’s my chaotic mood reading style but it was great to get her backstory even now. This was sweet and good and spicy and real and the GESTURE at the END omg. I love Harper and Dan so much.

I LOVE HARPER!!! To be completely honest, there aren't many Harpers that I don't like, so Mazey was off to a great start with just that detail. I related to the anxiety-ridden lead so hard. She is trying to navigate the end of her school career, trying to start her real career, and a love life to boot. It's overwhelming to juggle every day life as it is, but adding a complex relationship with mental health doesn't help. Dan and Harper were both written well with backstories and real life problems. They weaved into each others lives seamlessly... well, you know what I mean. Mazey did an incredible job at encouraging the conversation about mental health in a realistic and nuanced way. I really loved this book. One of my favorites of the year, easily.

This was a DNF for me. Just couldn't get into it. It sounded like it would be a fun and unique story but it didn't grab me.

I really struggled with this one and ended up putting it down for good around the 88% mark. I really enjoyed Harper and Dan's friendship and how Harper's anxiety was portrayed. For me, everything went down hill when they finally got together and everything I was enjoying about the book disappeared. Which is sad because it was at least a four star read for me until Dan and Harper said some awful things to each other and I just didn't feel the need to keep reading. I can see a lot of people really loving this book but I found myself not caring if they got back together or not.

A Brush with Love is another of your typical romance stories. Harper is a work-a-holic who is trying to get into a great residency program for oral surgery. She works long hours and will consistently choose studying over friends. So it's no wonder she doesn't have a boyfriend. How could she fit that into her schedule?! Dan is a first year dental student. Can you see where this is going? Well, because she's so busy and will hopefully be leaving soon for residency anyway, Harper and Dan decide to be "just friends". It may be the first thing that Harper has ever failed at!

This book reminded me of Farrah Rocher's writing in her Boyfriend Project trilogy. I was engaged the whole time and while yes, it was your typical romance so I knew where it was going, I enjoyed the ride. I'm interested in reading the 2nd installment Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake.

Mazey Eddings was a debut author, but she is also a dentist and as someone neurodiverse, she makes sure to add neurodiverse characters into her books in an effort to destigmatize mental illness.

As someone living with anxiety, I did not like this book. The perspective of an individual living with panic attacks or anxiety felt overdone, outdated, misrepresented, and wrong.

Harper is a dental student working towards a future she's been envisioning all her life. Then she meets Dan. He's a dental student also, but Harper is top-tier level one and Dan is second-year level I-hate-this, which Harper doesn't understand. (Side note here: Why is this book called Brush with Love? No one is an artist, no one is brushing anything? Teeth, maybe? Toothbrush with Love? I hate it.)

Harper and Dan begin a whirlwind romance and physically can't stay away from each other, which should be romantic, but is just cringey. There's a "is this a pity hand job?" moment, to which Harper responds, "Hand job? Blow job? Just put me to work," which I could not hate more and will never be able to get out of my head for as long as I live because ick.

Additionally, Harper's anxiety, which I previously mentioned felt overdone, was also toxic and bad for Dan, which can be true of a partner with anxiety, but is not the norm. Lots of people Harper's age that are living with anxiety are on meds and have reliable lives and schedules and are not the chaotic, fuck-you human that Harper is.

Anyway, 3 stars at best. Read any other rom-com for a better depiction of first-in-a-while emotional feelings, or read Talia Hibbert's books if you're looking for a romance with a protag who has an invisible disability. She's the best.

This story follows Dan and Harper as they navigate dental school and a possible relationship. Harper is trying to get into a residency program, while Dan is struggling in his first year of dental school. They didn't want a relationship as a distraction, but voila! one appeared.

The story was cute, but it wasn't a hit for me. It just didn't wow me. I felt like I knew where we were going to end up at the end which sometimes is nice, but in this case I would have liked to be a little more interested in where the story way going. Overall, good. I look forward to trying additional books from this author in the future.

Thank you Net Galley and St. Martins Press for an ARC in return for my honest review.

This was not good...

I guess shoutout to the anxiety, though at times even that felt more damaging than something that was meant to be relatable...

I love a character that is young at heart, but these idiots definitely felt like children and not two people pushing thirty.

The entire book I was aching for conflict that didn't feel manufactured. There was a subtle "I'm gonna fuck my way out of the friend zone thing" happening that was weird. Coupled with the love interest being the cure to her anxiety before seeking actual professional guidance on the issue.

Very little of this was actively enjoyable and even the brief respites of casual enjoyability were often tainted by the fact that I found both our leads completely insufferable.

I think that this book could have been fixed, at least in large part, by simply pacing the book better. because there was a lack of conflict for so long this book had to default to the 'I won't give you a third act breakup by simply not having the characters actually be in a relationship until the 98% mark' trope, which the more I read the more I hate. Moreoever, that last 10% of the book or so is a sequence of snapshotted character growth moments that is simply fed to the reader and they don't get to experience of that that themselves. It reads like this was originally not a romance that was going to end the way a romance has to and was then reconfigured at the last minute.

I get that romance readers don't have the issue that I do with sub 400 page books, but every time I read a traditional romance these days I feel like the narrative is being knee capped by the page count, the story is screaming for more time or for better use of the time allotted and the publishing houses simply do not care.

I don't recommend this. I didn't enjoy it. I have a hard time seeing the things about this book that did make it enjoyable to other readers. I can almost guarantee that your time would be better spent reading just about anything else.

While I enjoyed the book, it was hard for me connect with the story. It was a book I didn’t have an issue putting down, and I felt like while it addressed anxiety, it didn’t truly address the struggles the protagonist faced. With that being said, I still love Mazey’s writing style, and I will continue to read her novels because I love the incorporation of mental health issues into her stories.

What makes this book even better is the fact that it's a series! Brush with Love is the first book in a new romcom series and I can't wait to read them all. I'm a bit of an overachiever/profectionist so I found Harper very relatable. While dentistry has never been an interest of mine, this book was still very entertaining. I absolutely loved Harper and Dan's romance and their cute little kisses. It was a bit cheesy, but this lighthearted romance is sure to leave you smiling.