I think dentists are scary. There. I said it. But I did also think this book was delightful and charming and like one long warm hug.

This is sort of a cinnamon roll all the way around book. Dan is kind and good and wholesome and the romance is so low-conflict it allows for the safety that's required when dealing with something as hard and potentially upsetting as anxiety on the page. Because the anxiety is very much on the page, on every page, and stared right in the face. But I felt so safe and so cared for, like I was wrapped in a weighted blanket burrito full of hugs and grounding exercises.

The writing is fact and funny and so so relatable, and the friendships in this book are just top notch. Mazey Eddings is such an exciting new voice in the genre and I just can't wait for more.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Griffin for this ARC.

CW: Anxiety, panic attack on page, car accident, death of a parent,

I really enjoyed this romance set in the higher level academic environment, which allowed for the more mature and adult characters to really florish. I appreciated the honest look at mental health that went into the stress of a prep program like the one described, and the additional stresses brought on by family and past trauma.
While I understood the main characters reactions, I found myself frustrated with certain choices throughout the book. While it wasn't one of my favorites, I still found the read enjoyable and know people will love this story.

This is absolutely one of my favorite reads of 2021. I'd seen so much about it on social media and absolutely imprinted on the premise (which is saying something, because I have major dentist anxiety!), so when I got the chance to read it, I jumped.

Needless to say, I expected to love it, but I didn't expect to love it the way I did. Harper and Dan were individually so relatable. They felt like real people I could be friends with. Together, they were soft and tender and hot. Their relationship felt like the best parts of a new relationship - the sparks, the silly grins thinking about how much you *really* like that other person, the thrill of possibility - and also the most realistic and relatable parts of love - the wonderful and hard ways you have to get to a know a new person, how you figure out ways to carve space out for them, and the ways that it can be both amazing and painful. Mazey navigated all of that with so much mastery.

But where I connected even more deeply to this story was with the anxiety rep. Harper suffers from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and the way it was portrayed was so realistic that I felt like I had poured my own experience onto the page. GAD isn't something I see often in books, particularly romance, so seeing someone who looked and thought so much like me, whose experience mirrored my own, was really incredible. I appreciated that Mazey showed the ways in which GAD can cause its sufferer to lash out at people they love out of fear and panic, and how Harper had to navigate through that with Dan, and with her friends as well. Anxiety can so deeply affect relationships of all kinds, and I just thought the arc of the story was treated with such care and thoughtfulness.

Highly, highly recommend this book, and I will be reading anything Mazey puts out in the future, even if it's just "hey" repeated 80,000 times.

read this if you love: amazing mental health representation, slow burns, insta-love,

things i never knew i needed: a dental student romance !!!!

i felt all the emotions while reading this book and it was heart wrenching and beautiful. it was such a realistic book that hit on so many things about love and life. the characters were so well written and truly felt like real complex people.

content warnings: death of family members, panic attacks, car accidents

I have been looking forward to reading A BRUSH WITH LOVE by Mazey Eddings for what feels like years but cannot possibly be. And then so many of my friends were reading it and loving it and I was so jealous. But at last! I got this eARC and it was everything everyone's been saying and more.

Harper's a superstar dental student on her way to residency in a competitive specialty. First-year Dan doesn't want to be in dental school at all. But Dan definitely knows from the moment she falls on top of him in a stairwell that he wants to be in Harper's life... and in her pants 😏

Gosh, this book made me laugh out loud. Like actually, literally. Which is extremely rare. Many romcoms out there these days are pretty light on the com, but ABWL delivers the humor. I was screenshotting lines and sending them to my husband, being like omg look how good this joke is.

But even though I laughed my butt off, this debut is at its heart a love story between two people who are hurting. Before they can be together, they need to find ways to keep that hurt from running their lives. ABWL has amazing anxiety rep. I have a different anxiety disorder than Harper, but it was still easy to relate to the way untreated mental illness can really mess with your relationships with both others and yourself. Then there are Dan's guilt and feelings of obligation toward his mother. Harper and Dan learning how to care for themselves so they could care for each other was so satisfying.

The sex scenes were open door and well-written.

I found this book to be a truly masterful example of what a romcom can achieve when the author understands the genre and has the talent to deliver on a promising premise.

Thank you to NetGalley and St.Martin's Press for the ARC!

4.5 stars.

Where do I begin? This book was the definition of a cute rom-com. It's safe to say I loved it and flew past it so quickly.

A Brush With Love follows Harper, who is a 4th-year graduate student in dental school. She is very dedicated to school even going so far as to prioritize school over everything else. When she quite literally runs into Dan she begins to learn that there is more to life than just work...

I really liked Harper, I loved her characters and I found that she was realistic as well as relatable. The side characters were also amazing and I am hoping that the other books in this series will have Harper's friends as the main characters. The topic of mental health was addressed well in the book and I am looking forward to the rest of the books in this series that will focus on neuro-divergency and mental illness.

The friends to lovers trope worked perfectly for Harper and Dan and I found myself seriously smiling while reading this book. Yes, it was that cute. It isn't a very plot-based book but I still found the plot to be enjoyable, and easy to follow along with.

Overall, there isn't too much else I can say other than this book is one of my favourite rom-coms. This was a top-notch debut and I am eagerly awaiting the author's next book. I would 100% recommend it to anyone looking to read something light-hearted, super cute, and just amazing with a happy ending guaranteed.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Release Date: March 1, 2022

Additional Information:
Spice? Yes
Cheating? No
OW/OM? No
HEA? Yes

Condensed review to be posted to Indigo.ca.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC of this book!

I loved this book. It was the perfect combination of cute, funny, and emotional. Both Dan and Harper were so relatable and so easy to fall in love with. Their chemistry was off the charts and they matched each other perfectly. I seriously have no complaints. I would definitely recommend this book!!

Such a unique premise for a romcom! I feel like there has been a trend recently to have more romcoms set in the post-college academic environment, and it was fun to see such a specific group represented. I personally went through a teacher prep program, and I can readily imagine all the possible novels that could come from my experience.

I liked but didn't love these characters, but I am confident this book will find a receptive audience upon publication. Don't be surprised to find it on the buzzy spring books lists.

Thank you Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a cute romance filled with awkward humor and hilarious dentistry puns/innuendos. I liked the anxiety rep and thought all of the side characters were interesting. I didn't feel fully connected to either of the MCs and they just fell slightly short imo. But the main thing was the pacing threw me off. While it was an easy quick read - I felt a little forced to just get through it.

I do feel this was a strong debut from Eddings and I think she nailed the dental school aspect. I'm sure most readers will eat this one up.

A brush with love was a cute rom-com with an interesting setting and funny moments and really good anxiety rep..

I didn't love this like I thought I would but it wasn't all bad.

The way that Eddings writes the MC with anxiety and panic attacks was just so good. I often had a visceral reaction when Harper was in the throes of a panic attack. The premise of the book is interesting as well- I've never read a book where the MC was a dentist/oral surgeon let alone in dental school so that I found that informative and fun.

The pacing toward the middle of the story is a little slow for me. I feel like I read the scene where Harper kisses or almost kisses Dan but she doesn't and Dan says he'll wait because she's worth it at least ten times. I also found Dan to be way too forgiving and unfortunately I found Harper annoying sometimes.

So again, not my favorite but I don't actively dislike it and I look forward to seeing what Eddings releases in the future.

A Brush With Love was a super charming story with a relatable heroine in Harper and a delicious hero in Dan. I appreciated the amazing rep when it comes to anxiety and truly loved the overall story. Definitely recommend to readers who love to laugh one minute then cry the next in a story. A story that will give you all the feels…. And then some.

“Something about him encouraged her to shed her anxiety like a coat and bask in the lightness of a warm day. And that was terrifying.”

What You’ll Find:
✔️College Romance
✔️Meet Cute
✔️Cinnamon Roll Hero
✔️Anxiety Rep
✔️Slow Burn
✔️Dual POV

A Brush With Love was a cute romance read with fantastic anxiety rep and such fun, laugh out loud moments.

Harper is total type A. Driven and focused, and nothing is going to get in her way. Especially not a some major lust for a first year dental student. But she also has a smidge of vulnerability and normalcy that help you connect to her. But Dan. What a total cinnamon roll of a beta hero. Just so sweet and swoony, you can’t help but love him.

Their romance is definitely a slow burn. But cute. With more of a friends feel at first, though with chemistry and tension. That, eventually leads to a few steamy scenes. The story feeling a bit young for my usual personal tastes but it totally made smile and laugh. Especially the cat part, my gosh that was written perfectly!

I felt some lulls in the first half. Perhaps just me, getting use to the new to me writing style. But I really enjoyed the second half. And have to say I FELT the ‘conflict’ (for lack of better terms) scene was so well done. That is such a real aspect in relationships (don’t want to say to spoil) but I really felt there, in that moment with them.

I thought this was a truly solid debut. So many important topics handled well and with care. While the story itself still felt on the lighthearted side. I am excited to see what’s next from this author!

*Thank you to the author and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own and given freely.

Highly recommend this book! This was my first book to read by this author and I can't wait to read more! The characters and the story stay with you long after you finish the book. One of the best books I have read in a long time.

After reading this I have a good understanding of what it feels like to suffer from anxiety. Cute love story, quick read.

Mazey Eddings’ romance A BRUSH WITH LOVE takes the unsexy and unfun world of dentistry and makes it all sorts of sexy fun.

Harper is fiercely driven to succeed so she can realize her dream working with patients who need reconstructive surgery. Daniel is an unengaged legacy student who’s at dental school from a sense of duty to his family rather than passion.

These two have an adorable meetcute that starts the slow burn of let’s be friends but I really want you in THAT way romance.

Harper’s friends are outrageous, bawdy, and incredibly supportive and loving.

We see Harper deftly defend herself against casual sexism from classmates, instructors, and patients.

We also see her implode from anxiety, stress, and unresolved grief so if mental health issues are a trigger, maybe give this one a pass.

We see Harper and Daniel both struggle with unresolved feelings about deceased parents. I loved the support Daniel and her friends gave Harper.

Read A Brush with Love and you’ll get:

Academic/medical setting
Fun meetcute
Adorable pet
Great friends group
Witty banter
Steamy scenes

It took me two tries to push through “A Brush With Love,” but I eventually enjoyed this book because of what makes it unique: a moving and realistic depiction of what it’s like to live with anxiety (similar to Talia Hibbert’s in Take a Hint, Dani Brown!) & the author’s insight into the world of dentistry. The book’s beginning didn’t draw me in––the author has the protagonists immediately “fall” for each other during their meet-cute in the first chapter, which takes away from the typical “build up” that I look forward to as a fan of the New Adult/Romance genre. Eddings does find a way to create that tension later on, when Harper insists that she and Dan can only be friends, but it would’ve been easier to connect with the story had readers been able to to fall for the main characters at the same pace as Dan and Harper, instead of having to play catch up to understand why they’re special. And while I appreciate the effort of giving readers a dual POV, I found the chapters way too short. The alternating POVs were disruptive to my own reading, and although they did allow me to get to know Harper, they didn’t provide much additional insight into Dan beyond his feelings about Harper and his parents. The author’s writing is also not super strong, which ultimately overshadows the elements that I enjoyed. But overall, Harper’s passion for dentistry is what makes her a character I’ll remember, and I appreciated getting to see Dan be a supportive and compassionate partner to Harper when she deals with her mental health issues. This isn’t the strongest debut I’ve read this year, but it was definitely fresh!

This book is definitely a cut above most of the illustrated cover contemporary romance/romcoms! I appreciated that it wasn't particularly high concept, just two dental students falling in love. The characters were rich and flawed and had tons of great interactions, and I felt like the conflict was well done. My only criticism is that some of it felt a little heavy handed, or maybe more telling than showing. But as someone who also has anxiety I certainly appreciate this book and its depiction of someone trying to work out how to live with it.

Harper is at the top of her class in dentistry and determined to get a surgery residency. She does have time for distractions of any kind even if they have adorable dimples. Dan is studying to be a dentist out of feelings of obligation and hates every minute of it, until he meets Harper who gives him a reason to study even if it just to have an excuse to be near her, Dan is ready for a relationship. Harper is not. How long can she ignore an attraction as strong as theirs? What can possibly go wrong if she gives in?

This book was a lot heavier than I was anticipating. Not a bad thing at all, but I was expected a cute, feel-good read, and this had much deeper emotion. Harper's struggles with anxiety are so well written I had difficulty breathing with her when she was feeling claustrophobic. She is driven but has so much to deal with alongside with her need to prove herself. Dan was a little developed of a character but still so charming and sweet, if a bit overly passive, The two of them together were so sweet (with enough spice in there as well). This was an easy to devour in a day read that had me hooked until the very end. I am really looking forward to seeing what Eddings writes next.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review,

Mazey Eddings' debut novel A Brush with Love was surprisingly charming and heartfelt for a story about dentists.

I loved Harper and Dan's story; both have suffered losses in their lives which have led to subsequent emotional issues that have defined their lives. I loved Dan beyond words, especially because he very honestly and openly adored Harper. He was extremely patient with her and I appreciated that he allowed Harper to move at her own pace. Dan has his own stressors including, his resentment toward his late father and the pressure he feels to live up to his legacy and help his mother with their family dental practice, but in Harper he found a source of happiness and comfort.

I also loved Harper, who due to her childhood trauma suffers from debilitating anxiety and finds it nearly impossible to open herself up to anything that may lead to potential heartbreak. Harper is laser focused on becoming an oral surgeon and that means not allowing anything or anyone to distract her form her life plan; she has no time for feelings. I have to admit that at times I wanted to shake her, but I realized that my frustrations with Harper came from a place of ignorance. I have not dealt with crippling anxiety and mental illness in the same manner which she has and therefore I could not understand why she couldn't just "shake it off" and learn to fully trust in Dan and his love for her.

I am glad that Harper's character was able to seek professional help for the sake of her mental health, which allowed her to finally love Dan in the way he deserved to be loved and more importantly, allowed herself to stop living in a constant state of pain.

A Brush with Love was a beautiful story about love, grief, mental health and healing. I adore every minute of it and I very much hope Harper's wonderful friends get their own stories soon.