A Brush with Love is a fabulous debut novel from Mazey Eddings!

Harper is a hardworking dental student in her final year of school. She is so close to graduation and has everything planned out. What she doesn't plan for or even see coming is Dan. He's a fellow dental student, but he doesn't love the work and is only there due to family pressure. They try to just be friends, but it doesn't take long before something more develops between them.

This was more emotional and heartbreaking at times than I expected. Harper and Dan have immense pressures they are dealing with, both self-imposed and from other sources. Though they have a wonderful connection it is easy to see how those pressures and their own struggles and fears could affect their relationship. There are also great moments of humor, romance, and friendship that are throughout the book as well.

Mazey Eddings did a wonderful job with the character development. I really became invested in both Dan and Harper and wanted to see them find their happiness both individually and together. There were also some great secondary characters, especially Harper's friend group. I can't wait to read the next book!

This was one of my most anticipated romance reads of 2022 and it did not disappoint. I really liked both of the main characters and loved reading about their individual journeys and what they were dealing with in their own personal lives. In addition to the fantastic romance, I thought the book also brought important conversations about mental health, grief, and complicated family dynamics. Overall, this is such a strong debut.

I can't say I've ever read a book with quite this much dental focus before... Dan and Harper were an unlikely match, but, even though they had very different reasons to be in dental school and different dreams for the future, they had one thing in common - their relationship with each other.

Harper is in the midst of finishing up dental school when she stumbles across Dan, a fellow dental student. Harper is so passionate about her studies whereas Dan struggles to navigate his way through dental school. Along with Harpers drive & motivation also comes her struggles with anxiety.

Harper & Dan’s relationship takes quite the roller coaster ride… buckle up! Their story is adorable!

Mazey Eddings did such a wonderful job covering such important topics that I have not seen addressed a lot in other books that I have read. I do not personally suffer from anxiety, but I feel like a have a bit more of an understanding of how things can be at times for someone who does have anxiety.

This was a DNF/Skim and read ahead for me. I just didn't enjoy the dynamic of the two main characters. Her abrupt changes in personality, to me, were off-putting. She wants to study but also wants to spend time with him. It was too much back and forth.

DNF at 20%. Couldn’t get into this book at all, and I’m not sure why. Tried the ebook and the audio. Maybe I’ll try again at a later date.. this is a new to me author and just didn’t work for me at the moment

A cute love story for romantics. This was a fun read. It was cute with some heat. A nice pace with characters that were easy to root for. I enjoyed this one a lot.

Cute book about two people doing the same thing for very different reasons. A solid debut with a cute romance at its heart. I really enjoyed how diverse this book was and the love interest was super likeable. The author does an excellent job of showing anxiety and grief in a realistic and compassionate way, and the unconventional family dynamics were also well done. The book is genuinely funny and the banter is on point. I would read another book by Eddings.

A Brush with Love was a super fun, cute rom-com that also dealt with how intense anxiety can get and how it can take over your relationships and your life. I really, really enjoyed the book. Plus I didn't even think about what other types of surgeries a dental surgeon would do besides wisdom teeth removal, so it was great to know about how they also work on cancer patients and people who have been in car accidents. Overall, I definitely recommend reading it, and I can't wait to read more books by Mazey Eddings!

Not a bad little romance, good chemistry with the main characters. Not as light-hearted as some due to the focus on anxiety.

As Harper finishes up dental school, she is endlessly waiting for a placement at one of the top oral surgery residence programs, and she will not let anyone get in the way of that dream. She is known at her school for being one of the most talented seniors, who does everything perfectly and to the best of her ability. Her anxiety will not tolerate anything less than perfection. In comes Dan, who Harper literally falls into, who is in his first year at dental school. But does Dan really want to be there? Or was he guilt-tripped into it thanks to his father's passing and his mother's pleas for help at her dental office? Dan comes from a family legacy when it comes to oral health, and does not see a way out from it. Even though he loves numbers and finance more, he still remembers his father's final words and realizes how much of a disgrace he has been seen by his parents for not being a dentist, and forces himself to leave his love of numbers behind and go down this path. However, that doesn't help the fact that he's failing his courses, hence the reason Harper becomes his tutor. As the two spend more and more time together, Dan helps Harper realize that there is more to life than just perfect scores and a perfect career, and teaches her that her anxiety should not determine who she is as a person. Meanwhile, Harper inspires Dan to follow his heart. The way Harper is passionate about teeth and oral health makes Dan realize that if dentistry is not his passion, he should not be pursuing this career. But of course, his mom will not be okay with that. And as for Harper, anxiety is not something easy to simply push away. And of course, like these challenges are not already enough, the two realize they have feelings for each other, but Harper refuses to acknowledge it because she plans to move far away for residency. CUE THE CHAOS PEOPLE. GO READ THIS BOOK. IT WILL MAKE YOUR HEART YEARN AND CRY AND ALL THAT OTHER STUFF.

this book was very very very cute. i love an insta love book and how dan was sooo into harper as soon as they bumped into each other. i also loved how mazey handled harper's anxiety it was well done.

Okay, this was very cute. And by very cute I mean I cried pretty much the whole time but YAY they get a happy ending! You really root for Dan and Harper as they work through some really difficult issues to be together. It's not exactly instalove, but it's pretty clear from the beginning that there is chemistry and that they could be perfect together, but their own issues keep them apart, specifically Harper's anxiety. I was so glad to see therapy as a major plot point, although based on how much Harper struggled and hurt the people around her, I maybe would have liked to have seen more on page breakthrough, instead of cut to a couple months later and she's medicated and doing better. Dan is perfect, absolutely no notes, long live Dan.

i have never wanted to go the dentist for than anything. LOL. this book had it all. Will read more from Mazey.

Thank you Netgalley.

I enjoyed this debut novel. Although marketed as a rom-com it felt like so much more. I appreciated the emphasis on mental health and illness and the stigma that often surrounds these challenges. I loved the romance between Harper and Dan and their meet cute was adorable. I can’t wait for the next book in the series!

This novel will win your angsty romance loving heart. In this debut, graduate students Dan and Harper have the kind of natural spark Harper’s only heard of in the movies and her favorite Dave Matthews song “Crash Into Me.” That’s ironic since their introduction was a literal meet-disaster. Harper, the school’s star student in her fourth year, crashes into and destroys Dan’s class project for his first year in dental school. Naturally, this sets them up to work together to remake it. That close proximity reveals a strong and immediate connection, but their relationship is complicated by two issues: Harper’s chronic anxiety and Dan’s struggling performance and ambivalence about the profession, which he chose just to please his demanding family. The result is a romance that is both angsty and funny at the same time.

A note re the audiobook: the narrators' performances are excellent but be aware that Harper's anxiety attacks hit even harder in the audio format.

Review of the paperback version to come in BookPage.

Mazey Eddings has officially cemented herself as an auto-buy author for me after reading A BRUSH WITH LOVE! Truly, this romance was as cute and endearing as the cover suggests.

This is literally so cute!! Such a feel-good read, it's a little insta love-y so if you really can't stand that maybe skip this one, but I...don't actually hate insta love all the time so I was vibing. Dan and Harper's relationship is very sweet, and I love love LOVE the way Harper's anxiety is handled. The dentistry made for a really interesting setting, Dan's family background was really interesting to dive into, Harper's friends are a whole vibe (so excited for Lizzie's book!!), and I think there's a really solid balance of intense emotional moments and lighthearted humor and fluffy romance.

Pros: it just feels like a hug, you know? Also Dental Dan had me sweating sometimes lowkey
Cons: the pacing of Dan and Harper's relationship was a little funky
CW: sexual content, panic attacks/disorder, death of parent, medical content, sexism

I really liked the premise of this one and it started going around IG, so was a bit afraid of the hype.

I liked Harper and Dan well enough. She’s struggling with crippling anxiety, he’s struggling with family demands that he doesn’t want. Together they have a sweet friendship that morphs into more. The friend group did feel clichéd and I wish they would have been utilized a bit more.

Plot wise, I don’t know. There’s a lot a lot a lot of push and pull on Harper’s part. I think I liked the story more before they actually got together. There was banter and charm, but once they’re together, the conflict starts and they both say pretty mean things. The resolution is quick with time passing and the epilogue is cute.

Overall, I enjoyed this story and how Harper’s anxiety was portrayed, but also feel like I could have left it unfinished.

**Huge thanks to the publisher for providing the arc free of charge**

I’m not gonna lie…I went into A Brush with Love with very high expectations due to hearing some very good things about it from my bookish friends. And I’m happy to say that my expectations were met!

Prior to hearing about A Brush with Love from friends, I have to admit that I wasn’t sure about the dentist aspect of the story because I––like many others––have a deep ingrained fear of the dentist. I’m glad that my friends’ recommendations helped me get over that, and I saw it as a sign when I saw sent a NetGalley widget by the publisher!

I really liked both protagonists from the start and their chemistry was…oh my. I love the “we want to, but we shouldn’t” trope, especially when it’s done as well as it was in A Brush with Love. I’m sure there’s an official name for this trope, but I’ll just go with calling it that for now. Sparks were flying!

I enjoyed the romance and the drama that I hadn’t initially expected in A Brush with Love as well! It really added to the story and made me feel all the feels. The only thing that I would change if I was asked to pick something would be the way the characters were illustrated on the cover as they’re not how I imagined them at all! Otherwise though, I have no complains about A Brush with Love and highly recommend it!