Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to this early release!

I loved this book--it was tender, messy, and deep. Though I'm not usually a fan of this trope, in Eddings' hands, the story felt true and raw.

Truly a moving romance-- and great narration.

If you are looking for a 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶 rom-com, than be sure to get your hands on Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake, being released September, 5th!

Read if you enjoy:
🥐 FMC who are neurodivergent
🥐 Also a FMC who is funny, sweet and talks like a sailor
🥐 Doting MMC who loves a woman’s “flaws”
🥐 One bed trope, totally “platonic” of course
🥐 STEAMY sex scenes

I listened to this audiobook almost completely straight through. The narrators were fantastic and who can resist a man with an Aussie accent!?

A soaring sweet story of falling into what you least expected, totally warm and full of heart. I loved the aspects of found family, respect, communication, and accepting someone for everything they are and can be. Mazey Eddings' is quickly becoming an auto-buy author for me.

✨ Review ✨ Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake by Mazey Eddings; Narrated by Summer Morton; Will Peters

CW: lots of talk around pregnancy, abortion, and decisions about women's bodies

Lizzie, a whirlwind of ADHD energy, swirls through the pages of these books with loads of jokes, mishaps, and all-around chaos. After her two-night stand with Rake, a visiting Aussie, results in a pregnancy, she's left to try to assess her life and try to get things in order before she becomes a parent.

I enjoyed reading this book but it also stressed me out a bit too as Lizzie flies through the pages. I appreciated how the book provided representation for ADHD and the struggles women face with stigmatization and receiving care. This book made me laugh while it made me grapple with my feelings!

⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: contemporary romance f/m
Pub Date: September 6, 2022

Read this if you like:
⭕️ friends or lovers -- they can't decide
⭕️ silly body parts baked goods
⭕️ ADHD representation

Thanks to St. Martin's Griffin, Macmillan Audio, and #netgalley for an advanced e-copy and audio copy of this book!

Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake by Mazey Eddings is a very fun read and truly unique. Lizzie lives and works in Philadelphia as a baker. A baker who loses jobs easily due to her inability to manage her ADHD symptoms, such as weaknesses in executive functioning (the ability to organize, plan ahead, reflect), Lizzie is a bit of a disaster in the eyes of her not very nice family. So what is unique with this story? I LOVE that Lizzie explains how ADHD makes her feel and act. As a special education teacher, I love when there are characters of various abilities, and I love how the author explains ADHD to the reader through Lizzie. Lizzie has no filter and the things that come out of her mouth made me laugh out loud. I loved this character!

Okay, onto the romance! If explicit sexual language is a turn off, this probably isn't a good choice for you. Lizzie is very direct in her sexual wants and exploits. It is kind of refreshing, having a lead female character who is so comfortable with her sexuality. Lizzie knows what she wants and goes after it, typically in one night stands. And then, we meet Rake, the Australian visitor who is swept up into the tornado that is Lizzie. Without giving too much away, I have to share that I love Lizzie and Rake together. Through the course of the story they learn so much about themselves and they grow as individuals, which I really like to see in a love story. I was rooting for them throughout the story! What did I not enjoy in this story? Honestly nothing!

I listened to this in an audio format and both narrators were excellent. Thank you to Net Galley for the advanced copy in audio format in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 5 Stars
Format: Audiobook ARC
Source: Netgalley
Rep: ADHD (heroine)
Triggers: Ableism, family drama, pregnancy, talk of abortion
TL;DR Synopsis:
♡ Surprise pregnancy
♡ One night stand turned something more
♡ Cinnamon roll hero
♡ Worshipping hero

Ok, so, this is 100% my fault because I rarely read synopses (I saw the author and loved the cover, so I requested this audiobook from Netgalley), but the title of this book 100% gives away the fact that this was a surprise pregnancy, which is not my favorite trope. HOWEVER, this is my favorite book by this author so far, I loved that we got some ADHD rep in this book, and omg the cinnamon roll hero was to die for. I also love, love, loved the heroine.

I definitely can't wait to see what my friends with ADHD have to say about this book since it plays such a big part in the story, but even as someone who has never been formally diagnosed with ADHD, I found the heroine incredibly relatable (I am often considered the reckless one in my family) and I loved how you see her work through her struggles and find ways to accomodate the way her brain works. I actually found a few of her suggestions helpful myself.

On top of all that, we have a cinnamon roll hero, whom I love love love. He is far from perfect and dealing with some trauma from his past relationship, but watching him fall for the heroine and fumble a bit was very heartwarming. And a big part of what made me love him was how he handled the pregnancy, so maybe I don't hate the trope after all?

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫🎧

Calling all romance and Rom-com lovers: Coming soon on September 6th is “Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake”

In the kitchen I’m a mess, but the end result is yummy and oh so delicious. That is exactly how I feel after finishing “Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake”.

Lizzie is a mess, and a two night stand with Aussie Rake leads to, well, a mistake. But, this book is more than just an accidental pregnancy. I love Lizzie. I love Rake. This book is about Lizzie finding her confidence, her identity, and her love. If you love romances, you will love Lizzie Blake.

My one point of criticism is that the story is so perfect for Lizzie and Rake that it’s not believable. But, putting that aside, there is always the fairy tale, and maybe that’s the paradigm in which it should be placed, and I’m totally good with that.

Thank you @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for the opportunity to listen to this early release.

#netgalley
#macmillanaudio
#audiobook
#mybookishlife
#readmorebooks
#readmorebooksbywomen

🧁✨ LIZZIE BLAKE'S BEST MISTAKE REVIEW ✨🧁

•
•
•

"I want to hand over all of my old memories because I only want new one's with you." 💭

🍼✨ SYNOPSIS ✨🍼

Lizzie has made endless mistakes. Kitchen fires, pyramid schemes, bangs (of the hair and human variety), you name it, she’s done it… and made a mess of it too. One mistake she’s never made is letting anyone get closer to her than a single hook-up. But after losing yet another bakery job due to her uncontrolled ADHD, she breaks her cardinal rule and has a two-night-stand that changes everything.

Once burned, twice shy, Rake has given up on relationships. And feelings. And any form of intimacy for that matter. Yet something about charming, chaotic Lizzie has him lowering his guard. For two nights, that is. Then it’s back home to Australia and far away from the pesky feelings Lizzie pulls from him. But when Lizzie tells him she’s got an unexpected bun in the oven, he’ll do whatever it takes to be a part of his child’s life… except be emotionally vulnerable, obviously. He’s never going to make that mistake again.

💖✨ MY THOUGHTS ✨💖

⚠️ CW: PREGNANCY, ABLEISM, INFIDELITY, MISOGYNY, ABORTION & TOXIC PARENTS ⚠️

if you love books with mental health rep, the surprise pregnancy trope, grumpy x sunshine couples, hot australian men, romantic comedies & a little bit of spice this book might be for you.

alexa play perfect by ed sheeran 🎶

📚✨ release date: september 6th, 2022

🌟 RATING: ★★★★★
🌶️🥵 RATING: ★★★☆☆

unpopular opinion, i'm actually a fan of the surprise pregnancy trope so i was super excited to receive this arc!! thank you so much @netgalley & @macmillan.audio y'all are amazing!!

oh my goodness, i fell in love with lizzie & rake.they're relationship was literally the cutest. i loved watching them bond & share their vulnerabilities. @mazeyeddings is definitely one of my new favorite authors. i absolutely adored this narrator!! they did a great job at bringing the story to life!! 💖

#sarcasticbrunettereads #arcreview #netgalley #suprisepregnancyromance #lizzieblakesbestmistake
#mazeyeddings

Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake by Mazey Eddings
Publication date: 9/6/22

A Brush with Love, #2

Lizzie has a zest for life that many people don’t have and don’t know what to do with. After a two-night stand with a stranger, Lizzie finds out she is pregnant. She did not expect the stranger to want to be involved, and she definitely did not expect to catch feelings.

Unfortunately this is not a trope that I prefer. I count this one as a casualty of chronically going into books blind and never reading a synopsis before reading. So, if I had known what this one was about, I probably would not have picked it up. However, if you are a fan of this trope - you will probably like this book.

The audiobook presentation was excellent. This is written as a dual POV for the MMC and FMC and the audiobook has a male and female voice. I was impressed with both performances and definitely recommend the audio version of this book if it is your cup of tea.

This book has great neurodiverse representation for an adult with ADHD. Lizzie has been hurt by many people in her life because of the way her brain works, including her family. The author does an excellent job of portraying life with ADHD and how others often perceive the symptoms.

The female main character has a very quirky personality that sometimes made me laugh and sometimes drove me crazy. I had trouble relating to her but it was interesting to see life from a different lens. I adored the male main character and I felt like he had so many kind responses to things that happened. He felt a tiny bit unrealistic to me, but a girl can dream.

Perfect for you if you like:
Unplanned pregnancy trope
Nuerodiverse rep
Australian men

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced review copy of this audiobook. Review posted to Instagram.com/thereallifebookreviewer on July 27th.

So often coming of age stories are about teens saving the world from the powers that be. How refreshing to have an adult woman share her experiences with the world! Lizzie's vulnerable and honest representation of the struggles that come with ADHD are incredibly relatable and offer an insight into an illness few consider to include in their stories. Rake's fear of intimacy and previous romantic trauma allow him to be a partner our heroine deserves. As they try to make sense of their circumstances and come together as a family, Lizzie and Rake share secrets and fears with themselves and readers. They find a way to become a family, while still pursuing their individual goals and ambitions. And at the end, when the struggles seem like more than anyone couple could survive, they find a new joy and blessing that makes their love stronger than ever.

I'll be honest, I wasn't so sure about asking for this one on NetGalley after I didn't love the author's last book, A Brush With Love. (And to be fair, it was more about my dislike for the male narrator than the actual book.) But I am so glad I did!

Now, be forewarned that this is an accidental pregnancy trope storyline and if that is anyway triggering for you, I'd stay away. Coming from years of unexplained infertility, if I hadn't already had my two beautiful boys I would have read this from more of a bitter mindset.

But ANYWAYS...

Lizzie is one of Harper's friends - from A Brush With Love - but you can totally read this as a standalone as long as you don't want spoilers from that book. Lizzie is a baker but has trouble dealing with day to day tasks because of her ADHD. When she has a one night turned into two night stand with a sexy Australian man named Rake, she never expected to end up expecting.

When Lizzie decides to keep the baby, she lets Rake know and doesn't expect him to want to be involved. Especially since he lives in Australia and her in Philadelphia. But he wants to be as involved as possible moving his life to hers.

Now some of this you need a smidge of suspension of disbelief because that scenario is rare. But it just worked. I loved their banter and how much of a mess Lizzie was. How she grows and stands up for herself and her accomplishments. And Rake wasn't all that bad either.

A surprising 5/5⭐️ read for me.

Read if you enjoyed books like The Kiss Quotient or Take a Hint, Dani Brown.

Triggers: ADHD, very open door romance, toxic parenting, profanity, past relationship with cheating and abortion.

I have so much love for this book and Mazey Eddings. I was hooked on Rake and Lizzie's story from the beginning. I wanted to read it in one sitting and savor it at the same time! Lizzie Blake is a ray of sunshine and I would love to be her friend in real life. Rake is a wonderful love interest and I loved how his past and issues were revealed over the course of the book. Both narrators did a great job embodying their characters and portraying their emotions. My one very small complaint is that Rake only had an accent when he was speaking to another person not for his whole POV, but accents can be hard so I understand. Once again, Mazey does a wonder job of weaving in mental health issues and neurodiverse characters into a beautiful love story that gives you all the warm and fuzzy feelings. She is definitely an auto-buy author for me now and I cannot wait for Indira's book next!

Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake by Mazey Eddings was a cute and steamy RomCom.
After a couple night stands with a sexy Australian (Rake), Lizzie is left with an unexpected pregnancy that brings them back together.
Lizzie has ADHD and is constantly making mistakes. She made me laugh throughout the book.
Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake is utterly, effing fantastic. Mazey Eddings can take ALL my money. I cannot WAIT to get my hands on my physical preorder copy when it releases in September so I can slide it into its place of honor on my "absolute favorites, will recommend to everyone" shelf.

I have never read a book with such incredibly relatable adult ADHD representation. In Lizzie, I saw a reflection of myself. From the giant purse full of absolutely everything to her perpetual lateness and her chaotic brain, it was like looking into a mirror. Existing in a neurotypical world is exhausting and frustrating, and it was so validating to see my neurodiverse self represented in such a beautiful, celebratory way.

I don't normally like surprise pregnancy storylines or insta-love, but Mazey can do no wrong, and she won me over. She handled both the pregnancy and the conversations surrounding pregnancy and the right to choose with supreme compassion.

The audiobook was FABULOUS. I adore dual narration when there are two perspectives and both narrators completely nailed it. When a character has a very obvious accent (Rake's Australian), audiobooks really help bring that accent to life. Both Summer Morton and Will Peters deliver amazing performances. (Sidenote: with my ADHD, audiobooks are my default when it comes to reading--it allows my hands to do other things while my brain engages with the story. Highly recommend!)

I will be screaming about this book to anyone who will listen for the foreseeable future. Lizzie is such a beautiful, chaotic mess, and I love every bit of her. And Rake--oh sweet, Australian Rake. He's so utterly swoony, and I love how he supports LIzzie in the aftermath of their impulsive two-night stand.

Good story that partly deals with an adult with ADHD trying to hold down a job and get her life on track. Lots of sexual activity, which I don't particularly like but the story was engaging.

4.5 stars

Omfg this book was a breath of fresh air and I absolutely loved it! AND SURPRISINGLY WAYYYYY SPICIER THAN I WAS EXPECTING!

I haven’t dabbled in many accident pregnancy tropes BUT because I knew this one was centered around it, I actually really liked it!

I love that this book focuses on another member of the friendship group we meet in “A Brush with Love”. Lizzie is a hot mess, but one who you can’t help but love her and get entranced by her. Rake on the other hand is a stickler to lists and organizations, and the complete opposite of Lizzie. Regardless, Rake couldn’t help but to be drawn in by Lizzie’s amazing energy and they both end up in a two night stand…or so we think. The storyline follows what happens after an amazing night ensues and we see how Lizzie deals with her ADHD and negative opinions from others, and if Rake is up for a wild journey alongside her!

I am just obsessed. This was so well done and the voice narrators ROCKED!!!!! Y’all need to read this one.

Spice: 🌶.5

Tropes
One night stand
Accidental pregnancy

Eddings wrote a great story. It started a bit r-rated, but the story was interesting. I have a lot of sympathy for Lizzie who struggles with ADHD and perhaps some sort of sex addiction. The premise of the story was interesting as it seemed like the story went in reverse order. I wasn’t a giant fan of the Australian narrator, I felt like the accent went back and forth.

2.5 stars

I read A Brush With Love in the beginning of the year and fell head over heels in love with its entire cast of characters, the romance, the mental health representation that made me feel incredibly seen, and Mazey Eddings writing - Eddings is a phenomenal writer who manages to make you feel so much for these characters she created and writes stories that are funny engaging and endearing. Suffice to say, I was so excited for Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake, I didn't even care to read the synopsis (a common thing I do when a favorite author of mine announces a a new book); well, that was MY mistake because I went into it without the knowledge that this book has my least favorite trope ever: unexpected pregnancy.. I immediately regretted requestinhg an ARC because i knew that my review wouldn't be that fair, considered my biased opinion, but since loving Edding's first book so much, I thought it wouldn't hurt to give it a shot.

Honestly, at the end of the day, the trope did hinder my ability to enjoy the story quite a bit. Not only that, but I just didn't feel the chemistry between the two characters at all. To me, what they had was lust. From the beginning of the story to the very end, I didn't feel the romantic love that characters and author attempted to describe, and it felt really hard for me to care about where the romance was going, and led me to care much more about the main character, Lizzie, and her friends.

The writing style paired with the hilarious main character definitely made for an entertaining story and Lizzie was an absolutely charming and lovable character. But that also took away from Rake's POV and made him a boring and depthless character compared to Lizzie's warm and larger than life personality. Every time we got to a Rake POV, I just wanted to go back to Lizzie's. I just feel like there wasn't much to him that made me care. Although the book overall wasn't a favorite, Lizzie will be going into my favorite characters list for sure, and was the best thing about this book for me.

I also always love the way Eddings incorporates mental health into her stories and writes it with a lot of care and respect. Lizzie's personal growth as she struggles with managing her ADHD and the supportive group she surrounds herself with, it was so heartwarming to read about.

At the end of the day, I think this one just wasn't for me. It wasn't necessarily bad and if you enjoy the unexpected pregnancy trope, i believe this to be surely enjoyable to you. I personally just had a hard time believing in the romance, and the pregnancy itself is never something I care much about reading. The male character lacked depth and the romance lacked chemistry, but the main character was amazing and so was her funny and loving friends. I will still be reading anything else that Mazey Eddings releases in the future, as, like I said before, this is more a case of "it's not you, it's me" than the book being truly bad.

This book is very sweet. And I loved the grand gesture at the end. I also love Lizzie's *Found Family*, and I really hope there's more books in this series. (While this is technically book #2, you don't need to read the first one- A Brush With Love.) Mazey Eddings write about neurodiverse characters; I as a reader am not, she writes to help me understand from their perspective. I will recommend this to anyone that love a good romance and neurodiverse readers.

On a side note, I read the trigger warnings at the beginning of the book, and then proceeded to worry about something happening to Mazey until I read the ending. If you want to know more about the TWs and how they manifest please feel free to message me.

I really wanted to like this! But I think the accidental pregnancy storyline is just not for me. And I know Lizzie has ADHD, but I didn't like her as a character, mistakes aside. And I wasn't digging Rake, so it just made for a difficult read for me, unfortunately!

It was also really weird that they chose an American narrator for Rake