This enemies to lovers romance had me feeling everything from emotional all the way to laughing hysterically throughout!

Indira and Jude are childhood nemesis’s and can’t stand eachother, but are reunited for a wedding. With Jude adjusting to life back stateside after being a dr in humanitarian crisis situations, and Indira coming in fresh off a break up, these two end up fake dating to survive the wedding festivities. Fake dating quickly leads to feelings with all their close quarter encounters and wedding events.

I went into this expecting a light hearted book, but Eddings brought real mental health crisis to the table in addition to all the laugh out loud moments, to create a really beautiful story of the strength of friendship, love, and healing. I absolutely adored Indira and Jude, and it was such a sweet story to see unfold and progress. I also love a book with a great friend group, and these friends brought a lot of entertainment to the table! I tandem read the book and listened to the audio, and the voice actors were fantastic as well!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for my ARC in exchange for my honest feedback!

I enjoyed this one! I really liked Jude and Indira’s dynamic, and the plot was entertaining. I’m looking forward to reading more from this author!

Another great offering from Eddings - with realistic emotions and great descriptions. Best of the set, can't wait to recommend this to more readers!

Okay, I'll say it - The Plus One was a lot of fun and very enjoyable! I loved that mental health was a topic of discussion and that we got to really get to know and see vulnerability in the characters. Since this is something people deal with day to day it was nice to see. It has all the fan favorite tropes you could wish for, so definitely worth the quick read!

Okay - I see what all the hype on booksta is about now. This book has everything. It was spicy and funny. Once I started I could not stop. I will definitely be keeping my eye out for the author!

This was a wonderful quick read that I especially enjoyed after several heavier books in a row! This was the perfect read to devour most of in my last day of spring break after it arrived that morning. This was a quick romance read but also dealt with heavier topics of mental health. I thought it struck the perfect balance on this! My favorite book by Mazey Eddings so far is Tilly in Technicolor but I would say that this is a close second!

Jude is a doctor who signed a contract at the beginning of medical school to work 4 years for an organization (called GHCO) who does emergency health care around the world, often in areas in crisis. This was a scholarship that paid for med school. Unfortunately, he didn’t really understand the high amount of trauma that he would face there. We see him struggle here with symptoms of PTSD. Indira fights for him to care for himself and his mental health.

Before the book starts, Indira is hoping to get her relationship with her boyfriend out of the non-communication rut that they’ve been in. When she catches him cheating (in the first chapter, so this isn’t a spoiler), their relationship quickly ends and she moves into her brother’s house and is dismayed to find his best friend, Jude, who she dislikes, also there. Indira struggles with not feeling loved after her dad left when she was young, which affects her romantic relationships.

Jude and Indira agree to pretend to date to make wedding events easier (Indira’s brother is getting married). Their relationship develops naturally from there and I loved how open and caring they are with each other. They both are supportive of each other’s mental health and there is discussion on how their relationship is positive but that doesn’t mean it heals everything.

If you’ve read this, let me know your thoughts! I think any romance fans will definitely enjoy it!

This book is more serious than Eddings first two, and easily my favorite. It is not fluffy at all. It’s funny and witty and full of banter, but very heavy. It’s “best friends brother” but that almost doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Jude and Indira’s hearts are intricately connected in ways they don’t even realize at the beginning. Indira SEES Jude even when he wishes she didn’t. Indira cares for Jude in such a genuine and selfless way throughout the story. I appreciated Indira’s relentless loyalty and support when she easily could have gotten her feelings hurt and turned away. There’s no melodrama in this story. It’s all just deep hurt and pain from past trauma. There’s no great miscommunication. There’s no third act breakup. The conflict is all internal and unavoidable. Jude and Indira are solid together as they ride the wave of mental illness and healing. This is a beautiful story. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC to review.

If you love: forced proximity, childhood enemies, dating brother’s best friend and fake dating then you will love The Plus One. I also enjoyed the vulnerability of the characters and dealing with mental health and how they wanted to ensure they both wanted to work on themselves in order to not mess up their relationship together. Two of my favorite quotes from the book were:

“Whatever this is between us is real and it hurts and it’s beautiful and it matters. And I won’t let you deny that. You deserve happiness, Jude. I deserve happiness. And I think we can have that. Together.”

“Because I care. And I’ll keep caring. I care now. I cared yesterday. I’ll care tomorrow. Every single day, I will sit outside your doorstep. And I’ll wait. I’ll wait until you need me, and I’ll be ready. Nothing you can say will change that.”

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in return for my honest review.

One thing about Mazey Eddings is she knows how to write about mental health. This book felt incredibly important to dismantling society's expectations of men just pushing through their mental health struggles with no help. It also showed how debilitating and serious PTSD is in a raw and tactful way.

Thoughts:
-The beginning was a bit slow. At first, I couldn’t find a way to connect with the characters. Indira’s irritation toward Jude seemed uncalled for, but eventually, their bickering turned sweet. Jude was just kind of just there in the beginning, but I think that was the point. The more we learned about him, the more I understood that was intentional on Eddings’ part because that’s how Jude felt about himself
-I loved the wedding events. They were so out there and brought in all of our favorite characters from this series
-Eddings’ writing is so engaging, I love the dialogue and the depth we get for each character
-Seeing Jude and Indira’s relationship go from childhood nemesis to each others biggest supporters was heartwarming. Their love for each other was fierce
-The themes of not being too proud to accept help and the importance of therapy were so important in this book. The traumas were real and painful to read, but so so pivotal to real life and the storyline

My biggest takeaway from this book was the way Eddings framed mental illness and PTSD. The quotes surrounding these issues in the book are things everyone could benefit from hearing every once in a while. Thank you Mazey Eddings for not shying away from hard topics. I highly recommend this read!

Thank you Netgalley, Mazey Eddings, and St. Martin’s Press for this book in exchange for an honest review.

With as many enemies to lovers books that we have in the world, it really needs to be something special to stand out. I really enjoyed this series and was glad to see it keep going, but it just fell a little flat. It was cute and flat but missing that something special to make it a great read. If you've read the rest of this series, definitely keep going.

If there is fake dating in a book, I am reading it! I have absolutely adored this series from Mazey Eddings, and The Plus One might be my favorite one yet. I loved the romance between Indira and Jude. And the anxiety, PTSD, and depression rep in this book was so well done. I absolutely devoured this book. It was the perfect blend of tender and spicy. Read this one if you love:

💗 Enemies to lovers and fake dating
💗 The older brother’s best friend
💗 Books set at weddings
💗 Forced proximity
💗 Anxiety, depression, PTSD, and therapy rep

Some facts are indisputable. The sun rises in the east, sets in the west. Gravity exists. Indira doesn’t like Jude. Jude doesn’t like Indira. But what happens when these childhood enemies find the only thing they can rely on is each other?

On paper, Indira has everything together. An amazing job, a boyfriend, and a car. What more could a late twenty-something ask for? But when she walks in on her boyfriend in an amorous embrace with a stranger, that perfect on paper image goes up in flames.

Jude has nothing together. A doctor that’s spent the last three years traveling the world to treat emergencies and humanitarian crises, a quick trip home for his best friend’s wedding has him struggling to readjust.

Thrust into an elaborate (and ridiculously drawn out) wedding event that’s stressing Jude beyond belief and has Indira seeing her ex and his new girlfriend far more frequently than any human should endure, the duo strike a bargain to be each other’s fake dates to this wedding from hell. The only problem is, their forced proximity and fake displays of affection are starting to feel a bit…real, and both are left grappling with the idea that a situation that couldn’t be worse, is made a little better with the other around.

I appreciate that the author wanted to give us real life complexity while also providing us with romance, but the author did not execute well.

First, there is no enemies to lovers or fake dating. Marketing it this way is just deceiving and a set up for readers to critique it. They are not enemies, they just barely have feelings of prickliness for one another. The fake dating never happened? If it did, it was so miniscule and badly written that I missed it.

All of the things mentioned in the blurb, were not as relevant in the actual book. It was like reading a different novel.

I do appreciate that Eddings gives us a romance that has sex in it, but otherwise this book was a bit of a dud.

I absolutely loved Lizzie Blake so I had really high hopes for this one.......and was left disappointed. I think it was a "me" thing because most of my buddy reading group loved it, but I was bothered by the repetition in the writing, where I hadn't noticed that in her writing in prior books. I also felt like the story stalled quite a bit...we weren't moving forward with these characters as one should when reading a book.
What I DID love about this book was the mental health representation and the way the two main characters supported one another in their mental health struggles. The author's writing made me laugh, just like Lizzie Blake. I will definitely read more from Eddings...this one just missed the mark for me.

Mazey Eddings created a sweet story of two people coming together. Mostly a quick read, I enjoyed all of the characters. This is the third in a series but can be read and enjoyed as a standalone. A solid 3.5 star read. <3

-Brother's Bestfriend
-Enemies to Lovers
-Fake Dating
-Mental Health Rep

I just reviewed The Plus One by Mazey Eddings. #NetGalley

I absolutely love fake relationship as a trope, I can't get enough of these types of books.

Jude and Indira pretend to be together at a wedding where Jude is feeling overwhelmed and Indira constantly needs to see her ex and his new girlfriend after she's walked in on them embracing while they were still together.

Soon their pretend feelings turn real and it's great to see them fall for each other.

This was a quick read that had me captivated.

This is the third book in a series, but can be read as a standalone. I had not previously read the first two books.

Indira and Jude have never liked each other. But as her brother’s best friend, Jude was always around when they were kids. Now that her brother is getting married, they’re reunited to help with the planning and preparations. Despite all the bickering and teasing, they know each other almost better than anyone, and can see the other’s struggles dealing with issues in their lives.

This book had everything. A brothers best friend, fake dating, enemies to lovers relationship with great chemistry. Mental health struggles, including PTSD and anxiety, are also addressed in an excellent way through support and therapy. And even a little spice thrown in!

I really enjoyed this book, but I would’ve liked to see even more! Lots of characters and lots of side storylines which felt like they didn’t all get fully developed. But overall I would highly recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy of this book!

I really like Mazey’s writing but it can be hard for me to read because it can hit too close to home. I felt the characters were very well rounded and I enjoyed this book a lot!

Mazey Eddings is officially one for my must buy authors. I loved this book and the way other characters from the series were mentioned. I wish I had friends like them!

Giving this 5 stars because I enjoyed this book and its a page turner for me too. I recommend this book to everyone who loves romance book and light, enjoyable read.

Full disclosure: I have not read either of the previous two installments in Eddings’ ‘A Brush with Love’ series, but after this gem, I am definitely planning to. ‘The Plus One’ can be enjoyed perfectly well as a standalone.

This romcom is romantic, sweet, funny, and filled to the brim with raw emotional truths which Eddings handles with such an insightful delicacy. Including tropes like “brother’s best friend,” “childhood nemeses to lovers,” “fake dating,” and “only one tent;” and complete with dual POV, healthy communication through the angst, characters who actually go to therapy, and a trigger warning list at the beginning; it’s impossible not to enjoy this soft romance in all its well paced, narratively solid glory.

The only trap Eddings falls into that I fond a little trite is separating the POV characters’ narrative voices by having the MMC curse significantly more often than the FMC. Which is not to say the language choice is a problem in and of itself, just that I find the use of it as the primary distinction between character voices to be a little overdone in the genre.

Overall though, ‘The Plus One’ was so wholesome and moving that it may just be a new comfort read for me, I absolutely recommend it.

Thank you so much to St Martin’s Press, St Martin’s Griffin, Mazey Eddings, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advanced e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.