I loved Lizzie Blake and I was really excited for another book set in the same world, and I mostly enjoyed it but for some reason a lot of little things bugged me the whole way through and I guess ultimately Indira didn't feel authentic to me.

Steamy, intense, and really romantic fun all around! I think Mazey's on a roll with her books and I can't wait for more from her work.

This series is incredible! Lizzie will be my fave, but I loved this one all the same. Will be buying and recommending to EVERYONE!

This was a fun brother's best friend mixed with enemies to lovers romance. When Indira catches her ex in bed with another woman, she escapes to her brother's house only to find that Jude, her brother's best friend and her childhood nemesis, is already there in preparation for her brother's wedding. As much as she can't stand Jude, she realizes that something is wrong with and this triggers them to realize that love and hate are much closer than they seem. As much as it was light, airy and fun, it was also an interesting take on PTSD and how this affects people's relationships.

"The Plus One" is another hit from Mazey Eddings' "A Brush with Love" series, and can easily be read as a stand-alone novel (though it does share a core group of characters from the other books in this series). "The Plus One" focuses on child psychiatrist Indira, who has recently moved in with her brother Collin and and his fiancee Jeremy, in the weeks leading up to their wedding, after walking in on her boyfriend Chris, in a compromising position with another woman, in their apartment. After arriving at her brother's home, she discovers his best friend Jude is also staying there for the wedding, on leave from his position as a surgeon with a group that provides medical-care in war-torn and disaster-related areas. Jude happens to be Indira's childhood nemesis, but their relationship soon turns from animosity to something more as they-agree to fake-date, and have Jude be Indira's plus-one to Collin and Jeremy's wedding knowing that Chris and his new girlfriend would be there.

"The Plus One" is easily my favorite book of the three so far in the series. I simply loved seeing the development of Indira and Jude's relationship throughout the story Mazey Eddings does a great job in combining humorous moments between the characters, as well as addressing serious topics, such as PTSD, abandonment issues, anxiety, depression, and the importance of taking care of one's mental health and therapy, within the storyline. "The Plus One" was a quick, and enjoyable, read, and I look forward to more from this author.

Thanks to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press/St. Martin's Griffin for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

💐The Plus One 💐

“I want you to feel, Jude. Feel everything and do it with abandon. Because no matter what you feel, what rises up from all of that, you will always have a safe space in my heart. I will always, always be here, loving you through it all.”

Oh my heart. Indira and Jude’s story was beautiful and I wish I could read it again for the first time. Brought together for events leading up to her brother’s wedding, Indira forms an unlikely truce with her childhood nemesis and brother’s best friend. In order to escape her cheating ex and for Jude to have a barrier to the overwhelm of the wedding events, they decide to pretend to date - being each other’s plus one. As the wedding gets closer, their relationship turns real and the looming deadline of Jude’s return to crisis zones as an emergency surgeon hangs over them. Through it all, they grow together and their love story is a beautiful one.

Check this one out if you’re looking for:
💐 Enemies to lovers
💐 Fake dating
💐 Forced proximity
💐 Mental health representation, including MC with PTSD

Overall, I enjoyed this story but it didn't replace some of my favorite romance novels on the market currently.

I didn't realize it was going to be heavy on mental health content so I was a little caught off guard. (Not to say that covering mental health topics in a book is in any way a bad thing.) But usually I pick these novels to give me a reprieve from heavy topics and something to read that's light and easy.

I was also a little reluctant to believe the drastic "child enemies" storyline since they are both well-educated adults and didn't necessarily need to bring their childhood differences into their adult relationship in the beginning of the book.

In conclusion, I think this book does a good job of highlighting effects of trauma and aspects of mental health. I wasn't really in awe of the book though and don't think I would recommend it.

AH such a beautiful story of mental health and how to worth WITH people in a romantic relationship, because it’s DOABLE and being mentally ill doesn’t stop you from finding true love 🥹

i think this is her best yet i was on the fence about her first two novels but this one truly takes the cake

4 Strong Hate To More Stars
Oh, the way we always have those types of enemy/friend relationships. We have a woman who thinks everything is perfect in her life with a job she loves and a man who loves her...only to find out he is a cheater. Now she has to go to a wedding that of course involves a couple that will have invited her and her ex.

While our gal is at this wedding weekend, it turns out the one person she has always had a serious problem with is there as well. He has returned from being all over the world helping others who live in all sorts of conditions. He hasn't been around the type of people who are here at the wedding, flaunting vast wealth. The shock of how these people live compared to all of the others he has been helping is difficult to handle.

The only way for these two to deal with the situation presented is to join forces and pretend they are a couple and just be united against them all.

Cute with a strong dose of a serious look and mental health and care.

This book was a good read, the themes were a bit of a surprise but a good one. Mental health used to be a hush hush subject, but the author let us inside the character's head to feel and understand them. I appreciated how these were addressed within the book. The plot was a little drawn out with some extra unneeded bits. I'm happy the characters could find comfort in each other, and the I found them to be a complementary match for each, which cannot be said for all books. Overall, I wouldn't consider this a fluffy read, but I would recommend reading it.

Thank you, NetGalley and the Publisher for the eARC! The Plus One is a cute romance book about childhood frenemies turning into lovers.
The Plus One is an easy read with some laugh out loud moments. It also touches on the importance of mental health. I could see a sequel coming with these characters and it would certainly be added to my to read list!

“The Plus One” is an excellent story of childhood enemies forced to connect and support each other as they navigate PTSD, abandonment, and the trials of being human.

This book was absolutely fantastic. And I’ll tell you why. Although these characters are flawed and prone to the typical miscommunication trope or the “let’s keep this a secret from everyone we love, because that makes perfect sense,” they don’t fall privy to it. They work and work and work some more. It was realistic and a good representation of what love looks like.

To start, I loved the second book in this series, Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake. That book was my first taste at mental health representation in fiction books. The Plus One is another installment of the same series, featuring main characters that were in the background of the first two books of this series. All the friends are tied in, but this book focuses on different mental health issues, mostly PTSD and anxiety.
Both MC’s in this book are doctors dealing with mental health issues. The FMC is a child psychiatrist who spends her days helping others with their problems. The MMC is an ER physician who works across the world responding to areas of disaster, while suffering from PTSD related to this. Indira and Jude have known each other since childhood, as Jude is best friends with Indira’s older brother. (A favourite trope of mine!)
Mazey Edding’s writing is educational, while being humourous and sweet. Jude and Indira are complex, lovable characters who have great growth and character development through the book. This book has ALL of the tropes- (fake dating, brothers best friend, enemies to lovers, slow burn) but still doesn’t seem to overdo it and is very believable. I usually don’t have the patience for a slow burn, but their relationship was EVERYTHING and I was obsessed. They are so good together, and the way they supported each other through their struggles, while still having amazing chemistry from the beginning, melted me. It will take my heart awhile to recover from the Bob’s Burgers Scene. (If you know, you know!)
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for the e-ARC of this lovely book.

Eh, this didn't end up working for me. Truly, this book felt like a bit of a drag. It was so incredibly slow moving and almost nothing happened in it at all. So I was quite bored while reading this. What didn't help though is that the romance was so poorly developed in my opinion. First of all we are constantly told that these two absolutely despised each other growing up, and the idea of them even getting along somewhat is unimaginable for the several side characters. However, we are never being shown that. Yeah, they weren't close growing up but from we got to see they got along just fine. They were also almost instantly in love with each other in this book. Like honestly, there was no developement of feelings. They were really into each other at the start, and they were just as into each other at the end. Except now they are actually together. So yeah, the romance wasn't great and that definitely didn't help the fact that the rest of the story was quite boring. I didn't completely hate this book though. I really liked the inclusion of mental health in this book, and the different discussions around that. I thought all of that was really well done in this book. So yeah, it gets a bonus star for that.

Big thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for this advanced copy!

Mazey Eddings has quickly become a must-read author and The Plus One, the third book in this series, is another win for her. I love these characters so much. Indira and Jude are so wonderful together, even though they both clearly have had substantial emotional trauma in their lives, their story of working together to work through it was so wonderful to read. I appreciated the depiction of therapy, mostly as a journey and not something that just automatically fixes everything. But their love is fantastic and hot and I love LOVED having the other characters from the series back.

This book was touching and funny and wonderful and I can't wait to read more from Eddings.

I thought that this book was adorable! I had heard such great things about Mazey Eddings, and this book did not disappoint.

Indira and Jude were so cute. I loved their playfulness with each other, and I loved how they just complimented each other perfectly. Indira was about to be emotionally stable and vulnerable for Jude, and he was able to be a fairly solid rock for Indira while she went through her break up.

I loved that everyone was rooting for them, and I found that I was, too.

Seriously I loved loved loved this book. Thank you so much for gifting me an ARC.

Mazey Eddings just has a way with words and characters. I've enjoyed every book she's written and The Plus One is not exception. This story is breezy, yet deep. I loved falling into a sweet and hilarious rom com story with the most thoughtful exploration into mental health. While this cover looks light and fluffy, I had tears in my eyes as I read about the two MCs and their bouts through various hardships in life. Well-done all around! I look forward to the next book she writes.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the gifted copy.

I LOVED this book so much that I had to start a new list for "Books I must Reread". I really thought this was going to be another of your basic romcoms but it was soooo much more. The author does an amazing job of creating characters that you just can't help falling in love with. While the main focus of this book is the relationship between the main characters it is also about the relationship of the main characters with themselves,. You get the story in alternating views from the main characters and Eddings does a fantastic job of making you feel what they feel. This book delves so beautifully into mental health and how desperately we all need to be kind to ourselves before we can be there for others. This is a book I have a feeling I will be reading again and again.

The Plus One by Mazey Eddings was a beautiful read. It was unexpected compared to the rest of the series. There was a lot more depth to this book with the therapy talk and PTSD experiences. It is not your typical rom com but beautiful none the less. The characters are deep rooted and bring great substance to this book. I had tears and smiles throughout.

As usual if I see a book where there’s a fake wedding date, I know I’m going to love it. And then this is by Mazey, so yep I definitely did like it. This was actually my favorite of the three I think. I rated them all 4 stars, but for real for real, this one was my favorite lol

So first things first, I really liked the way the mental health aspect was done. It was a good depiction of PTSD and anxiety. It wasn’t one of those ones where the main character is suddenly healed. It was more like the main character is healing from this thing and the other main character is helping them. Those are the themes in mental health representation that works best for me. As someone with anxiety, I wasn’t healed when I met my husband, but I did feel highly blessed to have found someone who helps me overcome those anxious times and those panic attacks. This is exactly like what happened in the book. BUT I still think they got together too soon? I really think they should have given more time to healing themselves vs them being together so quickly. Does that make sense?

I also really liked the way Indira handled her situation. She was really a bad ass for not killing him. But then again, I think it would be really weird because of the peanut butter thing. Yeahhhhh It was weird. But I was proud to see Indira taking charge of her mental health by therapy. I did wish Jude had been more receptive. Especially since he had all the proof that it helped. But I did understand him not wanting to talk to her. I just wish he had talked to someone.

The romance between the two of them was really cute tho. Best part hands down was the day after Halloween. In true Mazey Eddings fashion I was laughing loud and long. But even though I liked watching them fall for each other, I liked seeing them together more. They had so much fun together and they were really into each other. It was refreshing to see. The spice was ok. I think I would put it at a 3. It wasn’t a huge part of the story because it started so late in the book, but once it started happening, it was happening frequently lol

Mazey’s writing style was what really sucked me in. Indira’s family and relationship issues and Jude’s past work experiences were tough to read, but I had to stick it out to see what happened to them in the end. Her work will do that to you. It’s emotional and might reduce you to tears, but there’s some comedic relief (i.e. the peanut butter thing lol) and a really super sweet romance to keep you invested. I know it said on Goodreads that there was was no more in this series, but I really have to say I need there to be more. Please be more. I need to know how these people are and how the one we didn’t get books on are doing too. This series was too fun to lose!