this was SO GOOD mazey never disappoints! i wanted to give both indira and jude the biggest hugs :(

i’m so sad this series is over, i’m gonna miss them so much

Indira is a psychologist with Daddy issues whose big brother is getting married. Jude is the best friend of said brother, and a surgeon who has seen too much while working for the fictional version of the WHO in war torn countries around the world, and who is dealing with intense amounts of PTSD. They grew up hating each other, and now they're sick together for all the events leading up to (brother) Collin's wedding.

This is the third in the series about the Philly friends of Harper, Thu, Lizzie, and Indira. I'm almost sad Thu doesn't seem to be getting her own book, but she settled in with her dude during Harper's drama bomb of a starter book, and they're solid 2 books later, so I'm not seeing a book coming for her.

Going back to Indira. She's got some issues, and I feel like her stuff got pushed aside a lot to focus more on Jude and his trauma, because it's intense and there is a lot to unpack there. The mental health trauma is handled well. But man, I need to stop finding things that focus so heavily on anxiety, because it's all I've grabbed for the last 2 or 3 books I've finished. The romance is sweet, and is a enemies to lovers type of situation. I appreciate the... creativity in the bedroom scenes. I think I would've liked the book more if there was a little less focus on the mental trauma, but the author is great at handling it, so it's well done.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley in return for sharing my thoughts on this book. Thanks to the author and publisher for this opportunity!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 4.5/5
🌶️🌶️🌶️ 3/5

The problem with reading a book and waiting over a month to write the review is that you truly do not remember that much, which is so disappointing! I do remember that I absolutely loved this story. I loved the mental health representation. And most of all, I absolutely adored our hero, Jude! 😍

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

I didn't realize this was book 3 in a series and after I finished it, I wanted to read the others. Interestingly enough, I had tried to read the first book and could never get into it because of that it's so surprising to me how much I enjoyed this one. I also think these can be read as standalone books, but with any series it's always more fun when you have more details about the characters.

I did go back and read book #2 and LOVED it! It was my favorite of the series. Each book is very different and I love that the author represents each MCs story so differently.

This sweet yet serious romcom had some of my favorite tropes: enemies to lovers, fake dating, and forced proximity!

Super cute, great mental health rep, and steamy! A solid romance, great chemistry and loved the plot overall. I need to go back & read the first two books but these were fine as a standalone.

I loved this book! This was my first Mazey Eddings book but now i think i need to go back and read the first two! I am a big fan. I loved Indira and Jude so much. I adored the relationship between the two. I loved that you could really see Jude coming into himself and all the work he was trying to do throughout the book. These two just complimented eachother so well. This was so fun and made me so sappy as well.

Mazey Eddings continues her streak of fantastic romance novels! As a sucker for books set at weddings, I particularly adored this one!

After Indira's life falls apart, she ends up crashing at her brother's house and discovers his best friend, and her childhood nemesis is also staying there for a while. Jude is back in the country for a few weeks to celebrate her brother's wedding, then he's scheduled to return to his job as a humanitarian doctor.

Little does anyone know, Jude is severely scarred by what he's seen in the war zones and natural disasters. He can hardly function, let alone pull himself together enough to celebrate. Indira is the only one who glimpses what's happening, so she agrees to help him through as his fake date.

Normally the fake dating trope gets old fast, but this was so much more meaningful than what you normally find in romances. Indira and Jude's relationship was heavily based on her ability to see his needs, encourage him to recognize what was happening and get help.

It was so easy to root for this couple! An easy five stars from me!

Indira’s life appears to be perfect - that is, until she wants in on her boyfriend with someone else. To make things worse, Indira and her ex are both in the same wedding party, so she is forced to be near him and his new girlfriend at all the wedding events. She strikes up a deal with Jude, another groomsman who is feeling lost and dealing with PTSD and anxiety from working as a traveling doctor, being deployed to emergencies around the world. Indira and Josh agree to pretend they are dating throughout the wedding festivities. But the more time they spend together, the more the relationship starts to feel real.

I love how beautifully Mazey Eddings incorporates mental health issues into her stories, and especially how her characters show an understanding of needing to work on themselves before being available to commit to a healthy relationship. I particularly loved Indira and Jude, and their relationship. The witty banter and chemistry was off the charts, and their transition from childhood enemies to kind of friends to lovers made sense to me - their shared history allowed for that transition to not feel so abrupt. This history allowed for a deeper level of vulnerability among the two characters. They were so kind and patient with each other, and I just adored their relationship.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the advanced copies.

I fell in love with the first book in the series, and yet I keep getting disappointed with the rest of the series.

The Plus One had the potential to be an amazing romance read. The problem I had with it was the heavy tones that weren’t warned about in the beginning. It was so unexpected that it took me by surprise. I was expecting a spicy rom-com read, but instead I was reading about two characters who have major mental issues that they need to sort out before becoming officially together.

There are so many heavy topics discussed throughout this book that I had to take mini-breaks in between. It’s not something to brush aside. It’s something important to read about, but it should have been warned about. If I had had any warning of how heavily these topics were going to be discussed, then I would have enjoyed reading this book more.

Thank you to the Netgalley and the publisher, St. Martin’s Press (St. Martin’s Griffin), for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy. This honest review was based off my experience reading this eARC, which in no way biased me. All opinions are my own.

A Brush With Love was my first exposure to this author and I completely adored that book, The Plus One is another win in my book. Just like with the first book in this series of interconnected standalones that follow Harper (Book 1: A Brush with Love) and her friends Lizzie (Book 2: Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake) and now Indira (Book 3: The Plus One) Mazey has this amazing way of writing where she interweaves pretty heavy themes into contemporary romance.

So we have Indira, who at the beginning of the book is trying to make it work with her normal, boring relationship, but QUICKLY realizes that it is not going to work for her anymore. Indira’s brother, Collin is getting married so naturally wedding shenanigans ensue. Collin’s best friend, Jude, is in town and is crashing at Collin’s house, Indira finds herself temporarily homeless and also crashes at Collin’s house. But here is where it gets good, Jude and Indira? They HATE each other, and they have since childhood.

So what do you get when you get put in the same house (with rooms next to each other) with your older brother’s best friend who just so happens to be the bane of your existence? (Oh and throw in some fake dating into the mix)

Indira is a psychologist, and Jude is a doctor who specialized in emergency medicine/surgery and travels all over the world getting sent to where he is needed. Some of the places he is needed are active war zones, and come with a boatload of traumatic experiences. The medical facilities he is working in are less than ideal which also cause patient loss and this is Jude’s story on how he comes to terms with his job and the toll it is taking on his mental health.

Indira herself has her own issues to deal with, stemming mainly from paternal abandonment at an early age/ growing up with divorced parents.

I honestly have never seen a couple so perfect for each other and it was wonderful to see their development happen and for both of them to realize how perfect the other is for them. This was perfectly heartwarming and meaningful. It deserves more than 5 stars, but here we are.

🌸Review - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5🌸

📗The Plus One by Mazey Eddings
🗓️Pub date: April 4, 2023 (out now!)

Indira comes home to find her boyfriend, Chris, in a compromising situation with another woman. Indira packs her bag and heads to her brother’s house to stay there for a little while. When she gets to Colin’s house, she isn’t expecting his best friend and her childhood enemy to answer the door.

Jude has just returned from an extensive and traumatic work assignment for his best friend’s wedding. He’s staying with Colin and is surprised when Colin’s sister shows up to stay there too.

While being forced to stay across the hall from each other and having to help out with wedding festivities, Indira and Jude start spending more time together and decide to fake date to get through all of the events for Colin’s wedding. But after awhile, the fake dating doesn’t feel so fake anymore…

I really enjoyed this one! I loved Jude and Indira and found both of their characters relatable in some ways. I thought the mental health representation was written really well and represented in an honest way.

Read if you enjoy:
🌸Fake dating
🌸Brother’s best friend
🌸Enemies to lovers
🌸Forced proximity
🌸Dual POV
🌸Mental health representation

⚠️Please read trigger warnings from the author prior to reading.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you SMP for the gifted e-copy.

I loved this enemies to lovers, brother's best friend, steamy romcom! Indira moves in with his brother and his fiancé, Jeremy, after walking in on her boyfriend and another woman. Little does she know, but her brother's best friend, Jude is staying with him while on. break from his overseas station. Jude and Indira HATE each other - or do they?

The steam in this book is on point, and when Indira and Jude first get together I was like YES! Their banter is hilarious, but it's not all fun and games. There are a lot of very heavy topics in this book, so check out CW before reading.

Mazey Eddings does it AGAIN! Another amazing, spectacular book that absolutely stole my heart and ran with it. Indira and Jude's story was beautiful and I loved every bit of it. Probably one of the best enemies-to-lovers, fake dating I've ever had the pleasure of reading. This one was cute, steamy, and just so entirely heartfelt.

This had good mental health representation and it was written very well but the fake dating wasn't all that fake for long? I also think that some things were just glossed over and not given enough time to be properly dealt with and addressed,

I also think that Jude benefitted a lot from Indira and she helped him so much more than he helped her. I get being there for a partner and supporting them but we also saw that Indira was going through some things as well, which Jude didn't provide support for.


The way the characters from the other books were involved was also a little odd and almost awkwardly to me? I don't quite know how to describe it, just that I didn't love it all that much.

Overall, not a bad read but I did thoroughly enjoy the first book so much more, and even the second book a little more.

Indira and Jude from The Plus One were such special characters and I'm so grateful to Mazey for creating them. From the moment I met Indira in A Brush with Love, I knew I was going to love her sassy and funny personality in a romantic setting. Jude was equally precious, a little grumpy, and my heart ached for him. The Nesta and Cassian vibes with Jude starting out as Nesta were so strong! Mazey knows how to write her spice and it always slaps me in the face. The Plus One was a beautiful and emotional read that had me laughing out loud and crying in the club with the epilogue. Mazey simply can do no wrong and I can't wait to read more from her.

⚠️TW: mental illness, panic attacks/disorders, infidelity, abandonment, war, violence, medical trauma

Indira and Jude (who has happens to be both her childhood nemesis and also her brother's best friend) they make a deal to be each other's fake dates for a wedding. But the more time they spend together and the closer they get, the more the lines between fake and real start to blur.

One of the things I love about Mazey's books is that she approaches her characters with so much love and care. All of her books focus on grounded representations of neurodivergent characters, characters who deal with anxiety, depression or PTSD. I've loved every single book in this series, but this one might be my favorite one!

Indira and Jude are childhood enemies. Jude is best friends with Indira's older brother Colin but has never seen eye-to-eye with Indira. When Indira's latest relationship crashes and burns, she ends up staying with her brother Colin and his fiancé. But guess who is also staying with Colin -- Jude! Now Jude and Indira are forced to live and attend all of Colin's pre-wedding activities. But soon Indira and Jude realize that been forced together is actually the best thing for both of them.

The love story that develops between Indira and Jude is so beautiful! Although Indira is dealing with her own inner demons and struggles, it's Jude's struggle with PTSD that really pull at your heart strings. But even though his struggles are hard and very real, Mazey shows that even while experiencing dark moments, you can still find love and joy and happiness.

And if you've read the other two books in the series, you will love the epilogue at the end -- it was a nice wrap up for everyone.

This is currently my favorite childhood enemies-to lovers book to-date. As always, Mazey writes a beautiful content warning to readers, so read that before reading. But I can't recommend this book enough!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ St. Martin’s Griffin for the arc of this book!

Such a wonderful read with a great message - you can be heal, be brave, and fall in love. It was a beautiful story with one of the favorite tropes - enemies to lovers. It doesn't get much better than this one!

The Plus One, by Mazey Eddings, is the story of psychiatrist Indira Papadakis and the time surrounding her brother Collin’s wedding. A few weeks before the wedding, Indira walks in on her boyfriend, Chris, to find him in quite a compromising position with Lauren. Indira packs and, having nowhere else to go, heads for the home Collin shares with his fiancé Jeremy, both of whom are anesthesiologists. While they do have a guest room for Indira, their other guest room is occupied by Collin’s best friend and Indira’s worst nightmare, Dr. Jude Bailey.

Jude joined an international medical team to serve those in need worldwide, but mostly to forgive the loans necessary to achieve his goal of physician. Emergency surgery is Jude’s forte, but it has sent him to the most awful assignments and this has taken a toll.

Since Chris is also a part of the wedding party, Indira is not happy in her role but Jude proposes they act as though they are together for the events leading to the wedding. As Indira has already picked up on the PTSD issues Jude is dealing with, she agrees. But what unravels from this agreement makes the story.

This story is written to showcase PTSD, an issue that is becoming more prevalent in life today. However, there is so much more to this book! I very much appreciated what I learned from this story and absolutely do recommend this book!

The Plus One is book #3 in the Brush with Love series, but can 100% be read as a standalone...which is what I did. I just discovered Mazey Eddings with this book, and I really enjoyed her writing style, her storytelling, and her characters, so I'll definitely be going back to read the first 2 books in this series, and I look forward to whatever stories she comes up with next.

🔹 Stellar therapy and mental health rep!
🔹 Tropes: Brother's best friend, enemies-to-lovers,
fake dating
🔹 Content warnings: severe PTSD, anxiety, panic
attacks, parental abandonment, and infidelity

What I liked:
🔹That Indira was a mental health professional, and while she was very good at it, she still had her own mental health struggles. It felt very realistic. And because of her training and her own experiences, she was able to recognize what Jude was dealing with and help him navigate his way through it, while not attempting to "fix" him.

🔹The strong female friendships! I can't wait to go back and read the first 2 books to spend more time with these women.

🔹While it's on the heavier side for a rom-com, I really appreciated that the author didn't shy away from challenging topics.

🔹 Indira and Jude! Their banter was on point and very natural, and it was fun to watch their relationship change and grow.

Thank you to netgalley and St. Martin's Press for my eARC in exchange for my honest review! I loved reading it!

Out of the three books in this series, this book is my favorite of them all! It was cute and sweet and steamy and heartfelt all in one. It had a perfect mixture of all of the emotions with an adorable couple at the center of it who worked together to fight their own demons.

This brother's best friend/fake dating book dealt with some serious topics like PTSD, parental abandonment, and other general mental health issues. The author did a good job at juggling all those issues while still keeping the romantic relationship at the focus of this story.