After reading Lizzie Blake and being thrown with just how much I loved it, I went into The Plus One, hesitantly. And well, Mazey Eddings has delivered again!

Short Synopsis:
Our favorite friend group is back, and this time it’s Indira’s story. When she walks in on her boyfriend cheating on her, she packs her bags and shows up at her brothers house - only to find out his best friend/her childhood nemesis is also staying there.

My Thoughts:
This one opens with a bang…and peanut butter. 🫣 (Seriously I will never look at PB the same way.) But I was hooked immediately. And then entered Jude - my new book boyfriend. He’s tortured, and sad, and sweet and funny and adorable and him and Indira are the cutest together. I absolutely adored this one and Mazey Eddings is officially an auto-buy author for me.

Read if You Like:
💖 Childhood Enemies to Lovers
💖 Fake Dating
💖 Brother’s Best Friend
💖 “Good Girl” moments. 🫣😂
💖 Only one tent
💖 Funny Banter

ARC review for The Plus One by Mazey Eddings
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
This book is going on my favorites shelf as soon as my physical copy gets here because OMG!!!
Childhood frenemies
Best friends little sister
Fake dating
This book dives into PTSD, mental health, and generational trauma, and I feel Mazey did an amazing job. She talks about how talking can help unpack trauma.
This book have me swooning one moment, laughing another and crying in the next oh my god this was amazing!
This books also has LQBTQ+ rep!
I will be buying more of her books and she’s now going to be one of my auto buy authors! I couldn’t get enough of this book and was so sad when I read the last page because I didn’t want it to be over!
🖤💀💀🖤

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🌟 4.5/5
🌶 3/5
📇 The final installment in her debut series was the closure we all needed. Indira’s story was both exhausting and rewarding, both for #womeninSTEM but also for those of us who have various mental struggles.
PUB DATE: 4 April 2023

The best things:
🔹I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: therapy 👏🏻 is 👏🏻 amazing 👏🏻. 12/10 recommend.
🔹dual POV, the LGBTQ representation, the older-brothers-best-friend trope
🔹the spice just kept ramping up, which is a definite plus in my book

The worst things:
🔹The dad, the ex, how this almost ruined peanut butter for me 😂

End notes:
🔹YES. You don’t have to read the prior books to understand this one, but I still recommend the entire series!

Thanks to @NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

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This third installment in the series is just as excellent as the previous books. It beautifully balances humor and romance with heavy subjects. I loved everything about it!

The more romances I read like this, the more I love when the characters have known each other since childhood. This isn't a second chance, because they haven't been romantically involved before, in fact they've been kind of nemesis, but they've clearly had strong feelings for each other for years. It is fun to watch that finally come to fruition.

Indira is coming out of a relationship where she caught her boyfriend in the act of cheating, and she's staying with her brother for a while. Jude just so happens to be staying in the guest room next door because he's in town for her brother's wedding. What starts as the usual snark between them turns softer as Indira realizes Jude is suffering from PTSD after three years of working as a doctor in war torn and troubled parts of the world. This is handled gently and therapy is a huge part of the story for both characters.

This is a really wonderful book and while it works fine as a stand alone, if you haven't read the previous two books yet you're really missing out and should do so!

I want to start off by saying I really enjoyed this book. I loved the romance and the subjects it tackled. The relationships and character development felt organic and something that would actually happen in real life which made this story relatable. I loved the slow burn and the banter between the characters (especially between Jude and Indira). We got some crushing moments, some funny moment and some warm lovey moments too. My biggest takeaway from this books was how the author didn’t shy away from giving the cold truth about mental issues and how people deal with them or live with them. It’s also normalizing therapy and how healthy it can be. It’s being ok with not being ok and I have to say I am all here for it. This was my first Mazey Eddings book but it will not be the last.

“We honor the human body. Respect it. But we take the mind for granted. We ignore the invisible illnesses that plague countless people every single day.” (The Plus One)

“My hand was the one you reach for all throughout the Great War.” (Taylor Swift, The Great War)

“You said I have to trust more freely but diesel is desire, you were playin with fire.” (Taylor Swift, The Great War)

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is why Mazey Eddings is an auto buy author for me and will always be an auto buy author from me. This book was so emotional and beautiful that by the end of it, I was ugly crying (in a good way) and my husband was trying to figure out what the problem was! LOL While this book does discuss some pretty heavy topics (PTSD, an absent parent, cheating) she approaches these topics in the most sensitive way in order to help give the readers an understanding of what these characters have gone through. Eddings did such a great job at showing how trauma can impact a person’s life on so many different levels that most people don’t think about.

I will also never read a Mazey Eddings book and not think about Taylor Swift songs and I feel like that is one thing that just draws me into her books so much. The entire time I was reading this book I was thinking of Taylor Swifts new song “The Great War” as I just feel like it encompasses Indira and Jude’s relationship on another level. Overall, I give this book all the freaking stars. It will leave you feeling emotionally raw, but in the best way possible.
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This review will be posted to my Instagram blog (read_betweenthecovers) in the near future!

This series has been such a joy to read! Each book is so different and really highlights Mazey Eddings’ range in the genre. The Plus One might be my favorite of the series. The material is incredibly heavy, but there is something so beautiful about love being willing to fight through the trauma and the challenge.

Indira and Jude grew up together, antagonizing each other. I loved that so much of that teasing and loving antagonism was still a part of their relationship in the book - the sarcastic cracks and callbacks to their growing up made for some hilarious breaks in what was otherwise an often heavy book. I loved that we got to see both of them work through some challenging stuff, but Jude’s navigation of complex PTSD from his time in a Doctors Without Borders-esque organization definitely takes center stage. I really loved the resolution of this conflict - that it was the hardest path out but the one that prioritized Jude and Indira.

It was also fun spending time with the others from the series too. The epilogue wraps up the series so well and had me smiling from ear to ear.

Content warnings are captured on the first page of the book and include on page anxiety and panic attacks; flashbacks to time in war torn countries; parental abandonment; on page infidelity at the beginning when Indira catches her ex with someone else

I voluntarily read an early copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Loved this book so much, it is a 3rd in a series but still can be a great stand alone. The emotional depth that this book goes to while still being fun and spicy is so good I can not imagine anything else comparing.

I’ve come to expect heartfelt romances with a strong mental health storyline from Mazey Eddings, and this one DID NOT disappoint. Both Indira and Jude are struggling with their own demons, but end up being a source of strength and support for one another as they do the hard things.

This was quite possibly my favorite in the series, and I LOVED to see therapy normalized an represented in a good chunk of the story. Indira is INCREDIBLY self-aware and I love that she found a way to help and support Jude without trying to “fix” him. Their relationship is just the sweetest and I love that they were able to be exactly what each other needed.

I was given an ARC by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this. Mazey is always an easy read for me. I like a little more angst. I love that all her characters intertwine. I laughed through chapter 13. cried through the last 5%.

childhood nemesis to lovers romcom!! The development of characters, the plot, and everything else were executed so perfectly in this book. The topic hits home so much and I was captivated from start to finish by finishing this book in just a few hours.

Indira is reeling from a bad breakup and has to move in with her older brother while she finds somewhere to live. Also currently living with her brother is Jude, her brother's longtime best friend and Indira's childhood nemesis. They have never gotten along and barely tolerate eachother. however, both are in different places in their lives and find that they have much more reason to connect as adults.

I LOVED this book. I did not realize it was the third in a series and I have not read the previous two, but it read just fine as a stand alone. I was pleasantly surprised at how much depth there was to this novel and this relationship. As someone who deals with a fair amount of PTSD trauma, I was moved to tears sometimes at the things Indira would either learn in therapy herself or tell Jude to help him. I was really touched. It was handled really well and brought a surprising amount of depth to the fun and flirty novel. Highly recommend!

The Plus One is a love letter to therapy and self-healing, in the best possible way. While this story starts as a classic fake-dating plot, the feelings that develop are fast and very, very real. The tension is incredible, the self-healing and self-doubts are honest, and the vignettes of childhood Dira and Jude are so heartwarming I could cry.

This is Eddings' best work yet-a win all around.

This was a very quick, entertaining and a fast paced read. I absolutely loved and enjoyed it. The tropes were so very well done, making me so much in love with this book!!

The Brush With Love series is my new religion. All jokes aside, I absolutely adore this weird and do not want it to end. I would read the phone book, if mazey wrote it and promised to make it hotter. Preordered my physical copy of this already. Fake dating, brothers best friend, and enemies to lovers-all of my favs in one place! Perfect amount of spice and, as always, addresses mental health in a normalized way

This book!!!!! Oh my goodness. I was not expecting to like this as much as I did. I didn’t know what to expect going in, and I was so pleased to find that this simply wasn’t only a romance, but a story that showcased PTSD, trauma and depression so well. It is a story about love and healing and finding your place in the world during a time where you feel lost, hopeless and unloveable. Jude was such a great MMC, and Indira was a funny and strong FMC. I loved how caring and patient she was with Jude, loved their banter and the TENSION!! Wow. So, so good. Loved every second of this book. I received this arc in exchange for an honest review!

Thanks to St. Martin’s Griffin for the copy of this book.

I laughed, I cried, I swooned, and I binged this book in a few hours because I couldn’t put it down. Indira and Jude are perfection together. The mental health representation in this book is PHENOMENAL and perfectly balanced with moments that made me literally laugh out loud. A superb romance that will leave your heart full.

Read if you like:
- peanut butter
- fake dating
- the brother’s best friend trope
- mental health rep

I thought this was such a fun, funny, quirky book. I am always blown away by the ability of Mazey Eddings to write such honest and real characters who struggle with our everyday “stuff”. I love how this had a lot of mental health focus while still remaining spicy. Jude was not my favorite character (I was obsessed with Rake from Lizzie Blake), but I grew to like him over time.

I honestly really enjoyed that Jude and Indira weren’t an immediate steamy couple, as I thought their story evolved naturally. It was an interesting twist to hear Indira’s thoughts as she discussed her worries throughout the book, and Jude’s emotional turmoil was heartbreaking at times.

I definitely recommend this book!

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of The Plus One! Life got in my way while trying to read this book, but that didn’t make me love it any less. This is the third book in Mazey Eddings’s series about Harper, Lizzie, Indira, and Thu, and it is by far my favorite. It is so heartfelt and honest. The chemistry and depth to each character and their relationships is amazing; I truly feel like I know them. Going into the medical field myself at a time like this, I felt extra connected to Jude’s story and his struggles. Definitely give this one a read when it is released on April 4th (AHHH) and thank you so much to Mazey Eddings for writing these raw and real stories - they are so important ❤️

A totally fun rom -com. A enemies to lovers trope done with fresh dialogue and great characters in a story that starts with a fake wedding date that turns into something these childhood enemies never expected.