Mazey Eddings writes the most perfectly imperfect characters. I love them all! This book touches on several heavy topics (cheating, divorce, absent parents, and PTSD) and still manages to leave you feeling good. The way the main characters are all there for each other, lifting each other up, is refreshing. I really enjoyed this and I will continue to grab every book that she releases!
Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
I was provided a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Childhood enemies/friends turn into more in this rom-com that continues this series about a group of girlfriends. Indira and Jude reunite for her brother’s wedding, and they come together to be in a fake relationship. Along the way, they pick on each other and fight, but find that they have so much more in common. It’s a cute story that does touch on a few more serious issues.

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the arc.

What starts out as a fake wedding date turns into something these childhood enemies never expected in the next sparkling romantic comedy by Mazey Eddings.

Some facts are indisputable. The sun rises in the east, sets in the west. Gravity exits. 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.

My thoughts:
This was my first Mazey Eddings book and I enjoyed reading it. I felt the characters were well developed and I really enjoyed the relationships between Indira and her brother and Indira and Jude. I'll definitely be checking out the rest of this series!

thank you netgalley and st martins press for this arc!!

Super cute a d fun! This book starts of great anf just gets better. Tge who story was super fun and a great rom com for valentines day. Would recommend!

I think I have a new book boyfriend & his name is Jude.

This book gave me so much more than anticipated. I have read all three books Mazey has released in this series, and it is so bittersweet to see it come to a close. I adored A Brush with Love and enjoyed Lizzie’s story as well. With all of that being said, The Plus One takes the cake. The depth, writing style and emotion that flowed from this book was incredible.

Mazey always does an amazing job depicting mental health in a constructive, digestible and relatable manner.

It has been so beautiful watching Mazey Eddings develop her own unique writing style. I cannot wait to continue to follow her journey as an author (and buy a hard copy of this book when it releases).

Thank you to SMP Romance and Net Galley for the eARC.

Enemies to lovers, brother’s best friend, one “bed” trope and metal health rep.. what more could you ask for in a rom-com?

Indira has everything together or so she thought. After walking in on her boyfriend cheating on her, she goes to stay with her brother and his fiancé. But she wasn’t expecting Jude to open the door when she got there. Jude has been working as a traveling emergency doctor around the world and he came back for his best friend’s wedding. He’s been trying to deal with some trauma from his job and the only person that seems to help him is Indira..

This book was incredible. I loved every aspect of the story. The mental health rep was very well written and you can’t help but fall in love with these characters. I loved watching Jude and Indira’s relationship grow throughout the book. There’s some funny parts in the story but overall, it deals with some series mental health topics. And don’t let the cover fool you.. there is some major spice in this book!

If you’re looking for a fast paced, heavier rom-com then I highly suggest picking this one up on April 4th!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the e-arc!

3.5 stars- This was a really moving love story. I’d read the first book in the series (but skipped the second because of the pregnancy storyline), so I wasn’t surprised by the more serious tone of the book. Considering the cute cover and description, I don’t know if others would expect the same. I loved that there was no third act misunderstanding or breakup that almost always occurs in romance/rom-coms. I also appreciated that even though the main characters get together rather quickly in book, because they’ve known each other so closely since childhood, it doesn’t come across as insta-love. The transition from “hate” to love feels natural and realistic. The parts of the story where Indira helped and comforted Jude were especially moving. I liked that this book was so pro-therapy and self acceptance. It was interesting to read that the fictional organization Jude worked for in the book is based on those that actually exist and I only hope that those doctors are offered more support and empathy by their organizations.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me access to this eARC for my honest opinion!

The Plus One by Mazey Eddings
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This book. Let me start by saying, I read this way back in September last year when I got an early ARC. I loved it just as much as the first two of Mazey's first books, and this is what I wrote immediately after finishing it:

"Don't mind me just laying here in bed freaking out about how good this was, how good the series was, and how I need to read them all again but just need to bask in Indira and Jude for a little while since my heart feels like it could burst! Mazey slayed it again! Childhood nemeses to lovers, fake dating, and incredible mental health rep... Wow!"

As I said, the MCs in the final book in this series, Indira and Jude, are so precious! This story dives deep into mental health and other serious topics while also delivering on both hilarious and just plain lovely moments. They decide to fake date for a series of wedding events to save them both from stressful situations and, as per usual, fake dating never leaves you not feeling some kind of way for the other person.

I have indeed decided to reread the first two in the series (A Brush With Love and Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake) before my pre-order for The Plus One arrives, at which point I will immediately read it again. I recommend you do the same before this book is released on Apr 4/23!

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the ARC, and thank you @mazeyeddings for this story!

#ThePlusOne #MazeyEddings #StMartinsPress #NetGalley #ARC #AmReading #RomanceNovel #Trilogy

The Plus One
By: Mazey Eddings
Review Score: 3 1/2 Stars


Five Key Feels

-No spoilers, but this book started with a bang, and I was cracking up.

-I loved the evolution of Jude and Indira’s relationship.

-It was fun to watch their fake dating, especially with so much history.

-Collin and Indira have a really amazing support system, even though they had a hard childhood.

-It was sad to read about Jude’s trauma, and it was something I was not expecting.


——

The Plus One was kindly provided as an ARC by Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press. Thank you for allowing me to read this wonderful book!

Release Date: 4/18/23

I started this book thinking it would be a fun and light hearted, fake dating, enemies to lovers romance.

While there was a good amount of that, there was also quite a bit of sadness and drama, which I was not expecting.

Don’t get me wrong, this was a really engaging book, and I enjoyed it. It just had more of the sadness element, maybe a little too much for me.

Regardless, I think this is a good book, and worth reading. Just, set your expectations a little bit!


#bookstagram #books #readingnow #boogiereadsbooks #fivekeyfeels #audiobooks #audiobook #fiction #arcreview #netgalley #theplusone #mazeyeddings #stmartinspress

Indira and Jude have disliked each other since childhood, but agree to fake date to help each other through Collin's (Indira's brother/Jude's best friend) wedding.

Ooh I really enjoyed this one. We get all the fun rom com tropes — frenemies to lovers, brother's best friend, fake dating, forced proximity — plus some serious discussions around mental health.

I love that our pair have known (and disliked) one another since they were kids and their favorite pastime is roasting the other. The digs were all in good fun and made for great banter.

There is a lot of heart too as Indira sees Jude struggling with PTSD and worms her way past his emotional barriers to try and provide comfort and help.

A great story overall that blends heart and humor with some steamy scenes. It's technically part of a series but can easily be read as a standalone.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for this early review copy.

This book made me have all the feelings and laugh within the first few pages! Indira discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her so she goes to stay with her older brother. Who opens the door? Her brother best friend and her childhood enemy, Jude.

Jude is back in town for his best friends wedding after 3 years of being a surgeon in humanitarian crises around the world. Suffering from PTSD, Indira is the only one who truly sees him and how he is struggling.

With her brothers wedding coming up, the two make a deal to fake date. It helps Indira save face in front of her ex and his new girl, and allows Jude an excuse to disappear when the celebrations become to much.

The result is tension, confused feelings, discoveries, and amazing banter. I loved the lack of third act break up and the A+ communication.



Tropes: brothers best friend, fake dating, enemies to lovers
Content warnings: ptsd, parental abandonment

Simply put. I loved Jude and Indira's story.

The enemies banter ("Indira: do you want to lunch with me? Or dinner? Jude: I don't eat." 🤣🤣), the supportive friends and family (getting to see friends from earlier books in the series, Jude watching greys with Collin. And Collin quoting pick me choose me love me. The fact that Jude's parents bet money decades ago that they'd eventually end up together🤣🤣).

They both truly fought FOR each other. But on that note, while the romance was light and full of butterflies, the overall story was heavy. I absolutely loved Jude from the get go and my heart absolutely broke for him every step of the way. I loved Indira's support without being overly pushy. At one point telling him "to get the air you need but when you come back we'll move forward together." I questioned at some point the handling of certain moments but this part wrecked me for him, for them. The ending felt a little rushed and I wish the epilogue focused on the two of them rather than the whole series friend group, but ending with showing the entire support system, the found family, felt right for the content of the story.

Now onto rereading the first two books in the series to sit with these characters for a little bit longer 😊


Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my review!

Where do I begin? The first half of this book is all the tropes and I wanted to just lick the pages. Enemies to lover but also brother’s best friend with a sprinkle of close proximity/one bed or in this case one small camping tent. (Chef’s kiss right there!) But …ok this book got heavy and the last bit I guess I still need to digest.

The mood of Massey third book was a lot less bubbly then A Brush with Love and Lizzie Blake’s best mistake. And I don’t know if I like that. I was expecting bubbly and for the most party the book delivered but it didn’t end with that happily ever after feeling you expect in a romcom. It ended on a ‘we are all human and we make mistakes but we just kind of power through and so we find the happy moments vibe. ‘


Thank you NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review. The Plus One will be available April 4, 2023.

This book was such a delight to read. I went in without any expectations after reading an arc of Tilly in Technicolour. I loved the way the story was set up and I appreciated the respective struggles that each character faced. I enjoyed this book as a romance but it also had a deep amount of emotional content which heightened my enjoyment of the novel. The banter between Indira and Jude made me laugh out loud while reading. I’ll definitely be reading the first books in the series as soon as possible.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

With her last novel in this series, Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake Mazey Eddings has become an auto-buy author for me. She has a way of creating these beautiful, messy, relatable, lovable characters. Indira and Jude are no different. In this book she masterfully tackles PTSD and difficult family dynamics (abandonment primarily). While Indira and Jude show no mercy in roasting each other and Collin (Indira's brother and Jude's best friend), the sweetness, love and tenderness they also show each other is just beautiful. Sweet and tender, funny and heartbreaking, Mazey does it again in The Plus One. Absolutely, 1000% recommend this book. Now please tell me we are getting Thu's story soon!

I loved A Brush With Love and Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake so much that I put Mazey Eddings at the very top of my instant read list. After reading The Plus One, I can confidently say that she will continue to hold this title. Eddings is a master at writing witty, angsty, and steamy romance with characters who feel authentic and experiences that feel real. While a lot of romance novels prefer to stay 'cute' and surface level, this book has no problem getting emotionally deep. This book contained one of the most honest, well done handlings of anxiety and PTSD that I've ever read in a fiction novel, without sacrificing the heartwarming and sweet tones readers come to romance for. It had me feeling every emotion in a manner of a few hours and will firmly sit at the top of my favorites list for books I've read this year. If you're looking for a steamy, fake-dating, dislike to love romance with a lot of heart, The Plus One is the book for you!

This book follows Indira, a psychiatrist, and her big brothers life ling best friend Jude, an emergency surgery working oversees.

I loved the banter between these two characters. They dig at one another and drive one another crazy, but that is their love language.

I had a really hard time getting through this book. I personally found it bounced from one place to another without a great flow. It was loaded with detail, which I usually appreciate, but at times it was just too much.

There may be some triggers included cheating and PTSD.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. All of these thoughts are my own.

I absolutely adored The Plus One! I have loved every book of the A Brush With Love series but this one was just so special. We’ve gotten to know Indira over the last two books and getting to read her story made me understand and appreciate her character so much more. Raw, emotional, perfectly imperfect characters, Philly, amazing friendship, a hilarious creature cat and full of so much love. 5/5⭐️



Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review

This is the third of Mazey Eddings books that I have read and she has quickly become a favorite. Her characters feel like friends. She is funny, witty heartwarming and still also writes seriously steamy scenes too. I truly enjoyed this enemies to lovers story of Jude and Indira. One aspect I truly appreciate in Eddings books is including characters with real world struggles. I will continue reading everything Mazey writes.

I received this book ARC through NetGallery. This book is the last in the Brush with Love series. This book was my favorite in the series! The book followed Indira, child psychiatrist and Jude, her brothers childhood best friend. Indira walks in on her boyfriend with another woman using her organic peanut butter. She decides that she’s had enough of this guy and goes to her brother’s house to stay. When she arrives at her brother's, she find Jude there, who seems less like himself. Jude is home for Indira’s brother Colin’s wedding. Jude has been working for the Global Health Organization around the globe providing emergency care in war torn countries. Jude is struggling to adjust to his everyday life. Due to Indira’s breakup with her boyfriend (her future brother in law's cousin and fellow wedding party member) and Jude’s growing anxiety, they agree to pretend date to support each other. The story follows the progress on Jude and Indira’s friendship as well as improving ones mental health. Harper, Dan, Thu, Lizzie and Rake make various appearances in the book. I love how openly this book talks about mental health.

My favorite quotes:
“We don’t have to be perfect. I know I can fall apart with you. I can thrash and struggle and slog through my demons and your arms will always hold me. Let me be that for you.”

“Loving yourself isn’t a sin, Jude. Giving yourself love won’t diminish the love and caring you give to others. In fact, it’s one of the best things you can do for the people in your life.”