Mazey Eddings has quickly become one of my favorite authors. I love her other books and this one was no exception. Her including mental health issues is something I really admire because it’s just not brought up in books enough. I loved the characters and I love the story line. Even though I read this digitally, I will be purchasing a hard copy!

Things I liked:

The concept of the book
That it wasn't just a feel good romance

Things I didn’t like:
The writing seemed disjointed.
The sex scenes were vivid and unnecessary. Language was vulgar at best.

This book was written beautifully from beginning to end. The character development throughout the book is truly remarkable, with both the hero and heroine being broken and a part of their souls missing they found love in that path that helped them lead to rebuilding themselves together. There’s a quote by Edgar Allen Poe “there’s no superb beauty without some sort of strangeness in the proportions.”. I take that quote as there is no pure beauty in something perfect, to be truest perfect you also have to be a bit broken and this book perfectly sums that up in the beautiful book. Is now my favourite book from the series by Mazey Eddings

Indira finally gets her book! I've loved her through all of the other novels and I was so excited to read this.

Dira and Jude grew up together and have annoyed each other since then. Now they're forced to be together to celebrate Dira's brother Collin's wedding and meeting as grown ups is a little different than when they were kids. Sparks fly, but can they overcome the serious obstacles in their way?

I love how Mazey Eddings writes characters with mental health issues - they're very, very real and her books are so relatable.

I only hope Thu's book is next!

This book is a gem. It’s a wonderful balance of funny lines and heavy topics. A contemporary romance full of delicious tropes: fake dating, brother’s best friend and one bed (tent). The chemistry was perfect and the banter had me laughing out loud over and over again. Then, on the other side, this book covers heavy topics: parental abandonment, PTSD, other mental health issues. This book is woven together so beautifully that it never feels too heavy. Instead it feels realistic. Their therapists say things that my therapist says. This book was entertaining and had me feeling all the feels. I highly recommend it.

While being the 3rd book in the series, it can be read as a stand alone.

Thank you to @netgalley, @stmartinspress, and @mazeyeddings for the eARC if this book. All opinions are my own.

Grad your copy April 4th 2023!

Thanks to St Martin's Press and Netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

You know, I really wanted to like this. I always really want to like romance novels, and they never quite pan out to be something I enjoy? Which is silly because I am so often a sucker for contemporary aus in fic. But romance novels rarely hit those same buttons. Which is what happened here.

Like. Indira and Jude are both interesting characters, even if I think the plot didn't grant Indira as much space as I wish she had gotten? But overall it was a book that gave both characters compelling arcs that felt both separate and tied together! I just.... wasn't invested. Which is very much a personal problem, but yeah! Generally solid writing, but probably not my thing at the end of the day (despite the fact I keep Trying).

Thank you, Net Galley, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Indira and Jude have been childhood enemies since the beginning of time. So when Indira walks in on her boyfriend cheating on her, the last thought in her mind is using Jude for a date to the wedding where she will have to be around her ex all week. As they slowly “fake” their romance, they start to question some of the feelings they are both experiencing.

This rom com has it all- enemies to lovers, fake wedding date… all my favorite tropes! I also really appreciated the normalization of mental health care in this book. Such a great read!

This is Mazey Eddings best book so far! This book was funny, spicy, and most importantly it addresses mental health issues that many other rom-coms don't. Reading this book felt like getting a warm hug but for your brain. Jude and Indira's chemistry was off the charts and I loved all of the banter that they had. Both of the leads had great character development and I love getting cameo's from Mazey's previous books. I can't wait to read whatever Mazey Eddings releases next!
Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

After absolutely loving A Brush with Love & Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake by Mazey Eddings, I adored this book within 24 hours.

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO THE AUTHOR, PUBLISHER & NETGALLEY FOR THE ARC❤️

This book is sooooo beautifully written😍💕💖✨️💫
It has Childhood Enemies-to-lovers, brother’s best friend, Only one tent + other forced proximity shenanigans trope.

We get to see New wonderful side characters & also Cameos from our old beloved side characters as well💗

The book is laugh out loud funny while also dealing with serious topics like anxiety, depression, PTSD, mental illness/health, and therapy.

THE PLUS ONE COMES OUT 04 Apr 2023!

This book was cute! I enjoyed Indira and Jude’s banter a lot! They were definitely an interesting pairing! They had a cute dynamic. There was points in the book that I felt dragged but overall it was a decent book!

Such a fun read! A delightful and sweepingly romantic story. I adored this funny,intelligent, creative and witty rom com.

Mazey’s books always take me some time to get to them. Maybe it’s because of how they are written and that I am not fluent when reading in third person (if that’s a thing). But even with that, I will read anything that says “Written by Mazey Eddings”. She knows how to write and describe everything so well. In this book, it got to me how much I felt the characters PTSD and anxiety. I laughed, cried, and fell in love. This has become a personal fave, including her two previous books. I am honored to have received this eARC.

Now on to the details…
Brother’s best friend
Dual POV (third person)
PTSD
Wedding
Fake dating
Childhood frenemies
Mental Health Rep

I have to say that this book was full of emotions and was very sentimental. Never underestimating trigger warnings with Mazey’s books. I always feel them too deeply.

MAZEY EDDINGS IS ONE OF THEEEE BEST ROMANCE AUTHORS OF THE YEAR!

I loved her first book in the series, A Brush With Love, and Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake was even better. I was SO excited to read the final book in this companion series, The Plus One. We follow Indira and her brother's best-man /childhood friend, Jude. This book is so wholesome but also steamy in the way only Mazey Eddings can pull off! Wedding vibes (Indira's brother is getting married), brother's best friend, fake dating, male pining (aka all the best tropes) with appearances from all our favorite characters from the other two books. I can't recommend this book enough!

Definitely would recommend. Quick cute read with lots of chemistry. Similar to The Love Hypothesis.

I would give this book a 4/5 stars. I read it in one day. The chemistry between Indirà and Jude was definitely there. I love the banter they had throughout the book. Jude is just adorable as well. He’s shy and reserved and she gets him to open up and finally express his feelings. It’s almost like a sub-trope of grumpy x sunshine. Some of the tropes in this book are:

- fake dating
- childhood enemies to lovers
- brothers best friend

This book is part of a series but it can be read as a standalone.

When Indira walks in on her boyfriend in a compromising situation, she moves to her brothers house and finds his bestfriend. Indira and Jude have never really gotten along, until now. Indira’s brother is getting married and her ex is going to be at the wedding. So when Jude suggests that he be Indira’s fake boyfriend p, she says yes. But what happens when things don’t feel fake anymore? Read The Plus One and find out.

(Thank you NetGalley for the ARC)

Following in the big footsteps of A Brush With Love and Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake, The Plus One proved to be a worthy conclusion to one of the best series I read this year, solidifying Mazey Eddings as one of my favorite authors!

In The Plus One, Indira finds herself an unlikely ally in Jude, her older brother’s best friend. In order to get back at her cheating ex-boyfriend, Jude and Indira plan to fake a relationship in the months before her brother’s wedding. Though they have known each other since childhood, they’ve never been particular fond of each other, making this master plan of theirs a bit trickier than expected.

Similar to her handling of Harper’s anxiety and Lizzie’s ADHD, I was impressed by the way Eddings tackled such heavy topics in this book. In particular, Jude’s struggles with trauma and guilt. Those feelings felt so intense and raw to me as the reader. To witness the journey he made back to himself, back to a place of healing and acceptance was wonderful.

Truthfully, I was never to say goodbye to this world and these characters that I have loved so much, but this farewell was perfect. I loved Indira and Jude’s growth and connection so much and can’t wait to see what Mazey gifts us with next!

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Mazey Eddings for this eARC in exchange for a honest review.

Frenemies to lovers
Brothers Best Friend
Only One Tent
Fake Dating
Light Grumpy Sunshine Vibes
PTSD
Childhood Abandonment

Jude and Indira go through a beautiful journey of healing in this book. It’s dealt with in a touching way that still holds true to the lightness and playfulness of these characters. Their love story is one of my favorites I’ve read this year. This book is funny with smart characters, fun banter, and an arc I am absolutely here for.

Masterfully done. I felt it all.

Mazey Eddings does it again! If you like fun romantic comedies especially with a wedding backdrop then this novel is for you. The romance is fun and Eddings as always brings to life fun and enjoyable characters with her writing. This is one book you will not wanna miss out on.

This book had its moments but there were some things that I just couldn’t look past which overall made this disappointing for me. Something that frustrates me is when the reasons for a specific characters actions/behaviour are kept a secret for so long or are not properly explained until the end, which was the case with Jude in this book. When the reason for Jude’s ptsd was brought up, I honestly found it a little hard to sympathize with him. (Kind of a side note, but what also unsettled me is that this author has said she wouldn’t be writing a book about thu and alex because of the racial backgrounds of those characters, but she wrote this storyline for Jude. I don’t know, but that didn’t really sit right with me.) As for the actual romance between Jude and Indira, they definitely had some sweet and vulnerable moments with each other which were nice to read about but something was lacking in their development. I didn’t feel that they knew each other as well as they said they did. I did appreciate that there wasn’t the typical third act break up and that Indira seemed to always handle things with Aude with emotional maturity, and they were supportive of each others’ healing journeys. as with each book in this series, no matter how I felt about it otherwise, I thought the mental health aspect was done (mostly) well and there were some things that really resonated with me. Because of that, I’ll be looking out for Mazey Eddings’s future books.

thank you to Netgalley/St. Martin’s Press for the arc!

Fake dating??? One bed??? Older brothers best friend??? Amazing!!

CW: PTSD, anxiety, abandonment, loss of a medical patient, humanitarian crisis

I was expecting this to be more cozy than I was however I really, really loved reading it. There’s no shortage of cute and sweet moments, of scenes that make you laugh and one’s that make you feel something. And the spice 🔥🔥

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. What a soft book. It felt like a love story to therapy and personal healing…Jude and Indira’s love felt inevitable and almost secondary to that. I loved their history and foundation, it made the fact that the love story didn’t feel central work. They had a history and could help each heal from their hurts without it seeming like they were trying to save each other (mainly Indira). If they had just met it would have felt like she was giving too much of herself when he was pushing her away.

I adored Jude. He was vulnerable but also hot as hell. And I liked their love. It was solid.

Despite the heavier topic of ptsd, I didn’t emotionally connect and feel my feelings in this book which kept it from being five stars. Maybe because the relationship was secondary and there wasn’t higher angst involved with it which I tend to enjoy as a reader.