I’m not really into the whole “enemies to lovers” trope, but this one was hilarious. I’ll definitely be reading more from this author.

This was a sweet enemies to lovers story. And made even better because they were enemies in childhood! Plus he’s her brother’s best friend. Heck. Yes.

Their romance is really sweet, but what I enjoyed most was watching them help each other through their difficulties: hers, overcoming a bad breakup and his, dealing with PTSD from his job.

Indira walks in on her boyfriend deep in the throes of another woman, so she turns to her brother for a place to call home. However, she gets an unexpected surprise when her childhood enemy and brother's best friend, Jude, answers the door. She has no compassion for him, until she begins to notice some small changes. For example, he's jumpy at loud noises and acts even more awkward. The two decide to put aside their differences and go as far as to fake date during the wedding festivities. They soon find the fake part isn't necessary!

I loved this rom-com! It had frenemies-turned-lovers, forced proximity, and fake dating. The relatable characters dealt with real-life issues, making it heartwarming. While heavier than the first book, it balanced hilarity, witty banter, life lessons, and steaminess. The dual narration in the audiobook brought the emotions to life, keeping me engaged. Jude's hardships tugged at my heart. Although I read it as a standalone, I now plan to read the second book. It surpassed my expectations, but the first book will always hold a special place in my heart. Indira's perfect life is disrupted when she catches her cheating boyfriend during her brother's wedding. Staying with her brother, she finds Jude, her childhood nemesis, as an unexpected house guest. Reluctantly becoming each other's plus-ones, they discover their mutual dislike may have been a misconception all along.

I’m obsessed with this book! The audiobook narrators were absolutely perfect.

The way this deals with mental health issues is beautiful and perfect. The stigma, the way people are afraid to say anything, the embarrassment. And to see it in the male main character was so refreshing.

The side characters are amazing as well. Her gay brother and his fiancé literally make the book.

I highly recommend this book as well as the previous books in this series. Mazey Eddings is so talented.

Book 2 might be my favorite only because I related to Lizzie so much, but this book is a close contender and they’re both so freaking good.

Mazey Eddings’ has a gift for describing the indescribable. As someone who suffers from depression and anxiety, putting words to those emotions is difficult, to say the least. While The Plus One is a fictional story, reader’s will be able to tell it is rooted in reality.

I adore this book for its great representation of mental health. It does a phenomenal job highlighting the various types of trauma a person can experience. No matter what tour education, gender, or socioeconomic status is, mental health can effect anyone.

*I was able to both read and listen to the audiobook. I thought the narrators did a wonderful job!!!

Special thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Netgalley, and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read and listen to this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

I love Mazzy Eddings. Her entire series on these friends is perfect. This is the 3rd book in her series about a group of friends finding love in unexpected places. My favorite part is that each character is struggling with some form of mental health or are put in situations that exacerbate normal stress. It is a great way of looking at yourself through these characters and how they cope. Along with handling these issues well, there is comedic relief, sweet moments and perfect moments of friendship and family. I especially appreciated the trigger warnings at the beginning of the book so I was prepared.

As usual, this authir never disappoints. Loved this one and she’s become an auto buy for me. The gold standard of rom com romance. Loved it!

This book is heavier than the synopsis makes it sound, so I would first listen to the content warnings and assess if you are ready to read it. There were parts of this book that I enjoyed and parts that I didn’t like. I initially liked Indira, but she is so emotional over everything. Her main trauma is with her father who abandoned her and her brother. She also caught her boyfriend cheating on her in the beginning of this story. But she cried over everything, even things that weren’t happening directly to her. She cried almost as many times as Jude did, who has clear PTSD and depression and anxiety. She just got to be too much for me, and I didn’t want her to end up with Jude. Jude on the other hand was such a complex character. I related to him with staying in a toxic job because you feel stuck and like you have no choice. I thought he had a great story arc and really grew throughout the story. I thought the mental health representation in this story was excellent, and I would still recommend it to others even if I thought the beginning was stronger than the middle and ending.

The Plus One is the 3rd book on the A Brush with Love series. The story follows Jude and Indira. Indira is lucky enough to have a place to stay (her brother's) after finding her boyfriend having a peanut butter sex-scape with an0other woman in her apartment. Unfortunately her brother's best friend is staying at her brother's place because of the proximity of the brother's wedding. Jude is a Dr who has seen the most awful things you could imagine while working war devastated countries and is trying to find his center. Even though Jude and Indira don't get along, they decide to fake date to support one another during the wedding festivities.
This book deals with serious things like mental health, anxiety and real life issues. Is funny, steamy and charming. Is an easy read, perfect for the beach or a lazy afternoon.

I think this author just isn’t for me. From the beginning this book was so negative and just not a fun romance to read. I didn’t enjoy it at all.

Sweet romance. Childhood enemies. Fake dating. Enemies to lovers. Chemistry leaps off the page. Relatable characters.

An absolutely darling novel that I would reread in a heartbeat!

I fall in love with Eddings' characters every time. I loved getting to know Indira and Jude. Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake was a total smash hit for me, so I was unsurprised at how quickly I fell in love with The Plus One.

The chemistry in this book is so gorgeous and makes for a quick and fun read. What I loved most about this book was the complexity of Indira and Jude's mental health and the role it played in the novel. It was so powerful to see characters grappling with anxiety and PTSD while navigating love.

This one will stay with me for a while. Eddings does a phenomenal job bringing characters to life.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.75 out of 5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I will admit to never having read the first two books in this series but I really loved this one. I guess I will have to read the others. Mazey Eddings is a fantastic author. First off Indira and Jude were extremely well written and actually very real characters. The narrators Joe Arden and Imani Jade Powers had me hooked right away.

The tropes in this? Well, they are some of my favorite tropes, frenemies to lovers and fake dating. I love the way that this novel handles PTSD. As someone who suffers from it I really felt seen. There is some spice in it but it was very sweet. Pick this up!

I absolutely love this author and I LOVE this series. One of my favorite books last year was Lizze Blake's Best Mistake, so it's no surprise that I also loved her newest one!! This book was so cute, and funny too, but with plenty of deep and truly meaningful moments. I really love and appreciate the way the author handles different areas of mental health throughout the book, and the positivity/support surrounding therapy and medication! Jude and Indira's story was sweet and absolutely beautiful in the way they understood each other and healed each other heal.

I read this as an audiobook and thought it was perfect! I loved both narrators and thought they did a phenomenal job. I was immediately pulled into the story and didn't want to stop listening!

I love that this book had a perfect mix of humor and emotional scenes. The characters were really fleshed out and meshed so well together and I liked that this had these tidbits of tropes like fake dating without it feeling like it was too much trope. The characters each had their own issues that they needed to work through and it balanced out really well.

The discussions of mental health, especially in the medical field profession was really great, especially as someone in the medical field! The audiobook felt engaging and the narrators did such a good job conveying the emotions!

Overall, I would definitely recommend this because of the mental health discussions more than I would the romance. The romance in general was cute and I liked the individual AND together growth that the characters did throughout the book.

Mazey Eddings is officially an auto-buy author for me. Even when I thought I wouldn't end up liking her work, I end up LOVING it. Her writing is just so raw but relatable, cackling funny and sobbing emotional. Her characters are ones you want to be friends with in real life. They face challenges we all are familiar with and how they handle their issues is so well done. I do think this book is my favourite of the series, but I can absolutely confidently say Jude is my favourite book boyfriend of all three!

The Plus One takes on two of my favourite tropes - childhood friends/enemies to lovers/best friends brother and it does NOT LET YOU DOWN in the steam department! But there's just SO much more to the relationship between our two main characters in this one. It's a romance novel with so much substance and oopmh, you know?

I enjoyed this cute romance! It was so nice to read a healthy relationship where both characters had issues to work on. The growth through this book was so cathartic. Plus no 3rd act break up!

Tropes:
Brother’s best friend
Childhood enemies
Enemies to lovers

Potential Triggers:
Cheating
PTSD

This was the perfect audiobook to start spring with. I listened to it to and from work and most of the time didn't want to get out of the car. I just wanted to stay and listen to this book. The characters were amazing and it was fast paced. The narration was pleasing to listen to.

This book was fantastic. Make you laugh, cry, swoon, and blush fantastic. Go get it. You’ll thank me later.

I typically prefer audiobooks and if this wasn’t an ALC I would have absolutely stopped the audio and purchased the ebook for a hybrid read. I had 42 bookmarks for this book. 42! I’ve never wanted to highlight or digitally annotate more in my life.

This book has swoon, humor, and spice (open door). Somehow, Mazey was able to weave all three elements together beautifully while still tackling some heavy topics like PTSD, mental health, divorce, infidelity, and abandonment. As someone who has been struggling with anxiety and depression, I found her emphasis on mental health to be incredibly refreshing.

Tropes: Brother’s best friend, forced proximity, fake dating, and childhood “enemies” to friends to lovers. So many good ones! I like the author’s use of some of these as it’s not the typical drawn-out fake dating (since some of the friends/family are in on it) and childhood enemies might be more like frenemies.

Characters: Indira is smart and witty. At times her humor might have even borderline on juvenile but in the best way. Jude is kind, sweet, and so swoony. I immediately connected with his journey to healing. I loved the vulnerability between the two of them and watching their growth in the process. Oh, and their banter was top-notch.

🎧 This is my first audiobook with either of these narrators. I thought their voices matched well with the characters, enhancing the overall experience. The book had some emotionally gutting moments and I really felt what the characters were experiencing because of their superb performances.

This was the third book in a series but can be read as a standalone, which is what I did. The first two books are Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake and A Brush with Love.

This review was posted to social on publication day and listed under monthly favorites.