I really enjoyed this story, the premise was really sweet and fun. The main characters were great to read about and their romance blossomed so lovely.

Indira has just fled to her older brother Collin’s house, along with her cat, after finding her boyfriend Chris in a compromising position. To make matters worse, her brother’s childhood friend Jude is also staying there in the run up to Collin and Jeremy’s wedding. Indira, Collin and Jude grew up together, but she and Jude have never really got on. The extended wedding celebrations mean that Jude and Indira will both be faced with difficult situations they would rather avoid, so they agree to be each others ‘fake date’ for the duration. As they have an extensive backstory, and know each other a lot better than people who have just met, this changes the dynamics.
Jude is suffering from PTSD due to having spent the last three years working as a trauma surgeon in conflict zones and disaster areas all over the world. To put it mildly, he is in a bad way. Indira is a psychiatrist and while she offers support and suggests that he needs help, she does not act as his therapist. This strand of the narrative is dealt with in a sensitive manner, and the serious nature of Jude’s condition is offset by humour. Indira is also working through some issues of her own relating to her father leaving when she was very young. This is not a light-hearted rom-com; the main characters are damaged emotionally, but they do grow and change as the story progresses.
The Plus One is the third book in the series ‘A Brush with Love’ by Mazey Eddings. I have not read any of the others, but it made no difference as I found The Plus One worked fine as a standalone. Characters from the other books do make an appearance, but I was more interested in Jude and Indira’s story. This will definitely not be the last book I read by Mazey Eddings. Thanks to Headline Eternal and NetGalley for a digital copy to review.

"The Plus One" by Mazey Eddings is a captivating exploration of love, ambition, and the complexities of modern dating. Eddings' storytelling combines humor and introspection as the protagonist, Polly, navigates the world of online dating and balancing her career. The characters are genuine, their experiences relatable. This book is a witty and heartfelt reflection on the ups and downs of contemporary romance, offering insights into the search for love, companionship, and self-discovery.

I really enjoyed this story, even if I wasn't aware that this was actually the third in a series of books.
You can definitely read this as a stand alone story but it will no doubt add more to the reading experience if you have read the two previous books.
I appreciated that there wasn’t an unnecessary third act breakup or miscommunication just for the sake of it, like there usually is in these kinds of books.
I also liked their back and forth banter and that there was a real connection between them.
Were there maybe too many romance tropes happening at once? Yes. We didn't necessarily need all of them.
But this was still a quick and easy read, even with the serious topics such as PTSD and trauma that are explored.
I'm looking forward to reading more from Mazey Eddings in the future.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately I wasn't really a fan of this one, but I think that it's largely due to personal taste rather than the actual story itself. There's just a lot going on plot wise, and I went in expecting light enemies to lovers romance and left with a whole baggage full of mental health discussions and self discovery moments. There's a lot of therapy talk, and just on a personal level, I didn't like that and it really put me off the characters. As someone who's gone through multiple rounds of therapy, I found it a bit off putting.

There's also a lot more than just the enemies to lovers trope going on, and I think this would have benefitted from being parred down and scaled back a bit. There was no real need for fake dating, brothers best friend etc. The story could have easily been told without these tropes that were essentially used to flesh out the characters backstory and which I found to be a bit lazy in execution.

There's good writing in here, and potential for some really nice romantic stories, but the plot overall just didn't hold my attention and personal tastes.

I really loved this book, it was absolutely adorable. There's we're a few sensitive issues included but I feel like the author wrote them so well. Would definitely recommend!

Thanks to Netgalleyfor the advance copy. This is my first book from Mazey Eddings and I really enjoyed it. It was romantic and was also about kindness, care and compassion for others. Jude was in a bad way and Indira accepted him and let him heal whilst she stood with him in support. Highly recommend.

I loved the first two books in this fantastic series and while I also enjoyed this last one, it is my least favorite. The story focuses on Indira, who just wants to be loved, but after finding her boyfriend with another woman, she realizes that she still hasn’t found it. Enter Jude, her brother’s best friend, she’s known him since they were children, and they never went along. With her brother’s wedding fast approaching, they spend more and more time together and they agree to fake dating, but, of course, hate turns to something completely different. Although there are many funny and hilarious scenes, the author addresses some serious themes like childhood drama and PTSD that were described in an informative and well-researched way. The romance is also intriguing, but, for me, there were too many tropes: childhood friends, brother’s best friend, enemies to lovers, fake dating, just one bed (in this case just one tent), and, personally, they were a few too many. All in all, I enjoyed The Plus One, with its steamy scenes, the witty banter, and the happy ending for all the characters in the series!

I love Jude. He was the cutest MMC. He is dealing with PTSD from his job and I just wanted him to be okay. Indira is a psychiatrist and you can just see over time how they help each other and go from enemies, to friends to lovers and it was so cute to read. Mazey has done a fantastic job with the rep within this book and it was a really fun read.

“You can hurt and also be loved. You can feel sadness and also laugh and feel joy. Good emotions can coexist with hard ones. You can struggle and suffer and learn to heal while you also love. The best place to start is by giving yourself permission to feel with abandon. Feel everything."

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Book: The Plus One
Author: Mazey Eddings

Mazey Eddings has quickly become one of my favourite romance writers, she always provides fun, quick reads with incredible mental health representation. Mazey always brings a sort of heaviness to her romcoms, which I absolutely love. Jude is suffering with PTSD due to his job, and with Indira being a psychiatrist, she is the perfect person to help him with his trauma. They bond, and a beautiful romance blossoms. Whilst it was heartbreaking, it was also beautiful to read.

That doesn’t mean that the whole book was heavy and sad though, far from it. We have some fake dating, brothers best friend and forced proximity. The chemistry between Indira and Jude was so believable, and bullying is my love language too, so I adored this 😂

Read if you love/are looking for:
💙 Dislike to lovers
💙 PTSD rep
💙 Forced proximity
💙 Brothers best friend
💙 Fake dating
💙 One bed trope

(Thank you to @headlineeternal for the EARC! 🫶🏻)

Mazey Eddings is one of the most underrated authors of the romance genre. I only recently delved into her books and this latest one did not disappoint, Eddings writing style has you gripped from the word go and the way she describes the journey of her characters is realistic, relatable and fun. I've recently found the audiobook version of this story and cannot wait to listen to it. One of the easiest 5 stars I have given.

Well I felt like a wrung out sponge after reading The Plus One, in the best possible way. He sobbed, she sobbed, I sobbed we all sobbed and felt much better for it in the end. Indira is an overworked child psychologist who comes home from work to find her boyfriend doing unspeakable things on the couch with a jar of peanut butter and a willing blonde. Indira packs up her worldly goods her temperamental cat and hot foots it to her brother house only to find his best friend and her childhood nemesis in residence. Jude has spent the last three years touring the world worst conflict areas plying his trade as an emergency surgeon to pay off his medical school debts, Jude’s mental health is hanging by a thread but only Indira seems to notice. In the lead up to Indira’s brothers wedding the pair band together to help each other through it. This was so good. I was a tote emo fest. Eddings has a way of tiring the physical to the emotional that speaks to my wintered black heart. Jude’s struggle in heartbreaking. Most of his chapters made me cry. In the last two books when we saw Indira she always appeared the most together of the group but in reality she’s as messed up as everyone else. She also has a magnificent temper and excellent flounce two things which I admire greatly. I loved the Plus One it left me a soggy mess but a satisfied soggy mess.

This book was exactly what I needed at the moment! I feel like I've been reading a lot of more heavier novels, so although this does deal with some heavy topics like PTSD and abandonment issues, the cute romance in this really worked for me as a bit of a palette cleanser. I didn't realise this was the third in a series, but as a companion rather than a direct sequel this was absolutely fine, and good to get a glimpse of the previous protagonists as I will definitely be going back to read their books! I thought the fake-dating trope in this worked really well, but didn't last long at all - which I didn't mind. The chemistry between Jude and Indira just felt so natural and I loved how they worked through each other's problems together. The setting of the wedding was really nice to read about, especially the family elements between Indira and her brother, and I loved the vulnerability shown throughout.

I found Mazey Eddings’ books roughly a year ago and I have been smitten by them ever since. The Plus One is the third and final (queue the sadness) installment for the series a brush with love. Though it is the third in the series it is able to be read as a standalone book. If you are not familiar with Mazey’s books they deal with mental health and neurodiversity while still being beautiful and steamy books.

In this book we have Indira and Jude. Jude is Indira’s brother Collin’s best friend and they all were very close growing up though Indira had a hate / strong dislike for Jude and he shared the feelings. Jude comes back home for Collin’s wedding to his love Jeremy, while he was away he was a surgeon who helped in areas affected by civil unrest and during the time developed PTSD. I was not knowledgeable of PTSD when I started this book but the topic was handled delicately and really explained how hard it is for people who are dealing with it. Indira saw Jude struggling at one of the countless pre wedding events (after her long term bf was caught having sex in their apartment with the use of peanut butter….. ewwww) and they formed a pact to fake date until the wedding so she could help him get out of hard situations and so she didn’t have to see her ex at the wedding and be alone.

As we all know the fake dating trope is a high quality one. Honestly it was 10 out of 10 in this book. I appreciated how there wasn’t a silly third act breakup or miscommunication. The characters just realized they had feelings and worked together to find out what their relationship was.

This book also brought up couples counseling. I will say this was so nice to see it being used prior to an issue being present. Both Indira and Jude had issues from their past that they brought into the relationship and they started couples counseling to make sure that the prior issues did not affect their love for one another or how their relationship progressed in the future.

Listen, I could go on and on about the wonders of a Mazey Eddings book but honestly just go buy the damn thing and read it. These books are powerful and deal with real situations and emotions and are so beautiful. I am sad to see this group of friends end their book journey but I know Mazey is working on some other things and honestly I can’t wait to read what she writes next.

3.5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Headline books for this ARC!

This is the (I believe) final instalment in the “a brush with love” series following Indira’s story. Indira is best friends with Harper and Lizzie from the previous books so we get to see cameos from them as well. Indira has just walked in on her boyfriend cheating on her and needs to stay with her brother Collin until she can find a new apartment. The situation gets worse though when it turns out that her childhood arch nemesis Jude is also staying with her brother and his fiancé Jeremy in preparation for Collin and Jeremy’s wedding in a couple of weeks. Indira is not looking forward to the wedding or the events leading up to it as her cheating ex Chris is also a member of the wedding party along with his new girlfriend. Jude is also not looking forward to these events either because he is suffering with PTSD from his assignments in war and natural disaster zones with the GHCO. Indira seems to provide a buffer for his anxiety so he agrees to fake date her to make her ex jealous while lessening his anxiety surrounding the events.

Let me start with what I liked. The PTSD rep in this was phenomenal and extremely accurate. I suffer with complex PTSD myself and Jude’s reactions to certain things reminded me a lot of my own. Indira was such a lovely character, the way she supported Jude made my heart so happy. I also related to her a lot in terms of her feelings towards her father and her parent’s separation. Watching her work through that and attend therapy felt cathartic for me. I really liked Jude and Indira as a couple and I think they really brought out the best in each other and they obviously really loved each other. Plus they actually COMMUNICATED! The scenes discussing Jude’s PTSD honestly had me in tears, I just knew how much he was hurting and I loved Indira for understanding that and not trying to fix him.

Now what I wasn’t so much a fan of. First of all this is marketed as a “fake dating” book when it is absolutely not. There is one scene of mild fake dating and then that’s it. They are only enemies for only a few chapters. Therefore the enemies to lovers part of this was also not very believable for me. These two went from 0 to 100 so quick it gave me whiplash. The overall pacing of the story was really off and the tropes we were told would be in this are flimsy.

If you enjoyed the rest of the series then check this out but if you’re looking for a book that actually has enemies to lovers and fake dating in it then you should look elsewhere! This is more of an emotional book focusing on anxiety and PTSD which I personally enjoyed still but I just wish there was a bit more of what was promised. This one was released on 4th April 2023 so you can get it now!

Thus was such a sweet and funny romance which also explored deeper topics like mental health(including PTSD). this representation is so important and Mazey does it so well!

I love the bickering that comes with any variation of enemies to lovers and this book had it in spades. i loved the sarcasm and witty comments,

This book also explored lovely friendships of all varieties. while it is a standalone book it does include character appearenced form Mazey's previous books which was a lovely touch.

if that isnt enough to convince you t read this book it also contained: childhood enemies to lovers, fake dating, LGBT representation, only one tent, brothers best friend.

Just don't ask about the peanut butter.

Indira and Jude are childhood enemies who have never got on. However, when Indira discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her, she needs a fake date for her brother's wedding, and Jude is the perfect candidate. They don't expect to start falling for one another.

I really enjoyed this one. Mixed with the lightheartedness, some difficult topics were included as our main MC was struggling with PTSD. I really enjoyed the relationship between Indira and Jude. I am a sucker for the fake dating trope and this one worked really well.

I absolutely adored this book. It was such a great show of how love can help in time of struggle without overtaking the issues and magically making them disappear. I found this book emotional in every sense of the way. I got mad, I laughed, I cried, I swooned. I was absolutely rooting for them, for her, for him, for her brother. The discussion around PTSD and different examples of trauma felt really well done and I really enjoyed seeing the journey of them fighting for themselves and each other. I LOVED their bickering and honestly the parents' bet on them made me laugh so much because yes exactly how did no one else see this?? This was such a great read and I can't wait to read more from Mazay
One note though: the notebook or notes that they were showing each other at 'crucial' moments of the book did not show up properly in the netgalley arc formatting so I will remain clueless as to what those notes said until i get the finished copy. A little frustrating as it seemed quite instrumental to their relationship but hey ho.

I loved this book so much. I am such a Mazey fangirl. Her writing is whitty and quick and yet she still manages to pack a punch with big hitting storylines. I loved Dira and Jude so much and can’t wait for more from Mazey.

3.5/5

This is hard hitting stuff for a romance novel. It handles PTSD very well and is pro therapy throughout and has a happy ending but parts of it were hard to read. Which isn't a bad thing, the book does mention this right at the start but this isn't a fluffy light read.
I liked the main characters but I didn't love them. I enjoyed the characters around them a lot more for some reason. There were some sweet moments throughout that I really liked!
All in all I had a positive experience with this book, I just don't think it was for me. There was something missing for me personally that stopped me from rating it higher.

If you enjoyed the first two in the series I'm sure you will love this one, I preferred this one way more than A Brush With Love, although I haven't read the second installment. (Yet?)

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for allowing me to read the ARC.