Frenemies to lovers

Forced Proximity

Fake Dating

Brothers Best Friend

This book delved and was much deeper then I was expecting it to be.
Its got humor, character development but it also covers some heavier topics such as PTSD, Mental Health/Illness, War, Cheating

Some of the banter between Jude and Indira was really funny and it helped balance out some of the heavier topics in this book.

I do feel it was a bit longer than it needed to be. Also some of the pacing was a bit annoying at times.

But what was great, was that there was no third act breakup!!!!

I wanted to love this book. And I did, once the pace picked up and things actually started happening. But unfortunately it took so long to get there (I’m talking past the 50% mark) that no matter how good it got, I was too far gone by that point.

The first half (more or less) really is what ruined the book for me because nothing really happened. They barely interacted so the romance was almost non-existent and while I don’t mind focusing on the characters individually for a while, to get to know them and what they’ve been through, even that wasn’t great because while we did learn about Jude and his PTSD, I felt like that was it.

The second half, on the other hand, was really great. Once Jude and Indira started spending more time together, their chemistry became clear and I loved it! Jude was so dreamy🥰 and I loved seeing him open up to her and start feeling happy again. Indira was such an amazing character, as well: I loved how she understood him and never pressured him to do anything he wasn’t ready for yet always assured him she was there for him if/when he wanted to talk.

It was lovely to get some insights into their friendship over the years, and learn about how their connection started before they even realised. I also loved how the author dealt with the brother’s best friend trope and how mature they all were about it, which doesn’t always happen with this trope.

Overall, this is a good book and would be probably be a 5-star if it was only the second half but I really can’t get over how much I didn’t enjoy the first half. Having said that, it offers really interesting insights into PTSD and has some amazing scenes that will make you swoon so it’s definitely worth checking out.

★ 3.5/5 Stars ★

A big thank you to Headline Eternal and Netgalley for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review.

As always, Mazey Eddings approaches subjects with heart, humour and unfiltered honesty.

The Plus One is a refreshing - and at times difficult - read that left me with a better understanding of the complexities of mental health and the journeys to healing.

Furthermore, it was a perfect reminder that Love doesn’t solve anything, but it can help anchor you and provide a spot of brightness in a difficult world.

I loved this take on the “brothers best friend/childhood nemesis” trope. The snippets from their childhood through Indiras diaries, little notes and their memories were so cute. They served a beautiful purpose in showing us how they’d been “writing love on their hearts since they were kids.”

Indira and Jude displayed tenderness, humour, affection and peace. It was amazing to read a story with a healthy connection that was rooted in strong communication.

This is a wonderful addition to the stories of this friend group

I would advise that you read the trigger warnings before you dive in!

Thank you NetGalley and Headline Eternal for the DRC 🥰

You’ll love this if you love
🤍Mental health rep
🤍Childhood nemesis
🤍Best friend’s brother
🤍Healthy communication!!

Childhood enemies to lovers. He’s her brothers BEST FRIEND!! Fake dating for a wedding. Forced proximity. This book had it ALL and I ate it up.

A really important book that talks about many important issues but which some might find triggering. The book covers PTSD, war zones, and mental illnesses,

Jude and Indira have both known each other since they were little. However they have always been frenemies who now that they are grown up decide to put it behind them and fake date each other. We all know how that's going to end up don't we.

I liked how their chemistry felt very natural with all the banter that they kept giving each other. Which at times was very funny. I also liked how real the book was and how it showed that even though there was a happy ending in at least the relationship way. There were still lots of things that they needed to work through with their mental and physical health and that they would continue working on that both as a couple and seperatly.

I've been looking forward to reading Indira's book after enjoying Harper's and Lizzie's and I think this one is my favourite!

I loved the progression of Indira's and Jude's relationship from childhood frenemies to lovers - their banter was great and the chemistry was definitely there!

The handling of mental health in this book was very well done and the portrayal of June's PTSD felt very realistic. I really appreciated that Jude and Indira were both dealing with their own issues separately and supporting each other through them, rather than their relationship being seen as a 'cure' for them both.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I've loved this series as a whole!

4⭐️
Thank you to NetGalley UK and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for a review.
I really enjoyed The Plus One - however, at times it is not an easy book to read as it deals pretty heavily with Jude’s PTSD from his work in war zones. That being said, I enjoyed Mazey Edding’s previous books so much because of the way she wrote about mental illness and neurodiversity, so personally, so carefully - and I think the same is true of this book.
Jude and Indira’s love story was very sweet. Childhood frenemies that attempt to fake date without lasting very long at all before they succumb to their real feelings for each other. Their banter was snappy and funny, their chemistry felt very natural as did their relationship development. It was nice to read their relationship establishing and then growing, and praise be… with NO THIRD ACT BREAKUP!!! I was terrified for a second that there would be, so it was a massive relief - my least favourite trope.
I like that near the book’s ending, in this story about love and mental health, it was acknowledged by the characters that falling in love hadn’t ‘fixed’ them - too often that’s an illusion we’re told in stories like this one. Instead the characters were both still working on their mental health, individually and together.

tldr; love and mental health, with all the messy bits included!!!

I loved how supportive Indira and Jude were. There are serious moments but also funny moments. This was my first book by this author, but I can imagine that if you've read the first two it is great to see previous MC's again. How awful is it see your cheater ex, so often shortly after the break up. And peanut butter! What were they thinking?????

I loathe dnfing ARCs but this was exhausting to read, truly.

this was so insufferably boring, one-dimensional and lack-lustre.

The writing style made me so detached to the story despite the author’s intent on making this emotional. I felt so distanced from the characters, Jude and Indira were very impersonal and distant to me... I think it’s attempts at being “deep” failed miserably.

And the romance? What romance? Indira and Jude had the chemistry of a Tesco’s meal deal of a ham sandwich on white bread, ready salted crisps and a bottle of water. They barely interact— Jude spends more time talking in his inner monologue than talking to Indira while Indira spends more time talking to her therapist than she does to Jude.

The book barely has a plot too beyond the distant, impending wedding of Indira’s brother. Truly nothing about this held my attention. I’d rather spend my time reading something I actually enjoy.

So yeah, this one wasn’t for me sadly.

Indira and Jude may have grown up together, but closeness certainly does not make the heart grow fonder. Childhood enemies, they now find themselves thrust together in the preparations for Collin (Indira's bother) and Jeremy's wedding, and with Joel struggling with his social skills and Indira's ex constantly sucking the face off his new girlfriend, the two decide to form a kind of truce and become each others dates to the wedding. Anything to make the situation a little easier right? Only, neither of them could have expected the amount of feelings that faking a date would bring about, nor the amount of trauma that they are trying to hide from one another. Indira and Joel may have once hated each other, but now there is the chance for more, they just have to be open to it.

So, first up you absolutely don't have to have read the previous books in the series to enjoy this one, In fact, it wasn't till I had finished reading that I actually found out it was book three in a series, so although the previous two books both sound like brilliant reads, you don't have to have read them to fully enjoy this one. Indira and Joel were both brilliant brought to life characters. Indira a therapist and Joel a Doctor working in war zones abroad. They each carry their own trauma, something that eventually brings them together, and this just made them read more real as characters. Indira is witty, sarcastic, an absolute extrovert and someone who wears her feelings on her sleeve. Joel on the other hand tends more towards the introverted side of the spectrum. He is only himself with a few trusted people, and when he does open up we see his witty and slightly more free side than the one he tends to show.

Though the story focuses mainly on Indira and Joel, we also get a stand out cast of side characters, some of which are MC's from the previous books, but my favourites were definitely Collin and Jeremy, Indira's older brother and his fiance whose house her and Joel end up staying in. These two were so cute together and I loved seeing their interactions and their obvious love for each other as well as for Indira and Joel themselves. All of the side characters bring a little levity to the story in parts, and I enjoyed the scenes where we got to see them all interact together.

Now for the romance. As a whole I enjoyed it, but I was a tiny little bit disappointed by how quickly the enemies turned to lovers. In fact I would say it reads more as childhood frenemies to lovers, because it's pretty quick after Indira and Joel get back in touch that their feelings start to come out. I did feel it was maybe a little rushed, and would have enjoyed a little more of their jibing and arguing before they eventually did the deed, but that just be my need to have as much tension and delayed gratification in my romances as possible.

Despite my lack of enjoyment over the development of their relationship, I thoroughly enjoyed the exploration of it. These two characters come with a whole heap of emotional baggage; Joel with his PTSD from his time as a doctor in war zones and Indira with her abandonment issues. Edding's did a fantastic job of delving into these traumas for both of our characters, Joel's unwillingness to open up about his PTSD, both not wanting to drop his trauma onto others and also not wanting to seem weak and Indira with almost imposer syndrome for her job, not believing she can be a good therapist to others when she isn't in a good head space herself. She allows them to work through these in a reasonable way and the one thing I loved was that, even at the end, her character's weren't 'fixed.' They had done work, but acknowledged they had a way to go and, in fact, that they might never be the person they were before, but this was never seen as a weakness or a negative, rather something to be praised, something which is incredibly rare to see.

I did feel like the pacing of this one was off a little in parts. The story could have finished about 3/4 chapters earlier than it did, and I did feel my attention wavering towards the end there. As well as that I felt like the author spent a lot more time focusing on the characters overcoming their trauma, than developing their relationship which I didn't mind, but it just took away from the actual romance aspect of the story. As a whole though I did enjoy it, and will definitely be checking out the first two books in the series, as well as anything else the author writes.

4.5 star
This story was beautiful and definitely the best in the series. I adore Indira and Judes relationship, the witty comebacks and secret longing for each other
Mazey hit the nail on the head with Judes portrayal of PTSD, healing your mental health and falling in love
And don't get me started on how thrilled that there wasn't a third act breakup, cause all the characters deserve all the love 🩷
Thankyou Netgalley and Headline Eternal for the ARC

I’m so sad this series is over. I’ve loved every book and yet they’ve all been so different. This might have been my fave one. Love a dramatic opening (boyfriend cheating) to make way for a clean slate. This was just such a heart wrenching and beautiful love story to be honest, with an absolute perfection of an epilogue. The banter between Jude and Indira as well was too funny at points, quite often found myself lolling.

The Plus One is about Indira who discovered her boyfriend cheating on her so she breaks up with him and moves in with her brother. It's also about Jude who is taking a break from his job as an emergency physician who gets send all over the world and also staying with Indira's brother. They are thrust into all the wedding activities of Indira's brother and his fiancee. All of this is stressing Jude out and Indira had to see her ex and his new girlfriend at every event so they strike up a deal to fake date to get through it all.

This story was so beautiful, Jude and Indira were there for each other when they needed it the most. I loved the mental health representation. This book can be read as a standalone but seeing as the characters from the first two books in this series make an appearance in the book the reading experience would be better if you read the other books first.

This book was my first by this author (yes, I know I will be reading the other ones)

Indira was cheated on by her boyfriend, and her childhood nemesis (aka her brother’s best friend) offers to be her date at her brother’s wedding, so she doesn’t have to deal with her ex who’s also at the wedding.

Indira and Jude were everything, i just want to hold them and place them in same place safe.

I loved that this book was about love, but also about healing and mental health. It’s still such a taboo topic, that its fresh air to read about it in a romance novel.

Also had some great laughs with this couple, because its not just trauma and hurt, there is also happiness and fun.

This book is real, its not just flowers and hearts, there are real issues there.

Last but not least important, PEANUT BUTTER????? (Inside joke, ahahah read the book) WHAT THE WHAT???? Ahahahah

Such a unique book, I loved the plot, and oh my god the characters we're so amazing!! I definitely will be recommending it!!