RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
SPICE: 🔥🔥🔥
When a book makes you laugh and cry -- in a good way -- you are in for a great ride.
Indira and Jude have not gotten along ever since they were kids. Now circumstances have pushed them to be each other's fake wedding dates. As they push each other through Jude's trauma and Indira's insecurities, the fake touches and banter start to blur into real feelings.
The main characters are incredibly charismatic. Despite their standoffish sentiment toward each other in the beginning, I love that Mazey Eddings weaves a deep history between the two into her storytelling of present-day events.
As someone who gets stuck in her head, I am so glad that neurodiversity is represented and treated with such care in this read. Despite their dislike for each other, Indira and Jude recognizes each other's anxieties and support one another through them.
It is that depth that brings so much substance to their chemistry, and Eddings brings it when the spice hits.
This is a love letter to people who are prisoners of their trauma and thoughts. As someone new to Mazey Eddings, this read was perfectly fine as a standalone, but I will be adding her backlist to my TBR because this read was great.
The Plus One is the third in "A Brush with Love" series, and if you are looking for a fun romantic comedy between two people who are trying to keep it together, this is a must-pick for you.
** I am voluntarily reviewing an advance copy of this book. Thank you to Mazey Eddings, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for providing an ARC. **
ABOUT THE BOOK
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.
Jude has nothing together. A doctor that’s spent the last three years traveling the world to treat emergencies and humanitarian crises, a quick trip home for his best friend’s wedding has him struggling to readjust.
Thrust into an elaborate (and ridiculously drawn out) wedding event that’s stressing Jude beyond belief and has Indira seeing her ex and his new girlfriend far more frequently than any human should endure, the duo strike a bargain to be each other’s fake dates to this wedding from hell. The only problem is, their forced proximity and fake displays of affection are starting to feel a bit… real, and both are left grappling with the idea that a situation that couldn’t be worse, is made a little better with the other around.
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.
MEET MAZEY EDDINGS
MAZEY EDDINGS is a neurodiverse author, dentist, and (most importantly) stage mom to her cats, Yaya and Zadie. She can most often be found reading romance novels under her weighted blanket and asking her boyfriend to bring her snacks. She’s made it her personal mission in life to destigmatize mental health issues and write love stories for every brain. With roots in Ohio and Philadelphia, she now calls Asheville, North Carolina home. She is the author of A Brush with Love and Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake.
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