The Plus One

Product Information

This is #3 in the A Brush with Love series, but could be read as a standalone. I would recommend reading them all though, as the characters all feature in each other's books, plus all three books are so different!

Dan, who is a first year dental student with a family legacy he must contend with, so he doesn’t have that same passion for pulling teeth Harper does. Even though he finds himself falling for her, he’s willing to play by Harper’s rules. That would require you to be one, Chris. And from where I’m standing, you’re a cheating, cat-imprisoning man-child with the emotional intelligence of a rusty nail. So, no. I won’t be calming down.” I loved seeing the shift in their relationship and how their thoughts of one another slowly changed. From frenemies to tentative friends to an inseparable bond to lovers. How they started to lean on each other for support and seeing them fall in love was the absolute best! Eighteen-year-old Mallory Greenleaf is no longer interested in chess, not since her hypercompetitive dad left—the game calls up painful memories. But she grudgingly agrees to play in a charity tournament as a favor to best friend Easton Peña. After she unexpectedly beats current world champion Nolan Sawyer, she’s offered a fellowship that will prepare her to play professionally. Even though Mallory doesn’t want to play anymore, she needs the money that winning would provide; she’s delayed college to support her family, since her mother is chronically ill with rheumatoid arthritis and is unable to work regularly. The more time she spends with Nolan, the more Mallory comes to like and respect him—and the more time she spends playing chess, the more she remembers how much she loved it. But when she learns that Nolan has been keeping a big secret from her, she isn’t sure if she’ll be able to move past it to build a relationship with him. Filled with the author’s signature humor, well-developed characters, and realistic conflicts, plus the fully realized setting of competitive chess, this captivating romance will delight teen readers as well as Hazelwood’s adult fans. Mallory and Nolan are both cued white; there is some racial diversity among the supporting cast. Mallory and Easton are queer. Eddings delivers a heartwarming enemies-to-friends-to-lovers romance...It’s a fun combination of tropes, and, as their mutual trust grows, they eventually indulge their attraction in scenes both steamy and humorous. Readers will root for Eddings’s wounded protagonists to find love and healing." - Publishers WeeklyLines get blurred though and the 'just friends' mandate becomes more and more difficult to maintain. As Indira and Jude spend more time together, it becomes clear that maybe their opinions of one-another have changed. It's hard to deny the spark that fires between them. Will it last, or will it fizzle out once their need for fake dating is over? Swoony, steamy, adorable . . . Read. This. Book. You won’t be disappointed. It’s a keeper and Mazey Eddings is on my auto-read list forever’ The Plus One felt a little heavier than Mazey’s past books, but I enjoyed it just as much. All of her books confront mental health, but The Plus One took a close look at anxiety and PTSD. It felt very relatable and meaningful, compared to the more lighthearted feel of the previous books in the series. I love that Mazey’s writing talent is so expansive! Thrust into an elaborate (and ridiculously drawn out) wedding, Jude and Indira – who can’t seem to escape her ex and his new girlfriend – are both soon at breaking point.

Harper feels out of control. This whole Dan debacle is overwhelming. She needs her life to return to the way it was before the infamous crash, but is that what she truly wants? Childhood frenemies find that they have a lot in common when they reconnect as doctors trying hard to heal themselves. Honestly, this last installment really surprised me! After the cuteness and lightheartedness of the first two books, this one hit me differently. Taking a long look at mental health, trauma, insecurities stemming from childhood, therapy and communication, it felt real and full of hope. It's a lot more heavy and series than its predecessors, particularly Lizzie Blake, and made me well up several times. It was such a journey for the characters, and I adored the way they supported eachother. They were both so brave and vulnerable. This book was sweet, emotional, steamy, and portrayed mental health and trauma in such a realistic way. Indira and Jude are childhood enemies who grew up alongside each other due to Jude’s friendship with Dira’s brother Collin. Fast forward to present day and Dira, now a therapist, and Jude, a surgeon, find themselves both living at Collin’s house leading up to his wedding.this was the sweetest romcom for my cold, cynical heart to feast on to stay warm in this depressing american winter. I also loved that there wasn't a 3rd act breakup; it was more about a big turning point in Jude's mental health and finally taking that step to self heal and be okay with knowing that it was needed. I didn't realize The Plus One was the 3rd book in a series, so thankfully it was easily read as a standalone. Fans of Mazey Eddings will not be disappointed, and if you haven’t read something by her yet, you should change that. For a grown woman, Indira is unbelievably childish at times: the way she exploded at her brother about their father during a pre-wedding gathering, then felt embarrassed when her brother chided her. And oh my God, the obsession with the peanut butter thing was cringey af. Let it go!