The Plus One- A Novel by Mazey Eddings
Product Details
Web ID: 16835993Cozy and heavy at the same time
The Plus One had so many fun tropes: fake dating, enemies to lovers, the girl next door, and brother’s best friend, but it also dealt with some heavy topics such as PTSD, childhood abandonment, and cheating. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I did think it would be a little more romcom but turned out to be a lot more girl next door and healing from trauma. I would have liked there to be stronger enemies to lovers development as well as more fake dating because that aspect was brief and an open secret, so I was not vibing so much with either. But, in order to address the PTSD and childhood trauma, I’m not sure the light, funny aspects could have been heavier or else it would have felt less real. For how much emotional and mental health this book deals with, it was very very cozy with the romance. In the end, I’m giving it four stars and recommending it to anyone who enjoys the above tropes as well as healing from PTSD and abandonment.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Incredible mental health rep
"Indira was worthy of love just as she was. And she needed to start loving herself too, let go of the things that hurt her." The mental health rep! The best friendships and complicated sibling dynamics! No! More! Student! Debt!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
This Book Pulls You In and Doesn't Let Go!
While “A Brush with Love” has been staring at me from my TBR list for awhile now, this is the first book I’ve read by Mazey Eddings. I have to say 1) I thoroughly enjoyed it and 2) I am kicking myself for having not read A Brush With Love because it and Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake are within the same universe. While each are standalone, like most standalone with cross over characters – the stories intertwine and when read out of order, you end up with spoilers of the prior books. Despite the glimpse into the previous books, this one went straight to the bone. The intricate emotions Eddings weaves into the story pulls you in and doesn’t let go. It’s too real and too relatable as it describes moments, situations, and life experiences that anyone can either personally or within two degrees, relate. Indira couldn’t ask for a better life. Dream job, wonderful boyfriend, and the honor of watching her brother marry the love of his life in his upcoming nuptials. While she knew life was pulling her in different directions, she was determined to reclaim control and refocus her priorities. The problem was one of her priorities was busy with a blond on her couch when she decided to surprise him with a home cooked meal and wine. Completely floored, mainly by the amount of peanut butter involved in the deplorable scene, Indira flees to find solace at her brother’s home – only to be greeted by her childhood nemesis, Jude. There were two things Indira could feel directly to her soul, her love for psychiatry and her loathing for Jude. Apparently the feeling was mutual from the look of sheer disdain he shared upon seeing her. For Jude, the biggest problem he had with Indira was her ability to see directly into the recesses of the human mind, to the things one wanted to keep hidden. After the ever plaguing nightmare of GHCO that has left him as a shell of his former self, the last thing he needed was her looking at him, seeing him, knowing his secrets. All they needed to do was avoid each other, so simple yet impossible as they were part of her brother’s wedding party. Add that her now ex was also a groomsmen and Indira couldn’t figure out who she wronged in life for this to be her situation. The one thing she has gotten right is that something is off with Jude. When an incident reveals what lurks beneath, the two agree to help each other survive the pre-wedding events with the goal to come out in one piece. You know what they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer – but how close is too close? What I like about it: First, while I understand it is standard formula for many authors, I am so grateful we skipped over the breakup, make up rigmarole in this one. What I also celebrated was continuous message projecting the power of understanding, acceptance, trust, being seen, and asking for help. Yes, this was a romantic comedy and quite humorous (the running gag about the peanut butter was a nice touch) but Eddings took it so much further than that. She used the love story as the foundation of two people struggling to survive the world around them, finding each other and still acknowledging that the struggle exists – that love isn’t going to conquer all but having a support system does make an impact. Doing the work, sitting through the hard parts, failing and trying anyway despite the plague of self doubt – that is what you saw in this story. What I love about it: I love the issues of mental health that were tackled in this book. From Indira’s abandonment issues and need for extrinsic validation to Jude’s struggle with PTSD. It was gut wrenching to have the easy brush off of mental health highlighted in this book. Eddings is right – it is an invisible disorder, disease, illness that isn’t treated with the same sense of urgency as a broken bone or an infection. The mind is sick, broken, fractured, take a pick but because we can’t look at it and see it for ourselves, only witness what people are experiencing (or say they are experiencing), we have the right to invalidate it. There were so many moments of Indira sharing knowledge on how to embrace the struggles that one may experience. Her constant reminders that no one is broken, helpless, and that you can be a multitude of things – happy and sad, struggling and forgiving, there wasn’t a moment where one of her diatribes shouldn’t have been made into a presentation and shared with the world. So many could benefit from her message. Asides for the philosophical rollercoaster, the sensual scenes in this book were intense! It wasn’t even the explicit scenes that were hot, the make out and building up moments were scorching as well. The amount of attention shared between two people was never lost. Every touch, every thought, every moment – you bore witness to all of it. You felt the love and connection well before the characters verbalized it. I have every intention of going back and ready Edding’s books from the beginning. I can’t gush enough over how much I enjoyed this book, how immensely I value what it taught me, and the imprint it has made on me as a whole.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Great mental health rep
I love Mazey Eddings. I adore her books and will always keep her on my auto-read list. Unfortunately, this one was not my favorite. Indira and Jude have known each other forever. They essentially grew up together as Jude, being Indira's brother Colin's best friend, was always over at their home. They never got along. Jude is home for Colin's wedding and is struggling. He is currently paying off his student loans through a program that sends doctors to war-torn countries and Jude has really been affected by what he's experienced. Indira doesn't expect the ways that Jude has changed when she sees him, nor does she expect her reaction to him. I love how Eddings portrays mental health in her novels. It's impossible to ignore how well she handles the portrayal of PTSD and other trauma. However, this book was just so sad. The struggles that Indira and Jude had really got in the way of their chemistry, making the novel lean more towards women's fiction or straight contemporary fiction than a true romance. There is the idea of fake dating, but the characters never actual fake date one another. This had more of a message of therapy and mental health rep to the book than actual character interactions and plot. The combination sort of fell flat for me. That being said, I did like this book. I just didn't love it. I think many will, though. If you go into this one looking for a romance that has less of a lighter feel, you may love this book. I will continue to recommend Eddings and sing her praises and look forward to more from her in the future. Thank you to St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this book. The opinions here are my own.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Ups & downs of life while celebrating a wedding
The book starts with Indira navigating the ups and downs of her personal life while trying to celebrate her brother's wedding. However, she doesn't expect to see her brother's childhood best friend whom she despised. Toss in some other cliffhangers and you'll be left to wonder do they/don't they. The medical professionals are painted true to life (and I can speak from the standpoint of an associate professor in a college of medicine.) Also painted true to life is the violent situations they encounter. Sure hope there is a sequel!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Heart and heat and hilarity
With her last novel in this series, Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake Mazey Eddings has become an auto-buy author for me. She has a way of creating these beautiful, messy, relatable, lovable characters. Indira and Jude are no different. In this book she masterfully tackles PTSD and difficult family dynamics (abandonment primarily). While Indira and Jude show no mercy in roasting each other and Collin (Indira's brother and Jude's best friend), the sweetness, love and tenderness they also show each other is just beautiful. Sweet and tender, funny and heartbreaking, Mazey does it again in The Plus One. Absolutely, 1000% recommend this book.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
One of my favorite books of 2023
Five freaking gold stars to this beautiful masterpiece! If I was a teacher I swear Mazey would just get every sheet of golden star stickers I have. I don’t know how every time I read a Mazey Eddings book it comes at just the right time. But this one’s message was truly needed. In fact I think everyone needs the message from this book, that therapy is for everyone and can make huge impact to our lives. While that may have been a main message, I will say the romance in this book is everything. Childhood enemies and brothers best friend and fake dating?! Seriously could you ask for more, because I don’t think so. Indira and Jude were perfect little baby angels and I will not listen to any other opinions. What I loved about them is they both brought out the good parts of them and made them strive to be better people. Indira made Jude want to face his demons and trauma and not by pushing him but by being there for him. And then Jude was there to comfort Indira when she needed it and was struggling with her own problems. Overall they are a perfect duo who also loved to tease and poke each other and that’s my favorite romance. I’d also like to note that Indira is the queen of pet names and it made me love the book even more. Also I implore you to read the author’s note and acknowledgments because they are as beautiful as the book itself.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Spicy Romance with beautiful Mental Health Rep
It's offficial. Mazey Eddings has my heart and will forever be an insta-buy. This is the final book in the 'series' of four friends living in Philadelphia. The Plus One focuses on Indira, who we met in A Brush With Love and Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake, and Jude- Indira's older brother's best friend. Indira and Jude grew up together- and bickered nearly every step of the way. It's been a few years since they've seen each other, though, as Jude has been overseas working as a doctor for an international organization that specializes in providing medical care in some of the most dangerous places in the world. They are pushed together as they both return to her brother's home in preparation for a month of wedding activities. While they start right where they left off (mutual dislike), Indira and Jude soon realize that they need to rely on each other to get through the entirety of this wedding celebration. I just adored this book. Mazey does such an AMAZING job addressing mental health in different capacities. I especially love conversations that Indira (a psychiatrist) has with her own therapist. Stand out line- "We place these expectations that being aware of our brain or emotions lying to us means that we should automatically be able to get over it... That's simply not how it works." GAH. YES. Jude coming to terms with his own needs regarding mental health (PTSD due to traumatic situations while serving as a doctor overseas) is also an incredible journey. I appreciate how it was explicitly stated that Indira didn't want to be his psychiatrist, and wasn't there to fix him. "I'm not looking to fix you... I'm here to love you." The romance was spicy, of course- it's a Mazey Eddings book. It also has HANDS DOWN the FUNNIEST sex scene I have EVER ENCOUNTERED in my LIFE.... and I loved all of the call backs to its magnificence. I laughed. I cried. It’s incredible.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com