It was a three for the first half, but then Dan grew on me the way he did with Harper, and their connection was undeniably sweet in the end, ending with a four-star review. The best parts, though, we’re the friends, Lizzie and Thu (pronounced two). ( )

another physical book bites the dust! no reason other than I was like, "wow I don't care about anything here!" YMMV though! ( )

Spoilers have been removed.

There were moments in A Brush with Love where I laughed so hard, I thought I was going to pull a muscle. That is the talent of Mazey Eddings, one moment she can make you want to cry a river and the next you are laughing until you snort (not like I did that…more than once…twice.)

Harper has two immediate goals in life – to finish dental school and get her top residency pick. After that, she will commit her life to helping people and making a difference. As far as she was concerned, there wasn’t room for anything else, no matter what her friends said. She spent most of her life building up walls, protecting herself, and doing what it took to manage her anxiety. What she didn’t plan for is a certain green eyed, jaw-dropping gorgeous man with a mind erasing dimple colliding with those walls and destroying all of her hard earned work. With graduation so close and her future set, Harper can’t get “gooey” over some boy. Declaring that despite the incredible chemistry her and Dan seem to have, she can only offer a friendship - setting off an epic battle between heart and mind that will leave no survivors.

I don’t think I exhaled until I finished this book. Talk about intensive! Mazey is the master of putting you into the shoes of her neurodiverse characters. Every feeling, the loss sense of control, the shifting of the world surrounding them, how they believe the world sees them – she hands it all to the reader as if we requested a fully immersive experience.

Don’t even get me started on Harper and Dan. Dan is an absolute daydream! A huge part of me wondered (especially since Mazey is a dentist), how much of his character is modeled after her boyfriend. If that man is even a fraction of the “swooniness” that is Dan, I am insanely jealous! As far as book boyfriend’s go, he just got bumped to the top of the list!

Asides for drooling over Dan, there were so many things to love about this book, the close friendships, the vulnerability, the support, and Mazey’s constant effort to remove the stigma around mental health, therapy, and seeking help. We never know what someone is going through and how our words can cut them and push their fears deeper.

Mazey also has the ability to create the most beautiful moments when her characters are intimate. It was no different when Harper and Dan slept together for the first time.

What got me the most is when we learned Harper’s “why”, why she had to be the best, had to succeed, what it all stood for, what it represented if she failed. When I finished reading that part, I took a moment and just said “Wow”.

I love Thu, Lizzie, and Indira! I hate that I read The Plus One first because I can’t remember what happens with Thu and Alex or Harper and Dan! Lizzie’s story is waiting for me in my TBR stack so hopefully that helps bridge the gap in my memory. For anyone who loves Abby Jimenez and Emily Henry, Mazey Eddings is right there, ready to win your heart. ( )

This was great! I believe that Mazey Eddings does an amazing job of dealing with mental health issues and this book was no exception. I read the other two books in the series before picking this one up so I was already somewhat familiar with the characters but it was great to finally read Harper and Dan’s story.

I really liked Harper and Dan and thought that they were a great match. I like the fact that the characters are going to dental school since I don’t feel like that is a setting that I have seen very often. Harper and Dan both had a lot of issues that they were dealing with and I felt like the way they worked through things was very realistic. I did wish that Harper would have let Dan in a little quicker than she did but I loved their journey overall.

Emily Lawrence and Vikas Adam did a great job with this story. They both have very pleasant voices which were easy to listen to for hours at a time. I loved that they were able to bring the characters of this story to life by adding just the right amount of emotion to their reading. I thought that their voices complimented each other incredibly well. Their performance definitely added to my overall enjoyment o this story.

I would not hesitate to recommend this book to others. I found this to be a wonderful listen with characters that were very easy to fall for. I cannot wait to read more of this talented author’s work.

I received a review copy of this book from Macmillan Audio. ( )

A Brush with Love is a light contemporary romance with a twist - it also addresses a mental health issue, in this case anxiety disorder. The author herself is neurodiverse and has ‘made it her mission to … destigmatize mental health issues and write love stories for every brain’. There's a brief content warning in the beginning although the topic is handled with enough respect and support that I don’t think any part of it would be triggering. Some of the dialogue is cheesy and the couple's meet‑cute turns into insta‑love, but where's the fun in a contemporary romance without a trope or two? ( )