A Guide to The Plus One by Mazey Eddings
Jun 15 2023
Mazey Eddings is an author that I will always recommend to readers looking for a book that will leave them both cackling and swooning but also deep in thought over mental health. “The Plus One” was hilarious, sweet, romantic, filled with electric tension, and incredibly real and raw. Seeing how one character struggled with his PTSD, his panic attacks, and the shame he felt because of it at the beginning genuinely hit home. I cried, I pondered, I stared blankly at the wall for half an hour, and I went on an hour-long rant about how blissfully amazing this book is to my boyfriend when he asked me why I was bawling my eyes out at 11 pm on a Tuesday night.
Meet Mazey Eddings
Mazey began writing swoon-worthy rom-coms highlighting mental health and neurodivergence throughout their plot. Her first published novel, "A Brush With Love," came out in 2022, and since then, she has become my go-to author when I’m looking for a book that will make me feel comforted (both in the sense of comfort you feel when reading a sweet romance, but also the comfort of feeling seen and understood). I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to interview Mazey in early May. In case you’re wondering, yes, she’s absolutely amazing. You can watch that interview here...Inspiring Mazey Eddings Quotes
In my interview with Mazey, I got to ask her a few questions about why she writes what she writes, to which she replied:“Honestly, I just write romances in rom coms for messy women in their mid to late 20s, who are really just trying to get by the best that they can. I didn't originally set out to write, you know, three books that have such a heavy focus on mental illness or neurodiversity, but it ended up that way.”
And how grateful we are that it did end up that way!Mazey also addressed why she ended up putting this much focus on mental health and neurodiversity as we kept chatting about her books:“I deal with all of these things in my day to day life. And so it's almost harder writing outside of that perspective, this within it. […] and as somebody who has ADHD and autism, I also dive deep into neurodiversity, and things like that.”
This is why Mazey’s books bring me so much comfort - they are realistic fiction. Knowing that Mazey includes a piece of herself, or uses a personal experience to build on a character’s history, has helped me feel much more understood. We often hear people saying “you’re not alone” when talking about mental health struggles - as well as many other things in life, but I’ll focus on mental health for now - but it can be hard for these words actually to make you feel better. Sometimes you really need to see the example - see that someone out there has struggled as much as you have and eventually made it out okay, bruised and scarred, but still alive. This is exactly what I’ve gotten out of every single one of Mazey’s books, and so I feel very strongly about “The Plus One” (and her other books, of course) being a must-read for people who have similar struggles to her characters.The Plus One Recap
That being said, Mazey’s third novel, “The Plus One,” came out in early April of this year, so my club and I chose to read it together. This book follows the relationship of Indira, one of the characters from "A Brush With Love." All three of Mazey’s novels are part of an interconnected stand-alone series. Each book follows a different relationship of a character from the first book. The friend group seen in Mazey’s debut novel included Harper, Lizzie, Indira, and Thu. We have a book for the first three characters: "A Brush With Love" for Harper, "Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake" for Lizzie, and “The Plus One” for Indira. We see Thu in a relationship in all three books, but we have yet to hear anything about Thu getting her own book. But that’s not what we’re here to talk about! I’m here to dive into the wonder of “The Plus One” and how important I believe it to be. Long story short, Jude has been Indira’s brother’s best friend since early childhood… yet they can’t stand each other. They’ve had their sweet moments throughout the years, but nothing romantic has ever come of it - that is, until they decide to be each other’s fake dates to Indira’s brother’s wedding. After Indira walks in on her boyfriend with a stranger (and a whole lot of peanut butter?), she feels like the perfect life she once lived has gone up in flames. Here’s where Jude comes in. Jude has, to put it simply, nothing together. He’s a doctor that’s spent the last three years traveling the world to treat emergencies and humanitarian crises.Jude has been through literal hell and it’s taken a drastic toll on his mental health, but he doesn’t know how to address it. He doubts his qualifications to be a doctor and feels unworthy of love and support. However, he can’t possibly miss his best friend’s wedding, so he comes back home. When he hears about Indira’s cheating ex-boyfriend and her lack of a wedding date, he offers to be her date so long as she helps him cope with his panic attacks that usually happen in crowded spaces (because, of course, she’s the only one that manages to calm him down when they happen. She’s his person)The two come together, not to fix the other but to love one another and to heal themselves through it. If you haven’t read “The Plus One” yet, or any of Mazey’s books for that matter, RUN TO FABLE AND READ IT!!! I genuinely can’t recommend them enough.Keep reading on Fable!
Sharing a book with friends, family, and co-workers is a great way to enjoy the entire mental and physical benefits of reading. We call this “social reading.” The Fable app is built for social reading, with tools for sharing highlights, comments, insights, links, pictures, and videos as you read together.Find a book club to join for free!We also make it easy to launch your own free book club. With our platform, you can host every aspect of an online discussion at a single destination, to reach readers and build safe online communities regardless of location or time zone.Start your own book club today!You can sample our ever-growing collection of Folios, exceptional book recommendations from some of the world’s great tastemakers. Each Folio covers a critical theme, and some of our Folio curators include LeVar Burton, Paulo Coelho, Wolfgang Puck, and Jasmine Guillory. Discover great book recommendations!
