Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publication Date: April 4, 2023
Reviewed On: November 7, 2022
BASIC PLOT
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.
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.
REVIEW
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
To start, I have to admit this is the first Mazey Eddings book I have ever read. If her other books are anything like this one, well let’s just say I’ll be adding yet another new author to my favourites list!
Mazey has a way of drawing you into the book, making you feel like you are a part of the story. I felt that I connected with the characters so easily and quickly. Just like when building a friendship, you learn little by little who the person is – it was the same with our main characters in this book for me. The author’s writing is also very real. I like that the swearing doesn’t feel out of place or forced or just thrown in – it’s put in places exactly where you would expect a person to swear. I find that any time a book completely omits swearing, it just feels fake to me. We all swear. It’s a natural part of our language. Let’s accept it as a norm and move on.
Our main characters have VERY rich backgrounds. Indira’s issues stem all the way back to her childhood, while Jude’s are more recent. But these issues are a part of them and make them (in my opinion) lovable in their own ways. I appreciated that even though Indira is a psychiatrist herself, she still goes to see her own psychiatrist. She doesn’t pretend to be put together or have it all figured out. She knows she needs help, and she seeks it out. Smart girl. Jude on the other hand… Well, he’s got a huge problem and he doesn’t see it as a problem that can be fixed. More as something he did to himself and now, he has to live with it forever. Basically, the two polar opposites of mental health. So, what happens when you bring those two together and smash them against each other in the middle? Well… A LOT of witty banter, A LOT of hate and animosity and whole lot of figuring out… Oh shit, I don’t actually hate this person… I am so deeply and truly in love with them that my whole world actually centers on them.
Indira and Jude are each others anchors. They are each others’ cores. This is why I absolutely loved this story. While each other got along just fine without the other… Life makes more sense when the other person is there. I was worried that with all the trauma and PTSD there might be too much, or it might feel too forced, but never once did that feeling come. Everything was woven into the story with detail and care. Every interaction had a reason.
I did feel that there was too much “I love you” towards the end. I don’t think I know a single couple who actually says that so often, so it just felt a little forced by the end. But that was just one small detail in an otherwise awesome book.
This book was real, it was raw, it cut me open and made me cry. But it had a lot of bright moments too. I laughed out loud a few times, and my heart did that wild “swoop-swoop-swoop” a few times!
FAVOURITE QUOTES
But nothing could ever be easy when it came to Indira, and their animosity didn’t have a source so much as it was a fact of nature. The sun rose in the east. Set in the west. Indira annoyed Jude. Jude annoyed her back.
“Did the shock of your ascension from hell kill him?”
“Memories of you are inevitable”
He needed her. It was a desperate and basic type of need to be close to her. His Indira. His touchstone. His person.
“I’ve always loved you. Even when I didn’t like you, I love you. You’ve been a permanent fixture in my life, someone steady to rely on, even when that reliance came with annoying each other or teasing. Because you let me tease you back. You’ve always been my person, Jude. My annoying, wonderful person. And I think I’m your person too.”
You can hurt and also loved. You can feel sadness and also laugh and feel joy. Good emotions can coexist with hard ones. You can struggle and suffer and learn to heal while you also love. The best place to start is by giving yourself permission to feel with abandon. Feel everything.”
She held a magnifying glass up to the most hidden parts of his soul and still smiled, happy the simply know him.
STAR RATING
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