The Plus One

Eddings (Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake) delivers a heartwarming enemies-to-friends-to-lovers romance between psychiatrist Indira and her brother’s best friend. After Indira’s boyfriend cheats on her, she takes up temporary residence with big bro Collin and his husband-to-be, Jeremy (her ex-boyfriend’s cousin), not knowing that her childhood nemesis, Jude, Collin’s bff, is also staying there for five weeks before the wedding, having taken an extended leave from his job as a surgeon with an NGO that operates in conflict zones. As their lifelong playful bickering resumes, both recognize a forbidden attraction to someone they consider off-limits—and realize that the other is in desperate need of emotional support. Indira, who is in therapy to work through abandonment issues, spots the signs of Jude’s post-traumatic-stress symptoms from losing patients, while Jude sees Indira’s discomfort around her ex at pre-wedding events, and suggests they pretend to be dating for the duration of the wedding. 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. (Apr.)