A Brush with Love

An anxious dentist isn’t sure she can handle taking a study break for love in Eddings’s alternately raunchy and poignant debut. When final-year dental student Harper Horowitz falls down a flight of stairs onto first-year Dan Craige, she’s momentarily startled out of her habitual worry by his good looks and easygoing demeanor. As their paths keep crossing, Harper only likes him more but she’s afraid a relationship would interfere with securing an oral surgery residency or cause stress she can’t handle. Dan is also struggling: he left a job he loved in finance to please his mother, who needs help at her dental practice, but he’s bored by dentistry and struggles in class. The refreshingly diverse supporting cast includes Harper’s brash but well-intentioned friends and Dan’s endearing roommate—and it’s clear to all that Harper and Dan are made for each other, if Harper can just muster the courage to let Dan into her life. Harper’s struggle with anxiety is well drawn but sometimes threatens to overwhelm the rest of her characterization—and even the plot itself. Still, fans of Grey’s Anatomy will feel right at home at Callowhill University’s School of Dental Medicine. Agent: Courtney Miller-Callihan, Handspun Literary. (Mar.)