Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake

I love that Eddings wanted to bring us a character living with ADHD, but she brought us a character exhibiting no adult effort to make her life work given her ADHD. Both I and my son have serious ADHD, and we have worked really hard to create a framework where we can do what we need to do for ourselves and others. In so many ways ADHD is a superpower. We see the world differently than most, we seem to find more joy and humor in life than those around us. That said we know that we are not the center of the universe, that if we love others we need to be people they can rely upon. Lizzie Blake did not get that memo. We start with someone who is late to work nearly every day, but cannot be bothered to set an alarm. Someone who gets lost in show more reading on breaks, but cannot be bothered to set an alarm. Lizzie has a lot of one-night stands as stress relief (and for fun presumably) and yet does not pay enough attention to know that condoms expire (doesn't everyone know that?) She is shocked that expired condoms are not effective. Lizzy loses everything she borrows from her friends and yet still borrows things and loses or breaks them and does nothing to track those things, she regrets for a second that she has shown her friends no respect or care, but then shrugs and moves on (never offering to even replace things she lost.) I assure you it is hard, and sometimes despite all efforts things fall apart, but it is possible to structure your life in a way that honors the people who love and trust you and still have a good life with ADHD. The character Lizzie doesn't do that, and we are supposed to be okay with that. Eddings makes clear that we would be wrong to ask her to develop strategies to honor the trust others put in her. She does actually start to make an effort to do that late in the book-- in her late 20's, having not cared enough about others until then to learn to use a calendar, set alarms, or otherwise create protocols. She is all id, she is like a 3 year old with good boobs. Forgive me if I cannot celebrate a stunted narcissist with a diagnosis and access to medication and mental health services (she cannot be bothered to use) having a baby and being charged with her care. I want to call child protective services. I hate the way Eddings wrote this, and feel like she owes neurodivergent people an apology. Most of us actually try, and through effort mostly succeed. Sometimes our wiring gets the better of us, but we keep up the work.

Add to all of that the fact that the book is poorly written, and the non-Lizzy characters are ridiculous. Lizzie's mother is a soap opera villainess. Lizzie's S-in-L is Snow White. Rake is way too good to be true. (And what kind of name is "Rake" anyway? There is nothing it could be short for. Are his parents avid gardeners? I guess Rake is better than "Hoe" or "Compost" or "Garden Weasel."). Rake is a co-dependency nightmare who does nothing but shake his head good-naturedly when Lizzie robs him of sleep, employment and comfort, leaves his apartment in a shambles, and destroys his property.

I did not for a moment cheer for Lizzie and Rake to get together. This book was for me an anti-romance. Ugh! show less

Sex-Positive Neurodivergent Rom-Com. Straight up: If you don't like damn near erotica level sex scenes... this book probably isn't your thing. If you're one of the "THERE CAN BE NO SEX AND IF THERE MUST BE SEX IT MUST BE STRICTLY BEHIND CLOSED DOORS AND THE MAIN COUPLE CAN BARELY KISS OR HOLD HANDS ON SCREEN" types... yeah, just skip this one. You're not going to like it, and you one-starring a book over your own hangups does no one any favors.

For the at least 80% of us who *aren't* like that... this is a fun book. Lizzie, and the author herself, has ADHD. (Serious question - for Autistics we have "Autistic" rather than "has Autism", and the community tends to prefer the first one. Is there a similar name for people who have ADHD?) And show more this book shows the struggles that can come from that - but also shows how it can be managed and even worked into a strength, with proper preparation and training. (Which is similar for Autistics as well.) This is also a very neurodiverse-positive tale, showing that not everyone has to be a doctor or lawyer or engineer or anything else to have a fulfilling and meaningful life and be able to support and take care of themselves independently. Indeed, even with Lizzie's titular "mistake", there is quite a bit about her life and actions here that are to be readily commended, and it is refreshing to see authors willing to do just this in this era and with these types of characters.

Even though this is listed as "Book 2" (and wasn't when it was presented to me), there are really only a couple of sentences in the entire 300 page tale where this is even obviously hinted at inside the tale itself, so it actually works pretty well as a standalone, which is how I read it.

Overall this was truly a fun book with a lot of upside, and it is very much recommended. show less

i really didn't like this. the way they fell for each other felt entirely off the page (but was happening concurrently with the timeline we were reading) and so it was entirely unbelievable, which made this nearly unbearable for me. i did really like the adhd rep and the explanation of the way her brain works vs what it looks like to someone neurotypical on the outside.

I love Lizzie's character, she has real self-esteem issues from her childhood, she is neurodivergent, and she speaks up on behalf of those she loves. Rake is awesome, I love how he sees the real Lizzie and loves her for all her attributes, including that brain of hers. I thoroughly enjoyed the second book in the A Brush with Love series and I am very much looking forward to reading book #3 The Plus One, Spring 2023, where we will follow Indira through a challenging time.
Summer Morton and Will Peters did a great job of narrating this audiobook. I was able to listen at 2.0x speed and still understand everything being said. I will definitely look for book narrated by these voice actors in the future.

I received this Advanced Reading Copy from the publishers as a win in a FirstReads contest. After I read the book, I found out that the author has ADHD just like I do!

Lizzie Blake has trouble keeping a job partly because she has what I call Monster Distraction from ADHD. Although I am not a fan of super steamy novels, they seldom real to me, this did and I admit it. There was too much steam at the beginning and I wondered it I could stock with it but it aso had a ton of heart and understanding in it,so I stuck it out. The author nailed ADHD, Lizzie often seemed to be like me! Especially when she let our things in public that she had wanted to keep private. And her lvoe interest, Rake seems so much like my hubby, even down to carefully show more folding my clothes as if they were precious. I want Lizzy's sidter-in-law (brother's wife) and Rake's mother and father to be in my family. They are loving and precious and please, may I work for Bernadette? The perfect employer!

OK, if you have ADHD, you have got to read this, either enjoy the steam or pass by but take in all the heart. IF you don't have ADHD, read it to find out a little what it is like having it. Now I wantto read the first book A Brush With Love. show less

Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake by Mazey Eddings
#2 of the Brush with Love series. Contemporary romance. ADHD. Can be read as a stand-alone.
Lizzie tries her best, but ends up making everything a mess. Look at her recent hookup with Rake. Who knew that condoms expired?

I was very worried at the start of this book that it was a bad choice for me. Single night hookup sex and new adult, love ‘em and leave ‘em attitude, job changes, parties and drinking, and roommates. I’m so past that stage. I read on with trepidation. As we get to know Lizzie and Rake we find there were ADHD reason and bad parenting issues that created the Lizzie the story started with. Rafe is charmed by Lizzie and the way she finds something beautiful on every block show more she walks. The two grow closer by living together platonically and really getting to know moods, feelings and backgrounds though both try to suppress and ignore all emotions.
Bottom line, I’m really glad I continued with the story. It’s a gorgeous romance with lots of emotions plus them laughing and learning to love.

Excerpt:
“ Rake was feeling fine.
Totally fine, save for this odd sensation that he was taking off on a flight and leaving his stomach on the ground. He wasn’t sure what that was all about.”
Excerpt from Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistakes by Mazey Eddings

I received a copy of this from NetGalley. show less

My sincere thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book and give my unbiased opinion of it in the following review.

I am excited to say that I loved Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake just as much as I did her first book, A Brush with Love. Like the first book, the main character in the story struggles with a condition that affects her life on a daily basis. Lizzie has ADHD and finds herself misunderstood and undervalued. She has wonderful friends in her life who love her and help her work through her struggles. She meets Rake in a bar, and they hit it off immediately. He is from Australia and is in the USA on business. Now, I have to say that this book was way steamier than I was expecting, and it show more gets that way right out of the gate. Following this, it gets heavy and I love how the author mixes the heavy with the humor. Rake and Lizzie balance each other out perfectly. I loved Rake's character and he had me swooning more than once.

Eddings writing is seamless and engaging. I truly loved reading this book. Having no experience with someone with ADHD, I am curious about how this representation is being viewed by readers with ADHD. I will be checking out some reviews following the posting of mine. Looking forward to the next book from Mazey Eddings. show less