Book Details:
Author: Angela Haas
Release Date: January 30, 2025Series:
Genre: Romance Comedy, Contemporary Fiction, Women’s Fiction
Format: E-book
Pages: 348 pages
Publisher: Spotted Owl Publishing
Blurb:
They’re just trying to survive wedding season—until love crashes the party.
It’s wedding season in Scottsdale—the perfect backdrop for love … unless you’re Rachel or Cameron.
For Rachel, wedding fever is difficult to escape, especially since she’s a thirty-four year old perpetual bridesmaid. For Cam, who invests more in his bakery than his heart, weddings are just another event to survive.
Read full book blurb
Desperate to avoid the endless parade of “I dos” alone, Rachel and Cam make a pact—be each other’s plus one for the season’s weddings. The rules are simple: don’t overcomplicate things, be there for each other, and—most importantly—don’t fall in love.
Easy, right?
When their exes reappear, stirring up old emotions, their resolve is tested. Amid the swirl of confetti and wedding vows, they confront their growing feelings and lingering pasts.
Will the irresistible pull of love force them to break the rules?
Dive into a steamy, humorous, and heartfelt story where love may be the wedding guest neither Rachel nor Cameron saw coming.
Review
My Plus One = You by Angela Haas is a contemporary romantic comedy that combines a mutually beneficial plus-one arrangement, irresistible chemistry and a seemingly endless succession of weddings with a thoughtful exploration of emotional abuse, damaged self-worth and the courage required to trust again.
Rachel Kicklighter is tired of being treated as the perpetual single woman at every social gathering, while Cameron Nash has avoided weddings since his former fiancée betrayed him with his brother. After an unexpectedly passionate encounter, they agree to accompany one another to the events they would rather not face alone, with firm rules intended to keep their growing attraction safely under control.
Rachel and Cam are the novel’s greatest strength, both individually and together. Rachel is warm, accomplished, spontaneous and wonderfully outspoken, yet her confidence conceals the lasting damage caused by a manipulative former partner and a mother who repeatedly undermines her independence. Cam’s gruff reserve, meanwhile, gradually reveals a generous and deeply caring man whose professional success has provided refuge from wounds he has never properly confronted. Their dual perspectives allow us to understand how frequently fear disguises itself as self-protection, and Haas gives their relationship room to develop through friendship, mutual care and emotional disclosure alongside the physical attraction.
The romantic comedy itself is lively and knowingly playful. Destination weddings, emergency groomsmen, food poisoning, an interrupted baking session, llamas, potatoes and a wonderfully absurd collection of named “operations” produce several genuinely funny moments. The Scottsdale setting also feels pleasingly specific, while Cam’s bakery and his work revitalising local businesses give him far more dimension than the conventional wealthy romantic hero. Most importantly, the novel recognises that surviving emotional abuse can leave scars that remain invisible to everyone else. Rachel and Cam never magically heal one another; their connection instead encourages each of them to establish boundaries, examine old patterns and begin choosing a life shaped by self-respect rather than fear.
At its current length, the story occasionally takes a rather scenic route towards its destination. Several cycles of intense attraction, retreat and renewed misunderstanding communicate emotional uncertainty that has already been established, while some conversations and social events could be compressed without sacrificing either the humour or the romance. Andrew and Britt are deliberately outrageous antagonists, although a little more psychological restraint would have made their manipulation feel even more unsettling; the climactic wedding confrontation is enormously entertaining, yet it belongs to the broadest, most theatrical register of the novel. A leaner middle and slightly greater trust in the emotional foundations already laid would give the later developments still more power.
Nevertheless, My Plus One = You is an affectionate, funny and emotionally generous romance about two people discovering that being alone may feel safer, but safety without connection is not the same as happiness. Its most satisfying moments are found in the everyday intimacy between Rachel and Cam—in shared food, handwritten notes, honest conversations and the simple relief of feeling understood. Readers who enjoy dual-POV romances, mature protagonists, open-door intimacy, strong friendship groups and plenty of wedding-related chaos will find this a warm and rewarding read.
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