Sophie Sullivan's Ten Rules for Faking It has a cute premise, with leading lady Everly Dean being unlucky in love and making a set of rules after a recent horrible birthday. The most fun part of the book for me is the Bachelorette subplot. There could be a bit more chemistry between the leads, but it's an overall cute story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

Adorable and sweet, full of romance and a really fun read. When your disastrous love life is shared with the world via the radio, why not do a bachelorette type dating show while falling for one of the guys who is off limits? I mean, perfect idea, right?! This was a fun read and had some depth to it as well as a great romance. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book did a good job at normalizing anxiety, but it fell flat in the romance department. It took too long for me to be happy about it when it finally came.

When I requested this novel I was into the idea of reading this novel but I discovered that I was unable to provide feedback on this book due to the series being archived prior to download and file/download issues. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience of not being to review and thank you for taking the time to provide me an ARC of this novel.

An accidental announcement of her breakup on live radio and suddenly Everly Dean is staring in her own Bachelorette show . I absolutely loved reading this book.

I liked the effort put into normalizing anxiety disorders and how realistically the author portrayed what it is like to live with it. The author made Everly very relatable, she is a smart, hard working girl, trying to improve herself. Chris who is amazing in every way possible, really is the perfect man. However I did feel that Chris' acceptance of her anxiety, while very sweet, wasn't very realistic.

While the book is a slow-burn, I loved the relationship between Chris and Everly, watching them fight their attraction. The romance between the characters wasn't overly sexy but was still able to deliver on all the feels.

There is a lot of other stuff going on in the book, which can (and for me did) detract from the main characters. However a solid 4star read! I hope this book becomes a series, because I would love to read about the other characters we meet in this book and see Everly and Chris' relationship continue.

thank you St. Martin's Griffin and Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book started out a bit slow but it's great. It's funny and sweet. There is some sad part but there is a HEA of course. The characters are terrific and I enjoy it.

These titles are fun and easy reads. During the pandemic it's nice to be able to live in a romantic fantasy.

I'd give another half star if possible, for a 3.5 star rating.

I loved the premise, very forbidden love & the want and longing after one another makes the payoff that much more satisfying to read!!

I really enjoyed reading through the eyes of a protagonist with severe anxiety. I understand how difficult it is to cope with the most normal activities while struggling with the thoughts and nerves, all the overthinking.

10 Rules for Faking It was sweet and thoughtful and makes you root for the characters who are finding their way, trying to make their mark and discover what it is they really want for and of their lives.

There were some loose ends that I’d like to see a little more of like Stacey and her new...interest, seemed solid and I’d like to have seen more of it! Just to break off from Ev a bit.

There were moments that were a little bit cheesy for my own liking, but I think that might be a personal preference more than anything!

Finished this e-ARC this week and found it to be a delightful break. It’s a closed door romance centered around a radio station workplace. The main character suffers from anxiety and I found her to be relatable and that the author handled discussion about anxiety well. This comes out in January and I recommend you put it on your TBR or request from your library.

I was in tears by the end of this story!! So very well written!! I loved how the topic of social anxiety was brought up, because I feel that it is not recognized often in modern texts. I love how the characters struggle with trust, commitment, and family. Those are issues that people face everyday, and to include these concepts make a stronger connection to the text. Definitely an excellent read!

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book has well developed characters and relatable to anxiety. The romance was very-slow burn. It is a longer slow burn romance then usual romances so that is why this book was a three-star read. If the romance wasn’t as slow (it took 90% for them to finally kiss) I would of gave it a four-star read. I have also noticed many other reviews saying the same thing, that the romance was way to slow. Everything else was great. The character built up, the story line, the representation for anxiety, etc. Just way to slow burn for me.

This has some cute elements, but it was kind of like the author was trying to put a round peg into a square hole. The plot premise didn't really work with the characters of the book. The plot is a fun, screwball radio "Bachelorette" dating game but the participant actually falls for her boss. However, the main character has intense social anxiety, so she doesn't enjoy this experience at all - and therefore neither does the reader. The dating game premise loses its appeal quickly, especially as we get very few details about the actual dates and the main romance is slow to develop. I actually really appreciated seeing a main romantic character with anxiety. I just didn't think it was the best choice of plot for her character. I also found Everly frustrating at points. She does finally confront many issues at the end of the book but most of the development happens in the last 20 pages. Finally, the fact that she is now 30 is mentioned like every other page. Yes, yes, we get it: you've turned 30 and life didn't magically sort itself out. Welcome to the club.

This is a slow build romance. I found that it pulled me in she has anxiety and after sharing a private rant to friend that accidentally gets shared with listeners on on her radio show her anxiety gets worse. However it motivates her to try new things. He's hiding a secret from her and it will effect their professional and personal relationship. I did have a difficult time finishing it since it took a while to get to the romance and ended up DNF.

******************I received an ARC for my honest opinion***********************

I really wanted to absolutely adore this book. It starts with a great premise, Everly is a radio producer who suffers from social anxiety and has never had a good birthday, including this one. She walks in on her boyfriend and his assistant making the beasts with two backs first thing in the morning and the day goes downhill from there. I was in love with the idea of a rom com where the female lead suffered from anxiety as that is something I suffer with myself, but the biggest downfall in this book in my opinion is the pacing. There were a lot of genuinely charming, funny, and heartfelt moments and I loved reading them, and it's not that any part of this book was bad, it was just so long and I felt that it could have been a lot shorter and gotten the story across just as well, arguably better. That being said, Everly and Chris are a really cute couple and I love them, I give this book a 3.5 but it is a strong 3.5 so I'm bumping it up to a 4.

When Everly has a bad day after catching her boyfriend cheating (on her birthday) she is mortified to find her rant about it was broadcast on live radio. The radio station she works as a producer. Station manager Chris (secretly son of the owner and also with a big crush on Everly) organizes a 'bachelorette'-type dating event where Everly goes out with several guys and chooses mr Right. This so save Everly's job (and her best friend's) after his father wants to give the time slot to his daughter and Chris' sister.

There are several things I really liked - but also did not like about the story. Everly's anxiety was described really well. I also liked Chris. But I do think the story lagged after the first half. I was not really interested in the problems Chris and Everly had in their private lives as I wanted to read about them, about their developing relationship. Not about the issues they had with their respective parents. There could have been a bit more fireworks between the MC's and romance.

Okay this book was a lot of things. I've really been leaning on the women's fiction genre lately, so in concept this was what I was looking for.

I really loved the anxiety representation from Everly. I can sing praises about how real it felt to be with her, having a panic attack before a date and worrying about what the closest people in her life actually thought of her. It was by far the highlight of my reading process, just getting to know Everly's mental processes and feeling frustrated with her when they could be less than understandable.

So on that front, all of the stars.

However, this book was so unbelievably slow! There were so many pages full of fluff and background about the most mundane things, nothing that advanced the plot or even really changed my perception of the characters themselves.

If anything, it made me dislike Chris even more, solely on the basis of how bland he is as a character and person. It also really didn't sit well with me how the foundations of his relationship with Everly were so one-sided too, especially when they barely even knew each other.

The main pairing didn't feel good together? There was a lot more telling than showing with regards to how they even felt about one another, so it kind of made their feelings very distant and gave them a not necessarily genuine touch.

All in all, a fun enough read when the fun parts came along, but otherwise I spent a decent amount of time wondering when actual things would happen.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

I am a big Bachelor fan, so the premise of this book stood out to me right away. When Everly makes an accidental announcement about her birthday break up on air at her radio station, her town goes bonkers with support and outrage. The station manager comes up with a Bachelorette style dating challenge to help boost ratings and also help Everly. The romance that comes out of this mess is so sweet and endearing. I loved the plot. I loved Stacey and Everly's friendship. I always love a story of growth and overcoming personal struggles. I really hope that this book is the start of a series because there is just so much potential here.

Once again, I find myself completely surprised by just how much I enjoyed reading a romcom. While I admittedly am not one to have a base for comparison - Ten Rules for Faking It hit all the right notes to make this another (nearly) four star romance read for me this year.

Sophie Sullivan created a story that kept things light hearted while also taking a very realistic look into living with an anxiety disorder. The characters felt realistic and fairly well rounded and the banter was witty without seeming too inauthentic.

Solid 3.925/5 Stars

This book gets a forward-leaning 3.5 stars.
Okay. So this isn't a breakthrough in rom-com storytelling or a story that makes me want to shout from rooftops about it, but it is incredibly endearing and it does present an incredibly realistic picture of what it's like to live with social anxiety.
Everly has many reasons to be anxious about other people, but she decides that turning 30 and being publicly humiliated on her birthday are a big enough deal to go about making some changes in her life. And she's got her best friend Stacey and her cute boss Chris to help her shake up her life.
In truth, I would have rated this higher despite being a predictable mish-mash of pretty much every single trope out there if it weren't for the fact that the pacing is slower than slow. It's not even that Sullivan goes deep into describing things or takes forever to set up a scene. I can't even pinpoint what the problem is, just that the plot seems to take forever to get from point A to point B and doesn't make the journey in between particularly thrilling.
Overall, it's a heartfelt story with extremely likable characters and spot-on, positive representation of a fully-functional individual with anxiety. I might forget I read it a few months down the road, but I had a fun time reading it. That's sometimes all you can ask of a book.

Many happy thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the early read!

Every year Everly Dean dreads her birthday. So when the big 3-0 arrives, it shouldn’t have surprised her that she’d start the morning discovering that her boyfriend is cheating on her with his personal assistant, and that she’d unwittingly air all of her dirty laundry on-air at the radio station where she works. Can she turn her 30th year around? Will she finally be able to manage her at-times debilitating anxiety? She’s not sure, so she’ll make a list to help her, just in case: Ten Rules for Faking It. This book was a light, fun read, and that's exactly what I'm gravitating to these days. The plot was fairly predictable, but that didn't bother me. Definitely leaves room for a sequel starring another character!