Not my favorite romance book (particularly with the lack of actual romance between the two leads...) but not bad either. Overall I enjoyed it but not as much as I thought I was going to. In particular I thought the radio contest could have been more integrated and the romance between the leads felt as developed as a half baked cupcake. However Everly’s story in particular was a great representation of social anxiety and I found all of the characters enjoyable as a whole. Definitely a slow burn but worth a read if you’re a fan.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sophie Sullivan for the advanced read of 10 Rules for Faking it in exchange for an honest review.

Another fun read that may have been a tad bit too long but was still good. It was cute and the writing was solid and effective. I enjoyed Everly . She was a cute character and one who I really rooted for through the book . I especially enjoyed the way the book portrayed social anxiety in a real way.

Thank you #netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

This book was good and kind of slow-burn, so I enjoyed that aspect! I was glad to see a book giving some representation to social anxiety and some of the impacts it can have on someone's life. That being said, it's only getting three stars because it wasn't as entertaining/funny as I thought it would be. The romance was there, but not as strongly as I would have liked. That being said, still a good read and worth your time!

In a crazy time when all I want to read is lighthearted and fun, this book was TOTALLY it!!
Laugh out loud funny, romantic, Bachelorette-like, crazy parents, and great characters—it had all the things!!
I can’t wait to read more from this author!

This book was really cute; radio personalities, bachelorette style dating, co-workers with feelings for each other, and great secondary characters! Everly and Chris are likeable and funny, the dating show part of the book was a really unique idea and well done. I'd recommend this as a light read, contemporary romance novel.

Every is not a fan of birthdays. I like the name Everly. She is a radio show producer. I liked Everly. I liked the friendship with Stacey

Fun and entertaining romance that you'll enjoy from start to finish! I love that the topic of anxiety and social anxiety is at the forefront of the plot. Everly Dean decides that this will be the year that she overcomes her fears and gains a new lease on life. Her ten rules give a whole new meaning to "fake it til you make it". Heartwarming and endearing, I recommend this book for lovers of chick lit and romance. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to review this ARC.

This was a very cute romance story. It’s not everyday you read a story where the main character has severe social anxiety, so while I cringed at some of her choices, I could sympathize with why she made them. I also loved how the author should the characters being both frustrated and happy with each other it made the relationship more authentic.

I loved this book! This author was a new to me one, and I just couldn't put this down. The characters were so real and engaging. I devoured page after page and then was so happy, yet sad, when it was over. I look forward to more from this author. LOVED IT!

I absolutely loved the anxiety representation in this book! Its something that hits so many of us so it was refreshing to see in a romantic setting! It was definitely a unique plot and while I wish it actually had more steamy romance but I liked the story along the way.

It’s both not the best and certainly not the worst thing I’ve ever read.
At the beginning, I was invested, rooting for each character, drawn in by a storyline that didn’t quite live up to its potential.
As the book continued, my need for a happily ever after kind of plummeted. I lost interest, with more and more of the story leaning on the MC’s anxiety and me enjoying it less and less.
I love all things love, but the h spent so much of the book on the bachelorette style dating, and not enough building a romantic relationship with the H. Unfortunately it fell flat, and ended up being not so believable that these two MC’s could in fact have a HEA.

This is a fun and heartwarming romance, mostly because of the endearing main character, Everly Dean. A radio producer, she struggles with anxiety, mostly in social situations. After a particularly bad year, she decides to make a concerted effort to overcome her anxiety and shake things up in her life -- hence the ten rules. Right away, she gets caught up in a radio station promotion that makes her kind of like The Bachelorette, and that's just for starters. I look forward to recommending this to readers who enjoy Susan Mallory, Sarah Morgan, and Jenn McKinlay.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the e-ARC to read and review!

"Ten Rules For Faking It" is a light but sweet office contemporary romance I enjoyed reading more than I thought I would.

The book opens with a unique punch that is at first cliché but then makes you feel secondhand embarrassment for Everly. But I was hooked from then on hoping beyond hope that something good would come out of this for her.

I liked how the story suddenly becomes a smaller scale version of The Bachelorette. It's an interesting turn of events in opposition to Everly's "Ten Rules For Faking It" list to turn her life around. It was a well balanced internal and external conflict.

What I loved most about this book is the apt representation of social anxiety disorder. Anxiety - from what it looks like on the outside versus how it actually looks/feels on the inside - is translated so well through great writing. The author really understands intricacies and subtle nuances anxiety has on the mind and body.

Everly is an empowering character. There's a lot to love about Everly once you get to know her, such as how she loves her job as a radio producer.  I related to Everly so much and understood from experience why she is the way she is. Nobody wants to feel anxious or afraid all the time. Nobody wants to be mentally exhausted after socializing. It’s hard to appear “normal” out of fear of being judged. And having anxiety isn’t something to be ashamed of.

Chris is a great character who’s been fighting demons of his own since childhood. I liked getting to know his character during the chapters in his POV. He has a wonderful, close relationship with his two older brothers, which was nice to see.

"Ten Rules For Faking It" is very much a character driven story where all the characters seem to have something about themselves to overcome. I was wholly invested and wanted to read more afterwards. There are two characters in particular I would love to read a story about.

It’s still a good, slow burn story that was told well. I would read more books by Sophie Sullivan. I think this story will help a lot of people who are indecisive about who they are and what they want from life.

Actually a really sweet romance. I'm shocked to admit that I didn't mind there wasn't much sex, I cared enough about the story and characters to stay invested. Great chemistry between the characters and the author did a nice job writing both viewpoints. Also thought the depiction of anxiety came across as realistic.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read. But, I would have liked to see this shortened a bit; this felt really long to me. Also, I basically learn right off the bat that Chris has been crushing hard for Everly, but it felt slightly awkward for me since I didn't see the build up to why he was pretty much already in love with her. And I was really hoping for more during the dating portion of the story. Basically, I'd totally recommend this to others, but with a caveat. I think I'd tell them this could have used a bit more editing to tighten the story.

I liked this romance and her rules for faking it and finding love. Great romance and finding oneself.

As far as romance novels go, I'd say this one landed somewhere in the middle of the road.

The premise was cute, saccharine, if a bit forgettable. It was about as vanilla as you could get as well, I won't lie. Personally I would've liked to have seen more Bachelorette-like dating sequences instead of only having had overviews of them. I suppose I was hoping for more awkwardness and abashment on Everly's dates so as to counteract the ease, compatibility, and understanding she and Chris shared whenever they hung out.

Speaking of the two mains, by the way--Chris and Everly had a bit of a forbidden, no-fraternizing-at-work, slow burn romance in this. That's typically a trope I love, and while I did appreciate its inclusion here, it fell flatter than I had hoped it would. Chris's intense infatuation started long before they even struck up a friendship and I didn't care for the instalovey-ness of that. (Instalove seems to be my reading plague of 2020, y'all, I kid you not! Makes me want to scratch out my own eyeballs!) Worse, Everly seemed to be as resistant to date him for valid "reasons" as he was to go all in.

I also didn't think Chris and Everly spent enough time together on the whole.

I will say that the depiction of social anxiety was the best part of the book for me. It paralyzed Everly in numerous ways throughout the narrative: at work, on dates, upon entering the gym, etc. I appreciated how the author showed how other characters were both frustrated and compassionate in their reactions to it as well, because isn't that a dichotomy we all encounter in real life on occasion? Sometimes people are sympathetic to our chronic struggles; other times, they grow impatient and ask if we can "let go" or "get over it already," as if it we could turn them off with a mere snap of our fingers. I loved the chomp of realness I could take away from all of that.

Anyway, I wasn't absorbed by this one by any means but it was light and pleasing. Cute enough to keep my attention.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffith for the ARC in exchange for my review!

This was exactly what I needed in this crazy world. It presented itself as a fluffy read about love, but it took on a lot of other issues in a very thoughtful way. The protagonist has social anxiety and the book shows the misunderstandings people have about that illness, along with how challenging it can make life. There were parent-child relationships that evolved, a discussion of what love is, strong friendships. I expected it to be just a light romance, but it was so much better than that!

I did read an advance copy via Netgalley- and there were a few irritating spacing errors that I hope are resolved prior to release (though I am an English teacher so I'm hyper aware of this things).

Usually I enjoy the slow burn romance, but this one is told from the point-of-view of both lead characters, Everly and Chris. Chris is Everly's boss at a radio station. Everly has social anxiety that Chris is quite aware of and tuned into. However, you know straight from the start that he is interested in her and she is attracted to him. There is no suspense in building the slow burn, only a long frustrating story. Chris tries to bolster the radio stations ratings by having Everly go on dates with listeners. This story would have been much better if we didn't know all the details of Chris's thoughts, and just tried to deduce what he was thinking from his actions. He is clearly very attentive to Everly and her needs, but still he sends her on dates. To make this a more effective slow burn, the reader should not be privy to Chris's thoughts. The reader should be trying to sort out what it means that Chris pays close attention to her anxiety, and yet still lets her go on dates with all of these listeners to the radio show. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

So as someone who has never watched The Bachelor, the premise still intrigued me. In this book you meet Everly, a radio producer with anxiety, and Chris, her boss with secrets that has a crush on her. After being humiliated on her birthday and accidently saying it on air, the station puts on a Bacherlor type show for her to go on dates.
One issue I had with the book was the 'instant love", that Chris has for Everly. All in all a cute story, and I liked that the premise was new to me.