4 STARS
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was such a cute RomCom. This one has "Bachelorette" vibes. this was a delightful feel good story with a “The Bachelor” vibe. The radio station setting was very fun to read. The story was so fun and relatable (we've all been embarrassed about something, right?). The characters were wonderful! Chris and Everly (our main characters) had such cute chemistry. The side characters were so funny, and I loved all of them. There were many laugh-out-loud moments.

The thing I appreciated the most was the portrayal of Everly's social anxiety. It was done in a very realistic way, which was so refreshing to read! As someone who struggles with social anxiety, it is hard to find a book that portrays it in the same way that I experience it.

Overall, this was such a cute, uplifting, and enjoyable RomCom, and I highly recommend!

**Special thanks to St. Martin’s Press for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own.**

I loved this book so much. The author did a great job of switching between characters and growing their relationship.

I am sorry for not reviewing fully but I don’t have the time to read this at the moment. I believe that it wouldn't benefit you as a publisher or your book if I only skimmed it and wrote a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for not fully reviewing!

Let me be honest - around the time I read Ten Rules for Faking It, I read about three other books that were so similar I’m not sure I can distinguish the four. And this was the last in a catch I read almost entirely back-to-back, so maybe the lower rating is due to me just being over the repetition. I wanted to love the book and I really did like the idea of the storyline, but I found myself to be quite irked much too often.

I enjoy romantic novels that have strong female leads and have diverse characters. I didn’t dislike Everly, but I was worried too often that she would sacrifice her own goals and plans for a guy that she doesn’t even think likes her so much. That isn’t to say that Everly wasn’t a strong character. One of the major pieces of representation within the novel was Everly’s apparent social anxiety. It was so interesting to see the mixture of Everly’s anxiety mixed with the bachelorette-themed plot line. I appreciated Chris’s understanding and supporting of Everly’s anxious tendencies. And side note: I also really loved all the Veronica Mars’ references!

But what I didn’t love so much was the constant back and forth of “I like him/her but there’s this issue” over and over and over. It was so repetitive and just really annoying after a certain point. It just screams “do it already and get it over with!”. Like, I get it. The sexual tension is part of a romantic story, but at a certain point things just have to change for better or worse.

Lastly, once the book came to a close it was so abrupt. I don’t love when things are so damn wrapped up there’s no room for further growth. There’s the aspiration of a romantic novel, but there should also be a realistic ending that leaves a little open-endedness so as the reader, you can imagine the endless possibilities for what’s next to come.

Honestly, by the time I finished the book, I was just so over it. I would read Sophie Sullivan again, but this particular story just left me too annoyed to really appreciate.

I think I liked the idea of this book more than the actual book. In reading the synopsis I was really excited but it never seemed to get there for me. I read it in two days and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t everything I wanted it to be.

This book was an easy and fun read, but ultimately was not something very memorable. I'm disappointed because it sounded like something I would really enjoy.

This book was delightful. I also appreciated the mental health aspect. The hero wasn't my favorite, but overall, I enjoyed this one.

It was a cute slow-burn romance. It was quite cheesy at times. Wasn't that great but was a good read.

I really, really loved this book. I won't rehash the synopsis but I will say that I have never resonated with or felt so understood by a book before. Our heroine, Everly, deals with severe social anxiety, which is also something that I struggle with. So many of the thoughts that ran through her head also run through mine on a daily basis. It was so encouraging and inspiring to see that while she struggled, Everly realized she was more than her anxiety and didn't let it define her.

It was also amazing to see how those around her, the love interest and her best friend, weren't put off by her anxiety but instead supported her and made changes relating to Everly's comfort level. There was no judgment. I loooved her relationship with her best friend, Stacey. There was so much girl power and support between the two of them. All around, this was a fantastic read and I highly recommend.

Meet Everly. Everly is a radio station producer with severe anxiety, a strong dislike for birthdays, and an even stronger dislike for men after she walks in, on her birthday, to her boyfriend cheating on her. To make matters worse, she ends up spilling the entire story on live air to her best friend Stacey, the radio DJ. Needless to stay, Everly really hates birthdays now and surprises. Oh, and don't forget the piñata full of condoms from her parents.

To fix all of this, her super hot boss, Chris, pitches a Bachelorette style game where Everly and the listeners get to choose who she dates. Throughout the story we get glimpses at Everly and Chris' personal lives and how they have become who they are.

I really liked this story because it was not super steamy at all., which worked for the plotline. I really enjoyed the realistic struggles that Everly faced with family, friends, and romance. I felt like the list was a main focus for the plot, but it was not focused on enough. It was mentioned here and there and created a few times with modifications, but it was not as big of a deal as I thought it would be. I do like the first list and the last list in the story.

First off, Everly and I would be great friends. We would sit around all day, watching Veronica Mars, chatting occasionally about favorite radio segments. We would never meet in real life, of course, because we’d both never go anywhere that we would possibly meet the other, so reading her story was a great alternative.

This book didn’t grip me the same way others I’ve recently read but once I got in to the story I found myself looking forward to every page. Everly has surrounded herself with a great cast of people, especially her friend Stacey that really filled out this book and Chris - Jensen, not Pratt/Evans/Pine - was the perfect male lead for this book. I’m hoping we get to read more of Everly and Chris soon! Noah and Wes are begging for books of their own!

“ I’ll always choose you.”

Everly doesn’t do birthdays especially her 30th since her boyfriend is horizontal with his assistant. And she definitely didn’t expect the ratings of the radio station she works for and his thousands of listeners to listen to her rant about her slimy ex. Soon her life becomes a Bachelorette type to get her love life back into gear. Little does she know that the production director, Chris has always had a crush on her. He persuades her Everly to get outside her comfort zone so maybe it would decrease his feelings for her. I really loved he friendship to romance and how Chris wasn’t judgemental to the fact that she had severe social anxiety and this was WAY out of her comfort zone.

Both Stacey, her best friend and Chris were great support systems and we slowly get to see Everly the reality of her having social anxiety. I don’t have social anxiety, but this seems like it was a good rep for it. Overall, I really enjoyed this slow burn, forbiddden(co workers), friends to lovers romance.

TEN RULES FOR FAKING IT is a slow-burn, workplace romance set at a radio station. The premise was fun, but it really was a slow-burn. I didn't know this going in, so I wasn't expecting the book to drag on, but sadly it did. My favorite part was the social anxiety representation, though, which was spot-on!

I was excited to get to read this book. The characters were easy to fall in love with. This book had me laughing out loud at times. It's a great read that I would recommend to anyone that likes rom coms. I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. .

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. I wanted to love this but I just couldn't get into the story. Nothing grabbed me.

I love lists. I love goals. I love making lists of goals. TEN RULES FOR FAKING IT had me at lists and a woman struggling with discovering what she wanted out of life. Everly has a lot of social anxiety and is constantly thinking through every decision and detail and consequence. I feel like my brain does this too so I could relate to her but without her severe level of anxiety. I felt for her anxiety and her introversion, how being around people can be exhausting. My heart broke with her moments of feeling like an outsider or weird because being social can be so tiring.

The romance between Everly and Chris was fun and had a lot of great tension. I think the will-they-or-won't-they went on for way too long, though. This book could have had about 60 pages edited off it because towards the end if felt like one conflict after another for them to face and overcome. The dating contest aspect that brings Everly out of her shell was such a fun plot concept to read about. I'm a sucker for the woes of dating storyline so this was right up my alley.

This book was fun to read/listen to, I really adored Everly's characterization, and journeying with her through her battle with anxiety and learning how she wants to live her life to the fullest. This book might fall into the eventual forgettable category but very enjoyable!

I enjoyed the story, but I wouldn’t label it a rom-com. There was way too much angst to call it funny. [(Except maybe that darn donkey) Read to find out!}. The issue of anxiety and panic attacks was very well portrayed, as was, the relationships of parents and adult children. Do we ever grow out of wanting their praise, I wonder? Chris and Everly’s evolving relationship was sweet and Stacey and Ev’s friendship, wonderful. Supporting characters were well enough developed to make them interesting and part of the story, not just fillers. My only true criticism would be it could have been 50 pages shorter. A little LESS angst and introspection would have allowed it to be both interesting and fun.

Ten Rules for Faking It will find any and all heart strings you have and tug on them all. I love these contemporary romances that have a deeper story to them and are a little more thought provoking. As a huge Bachelor Nation fan, I loved this little take on the 'bachelor' style romance with main character Everly and her terrible dating life going viral after a mistaken on air rant about her cheating boyfriend. This would have made a really good Bachelorette Season!

I loved what Sophie Sullivan did with her main character Everly, with serious social anxiety and how she dealt with it. I loved the side characters who supported Everly despite her anxiety and treated her normally. It was extremely refreshing to read a positive book about something that so many people struggle with and need to feel less alone and more 'normal'. The only thing I would have wanted to be different about this book was a little more open door romance, but I think in this case, what was done was perfect for this particular one. I got all the warm and fuzzy feelings from this book and this cute romance, I highly suggest!

I really loved this novel. It was super awesome. The characters are really sweet. It was a great fake relationship romance. There were super sweet moments highly recommend.

Thanks NetGalley for the preview!
This book was the definition of the slow burn. Unfortunately, the highly anticipated moment of the first kiss was lackluster. Everly and Chris were both fine characters but I didn't find myself connecting to them. They didn't give me a reason to wish for their happily ever after. I also felt like all of the characters were underdeveloped or bland and there was no diversity. Very glad that Everly goes on a self discovery journey and stands up for what she wants but I wish the entire story carried that much passion.