Overall, I felt this book was too long. It took forever to get to the romance, and there were a lot of random storylines that could have been left out to shorten it. I think part of the reason I struggled to get into the story was that Everly annoyed me. I enjoyed the parts where she was portrayed as a real person with issues: anxiety, trust issues, and perfectionism. But I didn’t like the rest. I found her whiny and constantly standing in her way. Chris, I liked him as a character. He had his issues but was so focused on Everly.

This was an entertaining book. I enjoyed reading it and didn't want it to end. Everly is a likeable character who falls in love with her boss. She tries to deny it but realizes she can't I recommend this book.

Ten Rules for Faking It!

Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan is a fun story that delves into the very real situations those dealing with anxiety face every day. Everly had the worst birthday of all her bad birthdays. However, she has suddenly become the darling of the radio station with guys lining up to date her and help her forget her ex. This sparks an idea to have Everly become the radio Bachelorette. Chris, who manages the radio station, is looking for ways to increase the listeners of this station. He wants to prove to his dad (who owns the station) that he can manage multimedia companies. However, no one knows his relationship to the owner, and he wants to keep it that way.

Everly is considering this new opportunity that has fallen in her lap, and being the queen of lists, she decides that’s what she needs to fake her way through this new situation. It takes a lot of patience and understanding for Chris to encourage Everly to put herself out in the field. But when he recognizes he’d like to be her choice at the end, he needs to remember he is her boss, as well as her friend. Everly recognizes her attraction to Chris as well, but she doesn’t know how to choose him at the end of the day, so she’s going to play the game, follow her rules, and go with the path of least resistance. Sometimes, recognizing your fears, working with others and being willing to fight for what you really want, make for a real HEA.

I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely.

Ten Rules For Faking It is a slow burn romantic-comedy, which had me laughing and closing my book shut in the first 5 minutes of reading because the secondhand embarrassment for the main character was just too much for me.

This book is a light read, yet I found myself aching a lot when it came to Everly and her anxiety, because of this and the way it’s addressed by the characters, I read and learnt a lot from the inspiring conversations that I shall apply to my life.

I don’t like slow-burns, so my only qualm is I felt the story was dragging. However, would I recommend it? Yes.

Pick this book up on a day you want to read something sweet, funny and need to remind yourself you’re important and worthy.

Ten Rules for Faking it by Sophie Sullivan is a super fun romantic novel that I devoured in a day.....a very unproductive housework day. As much as this book was fun it was also awesome how Sophie wrote about a character that is dealing with anxiety stemming from a trauma she endured as a child. This seriously gave so much depth to this book!

This was a great read. I really enjoyed this story and the characters. This is a fun romantic comedy you don’t want to miss. Everly is a radio station producer and she works with her best friend. I love when we get more than one point of view. Chris is so sweet and such a likable character. I like how we get some of The Bachelor feel to this book. If you are looking for a cute fun read grab this one.

This was adorable and had so many tropes that I'm into: like the crush on your boss/ also kind of fake dating? Either way it was really cute and I really liked Everly and was rooting for her throughout the book to overcome her anxiety and follow her lists to find happiness. I also like that Chris became her comfort person so early into the story so it was inevitable that they'd be perfect for each. I can't wait to read more from Sophie Sullivan, hopefully Stacey gets a book!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

4.25 Stars

I really enjoyed this story.

It's quirky and fun, perhaps a little too long, but a good slow burn.

I do like how anxiety is a component compiled with other factors that make her who she is. I liked all the characters. I think I may have fallen in love with Chris and everyone should have a Stacey in their life. I related to this book instantly, seeing a bit of me in each introverted moment and making people understanding how tiring it can be to push one self out of your comfort zone in an extroverted world.

The dilemmas were a little exaggerated but overall could be overlooked because it was a quick read and enjoyed being with these characters in their world.

We should all make a faking list to make ourselves a little happier. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

Steamy time: None - but full of funny innuendos

On the morning of Everly's 30th birthday, she decides to bring breakfast to her boyfriends house, only to find him in bed with someone else. When she gets to work, she's a producer at a radio station, she rants all about it to her best friend, Stacey, the DJ, except Stacey had the mic on so all of the listeners heard it. She is mortified when her boss, Chris decides to take advantage of the situation and have a Bacherorette-style contest to help out the struggling station. With her severe anxiety out of control with all of the dates she is going on, she will have to fake it in order to deal with it. Will she choose one of the contestants to be her new guy or is he closer than she thinks.
This was a fun easy read that is hard to put down! Thank you to NetGalley for the Arc in exchange for my honest review.

DNF. It's not that this book was bad, it was just unremarkable. As I was reading it felt that I had read this exact book before. I read Rachel Lynn Solomon's fantastic "The Ex Talk" just before this book and couldn't help comparing them. Both followed spunky radio producers falling for their coworkers, and the dialogue and plotting in this book just couldn't compare. If you want a palatable contemporary romance, pick this up. If you want this book but with far better dialogue and chemistry, go read The Ex Talk.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this title.

This book was very predictable but it was a fun, cute read to the book I read before it, the patient!

Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan - DNF

I received a free copy of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, I did not connect with this novel at all. I really disliked the main character - and while it is not a requirement for me to like the main character in order to like a book, I honestly just couldn't stand her. She was whiny and selfish and I hated how often she talked to herself out loud.

I was not sucked into this novel at all. It definitely has it's audience, but unfortunately that wasn't me.

It’s been a while since I’ve thought, “this book would have been an easy four stars if it had been 100 pages shorter,” but that’s exactly how I felt about TEN RULE FOR FAKING IT by Sophie Sullivan. At 384 pages, it isn’t THAT much longer than other contemporary romances I’ve read, but it felt really, really long. It took me more than a week to read! The book follows Everly, a 30-year-old radio producer trying to find love while managing her anxiety and Chris, her sexy and caring, yet secretive boss. Everly accidentally blurts out a story about her cheating boyfriend on-air and gets swept into a dating show based around her and aired on her radio show.

Let’s start with the positives. This book has a lot of elements of other contemporary romances or romcoms I’ve read or watched while at the same time being wholly unique. I love that Everly is so darn relatable. I also recently turned 30, and so many of her emotional responses hit a chord for me. Now, I’m not on a radio dating show a la The Bachelorette, but I think if I were, I’d relate to Everly even more. I also enjoyed her love interest, Chris. He is a good guy trying to live up to his family’s expectations and succeed in his career. Too bad he is knocked sideways by his infatuation with Everly, who is absolutely not in his plans. This book also had killer side characters. I enjoyed both Chris and Everly’s BFFs and Chris’s brother. I feel future stories??

What didn’t work for me? As I mentioned, this book is a little too long. What I didn’t mention was that it’s a slow burn. So slow. The slowest slow. I was so irritated just waiting for ANYTHING to happen between Everly and Chris. I liked them both as characters, and I really wanted them to be together! So when they finally, finally kind of figure it out right before the end of the book… there is no steam. Zero. Nada. Nothing. It was such a disappointment. Sure, I’ve read books without love scenes that are fun and satisfying, but I thought Chris and Everly really needed that physical connection for me to believe they were actually in love. They danced around each other so much that I was completely let down by the lack of spark.

The other big problem for me was that as soon as this book started, well, as soon as we got Chris’ POV, we knew he was head over heels for Everly. It doesn’t matter that they haven’t really talked; he’s completely gone for her. All of these emotions happen before the book starts making Chris’ feelings for Everly, who, let’s be honest, is a bit of a mess, seem shallow at best, unbelievable at worst.

Overall, I liked a lot about this book, but it ended up being a “meh” read for me. I wish it had been faster paced and a little shorter. I don’t think I’ll give up on Sullivan’s books, TEN RULES was very well written, but I’ll temper my expectations for my next read.

**I received a free copy of this book in order to provide an honest review**

What a fun read. Unusual characters in a different type of setting. I enjoyed that the guy she ends up with isn’t your typical love interest.

This was ok but not great.

The positive: The book normalizes living with anxiety and affirms the challenges people face who struggle with it as Everly has trouble accepting and standing up for herself.

The less positive: The story went on too long and Chris was a bit too sensitive, to the point where it was unrealistic, which might be why the book dragged. He was such a lovesick puppy, pretty much from page 1.

The Bachelorette plotline was undeveloped and unoriginal. Aside from the treatment of anxiety (which was a big plot point), everything else felt rote and recently done - the whole list thing, the dating contest, the whole “I feel strangely pleased when he looks at me but I don’t know why. No, it can’t be that..”

I don’t think was awful, just mostly unoriginal.

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC copy of this book available to me.

Enjoyable, but it felt like there was a bit too much focus on the main character's anxiety issues, and Chris's father came across a bit one-dimensional. Some nicely humorous moments were peppered throughout the book.

I loved this debut romcom from Sophie Sullivan! It was well written and I adored the story. I can't wait to read more from Sophie!

This was a perfect read for right after Christmas. This read was fun, had a few steamy scenes, and was just a great light hearted read. The characters were likeable, kept you engaged, and were well developed by the author. I don't re-read books often, but I'll be re-reading this one!

Synopsis: As birthdays go, this year’s for radio producer Everly Dean hit rock-bottom.

Worse than the “tonsillectomy birthday.” Worse than the birthday her parents decided to split (the first time). But catching your boyfriend cheating on you with his assistant?

Even clichés sting.

But this is Everly’s year! She won’t let her anxiety hold her back. She’ll pitch her podcast idea to her boss.

There’s just one problem.

Her boss, Chris, is very cute. (Of course). Also, he's extremely distant (which means he hates her, right? Or is that the anxiety talking)?

And, Stacey the DJ didn’t mute the mic during Everly’s rant about Simon the Snake (syn: Cheating Ex).

That’s three problems.

Suddenly, people are lining up to date her, Bachelorette-style, fans are voting (Reminder: never leave house again), and her interest in Chris might be a two-way street. It’s a lot for a woman who could gold medal in people-avoidance. She’s going to have to fake it ‘till she makes it to get through all of this.

Perhaps she’ll make a list: The Ten Rules for Faking It.

Because sometimes making the rules can find you happiness when you least expect it.

Review: I was pretty excited to read this book after it's illustrated cover caught my attention and the synopsis had me intrigued. Luckily this book was as enjoyable as I hoped. If you love romcoms as much as I do, you'll want to grab a copy of this one for yourself.

What I loved:

1. I loved how the author represented social anxiety in this book. Everly's struggles were very accurately portrayed imo and the author painted a vivid picture for those who don't struggle with social anxiety.

2. This book has a fun storyline that's easy to get invested in. Even though it's a slow burn romance, I thought it was sweet and entertaining.

3. I enjoyed the radio station setting and I thought the characters were well devopled. While I really liked the main characters, I did dislike some of the secondary characters though (*cough* Everly's parents *cough*).

Overall I found this to be an enjoyable quick read.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐💫

I thought this one was pretty good. I really liked the premise of the book and I thought it was really easy to run through, however I just feel like something was missing overall. The story didn't feel FULL, you know? The characters were likable and I found myself connecting to a lot of what the story offered, so I was really surprised to have felt this way in the end.

Definitely not a bad read by any means, I expect this will not be the last I read of Sophie's work. I just hope next time I feel like it is satisfying as an ending.