This book had everyone's favorite tropes combined:
-Grumpy x Sunshine
-Second Chance Romance
-Forced Proximity
(and my personal favorite)
-Only One Bed

The first book in the series had the most loveable characters, and it was impossible for The Rule Book to be any different. Also, I absolutely loved the girl power in this one. It is an absolute can't miss read.

*Thanks to Random House Publishing Group, Sarah Adams, and NetGalley for the ARC, in exchange for my honest review.*

My new favorite Ssarah Adams book! This storyline was unique and fun to read and learn about the athlete/agent dynamic

Let me tell you, I am officially a sports romance girlie through and through! This is my first Sarah Adams book and I am now her number 1 fan. I need to go back and read every single one of her books. This book was so charming and witty and the banter was top notch!

The Rule Book is a sweet book comprised of my favorite tropes: enemies to lovers, second chance, forced proximity and a not so fake Vegas marriage. I thoroughly enjoyed the Cheat Sheet so I was excited to read this. The banter between Nora and Derek was sublime and I loved the chemistry between them. I was a little frustrated by Derek and his still being hung up over the breakup that had occurred over 8 years ago but they definitely worked for and deserved their happily ever after..

The Rule Book written by Sarah Adams was PERFECT in so many ways. This book was beautiful, heart warming, inspirational, and even gut wrenching at times. Football is one of my favorite sports, so when I saw The Rule Book was about football, I knew I had to get my hands on it, even though this book wasn't five stars for me, I still loved every minute of it. I fell in love with that adorable cover, but the characters truly pulled me in. It might have been a bit cheesy at times, but sometimes all we need is a palette cleanser, and this book was definitely very cute and fluffy.

Give me the enemies to lovers trope all day long! Flew through this rom com and loved the character development!

I didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did! Technically this is a sequel to The Cheat Sheet however I never read that one and was fine to skip to this.

This is a second chance romance which is one of my favorite tropes! The main characters had a past and now find themselves working together. They try to create some rules to keep their relationship professional but after one night in Vegas that all goes out the window. Now they have to navigate making a Vegas marriage seem real in order to help our FMC keep her job

This was a good romance and perfect summer read! I would rate the 5 stars and will be recommending it to my followers!

Thank you netgalley for this ARC

Nora is a rising star assistant to a high profile sports agent who is excited to take on her very first solo client... until she realizes that said client is Derek Pender, star tight end for the LA Sharks and Nora's ex-boyfriend from college. Desperate to prove herself to her boss, she's willing to overlook their history, but Derek only agrees to the arrangement to make Nora as miserable as he was when they broke up and force her to quit. Coming back from a serious injury, Derek needs all the help he can to get his career back on track and Nora's ideas just might help his cause, if he'll let her. But of course, nothing is that simple in a romance book and the two soon catch feelings.

Loved this enemies-to-lovers story with a fake marriage thrown in for fun. Derek's pining for Nora was palpable and I'm always in for the only one bed trope. :) I didn't care for the ending regarding Derek's career as much (too over-the-top) but overall, a quick and enjoyable read.

Overall: 3.75/5
Spice: 2/3

4.5 stars!! THE DEDICATION!!!!!

“This one’s for my girls: Dream Ben bigger. Reach impossibly higher, Don’t you dare settle.” TOP. NOTCH. DEDICATION.

This book was stellar & a true treat! I loved it way more than I enjoyed book 1. This book shows us Nora & Derek & some fake marriage to help each other out. They were together in college & parted ways when college was coming to a close. Derek’s career was just starting to take off with graduation around the corner, so parting ways seemed most logical. Years later—they find each other once, unexpectedly, wanting to completely ignore & disregard theirs past together. Nora is given the chance to manage Derek as a sports agent as a rookie. But you see her feeling unsure if she’s up to the challenge of being around him too much during this time & being able to ignore all those old feelings……enter, drunk marriage, OOOPS. Even though it was snot exactly intentional they decide to play it off as it was with the risk of Nora being fired. Can they handle it being all fake to save Nora’s career?

This was such a treat. I loved watching them grow & develop through this book, the way they treated each other was so so sweeet. I will say the reason I didn’t give it more than a 4.5 is because of the lack of communication. It’s a hot point for me, but only enough to only take a half a point because truly it was a sweet & fun story. They had such good chemistry & Sarah did these tropes very well. Usually second chances are very iffy for me, but she did this & played that well in this book. I was rooting for them immediately when they tried to fake til they made it.

Sarah also is wonderful at representing mental health concerns in books & within her characters to where it’s so incredibly relatable. Highly suggest this book!

Thank you to the publisher, Sarah & Netgalley for the arc!!

Sarah Adams writes the sweetest romances and I can't get enough of them. This one was excellent! I'm so excited for the next one!

Sarah Adams has done it again!! This book was all the things. Charming, tunny & tull of unquestionable chemistry!! Nora & Derek's second-chance romance is one of my favorites & you just can't help but root for them trom the start! The other relationships in this book, like those between Derek & his teammates and Nora & her mentor friend are also so endearing! The growth you see in both characters as they rediscover their connection is so real. Oh & did I mention you Tet to eat shee within out Whats next for them! "The Rule Book" is 1000% a must-read!

Nora Mackenzie is trying to make a name for herself in the world of sports as the best up-and-coming agent to professional athletes. She just landed her big break with Derek Pender, who is trying to make a comeback to the NFL after a serious injury. The only problem is that Derek is Nora’s college ex-boyfriend, whose heart she happened to break. To make the whole agent/athlete relationship work, Nora and Derek come up with a list of rules that they cannot break – however, they are really bad at following their own rules.

The Rule Book by Sarah Adams is an extremely cute story about two people who are exactly right for each other. It is so obvious that Nora and Derek are meant to be – especially as they keep breaking the rules they made for their professional relationship. Told through dual POVs, you really do get to see how in love these characters are with each other.

This book does have a lot of tropes in it, so if you like forced proximity, second chances, enemies to lovers, marriage of convenience or any combination of those, then this book is for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for giving me an ARC copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Sarah Adams has single handedly reignited my love of sports romances. I can't say I've ever been the BIGGEST fan of them, but I'll be damned if The Rule Book didn't change that for me.

I loved the characters, plotline, and overall feel of the book. My only gripe is that I wish the sex scenes were a bit better written. I wanted more detail and less assumptions.

This is disappointing to say but I didn't love this book. I found the main characters annoying. Some of the dialogue seemed immature and juvenile at times. The plot was okay. I still love Sarah Adams and I'll read whatever she writes this was just a miss for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the E-ARC.

All thoughts and opinions are honest and my own.

4.5 amazing stars

The Rule Book by Sarah Adams is the second book in the Cheat Sheet series. Nora Mackenzie is a sports agent, and, having worked her way up in a male dominated field, has just received her first player to represent. And it just so happens that it's her college boyfriend. The one she broke up with. The one that she still loves.

Derek Pender got injured last season, and, as an older (almost 30 y/o) player he's freaking out that he will be cut from the team this year and is doing everything he can to make sure the public sees that he's serious about his rehab, training, and position on the team. When his agent retires suddenly and he finds out his new agent is Nora, he really holds a grudge and is determined to make things so difficult for her that she quits. He even comes up with a "rule book" with outrageous rules that they have to follow if she wants to continue to be his agent.

Instead of giving in and quitting, Nora decides to scheme back. But on a work trip to Vegas, things get a little wild and Nora and Derek have to make a decision about their relationship and their careers.

Oh. My. Goodness. I love Sarah Adams and will automatically read anything this woman puts out. The banter is so funny I found my self giggling outloud on multiple occasions. I thought Nora was super sweet, funny, and quirky but she was so strong and quick thinking. I loved reading about her organizing things and how it calms her mind - I am the same way! I started out unsure about how I felt about Derek. He was kind of a whiney baby. Why, after a breakup in college 8 years ago, is he trying to destroy Nora's career? But as he slowly opened up he grew on me. He was quite romantic and soft and sweet. I still think I would have like to hear more about the agent/client side of Nora's career, and this was a little more relationship heavy (which was fine and I loved it, don't get me wrong).

This book was great and I highly recommend this quick read for any romance lovers out there. (Also, it's pretty much closed door but still hot for those that care about those kind of things like I do).

I just loved everything about this story! The full and fun cast of characters and great and the romance is swoon worthy. I found also found that the laugh out loud moments were the best.

Nora and Derek are so adorable and fun together. I couldn't wait for them to admit their feelings for each other from the very beginning, and the fake marriage lead to some steam coming off the pages.

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲:

Second Chance
Single Bed
Sports Romance
Swoon Worthy
Fake Marriage
Dual POV
Laugh Out Loud
Embodiment of comfort romcom

nora mackenzie, newly promoted to being a sports agent, is ready to prove that she’s ready to represent NFL players. unbeknownst to her—and to him—nora’s first client is her ex-boyfriend derek pender, la sharks tight end. this is the perfect second chance romance for sports romance lovers!

I loved nora’s quirks and how derek couldn’t help but fall back in love with her. I also appreciated the dyslexia representation and seeing how nora handles the male dominated office as a sports agent

This was really cute! A quick and easy read set in the same universe as her previous work The Cheat Sheet, so if you enjoyed that one, you'll enjoy this one too.

Nora and Derek are college exes who have reunited years later as a NFL darling and a sports agent. When working together, they accidentally get fake married after a drunken night in Vegas and they then have to spend a week together on a honeymoon for good publicity.

There were a lot of things that worked well for this: I enjoyed both Nora's quirkiness and Derek's hard shelled softie interier. The unresolved feelings made sense, but I'm also glad that they spent the time apart to become who they needed to be.

I will say that I prefer her Rome, Kentucky books over this universe in that I think her writing is a bit stronger. But that's just my opinion!

I've read all of Sarah Adams books but unfortunately I had to DNF this book for the time being. There wasn't anything bad about the writing I just wasn't connecting too much with the story. I found it to be a little cheesy that the main characters were still pining over the college relationship many years later. I may pick this book up again as it wasn't that bad but I just was getting a bit bored.

When starting a book, I try to go in with an open mind and zero expectations or pre-conceived notions. That being said, I tried really hard to love this book and I just…couldn’t. Nora is supposed to be an Elle Woods-esque character (and I LOVE Elle Woods) but is more like a caricature of Elle Woods. Nora is so much “not like the other girls” because she wears colorful outfits, has a corny sense of humor, and is…nice? Oh yeah, and she likes sports. Really though, those are the only things that really made her “different” and “quirky”. It’s like that meme of the women in the grocery story where one is holding a bag of frozen vegetables on her head and the caption is “Nora is soooo crazy.” The point being that something totally innocuous is made out to be super unusual in place of character development. Having that point emphasized repeatedly with every description of her outfits along with having to read about how “huge” Derek is every other page was cringey to say the least. Like we get it, he plays for the NFL, he’s a large person. We get it, Nora wears colorful clothes so she’s “too much” for people and her only friend is her mother. But, she can also make friends anywhere, they just get tired of her really fast because she’s a workaholic? Also, she’s a feminist and totally supports women, she’s just not like any other woman and has no close female friendships. It felt like Nora was everywhere and Derek didn’t really have a consistent growth plot line. He went from fearing being kicked off his team and not knowing who he was through about 95% of the book to a complete 180 in the last chapter with the reader having to guess how he got there so quickly. He has dyslexia and struggled with school and that was kind of just thrown in the story, but never got actual closure. I would’ve liked to see him actually address the hurt he felt with his parents and sister. Don’t even get me started on how weird and unrealistic his whole friend group is. They do not talk to each other how people actually talk to each other. It felt super unnatural. The story dragged in the beginning and then flew through every TikTok trope that could be jammed in at the end. I truly rolled my eyes at several parts. The chemistry and banter between the two main characters was great and I wish that more time had been given to their happy ending and much less to the drawn out miscommunication. This book had a lot of potential and the writing itself isn’t bad, but I just couldn’t connect with the characters. This was not for me.