"The Rule Book" commences with an unexpected encounter between former lovers, Nora and Derek. Despite the less-than-graceful end to their relationship, the transition to a strictly business arrangement appears seamless initially. However, as the narrative unfolds, they grapple with the realisation that their shared history and unresolved emotions persist in the present. Sarah Adams skillfully develops Nora and Derek's relationship throughout the entirety of the book, captivating readers and leaving them swooning.

While Nora attempts to desperately navigate her rekindled personal relationship with Derek, she effortlessly handles their professional dynamics and responsibilities. Adams skillfully navigates the delicate balance, offering a beacon of hope for those of us confronted with choosing between personal and professional lives as Nora conquers both in a tremendous way. Their journey unfolds as a delicate dance between past and present experiences, restrained by barriers stemming from their time apart.

In portraying Nora's pursuits, Adams provides a nuanced exploration of both her personal and professional triumphs. Nora and Derek epitomize the belief that genuine love will inevitably find a way back. Their story suggests that while they were destined to be together, their initial separation served as a necessary chapter in their lives, allowing them to rediscover each other later in life.

“The Rule Book” stands as a commendable standalone sequel for enthusiasts of "The Cheat Sheet," offering a narrative that leaves readers fulfilled with a profound sense of heart and a yearning for a partner like Derek — one who comprehends and embraces their partners true selves.

If you're looking for the perfect comfort read filled with heart, check out THE RULE BOOK by Sarah Adams!

Sarah Adams has done it again - I loved The Cheat Sheet and absolutely LOVED The Rule Book!

You can feel the connection between Nora and Derek - college sweethearts thrown together years after a bad breakup.

Derek is adorable, attentive and so desperately in love with Nora. I appreciated the dyslexia rep from Derek and thought it was handled perfectly.

Nora is endearing - she's quirky and fun and so relatable. I loved the focus on her career and how hard she worked

READ FOR:
❤️Second chance romance
🏈Sports romance
👫Forced proximity
🌞Grumpy x Sunshine
💍Fake marriage
🔥Spicy
⭐️4 stars

#rochellereadsit

Sarah Adams has done it again - the queen of no third act breakup! A cute and fluffy romance that had me absolutely BEAMING it hurts. Nora using humour as a coping mechanism? So real. Second chance romance where both characters have been pining for each other, even when apart?? SIGN ME UP!

Nora and Derek felt so real and genuine. Facing struggles that are being a woman in sports and dealing with dyslexia.

Thank you NetGalley and Hachette for the ARC!

The feels. True to Adams other books, the sweet love story hits you right in the feels. Whilst she ventured into the spice a little, there was a disclaimer with a chapter reference for those who choose to avoid it, which I do respect to be faithful to her readers. Every time I open one of her books, I get tingles in my chest, you know, the butterflies where something is super sweet and making you giddy? This book was no exception. A second chance NFL romance? Sign me up immediately. The growth of Nora and Derek to get back together was heartwarming to see, and his little bro pep squad was a cute change from the usual female character pep squad. And I'm not gonna lie, yes I did picture Travis Kelse. And no, I wasn't mad about it.

Nora, Nora, Nora. All I can say is that I am glad for everyone involved that I was in a mood today that was ready for your particular brand of quirky. And I ate that shit up. Nom nom.

I enjoy a second chance trope and this one threw in a little enemies to lovers too as Derek tried to pay Nora back for all the heartache he felt when she dumped him without warning. Nora was full of nonsense metaphors and jumbled sentences while still being a badass, and Derek tried his hardest to be an asshole but it was clear for everyone to see that he was still in love with Nora.

It was cute and I enjoyed it even more than the first one. Who’s next?

Thanks to #NetGallery and publisher for a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Genre: Romance
Format: Digital
POV: Dual
Spice: 🌶️🌶️ /5
Age suggestion: 18+

Sweet romantic comedy about a second chance romance.
Nora is starting out as a sports agent and her first solo client is Derek who is coming back from a serious injury. Derek is also Nora’s ex that she dumped in a horrible way. When Derek finds out Nora is his new agent he forms a plan to sabotage her. But a wild night in Vegas leaves the two of them married and lines are starting to blur.
I loved this story!!! Low stakes and likeable characters. It was great to see some of the same characters from the previous book. The interactions between Derek and Nora are alive with tension. You also get a range of tropes in the one book with rivals and pranking to fake relationship.
This is a heartwarming romance that is flirty and funny with a touch of spice.

Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

4.5 stars!!
The Cheat Sheet has been one of my favourite books for so long so when I received this arc I immediately sat down to read it, I did not get back up again for about 6 hours because it was JUST SO PERFECT, I finished this book in one sitting and I 100% will be reading it again.
Derek and Nora have an intense journey throughout this book from breaking up in college to finding each other again 8 years later when Nora becomes his agent(#fate). The immediate chemistry you feel between these two characters is so intense it feels like you are on this rollercoaster of new and old feelings resurfacing. You're immediately rooting for them to make their way back to each other because of the depth of emotions they still feel from the past. I loved how not only did we see the relationship between Nora and Derek evolve and blossom but we also got to see what was happening in each individual characters lives more in depth. I thought Sarah Adams wrote about Dereks childhood and current struggles with his newfound Dyslexia beautiful and thought she portrayed how he feels about himself perfectly. Nora works in a male dominated industry so we got to fully understand how this affects her and although she is a strong independent women we saw how the opinions of her peers who weren't the kindest affected her, I thought Adams did a perfect job of sharing what many women have to deal with through Nora.
Overall this book was so adorable and will make everyone want to find a love like Derek and Nora have, Derek is the definition of perfect boyfriend he is so obsessed with Nora it's adorable. There are also so many cameos from Nathan and Bree, and other characters we met in 'The Cheat Sheet' which are so fun.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sarah Adams and Hachette for the review copy.

The Rule Book follows Nora, as the future of her new career as a sports agent relies on Derek, who just so happens to be her hotter than ever ex-boyfriend from college. With Derek in the mood for revenge, he's ready to make Nora's life miserable, but she has never been a quitter, and nothing can stop her from reaching her goals. With a set of rules for each other at the ready, nothing could possibly go wrong...

Y'all, and I can be a low key second chance romance hater sometimes but this was the second chance/accidental marriage of convenience combination that I never knew I needed but everything about this book was fantastic! Nora is absolute sunshine and I loved her. I found the mystery of their past (and the bedside table) so enjoyable to uncover throughout their story.

I remember reading ‘The Cheat Sheet’, finishing the book and saying “that was the most adorable book I’ve ever read and now I’m obsessed with Sarah Adams.”

So when I was selected as an ARC reader for The Rule Book, I just about lost it.

Nora Mackenzie, up and coming athlete agent, gets assigned to her college ex-boyfriend and current star Tight End, Derek Pender.
As revenge for breaking his heart all those years ago, Derek makes it his mission to make Nora’s job as his agent unbearable.

The tension and history between Nora and Derek made for a gripping start to the book, and reading it all fall into place pushed me to power through the book in a single sitting.

☑️Second Chance
☑️Forced Proximity
☑️Marriage of Convenience
☑️Grumpy x Sunshine

Absolutely a must read. Sarah Adams, you are extraordinary!

Read Time ⏱️ 4 hours

~

“She is sunshine parting the clouds in my miserable day, and it makes me angrier.”

“I was a fool for thinking I could ever orbit around Nora without falling into her gravitational pull. She owns me.”

"You deserve the whole world, and I'd try to give it to you, but I think you'll enjoy fighting for it yourself more."

The Rule Book was so good! I devoured this, absolutely loved the second chance, marriage of convenience/accidental marriage tropes in this book. The sports romance aspect takes a back-seat to the rest of the tropes in this story.

Nora and Derek are still in love with each other, even if they try and act otherwise. The 'rules' that they develop so they can have a professional working relationship are little digs at each other. I loved the overlap with Nathan, Bree and co, but this felt like a story that could stand in its own. I wouldn't say you have to have read The Cheat Sheet to read this, but you might enjoy it that tiny bit more if you have.

I enjoyed this one more than The Cheat Sheet, Nora and Derek are OTP-worthy.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this one!

3.5 stars

Eight years ago Nora Mackenzie broke the heart of NFL player Derek Pender as she needed to focus on her career goals and was finding herself too subsumed into his. To her horror, her first client as junior sports agent is Derek. Throw in alcohol and Vegas they wake up married, and now Nora's career depends on her new husband faking it up publicly with her so she can keep her job.

'The Rule Book' is a fun and and easy-to-read romance that I breezed right through it in a few hours. Nora and Derek had so much chemistry and I am always a sucker for a second chance/right person wrong time romance especially mixed in with a Vegas marriage. All the rest of the LA Sharks gang also make their 'Greek chorus' appearances in and we get glimpses of a now married Nathan and Bree from 'The Cheat Sheet'.

I'd best describe this as a bit of a 'Hallmark in a book', as it was downright cheesy at times. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but I'd have liked to have seen a bit more depth. For instance the reptitious references to Nora's 'quirky colourful wardrobe' and over-the-top sunshiney personality was too much. I find that sort of personality tiresome for female characters and wish Sarah Adams made her a bit more snarkier. Was she meant to be coded as ADHD or something with her colour organising and always being described as 'a bit much'? If so, why not weave that in better?

I also really hated Derek becoming a caveman over how many men she slept with during the eight years they were apart. While she did bite back, she still answered him (and of course the female character always only sleeps with none or very little while the man gets to be a manwhore eyeroll) Speaking of gender politics, I really need to bang my head against a brick wall when authors want have characters describe feminism as being about 'choice'. Feminism is about economic, political and legislative liberation, not some white western liberal definition.

Plot-wise, I'd have also liked less time devoted to their honeymoon and a bit more about how they juggled her work with his playing. While I loved the conclusion to Nora's workplace, I'd have loved to see more of her in action signing more clients than it being mentioned as something she did off page. I think this book would've been better if it spread out through the whole season as the timing of Derek's announcement was weird.

However, despite my gripes, I really did enjoy this book and I would recommend it wholeheartedly. Depending on the narrator I will get the audiobook as well. This is the perfect book to read on a plane, by the pool or on a rainy day.

Thanks to Hachette Australia & New Zealand, Headline Eternal and NetGalley for the ARC.

Every Sarah Adams book is like a warm hug, especially this one.

It was cute and fluffy but also real. Let me say I am a certified hater of second chance romances. I absolutely abhor them. Yet this book here is my ONLY exception.

The book starts of slow introducing the grumpy and hurt Derek and the bright and bubbly Nora who deals with far too much sexism on a daily basis as a female sports agent. Now Nora is assigned her first client who just happens to be Derek Pender, the best tight end American football has ever seen and her college ex boyfriend. Things get awkward real fast and some vengeance occurs, but eventually a truce is made. And that is where shît gets real.

From this point the plot picks up and I could NOT put this book down. I read it all within 17 hours (I had a fat nap in between). The tropes which were a wonderful surprise, and absolutely elevated this book into the stratosphere. I recommend going in blind trope wise (that is why I DIDN’T include them anywhere) and get pleasantly shocked with the turn of events like I did.

Despite being on the light and fluffier side, I enjoyed the way Derek’s learning disability was accurately portrayed. It delves into his past where people perceived him as ‘dumb’ or told him that he ‘just didn’t work hard enough’, when in fact he was just dyslexic and no matter how hard he worked, he still found anything with words difficult. This added another realistic and vulnerable layer to the book which made me connect to Derek’s character easier than other male main characters which are overtly ‘perfect’.

I also loved and hated the way Nora was treated just because she was a woman. I wanted to sock that evil little rat (if you know, you know) in the face for being absolutely horrible to her. However, I loved how this was an aspect of the book as Nora works in a mainly male dominated field surrounding sports (I loved the badass Nicole so much) and raising awareness to what us women shouldn’t have to tolerate from men.

Overall I highly recommend this book to lovers of lower spice scale books, second chance romances, sports romances and a grumpy x sunshine dynamic.

Thank you Netgalley, Sarah Adams and her publishing team for the ARC!

I have been a fan of Sarah Adams for a long time and this book is one of her best. Nora and Derek were absolute perfection. Sarah filled this book with the perfect balance of humour, romance and tension. I loved every single page!

I truly cannot get enough of Sarah Adams’ writing. She just gets better and better every time. 

It was so fun to return to the world of the Cheat Sheet and see some of my favourite characters pop in such as Nathan and Bree. But I also liked that they were not the centre of attention. We were moving on to a new couple and man was it a great story.

With tropes such as sports romance, second chances, powerful independent MFC and grumpy stubborn MMC what wasn’t to love about this read.

I quickly found myself unable to put this book down as Nora and Derek navigate having to work together and needing each other to ensure their own success after having had their once loving relationship break down years ago. While Nora is desperate to prove she can be a fantastic sports agent and change the male dominated industry, Derek is coming back to football from an injury, trying to prove he is better than ever whilst also battling what to do if he can’t play anymore. However after being heartbroken by Nora in the past, Derek isn’t quick to trust Nora and decides to push her to the limits to see how far he can go before she breaks. 

But after one night with too many drinks in Vegas, they wake up married. All the rules they had put in place to remain professional are completely disregarded now. So they have now decide if they can make this relationship work and also ensure their careers succeed.

Adams managed to make such a steamy book with lots of tension fuelled moments making it one you cannot put down.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

🏉
⚜️ Book Title - The Rule Book
⚜️ Author - Sarah Adams
⚜️ Rating - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⚜️ Some Genre/Themes/Tropes: Adult Fiction, Sport Romance and Second Chance

I received an advanced reader copy (ARC) of this book via NetGalley. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This is my honest review.

I’m a fan of The Cheat Sheet and I am just as much of a fan of The Rule Book. It has all those heart happy moments that I crave in a sports romance.

I love Nora’s (FMC) quirky personality. It kind of reminds me of some of my habits and awkward phrases. Derek (MMC) is the grump with so much heart. I really enjoyed unraveling their history and how they fit so well together. It was excellent to read from both POV for added context.

The story was very well paced. It didn’t feel drawn out and I enjoyed every moment. Was it probably a tad predictable? Yes, but I don’t care about that. I still loved watching everything come to fruition.

I would recommend this book to others who enjoy sports romance. I will definitely look for other books written by this author.

I want to say thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Note (How I rate): Three stars is a good, enjoyable read. Four is an excellent read and five is a comfort read that lingers with me for life (very difficult to get but not impossible).

first of all, thank you NetGalley and Hachette Australia & NZ/Headline for the arc! (Australian release date: April 9, 2024)

Another 5 star read? I can't believe it... I'm knowingly very stingy when it comes to giving a book 5 stars, but this ... this was so good. It made me feel things only Carley Fortune & Emily Henry can typically make me feel.

This is a stand-alone in the Cheat Sheet series (i have not read the Cheat Sheet, but i did do my research), which follows Nora & Derek, who dated in college but broke up. Years later, Nora is a sports agent and Derek is a legend in the NFL, and she is signed to be his agent. Somehow, they end up married in Vegas...

I'm very picky with my rom-coms nowadays so this plot was generally pretty unique to me. But it worked!! The banter between Nora and Derek in the early stages of the book is so great, genuinely made me laugh out loud (and i hate that phrase, but it's true!). Nora is a wonderful, well-written FMC, and I can see a lot of myself in her, from her backstory to her organisational issues. Derek is a great MMC, who tries to come across as an asshole but he cares SO much and seeing their second-chance/accidental-but-not-so-accidental love story unfold was really beautiful to read.

I predict that this will be very popular upon release as it is a fun, touching & heartwarming read that will make you laugh whilst making you fall in love with the characters. Plus, characters from the Cheat Sheet feature quite a bit in this with some little surprises toward the end. This is a sports-ish romance, but the sport isn't as prevalent per-se, it felt more sports-adjacent in a way but it worked super well!

I really have nothing bad to say about this as there was nothing I hated in the story! (whether it be the writing, or a trope, or an annoying character, literally nothing). I can't wait for release day so I can get my hands on a copy!

Once again, thank you NetGalley and Hachette Australia & NZ/Headline for the arc. All opinions are my own.