thank you so much for the approval- i cannot wait to dive in, this is one of my most anticipated reads of the year! i will be sure to leave a review on GR/retailers to come! 💞

This was great, but I also have a lot of complicated feelings about it that I'm still sorting out! I can unequivocally say that I love the cover and I love Van.

This was such a sweet book. A really fun conceit reimagined for 2025. The writing was really natural, and characters fully developed. I would happily read a sequel or book from the same world. In my booktok review I wrote that the book was like "if while you were sleeping was chaotic-bisexual-core," and credited Net Galley with giving me pre-release access.

although alice rue couldn’t outrun her truth, this book was still an amazing read. so fun and a lil bit campy, my favorite kind!

I liked Alice, I liked Van, and I liked this one overall! While it is a romcom, it is also pretty serious about a lot of topics, such as sexuality, gender, illness, grief, and more. The bi rep was everything to me. I wish it had explored some of issues a little further; however, I enjoyed this read and added the author’s upcoming book to my tbr already. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

A charming reimagining of While You Were Sleeping. Alice is broke and working the night shift as a receptionist at an office building. One bright spot of her job is seeing the very handsome Nolan who works on the 14th floor. Alice thinks she’s in love with him. Sure, they’ve never had a conversation, but he has said hello a few times! When Alice ends up saving his life in the lobby, the EMT mistakes her for his girlfriend and drama and well-intended deception ensue.

The writing is assured and energetic and Alice and Van are endearing characters. Recommended to anyone looking for a cozy romance.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

New favorite author, great butch and disabled rep. I loved the late bloomer arc and how you can redefine your world at all time.

i wish i can erase my memory and reread this all over again. by far one of my favorite releases of this year

I absolutely adored this book! ALICE RUE EVADES THE TRUTH was a sapphic take on While You Were Sleeping, and it had all the chaotic bi disaster energy I was craving from a story like this. I love Alice and I ADORE the love interest, Van. I feel like this book would really appeal to fans of HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL and ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE. Love love loved it, can't wait to get a final copy.

Alice Rue Evades the Truth by Emily Zipps is a book that gradually unravels you as you read, only to gently reassemble you, piece by piece.

Zipp’s writing is simply breathtaking. Each chapter is imbued with tension and quiet grief, making it impossible to look away. While I wasn’t on edge in the traditional thriller sense, I was deeply engaged in the emotional, all-consuming way that makes you want to know what happens next.

Alice is a beautifully complex character—grieving, searching, and running. Despite her struggles, there’s this quiet strength within her that makes you root for her throughout the story. Her narrative feels raw and authentic in all the best ways.

The intricate connection between Alice and Nolan kept me constantly guessing. The emotional tug-of-war, the confusion, and the “shared past”—it kept me hooked. However, I found myself rooting for Alice and Van throughout the story. Their slow-burn tenderness felt genuine and earned. I appreciated how Van supported Alice without trying to fix her—just giving her the space to be herself. Their dynamic brought a warm and comforting presence to the story.

And let’s not forget the women of the Altman family. Their love, honesty, and support created a safe space that felt healing not only for Alice but also for me as a reader. It was refreshing to witness a family dynamic that radiated warmth without pretending to be perfect.

I am incredibly grateful to @NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book early. Alice Rue Evades the Truth is an unforgettable story that I know will linger in my mind for a long time.

I read this book while camping and have to use my precarious data reach to share my review while it’s still fresh and emotional in my brain!!!
Alice Rue Evades the Truth was hilarious, tender, real, SOOO real - I felt like I was there. Alice is SO tangible, Van is so dreamy, their love story is so bumpy and beautifully messy and exquisite. The chaos of the truth-evading and the visceral longing for family and closeness drew me in immediately.
I think this is probably my new favourite book. As a disabled person myself, when it came up that Van has MS, I felt a bit of a twinge wondering how it was going to be portrayed. Out of the sapphic books I’ve read that have portrayed MS or other physical disabilities, they’re so rarely done properly or by actual disabled people. This was done PERFECTLY. I won’t give any spoilers on how it’s discussed or treated but it was so tender, so beautiful, so healing (the things she loved about Van having MS instead of the age-old “in spite of MS”) oh my gosh I cried SO hard I was sitting in my campsite with tears EVERYWHERE. To the author, thank you thank you thank you for this gorgeous delicious book. It has healed a very sore part of me and it also was just incredibly FUN to read.
For lovers of hot butches, chaos-bisexuals, couch snuggles, BIG dogs, and unsavoury men being in comas.

Alice Rue Evades the Truth by Emily Zipps is a warm, witty debut that takes a wildly awkward premise and spins it into a heartfelt exploration of identity, guilt, and unexpected love. When Alice is mistaken for the girlfriend of her unconscious crush, she reluctantly plays along—only to find herself drawn not to Nolan, but to his insightful and magnetic sister, Van. Zipps handles the moral complexity of Alice’s situation with a deft, empathetic touch, all while delivering sharp humor and tender moments of self-discovery. With its slow-burn sapphic romance and deeply relatable heroine, this novel is perfect and relatable for anyone who’s ever lied with good intentions and found the truth pointing them somewhere better than they imagined.

Before I get into my review of “Alice Rue Evades The Truth”, I’d like to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the eARC!

You know whenever you’re in the middle of a book and it’s so good you dread when it will end? That’s what this book did to me. I loved how much the emotions swayed in this book, so much so; that I was fully laughing and crying at the same time.

The chemistry between Van and Alice was just delightful. The tension became so palpable I was screaming at my Kindle, “Please just kiss already!”

This is one of the few books that I arc review that I will be pre-ordering and be re-reading until I have the book memorized.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I think if you like “while you were sleeping” you’ll be able to accept the premise pretty easily. But essentially a kind of nerdy, loner girl has an unrequited crush on a stranger who doesn’t know she exists. She saves his life but he’s in a coma. His family thinks she’s his secret girlfriend and she falls for his sibling.

This book doesn’t really stray from this plot. I think it does a nice job handling grief and self doubt and fear. The chemistry is also well paced and the relationships are a huge strength whether it’s familial or romantic or plutonic.

Overall I liked the story a lot. I think a bit of editing might be beneficial but I’m a big fan of removing some sloggy parts.

Thanks for the ARC

There were parts I enjoyed, and other parts I had a hard time with. I found the story very sweet, and what interesting characters!

There are so many BIG topics in this book, and I’m not sure any of them are fleshed out enough to matter. Grief from losing parents, misgendering of a female who looks masc over fem, family dynamics shifting after coming out, the diagnosis/reveal of a life changing disease. Huge things! Amazing opportunities for not only an expanded reading experience, but room to educate as well. I felt entertained at times, but I never felt immersed in Alice Rue. I think that’s why this didn’t hit very hard for me. I wasn’t forced to look at the parts, inside me, this connected with.

Girl meets boy. Boy meets coma. Girl meets boy's hot sister. Chaos ensues. Sweet and humorous, this sapphic rom-com deals with surprisingly heavy topics and has disabled and queer rep from all sides. Manages to remain delightful and hopeful despite the sometimes-painful themes or topics.

This was such a great read! It reminded of the 90’s movie “While you were sleeping” but a modern version. I was glued to this this book and finished it in 2 days!

Overall I felt this was a nice cute easy read! Characters were interesting, the plot could have been developed out more but good nonetheless.

Not too spicy so if you prefer less spice in your books this is definitely one in your wheel house. Id definitely recommend this for someone seeking out a cute sapphic romance.

Alice Rue is a night shift receptionist who is in major need of some human connection. She finds human connection in an unexpected way - giving CPR to her office crush, Nolan, that has acknowledged her approximately 5 times total. A miscommunication from the EMS personnel leads to Nolan’s family believing she is his girlfriend. The chaotic but loving Altman family immediately as their own, even as she protests that she is, in fact, not Nolan’s girlfriend. As time passes, the lie becomes more complex and Alice’s feeling becomes more complex as she develops a crush on Nolan’s eldest sister, Van (and her dog, Frankie).

This book is charming, but also dives deep into issues of self-image, ableism, grief, friendship, and family. It was a delight to see growth in Alice’s character as she was able to give herself space and understanding to grieve her lost childhood. I loved Van, Aunt Sheila, Isabelle, Raisin … truly the whole lot. All of the characters were well developed. You definitely have to suspend disbelief with this one as some of the situations would not play out in reality, but overall, I enjoyed this debut novel.

I'll be honest, I've only gotten 23% through this book and I don't know if I'll finish it. I absolutely love the movie and was very excited to read a sapphic version but I'm really disappointed. I feel like the author missed a big part of the romantic relationship in the movie which is that they weren't instantly attracted to each other. The best part of the movie was seeing the characters learn about each other and start falling for each other. The book doesn't show that. Alice is just immediately attracted to Van. Also, in the movie, the main character doesn't know anything negative about the sibling in the coma until very late in the movie. In the book, Alice learns something that ends her attraction to Nolan in the first 10% of the book. I don't think the book has to be exactly like the movie but I feel like those were the things that I was really hoping stuck. I won't rate this book lower than a 3 because I don't think that would be fair but I wouldn't recommend it if you were hoping for a sapphic version of While You Were Sleeping.