just out of principle, this gained a star for sapphics. let's go lesbians! in all, it was gorgeous and hair-pullingly worrying. such an addicting back and forth on stressed and sappy. in all, love love loved how this ended!

In a modern retelling of “While You Were Sleeping,” Alice has a two year long crush on Nolan Altman, a rich lawyer in the building where she works as a night receptionist. She just hasn’t spoken to him yet. Then, he collapses right in the lobby, and she performs CPR which ends up saving his life.

The EMT mistakes Alice as Nolan’s girlfriend, and soon his entire family believes it too. Since Nolan is in a coma, they are thrilled to hear he has a girlfriend and she reluctantly agrees to spend Hanukkah with them. It’s only a matter of time before Alice falls in love with his big family. Since both of her parents died from long term illnesses, Alice talks herself into the charade so she can be around a big family again.

And then there is Nolan’s sister, Van. Alice can’t deny the chemistry between them. But is she somehow cheating on her fake boyfriend Nolan by having feelings for Van?

Like the movie, this book takes place over the holidays, which has a lot of opportunities for togetherness and nostalgia. Instead of Chicago, the novel takes place in Portland. And I truly appreciated the fresh story and so many more mature and serious elements of this version. Alice and Rue had great chemistry, and the minor characters are very memorable and add a lot of comic relief.

“This is the worst idea anyone has ever had, but also already the best thing that’s ever happened.”

Thanks to NetGalley and Dial Press for the ARC. Book to be published 10/26/25.

Alice Rue Evades the Truth is an enjoyable romance that remains grounded and realistic despite its premise. Alice, herself, is such an interesting character, constantly informed by her trauma and messy decisions whereas Van is the dreamy love interest with a friendly family that comes to save her from her shitty life.

Alice Rue is a weird one to review because on one hand it has one of the better representation of a butch love interest that I have seen with Van being a well-rounded character not defined by her physical strength and is allowed moments of emotional weakness but on the other hand it falls into the same pitfalls as many other sapphic romances do mainly a constant association between butchness and sex appeal and a weird narrative around gender expression.

It's actually quite easy to tell in a romance when a character says something misguided, whether it's meant to be a character flaw to be worked on throughout the story or if they're just the author's mouthpiece. For example, Alice's reaction to Van having MS is a significant part of the final conflict, and Alice is meant to work through those feelings, despite a misguided initial reaction that may be perceived as ableist by some. Whereas, when Van is victim of a lesbophobic/transphobic microaggression, Alice's reaction is that butchness shouldn't be judged but drooled over. Van's role is to be a hot butch. "Are butch characters more than just "hot mascs"?" is a common concern of mine when reading butch romance and in many way Alice Rue Evades the Turth accomplishes so much more with Van than other books I've read but at the same time, this type of comments are so disappointing, especially since the book does not gloss over Van's butchness, it's constantly brought up. In a similar manner, Van opens up about the pressure of feminine expectations placed on her by her mother and this is meant to be an emotional heart-to-heart conversation. In the next scene, Alice visits her childhood home and finds a picture of an unhappy Van in a cheerleader's outfit and teases her about it. It's meant to be perceived as a playful joke to reinforce the connection between the characters but it's quite jarring coming right after the previous scene, like way to press on an open wound, Alice.

Sapphic Dear Evan Hansen meets While You Were Sleeping in this debut novel by Emily Zipps! There were a lot of heavy topics sprinkled in this story that I thought were handled really well. The characters featured in this story were unique, chaotic, and honest!

The whole book was an incredibly emotional rollercoaster from start to finish. I laughed, cried, celebrated, mourned, and desperately pined for a fictional lesbian dog mom. If you are a fan of angst with a happy ending, I would highly recommend this book. It definitely gets worse before things get better, so be prepared!

I am looking forward to reading more from Emily in the future!

Convoluted take on While You Were Sleeping.

Well written but predictable if you've seen the movie While You Were Sleeping.

I am interested in giving the author another read on a more original plotline.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the advanced copy.
All opinions are my own.

Rating 4.5 - rounded up to 5
This book was not really on my radar yet when it was offered a copy for an honest review, so I went into it only knowing what the blurb said about it... "In this Sapphic homage to While You Were Sleeping, a down-on-her-luck receptionist is mistaken as the girlfriend of a comatose man and doesn’t have the heart to come clean to his devastated family—even when she starts falling for his sister."
I loved that movie and my friends and I often play the game of naming a movie and recasting it to make it queer so I was excited about this one but I was also skeptical. For me, retellings either are a love it or a hate it situation with very little middle ground.
I loved this one. This book is equal parts rom-com and emotional healing.
Much like the movie characters, MC Alice has not had an easy life. She is living with a lot of grief and loneliness. She faces it all with more strength and quiet resilience than I think she is even aware she has.
This book had a ton of emotional depth! It was endearing from start to finish.

This was a well-constructed, very cute rom-com. While You Were Sleeping is an all-time favourite, and I liked how the book took the general concept without it being a total copy. The chemistry between the main characters was great, and I liked how they made some genuine connections rather than it being a surface level, shallow connection that many romances find it hard to get past. The author made the family believable and warm, and the loneliness of the main character came through well. I really enjoyed this one.

Sapphic While You Were Sleeping romance between a night shift receptionist with baggage just getting through the day and the sister of the man she saved whose whole family thinks they were dating.

Pros: I really enjoyed Alice’s background and establishment as a character; it was really interesting to read about her life and struggles and how those impacted who she became as an adult. They also make for very interesting dynamics with the rest of the Altmans. Zepps takes some serious issues and topics and confronts how they may realistically affect a person while still balancing the fact that this is a relatively light hearted romance. The Altmans as a whole are so charming and funny and sweet it’s easy to see how Alice fell in love with them all. The author’s pacing and her writing are strong, and I really enjoyed both the narration and Alice’s strong inner voice.

Some criticisms: I wish this had happened over a longer period of time. I had a hard time believing Alice had developed such strong feelings for Van and others within a three week period, and the way she talks about them after less than a month just made me cringe sometimes. I felt like I was reading about a woman with a parasocial attachment to people she barely knows who really should just be going to therapy.

Additionally, Van and Alice’s interactions are so primarily just narrating their past traumas to each other without really getting to know each other? And they only have maybe half a dozen one on one interactions on page at that. In all, I didn’t really get the whole deep emotional connection they were supposed to have. It felt more like Alice was in love with the idea of Van, just like she had been with Nolan, than the actual woman.

TLDR: Zipps is a strong writer and I’d like to see her on a different concept! This isn’t my favorite plotline honestly, but I got auto-approved for the arc, and I probably will read more from this author if there is a concept I like!

I was sent a free digital arc of this book; the review is honest.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free ARC copy in exchange for my review. Despite, my thoughts are my own.
(4.5 stars, rounded down)
While You Were Sleeping, but make it sapphic? I'm in. This story takes the accidental boyfriend plot line and turns it on it's gay head and I'm here for it - because who wouldn't want to fall in love with the butch lesbian sister?
This book dives deep in to Alice's grief - and does so while making the reader feel the spiral that is unspooling as she struggles to navigate the reality of the cards she's been dealt. It contains grief, pain, loneliness, and - humor, joy and a whole lot of love.
My half a star reduction from being a full 5 stars is the odd comments about weight. Alice mentions several times that her weight is what is keeping her from certain things - or from being what people may want. In every one of those sentences, if the weight comment was simply omitted, the sentence, the sentiment, and the story, would have continued just fine, without a weird ick of that comment.
There are also moments where Alice (admits to) being bias about a health condition. This plot line was a deep part of her grief, but also slightly glossed over when it came to the resolution of the story.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed it - and found myself reaching to read bits in small breaks in my day, laughed out loud several times, and stayed up late to finish the last few chapters.

THE EMOTIONS! the healing that Alice did! the sweetest family! i’m obsessed with Alice Rue Evades the Truth. Alice is a very complex character and I loved reading about her.

4.5⭐️

When I saw this was a sapphic homage to While You Were Sleeping, one of the greatest cinematic masterpieces of our time, I knew a had to read it and what a true delight it was.

Zipps’ storytelling is full of warmth and includes all the classic beats, humor, tenderness, breathtaking love declarations, and magical moments we associate with classic romcoms. You couldn’t help falling in love with Alice and Van and root for their HEA.

After having to grow up and shoulder immense responsibility from a younger age while navigating tremendous loss, Alice finds herself floating through life, longing to find connection, while guarding her heart. It is completely understandable that after having lost both of her parents that Alice would be hesitant to entrust someone with her heart, but she also wrestles with wanting to belong. What I really love is that while this is a romance, Zipps focuses on different love stories - friendship and familial. Too often love stories are viewed through a narrow lens of finding a “soulmate” or “the one”, but I would argue that the love between friends and finding your platonic soulmate, the friend who would stop the world to be by your side, is more important. And I love how in the end, Alice gains a community.

From start to finish, this story was endearing, tender, and so cozy!

This debut novel reads as though it was written by a seasoned author. It was touching, laugh-out-loud funny, momentarily sad, and a satisfying read. Emily Zipps captures so many different situations and scenarios in this book about a girl who has had so much loss, loneliness, and hardship in her life and who, in an emergent situation, meets the biggest crush of her life. (I won't tell too much, I hate when people retell a book before I've had the chance to read it!). But suffice it to say, in the end, she learns so much about life, herself, and some of the messages and things that those times of hardship taught her, and reconnects with her only family member, her cousin. If I could read this book again, for the first time, I would! It evoked so many feeling in me and I can't wait for Ms. Zipps to write her next book, because I will definitely be waiting for the day it drops!

Thank you Emily Zipps and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I am so honored that I was able to read this in advance of its drop date.

📚 Alice Rue Evades the Truth by Emily Zipps 🌈
Pride Month read? ✅
Chaotic bisexual protagonist? ✅
Messy lie turned love story? ✅✅✅

Let’s dive in... So, Alice Rue is just trying to survive her mundane life when boom, she saves her longtime crush’s life, gets mistaken as his girlfriend while he’s in a coma, and instead of correcting his very sweet (and very confused) family… she just goes along with it. 😅

But plot twist: she starts falling for his sister. 🫣🔥

This sapphic While You Were Sleeping inspired debut had me intrigued from the jump. It’s cozy, queer, and surprisingly emotional, but don’t go in expecting a full blown romance. It leans way more literary fiction with romance as a side dish, not the main course. 🍽️💔

✨ What I liked:
• Alice is awkward, messy, and 100% relatable 🙈
• The family dynamics are tender, hilarious, and sometimes painfully real
• The setting? Fall vibes 🍂 PERFECTION
• Bisexual rep that doesn’t feel forced 🙌
• SLOW BURN sapphic tension 🔥

😬 What didn’t totally work for me:
• Pacing dragged a bit in spots
• I wanted more Van. She’s cool, but underdeveloped 🫤
• The constant use of “butch” felt a little much 😬 (we get it, she’s hot)
• That one line about her brother having bad taste? Dropped and never brought back 🧐

📖 Overall, this is a heartfelt debut about loneliness, identity, and craving connection, messy lies and all. It’s got hijinks, healing, and some very relatable queer chaos. If you’re a fan of Casey McQuiston or Emily Henry, this might just be your jam.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Would recommend for: cozy queer fall reads, found family vibes, and sapphic yearning you can feel. 👀💘

Thank you to NetGalley, Emily Zipps, and Dial Press for the eARC of this book.

Alice Rue Evades the Truth is such a great debut novel! It tells a raw and tender story about a girl healing from her trauma while getting caught up in some silly hijinks along the way. The pacing is realistic and slow, with moments of cringe-worthy awkwardness that felt so authentic. I especially loved the portrayal of a big family that’s only semi-accepting of their gay daughter. that’s very relatable to me personally and I thought it was done well.

My only slight hiccup was with Alice’s inner monologue at times. Do I like when people assume labels for others? No. Seeing the word “butch” used so often to describe an androgynous woman who hadn’t defined herself that way yet was tough for me to read. I know it was meant as a compliment – “hottest butch I’ve ever seen” and all – but I think using descriptive writing to convey that to the reader rather than outright saying butch so many times would’ve held a bigger impact. Other than that, I absolutely loved the rest of the book and would highly recommend anyone looking for a cozy sapphic fall read to pick up Alice Rue Evades the Truth! Thank you for the ARC!!!

Alice Rue may start with a lie, but this debut rom-com is full of truth about love, loneliness, and the messy, unexpected ways life can lead us to exactly where we’re meant to be. With a premise that could easily veer into farce, the story instead delivers a surprisingly thoughtful, emotionally layered tale that balances humor with heartache, and longing with self-discovery.

Alice is an immediately relatable protagonist: awkward, self-effacing, and quietly yearning for connection. Her decision to go along with the mistaken identity as Nolan’s girlfriend isn’t played for cheap laughs; instead, it’s rooted in a deep, aching desire to feel needed and seen. As she’s drawn deeper into the warmth of the Altman family—and especially into the orbit of Nolan’s perceptive and magnetic sister Van—the tension between Alice’s guilt and hope grows in compelling, believable ways.

The chemistry between Alice and Van crackles with slow-burn intensity, made even more poignant by the complicated emotional stakes. Their connection is full of tender moments, witty banter, and intimate understanding, making you root for them from the first spark. But it’s not just about romance—it is also a story of identity, grief, chosen family, and learning to forgive yourself.

Warm, witty, and surprisingly profound, Alice Rue is a standout debut novel. It’s perfect for readers who love Casey McQuiston or Emily Henry or anyone looking for a queer love story that’s as messy and beautiful as real life. Alice Rue reminds us that even when we start in the wrong place, we can still find our way to something right.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Alice Rue Evades the Truth is a beach read with more substance. I loved the bisexual representation!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for a review.

I stayed up late devouring this one!! Alice saves her crush’s life and his family assumes that she is his girlfriend. She goes along with it while he is in a coma and starts to fall in love with HIS SISTER! It was witty and lighthearted. I loved getting to know the Altman family and I loved the magnetic pull between Van and Alice. Once this one is released to the world I need it in my personal library.

4.5 stars. A cute, queer, re-imagining of "While You Were Sleeping", but very much updated, and set in Portland OR. I wouldn't have thought this was a plot that would work, but it completely won me over. Excellent characters, backstories, and just enough slapstick and great dialogue to make you guffaw just when you thought it might be getting too maudlin.

I will definitely look for other books by this author.

This might be a me problem, as I've seen the film at least 100 times, but this isn't an homage to While You Were Sleeping, this is a genderswapped rip off. If you've the movie, you know exactly what you're going to get, right down to the wording of the main character's confession that she was never with the comatose man in the first place!!! I was so thrown off by how eerily similar it was, that I wasn't able to enjoy it as much as I otherwise would.

There's also a lot of heavy content: dead parents, chronic illness, and the comatose man is revealed to be even worse than Peter Callaghan, if you can believe it! I think it's meant to add some weight to the novel, and elevate it above traditional romance fare, but I just found myself thrown by the juxtaposition between the hijinks of lying to this man's family and the very tramautic past of the FMC.

I think many readers will enjoy this, but it was just patently not for me. Which is a huge bummer because I was so pumped to read a queer retelling of WYWS, it's just that this was not a retelling but a carbon copy.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Suspenseful and haunting, this psychological thriller slowly unravels its secrets. Alice’s journey was gripping, though some revelations felt rushed. Still, the emotional undercurrent gave it depth. A moody, twisty read with staying power.