This was fun, but unfortunately it didn't land quite right for me, and I can't really put my finger on why. I really liked the premise, and the radio show setting, but maybe it was because I had recently read a radio-show-based rom-com? The writing was solid, and the characters likeable, but I had a hard time feeling in the mood to pick this one up. Maybe it's just me - I hope others will enjoy it, as many of my fellow reviewers have!

So this book gave me the "The Bachelor" vibes. Its a slow and delightful story, and the characters you could connect with. I enjoyed how the author portraited each character without making us loose our interest to read till the end.

This was a slow-burn romantic comedy set in a radio station, with a romance between a radio show producer and the station manager. I enjoyed the characters and the depiction of the main character’s anxiety, which can be so real and debilitating. There’s some major insta-love on the part of the hero, and I wanted a little more build-up to his feelings. This is a relatively “non-steamy” book—just a quick make out scene and a kiss—so I recommend it for romance readers who prefer their books without sex scenes.

This book was such a wonderful debut!! My heart broke for Everly in the beginning but watching her come into her own over the course of this contest was amazing. I cracked up at some of the dates and felt her anxiety in my soul. There were definitely times when I wanted Chris to speak up and toss his hat in the ring but ultimately I loved that these two seemed to fall in love without even realizing it.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that there’s more from these characters. I need to see more from Chris’ brothers and Everly’s friends.

Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan is a cute romantic comedy where the main character has social anxiety.

Everly always has bad luck on her birthday. Her thirtieth birthday is no different and starts out with her catching her boyfriend cheating on her. Her best friend Stacey wanted surprise her by singing happy birthday on air, but didn’t have a chance to tell Everly they are on air until after Everly shares the story of her ex. Suddenly, men that heard Everly on the radio want to date her. Chris, Everly’s boss, comes up with a plan to use her dating life to get attention to the station and save Everly’s job. Men can apply to go on a date with Everly, and Stacey will tell listeners what Everly thinks of her dates. Everly and Stacey make a list of ten rules for faking it to get Everly to get out of her comfort zone and try new things.

Ten Rules for Faking It is a fun romantic comedy. The characters are great. Everly has social anxiety which makes it hard for her to get close to people. Dating multiple men is not something she has ever done before and sometimes too much for her. Stacey is a great friend and always there for Everly. She accepts Everly’s social anxiety. Chris and Everly soon develop a friendship, and Chris is there for Everly when she needs support. This story is cute and funny.

I recommend Ten Rules for Faking It to fans of Christina Lauren and Sophie Kinsella.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press/ St. Martin’s Griffin and NetGalley for Ten Rules for Faking It.

As someone with anxiety I really enjoyed this book, as Everly has bad anxiety and the author did a good job of highlighting. Radio station DJ, Stacey and her producer Everly had a bad on the air exchange which Everly told the world that her boyfriend cheated on her on her birthday. They decided to do a “The Bachelor” type dating for Everly (I do wish they did more about the dates in the book) so she could find a winner. But her boss Chris and her become friends. This had a slow burn but loved the outcome. Loved the friendship side of it all with Stacey as well as Chris.


4 star
3 star

Thanks St. Matin's and Netgalley for a copy for this book in exchange for honest review.

A slow burn from Sophie Sullivan, TEN RULES FOR FAKING IT introduces us to Everly Dean, who is determined to break the string of terrible birthday luck. Everly decides to pitch her podcast idea to her very cute boss, and after a mishap, EVERYONE wants to date her. This was an engaging read and I will recommend on my feed - I love a cute, lighthearted romance that actually has likable characters.

Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan was my first read of 2021, and it was a perfect choice, a fun rom-com to kick off the new year. I see a lot of rom-coms in my future :)

Everly Dean's 30th birthday starts terribly; she walks in on her cheating boyfriend, mistakenly airs her dirty laundry on live radio, and then gets sent home from work.

To try and save her job, her boss Chris, proposes a bachelorette type radio show that will follow Everly on dates in the coming weeks. Everly has social anxiety, and it takes a lot for her to agree. With her disastrous birthday and the help of her bff, Stacy, she creates a list of ten things to become the best version of herself. This story had strong friendships, humor, romance, vulnerability, and so much more!

I did a combo of reading and listening to the audiobook for this one and I loved both! Rebecca Gibel did a great job with the narration, bringing the characters to life! I'm looking forward to more from Sophie Sullivan!

This was one funny, laugh out loud book! Birthdays have never been Everly Dean's favorite. Every single one ended in humiliation of some kind for her, birthday #30 notwithstanding. After the very publicly broadcasted demise of her most recent relationship, Everly comes up with 10 rules for getting her through life. The events that followed lead Everly to function outside of her comfort zone, all the while denying her feelings for her boss, Chris. The feeling is mutual for Chris, but he has secrets that may make or break his future with Everly and the employees of the radio station where they both work. This is my first book by the author and it was a great introduction to her writing style. I look forward to more of her books!

I received an advance copy of this book at my request via netgalley and voluntarily left this review.

I hate when books are just okay because it means that nothing in the story stood out for me. Which leaves me clueless as to what to say on my review.

When I first read the blurb, I was curious about the premise, but since there's been such an influx of 'romantic comedy' books lately (and those dreadful cartoonish covers!), I hesitated. I haven't had a good experience with that sub-genre of books, so when I saw that this was categorized as just a Romance I jumped at the chance to read it.

Sadly, it wasn't the book for me. I didn't feel the connection nor the chemistry between Everly and Chris, which in turn led to me not becoming invested in their story. I enjoyed their interactions and thought that they were great as friends, but I wasn't convinced that what they shared could become something more.

There was humor and candid moments plus some emotions sprinkled throughout. Especially when addressing Everly's anxiety and how both Chris and Everly's familial relations have shaped their life. However, the overall story didn't leave a lasting impression and the romance left me unmoved.

All in all, an okay read.

After walking in on her boyfriend cheating on her on her thirtieth birthday, Everly comes up with ten rules for living her best life. But when an accidental outburst on live radio leads to her job being in jeopardy, her hot boss Chris who also happens to be the owner’s son comes up with an idea for her to be a radio version of The Bachelorette.

Sadly, this one fell pretty flat for me. I didn’t like the insta-obsession that Chris had with Everly, and the author’s telling and not showing why she’s supposedly so great. I found the dialogue, especially from him, to be incredibly stilted and unnatural. It’s telling that I cared more about Stacey and Rob and Mari and Mason than the actual couple the story follows.

While I did appreciate how her anxiety was handled, the actual romance didn’t work for me.

Ten Rules for Faking It is a great Rom-Com with a twist. Everly has huge social anxiety. Although at times I really wanted her to seek out a therapist, it was pretty interesting to get in Everly’s brain as she worked through her issues. I also appreciated how Stacey and Chris tried to help her find new ways to deal with life. And then there is the romance- Everly and Chris were a sizzling couple without being a couple. Very enjoyable read.

Everly is having a rough birthday (one of many) but she is determined to turn things around. She has a great idea for a podcast and the only hurdle is proposing it to her boss Chris. He is cold and closed off but also very attractive. Everly blasts her dating issues over a DJ’s mic and everyone hears. In the aftermath people gets invested in her journey to love and start a bachelor-style dating situation. Then Chris starts to show some interest and everything gets complicated.

This book is one third comedy, one third romance, and one third realistic depiction of anxiety. The characters are loveable and you root for all of their happiness. The romance is a slow-burn and felt very real. I really liked the character of Chris and how he supported Everly. The story reads like a light romance but also presents real-life issues about social anxiety. I definitely recommend this one for any type of reader, I think it has wide appeal.


Thanks to Sophie Sullivan, St. Martin’s Press/St. Martin’s Grffin, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I cannot remember the last time I related so strongly with a character. No, I don’t have men competing to date me, but I do have extreme anxiety. Everly has luckily found some people in her life who understand and accept her as she is.

After she accidentally discusses walking in on her cheating boyfriend on live radio, the station gets feedback that everyone wants Everly to get her ‘happily ever after.’ Despite crippling anxiety, Everly is now on their very own version of ‘The Bachelor.’

Can she handle her anxiety, juggle her social parents, keep her job, and maybe even find love?

TW: Cheating, power imbalance in relationship, divorce, descriptive anxiety symptoms.

📚 Book Review 📚

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for this eARC in exchange for a review.

“People didn’t understand that she didn’t want the extra stumbling blocks her worries threw into her path. They just happened, and navigating around them was exhausting.”

I always get nervous reading a slow burn romance because sometimes it’s so slow that I lose interest. However, Ten Rules for Faking It hit the perfect pace and hit all the right notes.

What I Liked: As someone who suffers from her share of anxiety, maybe not to the extent of Everly, I found her incredibly relatable. I found several quotes that stuck with me because it put into words what I often feel and struggle to voice myself. I loved the relationship between Everly and Chris because he never pushed to fix her. He was simply there for her and listened and tried to understand. Their romance was very slow burn. To describe the steam: If you’re familiar with the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie and the scene where Darcy helps Elizabeth into the carriage. It’s that level of steam. Low steam, but makes your heart flutter.

What I Struggled With: There were just a few parts that felt repetitive and dragged the story out when I felt the plot could have advanced. I was also just disappointed because there was an excellent line about all the famous Chrises in Hollywood at the beginning, and I really wanted a book end line including them AND Everly’s Chris at the end but it didn’t happen 🤣.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Sweetest Slow Burn!

Oh, my heart! This book is soooo good if you are able to handle very slow pacing. It's not as slow as the standard British Romance pacing, where you get literally no indication of any sparks at all until the very end. There are plenty of sparks and romantic tension throughout, but it a much slower burn than the typical American-authored Contemporary Romance.

I adore the continued strides romance authors are taking to include neuro-diverse characters in lead roles and author Sophie Sullivan did an excellent job of writing a female lead with a serious Anxiety Disorder. Everly was likable and wonderful and getting to read her anxiety from a first person POV was revelatory. It was incredibly well done. Chris was a super-sweet male lead without being annoyingly perfect. He was a great counter part to Everly's anxiousness.

This book tackles a few issues and does it well. Besides anxiety disorder the author tackles parental relationships and how the marriages we observe as children inform our relationships in adulthood, family dynamics, office dynamics, and meaningful friendships.

The STAR of this romance is actually the female friendship between Everly and her best friend Stacey. These two have a beautifully friendship that has up and downs, but is constant in it's devotion. I loved this part of the book.

I took a star away from my rating because of how slowly this book was paced AND for the fact that clinical therapy was never mentioned (except once, in passing/joking) as a needed tool for Everly. Someone with her level of Anxiety Disorder (which is literally the central theme if this book) absolutely, without question, needs therapy. We see how her disorder affect her life multiple times each day and stops her from performing basic functions. A wonderful addition to the ending of this book would have been therapy as part of the heroine's life moving forward. Talking and writing about Anxiety disorders is great, but insinuating that someone with this magnitude of Anxiety can "push through it", just "challenge themselves", or "make a list" to help themselves is a bit irresponsible.

Overall this is a great read that is incredibly sweet!

3.75

Thanks to St. Martin's Press arc of this book.

Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan is fun story that centers around Everly Dean, a radio producer with a pretty severe case of social anxiety. The hero of this story is her boss Chris, the station manager. The storyline centers around Everly starring in a bachelorette type radio show which requires a lot from her given she has pretty severe social anxiety.

I thought the story itself was an interesting one. I will admit that near the end Everly sort of frustrated me. She was giving advice to those around her to seek out counseling while she herself was dealing with a pretty debilitating case of anxiety. She had supportive friends but I couldn't help but think that she really might have benefited from professional help.

Overall I enjoyed this book and look forward to future novels in this universe.

I was fairly meh about this one. I think it's a solid read, and romance is always a good escape, but I wasn't wow'ed by it. I think it might've been a timing thing (I was rushing to try and read it by the end of 2020) so I fully acknowledge that this is one a lot of romance readers will love. I just wasn't super impressed with it. I still think it's worth picking up if it sounds like your thing. But it isn't one I would actively recommend to people.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the chance to read an advance copy of this book!

I should have paid more attention to the cover blurb. "A wholesome slow-burn romance" and "a Hallmark movie in book form" describe this book extremely well but also explain why it drove me BONKERS.

I found so much of this book a very tired and cliche rom-com. Jokes about cat ladies. Jokes about fish smells in the office kitchen (is "seafood pizza" even a thing?). The old boyfriend cheats on the heroine with someone "well-endowed and flexible." The heroine has comically bad dates with people who aren't the hero, and comically bad luck on all of her birthdays. Etc, etc.

I didn't like the hero, who withholds some major information from all of his employees for no good reason and creeped me out when he changed the heroine's password to lock her out of her email for her own good, or the heroine, who really needed some therapy but somehow through the magic of love has made all of these incredible breakthroughs on her own by the end, shared in sickly-sweet monologues. I didn't like that both of our protagonists had SO MANY PARENT ISSUES AND SUCH TERRIBLE PARENTS. It drove me crazy how many times VERONICA MARS was mentioned, like the only cultural touchstone in the world.

There was just a lot that really didn't work for me. However, as I've mentioned, it is mostly what it says on the package. I would call it wholesome in the sense of kisses only steam level, but there is plenty of swearing and references to sex, including jokes about the battery-operated birthday gift from her friend Stacey. It's slow burn in the sense that the hero and heroine are boss and employee, then friends who secretly like each other with some awkward moments, and then eventually there is kissing. What I see as cliches, maybe others will enjoy as tropes. I have literally never seen a Hallmark movie, but I know tons of people love them. So, maybe pick this up, just make sure to judge this one by its cover!

I enjoyed this book so much! Everly is so relatable, and I felt like I was literally in her body when she experienced anxiety in various situations. Seeing stimming on the page, and friends who are totally supportive and understanding was so refreshing. I absolutely loved Chris and sometimes just wanted to knock them both on the head and say HELLO!!! My biggest dislike was the argument that propelled their expected falling apart. It felt like Everly was really overreacting and it felt a little hard to relate to her point of view because it felt like serious thought wasn't given to what would break up the main relationship and it felt a little lazy and exaggerated. And the fact that the same argument kept happening when resolved really slowed down the pace. The writing itself was pretty good, though not spectacular, which made me not feel the need to gobble this book up all at once, but it was certainly enjoyable and the last 50 or so pages just REALLY got me in the feels!