I really enjoyed reading Everly’s journey in this book. I feel like Sophie Sullivan really took the time to research anxiety & created a realistic character with this disorder. She didn’t just throw it into the story then not give descriptions of the signs Everly exhibited & how it affected her life. This storyline was unique coming through her lens. I also enjoyed all of the other characters, like Stacy & Chris. I highly recommend reading this book.

Thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for honest review

The book is written with a sardonic tone that had me laugh out loud on more than one occasion. Everly is extremely unlucky when it comes to birthdays, and right off the bat we’re introduced to that bad luck when she walks in on her boyfriend cheating on her.

Everly is a unique protagonist in that she suffers from extreme anxiety. She seems to think that she needs a partner who is her polar opposite–an extreme extrovert–since he’ll force her to do things that she’s uncomfortable with. She’s also aware that she has the problem of coupling up with guys that she doesn’t feel strongly for. It’s harder for her to get hurt if she’s not that invested. So, in the beginning of the novel, when her boyfriend cheats on her on her birthday, she’s angry and upset, but not devastated.

One of the (many) things that makes Chris perfect for Everly is that he understands her anxiety and how it influences every aspect of her life in a way that not even her parents or best friend understands. He doesn’t try to push her, and even his presents for her are thoughtful on such an adorably sweet level. Even though he’s the one that suggests the dating show, he never actually forces her into it, and he constantly gives her the option of getting out of it.

I’ve noticed a lot of books will have a heroine who’s “socially awkward” in the sense that the author keeps telling us that. But in this case, it’s shown to us on so many occasions and in different ways–from the way that Everly speaks when she’s uncomfortable, to the way that she handles things. The author does even more than show us these personality traits, but I honestly felt them in almost every one of Everly’s interactions. This is a sign of a fabulous writer in my book!

Just like a true romantic comedy, there are a lot of laughs in this book, but there are parts that are heartfelt and sweet. Everly learns a lot about herself and her relationships, not only with past boyfriends, but with her parents and her best friend. I’ve talked a lot about Everly (because I love her so much!), but Chris has a beautiful, if more subtle, character development in this novel as well.

I definitely recommend this romance book to those who suffers from varying degrees of social anxiety, and anyone who wants to read a sweet, clean, and at times hilarious feel-good novel.

This book was cute but honestly I wasn't in love with it. I do love how it portrayed anxiety and more specifically social anxiety. The romance was slow burn and I wish it developed sooner. Overall cute read but wasn't wowed by it.

4 star review Ten Rules For Faking It by Sophie Sullivan
Sophie Sullivan is a new author to me and I enjoyed Ten Rules For Faking It. Poor Everly Dean life keeps knocking her down, particularly around her birthday and this year is no different when she catches her boyfriend cheating on her with his assistant. Turning thirty never felt so bad.
Everly suffers from social anxiety and has a hard time when there are a lot of people around. She has a boss who she thinks can’t stand her but there is a fine line between love and hate. Could Chris’s seeming indifference actually be his way of trying to hide his true feelings for Everly?
Everly has so much going on around her that she comes up with making a list: The Ten Rules for Faking It. Chris pushes Everly like no one else does and the banter between them had me laughing out loud at times. I found Everly to be a quirky and interesting character and I really liked Chris.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan opens with radio producer Everly Dean reeling after learning that her boyfriend Simon is cheating—and on her birthday no less. What follows is a furious rant about his betrayal blasted to an audience of live listeners and all because Everly's best friend Stacey didn't mute the mic in time. If this premise sounds flimsy, that's because it is. That an experienced radio DJ of many years and one who intimately understands the contours of her best friend's social anxiety would not know to immediately cut Everly off and transition to music before allowing her to vent through her very fresh humiliation seems implausible, if not inconceivably sloppy.

But Ten Rules for Faking It relies on this premise to launch the radio station into a bachelorette-style dating competition put together by radio supervisor and resident love interest Chris Jansen. I feel comfortable calling him that because it is established practically from the moment that he's introduced. His most notable feature is that he is infatuated with his employee Everly as soon as we meet him, though he's been working with her for about a year when the novel opens. Not only does this serve to warp the pacing and evolution of their romance, it also tinges every single action he takes from the onset with strange, borderline creepy undertones.

"She was the toughest woman he'd ever met," mere minutes in reader time into establishing that Chris is Everly's boss—in other words, on the first page of chapter three—completely undercuts the power of this statement. The greatest realizations in romance novels are those reached after time and hard work. They are most convincing when the narrative offers a substantial amount of characterization and development to back them up. Outlandishly romantic statements like these from Chris' chapters come with none of that development or even characterization, effectively rendering them meaningless.

I don't know what to call this, because it's technically not insta-love, considering Chris has known Everly for a year now. But we have only known Chris and Everly for two chapters by this point, meaning we've had about 30 minutes of insight into their dynamic—less if you're an especially quick reader—out of the eight hours of reading we're due to receive from Ten Rules for Faking It.

Let's call it retroactive love, then. Chris has realized his feelings offscreen before the book even begins—and in fact admits at several points that he liked Everly as soon as he saw her—an absolutely absurd choice when considering the pacing of a romance novel this long. As for Everly? Well, she recognizes that Chris is attractive in vague terms at a couple points, so hey, let's call it even. Or..."There were plenty more reasons she could think of—he only just started talking to her and acting like she was there."

...After a year, for no reason other than that she's become suddenly available in the wake of her cheating ex...?

One of the more recents romcoms I read didn't introduce the love interest until the third act and this one introduces him from the get-go without ever actually fleshing his feelings out. I'm more than a little mind-boggled, since I feel like it's generally agreed that hard-fought mutual pining is textbook romance and the genre's greatest draw. Where is the satisfaction in unearned pining? There is none. All it does is create a tension imbalance between both leads—one that is only exacerbated by the power imbalance of a boss pining after his unwitting employee.

More than that, though, the developmental leaps are rushed, at times outright bewildering. In chapter three, Chris is already looking up Everly's home address and swinging by with food unannounced. As someone with social anxiety, I cannot imagine ever being okay with that breach of privacy, even after a year of working with someone, particularly a supervisor. But Everly doesn't blink twice.

I can't tell you how head-scratching it is to read the words, "His arms itched to wrap her up in a hug, but he wasn't sure if she'd accept it, if it would be over the line, or if he'd be doing it more for himself," after knowing a lead and her boss for two and a half chapters. This man is ready to settle down and marry Everly 10% into the book. There is no gradual transition into feelings, no real sense of resistance or responsibility as her supervisor, next to no bargaining or professional guilt. No. In three chapters, he's holding her hand and calling her "Ev" without warning, after seemingly no signs from Everly that she returns his feelings, something even acknowledged by the narrative itself: "She jolted at the nickname. It'd come out of nowhere and, sadly, felt right."

This is not to say Chris is written grossly, because he isn't. Surprisingly, he's considerate and accommodating throughout the novel. One of the more refreshing parts of Ten Rules for Faking It is how well-attuned he is to Everly and her social anxiety, how that might interfere with her professional needs, what she wants and requires every step of the way—even if it is stretching the limits of my imagination.

Which leads me to my next point. The skewed romantic pacing becomes far weirder when we come to realize that Chris, a recent and even temporary supervisor of only twelve months, seems to know Everly better than her best friend of several years. He even has to lecture Stacey on her missteps:

'What were you thinking, going live like that? She constantly shies away from being in the limelight, but you thought it'd be a good idea to put her on the radio?'"

This becomes a running theme throughout the novel. Stacey the best friend continues to commit wild transgressions as someone we're to believe knows and understands Everly's very severe social anxiety. She's a willing participant in the orchestration of a surprise birthday party for Everly, knowing Everly hates her birthday, surprises, and large social gatherings. You'd think after years of friendship, she'd have a better sense for when Everly needs space, when she has to disengage and get away, when she wants to catch her breath. Instead:

"'Why is it the people who love you don't get to have an impact on your actions or how you feel about yourself? You'll let some creep you dated for five minutes chase you out of a building but won't take any of us at our word that you deserve better?'"

And all because Everly wants to extricate herself from an emotionally draining situation and go home. The guilt-tripping is so strange and out of place, I can't be sure it doesn't exist to make Chris seem like more of a hero to Everly. Yet it's her who's forced to apologize to Stacey for this hiccup, so it's hard to really say if the narrative even recognizes how irrationally judgmental it is to blow up at your anxious best friend for trying to escape a distressing situation.

This is not to mention some of the more nit-picky issues I took with the novel. A lot of these little issues I often find myself encountering in the romance genre:

1. the minor characters are not just neglected in favor of the leads, they're near nonexistent, making Chris' constant spiels about finding a family with the staff at his station and Everly's excitement over new friendships hard to believe:

"It made her realize she didn't really know the people she worked with. Jane was much less reserved with her girlfriend around, Luke was far more affectionate with his wife than she would have expected of the gruff and tough janitor, and Mari was far less serious."

2. dialogue without any substance / dialogue that uses repeating phrases verbatim across characters

3. language that tends towards the generic or eyebrow-raising ("...she was like invisible lighting."—huh?).

If it seems like I glossed over the bachelorette competition, that's because it had little to no actual presence or bearing on the plot. Instead, it was a device designed to—apparently?—raise the stakes for Chris and Everly, though even that is a stretch.

To conclude, Chris and his brothers' angsty rich boy problems weren't compelling, nor was the idea of his family monopolizing communication companies. His sister getting stuck with a few passing mentions that wrote her off as a ditzy airhead with no talent seemed to check out when set against the maybe two lines the only two gay characters in the book got. Oh, and as far as I can tell everyone was wealthy and white.

It's so frustrating that this book laid out so many interesting concepts and then did nothing with them. I can't help but imagine how much more satisfying the premise of Ten Rules for Faking It would have been had the book opened with a Chris who was struggling to find his footing at the station and establish rapport with his employees as a recent company implant, someone who initially took the work for granted and was then forced to reckon with the fact that real people exist within the companies his father likes to buy up, if maybe he and Everly didn't start developing feelings until the dating competition began and he was forced to get to know her and her romantic interests—and then readers could watch Everly's reluctance and Chris' jealousy develop and grow as she went on more and more dates.

Instead, Chris was near-perfect in the narrative's eyes and never had to truly struggle to get where he needed to be. In that sense, I supposed he perfectly represented the rich white heterosexual male reaping the rewards of his father's nepotism. Of the two, Everly was definitely more compelling, and I liked seeing someone with social anxiety navigate dating, even if it was at times poorly executed.

Overall, I don't have too many positive things to say about Ten Rules for Faking It, aside from the fact that a small iOS voice to text dictation mishap in the middle of the novel made me briefly chuckle at one point. I did appreciate the presence of and discussions around mental illness, about establishing boundaries with overbearing parents, and about grappling with unhealthy relationships, even if this book wasn't my favorite.

*any quotes will be checked & updated when the book is published on December 29th, 202o.

OMG MY HEART. I can’t express enough how much I loved “Ten Rules For Faking It” by Sophie Sullivan. I fell in love with this story instantly and adored every single character. This one was tough to put down and left me feeling so many emotions because it is so relatable and came at a perfect time to help me address/sort through some of my own personal struggles with anxiety at this moment.

First, these characters are magical. Let’s start with Everly, who suffers from severe social anxiety. The positive and delicate way that her social anxiety was addressed in this book made me tear up a few times because I felt like Sullivan was also indirectly helping me to understand the need to be more gentle and positive with myself. Everly’s character was raw, real and wonderful and I loved how much of her growth we got to experience throughout this book as she bravely overcame a lot of difficult things. Chris’s and Stacey’s character were truly incredible as well and I was in awe of their sensitivity and care toward Everly’s anxiety. They were both so encouraging, consistently reminded her of how brave and strong she truly was, and not once did they ever make her feel like her and her anxiety were too much.

Once I was done reading this book, I immediately went online and preordered myself a physical copy. I wasn’t expecting this one to leave such an impact on me, but it did and I’m very grateful for that 💛 I was really impressed with the way that Everly’s social anxiety was handled in this book and I truly can’t recommend this book enough if you’re looking for a sweet, light hearted, not-your-typical rom-com that will not only leave you thinking about the story long after you finished it, but leave you feeling a little stronger if you suffer from general/social anxiety like I do. “Ten Rules For Faking It” hits shelves on 12/29 and really is a terrific palette cleanser for ending at 2020. Thank you so much NetGalley and Griffin for gifting me this incredible eARC in exchange for my honest review 💛

Review will be posted to my blog and Bookstagram accounts closer to pub date.

I decided to DNF at 30%. The premise of Ten Rules for Faking it sounded great, but the storyline wasn't holding my attention. I wasn't feeling the chemistry between Everly and Chris or their relationship. The whole bachelorette style dating wasn't really working for me. I wanted to feel more angst between Everly and Chris - instead of the insta-love that happened almost immediately without their backstory.

What a fun book! I liked how honestly the author dealt with the heroine’s social anxiety disorder, and both lead characters messed up relationships with their parents. The love story is a slow burn, and it works perfectly here. I’d love to see more stories from this world because there were a handful of characters that demand their own happily ever after.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Thank you St. Martin's Press, Netglley, and Sophie Sullivan for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I started Ten Rules for Faking It yesterday afternoon and finished in approximately 24 hours. For me this was a fast paced read. Everly caught my attention in the beginning when she is complaining on air and I didn't want to put the book down.

I am a fan of dual perspectives and liked that the book alternated between Everly and Chris. Although not as extreme as hers, I could related to Everly's introverted nature and social anxiety. I really enjoyed how Stacey and Chris understood her anxiety and tried to help her in those moments where it was really bad. I did wish at some point, she'd considered seeing someone for her anxiety such as a psychiatrist or therapist. It seemed to cripple her at moments when a therapist or some anxiety medication might have helped.

I really enjoyed the tension build up between Chris and Everly.. I enjoyed that they developed a friendship that seemed to deepen into more. Stacey was a hilarious and supportive best friend and I was a big fan of her character.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5

This is a light read with a good character in Everly, a radio producer who finds herself playing the role of a Bachelorette after a melt down on air. The station owner's son Chris (we also get his pov) proposes the contest of sorts but he's interested in Everly himself so there's some tension. Everly's social anxiety is a factor in this but Chris is, regrettably, not as sensitive as he should be to her issue. The dates could have (should have been actually) funnier but you will likely smile a few times as she struggles with these guys. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Fans of the rom com (and the Bachelorette) will be satisfied with this one.

This book is so fun! The premise had me on board immediately. I love the bachelorette and blind dates are always a good choice. There were so many laugh out loud moments and I may never look at pinatas the same again.

Aside from the fun dates and awkward moments, this book has a strong underlying theme of anxiety. Everly has a constant running monologue of swirling thoughts and worries along with panic attacks. I could relate to this so much and I loved how this book didn’t shy away from showing a reality that many of us deal with.

As much as I enjoyed this book, it is a slooow burn. I could’ve used a bit more chemistry and a lot more steam but if you’re looking for a sweet story with hilarious moments, supportive friends, and some more serious topics, this is perfect for you!

3.5 stars rounded up. Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan was cute. Everly Dean gets a couple huge surprises on her 30th birthday: she finds her boyfriend in bed with another woman, and her best friend, Stacey, local DJ decides to wish her Happy Birthday live on the air, in which Everly, unaware of the thousands listening goes off an a rage filled tangent about how horrible her day, and her ex, is.

Everly goes home and creates a list of Rules for Turning Thirty, later edited to Ten Rules for Faking It. Everly, socially anxious and extremely introverted, likes rules and plans for living.

Chris is Everly’s boss. He also has a plan for his life: get the radio station profitable then head back to New York to run one of Dad’s companies. Dad has a plan, too. Fire Everly and Stacey. To prevent Dad’s plan, Chris convinces Everly to participate in radios version of The Bachelorette..

Of course, as the book progresses, both Chris and Everly discover that the best plans often go awry, especially when love becomes involved.

This was a wholesome romance. No one was in the bedroom at all. That was actually one of my dislikes about the story-it felt very immature at times. It was also longer than it needed to be. It’s almost 400 pages and some parts were drawn out and sine were repetitive.

Overall, I did enjoy this book and I found myself hoping it will be a series. I would love to see Chris’s brothers, Wes and Noah, have a story, as well as Stacey.

Thank you to #netgalley and #stmartinspress for the advanced e-copy of #tenrulesforfakingit!

“Even if it doesn’t end up perfectly, there will be so many moments of happiness and joy that it’ll offset the imperfections. Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s not worth it.”

Thank you to Sophie Sullivan, St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the [gifted] ARC of Ten Rules for Faking It in exchange for an honest review!

Everly is having the worst 30th birthday ever… especially after her radio DJ BFF Stacey, doesn’t tell her that she’s live on air while ranting about catching her cheating boyfriend in the act… with his assistant!

Mortified, Everly goes home and makes a list of rules to help her get control of her life. And maybe even work on tackling her social anxiety in small ways. But it definitely is not about how cute her boss, Chris is.

My favorite aspect of this book was how Everly’s character shined a light on social anxiety and panic attacks. As someone who also has been diagnosed with anxiety, it was so refreshing to see Everly struggle and to have such amazing support from Stacey and Chris. Not everyone struggles with anxiety in the same way and I think it’s important to show the broad spectrum of what anxiety truly looks like. Also Chris is possibly the kindest male lead character I’ve ever read. He is so conscious of Everly’s limits and is always there to support her.

Ten Rules for Faking it was @lovearctually’s first book club pick and it was such a great one to start with! The author was kind enough to join us for our first book chat, and you guys, she is the sweetest! If you have a chance to participate in an author event with Sophie, do it! I loved learning about how she came up with the idea for Everly and Chris’s love story.

Ten Rules for Faking It is out December 29, 2020!

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3672506694
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CIyZVXFAS3Q/

I will also do a Pub Day post on Instagram on 12/29/20.

This was such a sweet book. Everly was so endearing and I loved everything about Chris. The secondary characters were so entertaining. I want to be best friends with Stacey and Noah was a perfect addition to show Chris’s other sides. I thought it would be sort of like the Bachelorette but was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t take up much of the book. I loved the arc for Everly and I also appreciated the book focused on anxiety and family relationship issues.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy in exchange for my opinions.

Everly Dean is a radio producer and has had terrible birthdays for the past several years. She has anxiety on top of that, so she's sure her cute but distant boss doesn't like her, making her even more nervous to pitch her idea for a new podcast. When she rants on-air (by accident!) about her ex, listeners line up to date her. As much as she would rather avoid people, she's going to go ahead with the "fake it till you make it" idea, and creates ten rules to do that. Maybe this year will be her year after all.

Everly has the worst birthday, catching her boyfriend with his personal assistant, and ranting about it to her friend Stacey, who is the DJ trying to sing happy birthday... on air. This ultimately leads to a "Bachelorette" style program to save the show from being canceled, as Chris' father is using the mistake to get the time slot for Chris' sister to use. Chris has a crush on Everly but never said anything, so he has a hard time with the idea, even though he's the one that pitched it to save the show from his father. This is a new setup for rom-com territory but still puts Everly and Chris constantly in each other's orbits to see how well they actually fit.

There are a lot of cute elements, from Everly's wonderful friendship with Stacey to the snappy dialogue that a lot of the characters have with each other. I enjoyed seeing how Everly loved her parents, even if she didn't understand them or how their relationship worked, and that her anxiety was a very real problem she had to deal with. It wasn't a convenient problem she had, but one that truly interfered with things she wanted to do. This isn't dismissed by others, even if they didn't fully understand the extent it interfered with her life. They frequently refer to her anxiety as her head being full of disjointed thoughts or being overwhelming, which is how anxiety is for most people.

Everly learns over the course of the novel that anxiety isn't all there is to her, and the quiet isolation isn't what she wants out of life anymore. Over the course of her dates, she realizes what she doesn't want in a relationship, which is just as important to know. At the same time, Chris also figures out what he actually wants in his own life, and if he is willing to sacrifice others to try pleasing his father, who dismisses everything he does as inadequate. The story he tells about being a child with his Bear is heartbreaking, and likely all too common. The two truly belong together and make a great pair when they find their happily ever after.

I'd love to give this book even more stars! I loved everything about this book. The book is the perfect balance of humor and heart. Plus how could I not love characters who love Veronica Mars! Everly is a heroine that was so relatable. The hero Chris made my heart melt. I loved the pacing, the dialogue and everything else. The misinterpreted texts made me laugh so hard I had tears rolling down my face. I would totally recommend this book to anyone. I received an advance copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

I am not typically one to enjoy a romance novel with a slow burn and absolutely no steam, but that was not the case for Ten Rules for Faking It.

I loved this book.

I loved watching Everly and Chris’s relationship grow from acquaintances to friends to falling in love. I laughed out loud in multiple spots while reading and really loved the authors writing style.

Two negatives: the length and the lack of diversity in the characters.

Thanks to St Martins and Netgalley for the early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Everly is a producer at a radio station and when some embarassing personal information gets shared on air she is humiliated. It then leads to her being a part of an interesting radio show.

I thought this was a cute read and it didn't really drag. I felt like there were good character descriptions and liked the back and forth perspectives. Some parts were quite funny. Overall a good read.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

Ten Rules for Faking It is a slow start but it picks up about a quarter of the way through. The dialogue is a bit cheesy but the author's representation of anxiety is very accurate and very relatable. This book in the definition of a slow burn. However, there are no steamy love scenes if that's what you look for in a romantic comedy. There were parts of the book that I found myself actually laughing out loud to. Overall, it was a good book but not great.

A light-hearted quick read. Very much a rom-com movie feel when she spills her tea on air. But I don’t like insta-love stories. I couldn’t understand why Chris was so infatuated with Everly right away, without any character/romance development.